Pitt is coming off an emotional 38-31 season opening win over West Virginia to start the 2022 season. Generally, there would typically be a sense of excitement after beating a rival in dramatic fashion and starting the year around 1-0, but that really hasn’t been the case around the Pitt football team.
From Pat Narduzzi’s press conference on Monday, through the player and assistant coach interviews in the days that followed, there has been a sense of disappointment. Not so much in the result, but rather how they performed, and that seems especially true of the Pitt offensive line.
“The message to them was that we didn’t really play to our standard,” Dave Borbely said of what he told his group in film study. “I thought we did a poor job overall protecting the quarterback. Honestly I was not pleased with it. I didn’t we played up to the standard we should play to.”
Pitt generated 384 yards of offense and scored 31 points as a unit in the win over West Virginia. New starting quarterback Kedon Slovis passed for 308 yards, and led a game-tying drivr in the fourth quarter. Those were all positives, but there were some concerning elements to Pitt’s production on offense as well. Slovis was sacked five times, and the running game netted only 76 yards.
“The number one thing is we’ve got to do a better job of protecting the quarterback,” Borbely said heading into week two. “We did at times and certainly on that last drive we did, but early in the game they hit us on some things that we’ve worked over and over, and even late in the game — a simple twist, simple linebacker pressure, we did not do a good job with it at all.”
Borbely’s tone is typical of a football coach. He wants the best out of his unit, and fortunately for the Pitt offensive line coach, he has a veteran group to coach. Marcus Minor started 13 games for Pitt last season, and is one of the team leaders in his second year with the Panthers.
“I think we just play a game of where there is nothing of perfection and with that being said there’s going to be mistakes,” the senior left guard explained. “We just want to focus in on our details and being able to fix them and lowering our mistakes as much as possible.”
The sacks seemed to be a combination of the line’s play, Slovis not getting rid of the ball on time, and even the receivers not being in the correct spots. The running game, however, was a little shaky from the start, despite being an added emphasis this offseason.
Pitt netted 76 yards because of the sacks, but the trio of Rodney Hammond, Israel Abanikanda, and Daniel Carter combined for 26 carries, 93 yards, and three touchdowns. That is not a great stat line by any means, but there were some bright spots in the running game to build off of in the future.
“I think West Virginia was good up front,” Pat Narduzzi said on Monday at his press conference when asked about the running game. “They packed the box. We didn't do a good job of adjusting — they had the numbers in the box. We've got to give ourselves a more friendly box if we're going to try to run it.”
Borbely also echoed those thoughts about West Virginia. The Mountaineers played well, better than expected by some, and they feature Dante Stills, who is one of the best defensive linemen in the country. Minor enjoyed the test that Pitt took on in week one by playing a fellow power-five team like West Virginia.
“Many teams play smaller opponents, but we were happy to take on the challenge and were able to come through with the win, so we’re excited about that and excited about what the future holds,” he said.
The future does not get any easier, at least in the short term. Pitt takes on No. 24 Tennessee this Saturday at Acrisure Stadium. The Volunteers were victorious with a 59-10 triumph over Ball State last Thursday, which vaulted them into the rankings this week.
Tennessee is what you would expect an SEC team to look like: big, physical, and fast. The Volunteers have finished with a top-15 ranked recruiting class in three of the past four years. In the Ball State win, they allowed just one touchdown and 343 yards of total offense.
“It’s going to be a great team to go against,” Minor said of Pitt’s next challenge. “Very big boys, going to be the prettiest team we’ll probably see, but we’re excited to take on the challenge. I can’t wait for it.”
Oddly enough, the Vols did not record one sack against Ball State. Borbely has been coaching for a long time and that did not seem to alter his thoughts on Pitt's next opponent, and agrees this will be one of the better defensive lines his group will face all season.
“I said it last year and I’ll say it again this year, I think they’ve got the biggest, strongest, fastest defensive front that we’ve faced, probably since Clemson,” he said of Tennessee. “That’s the challenge.”
Tennessee’s defensive line is fronted by 6’3” and 245-pound senior edge rusher Byron Young. He had a quiet game in the opener, but recorded 11.5 tackles for loss in 2021. Young was a preseason All-SEC pick entering the year, he works opposite of fellow defensive end Tyler Baron, a former four-star recruit that is expected to have a big season. The Volunteers also feature veterans like Kurott Garland (6-3 310-pounds) and Omari Thomas (6-4 320) to clog lanes in the middle, along with a deep bench to spell the starters.
The Pitt offense, especially the line, should have a familiarity with this group. Pitt beat Tennessee 41-34 in Knoxville a year ago. The Pitt offense found success through the air that day with Kenny Pickett leading the charge, but with Slovis under center, and a new coordinator calling the plays, things are somewhat different heading into Saturday.
Minor believe the team can take what was learned from last year’s meeting and blend it into this season’s game plan for the Volunteers.
“They have a lot of starters coming back, so we’ll be able to really work off of some of the things from last year and then go into it with some of the things we got this year going on,” he said.
The talk surrounding Pitt’s season-opening win has been subdued, to say the least, at least from an individual performance standpoint. The team is taking the mindset that the first game is over, and Tennessee is just the next game on the schedule and the feeling is that they do not need to overcompensate for that.
“Our preparation is always the same every week and that will never change, and we’ve certainly got a big test here in Tennessee coming up,” said Borbely.
