Pitt loses safety Hendricks for the season

Pitt safety Jason Hendricks will miss the rest of the season due to a shoulder injury, head coach Todd Graham announced on Monday.

"He will be out the remainder of the regular season," Graham said. "If we have an opportunity to go to a bowl game, he will be available then. But he'll be out for the rest of the regular season with a shoulder injury."

Hendricks suffered the injury on the third play of Pitt's first defensive series against Utah last Saturday. He was replaced in the lineup by redshirt junior Andrew Taglianetti, and Taglianetti will start at Bandit safety the rest of the season starting with this Wednesday's game against Connecticut at Heinz Field.

The Bandit safety, which is also called the strong safety, plays to the boundary side of the field.

"It doesn't change that much; [Taglianetti] is a great player," redshirt junior free safety Jarred Holley said Monday. "Obviously we're going to miss Jason a lot, but Tags is more than capable of doing the job and we're more than happy to have him back there. He's going to do a great job this Wednesday night."

Taglianetti recorded seven tackles in the game, including five solo tackles. He has started two games in his career.

A redshirt sophomore from Brooklyn, N.Y., Hendricks started all seven games this season at Bandit safety and was the team's fifth-leading tackler with 36 total tackles, three pass breakups, and one interception. Hendricks also started five games at strong safety in 2010 and recorded 42 tackles, three pass breakups, and one fumble recovery.