Pitt's newest tight end might look a little familiar

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Tim Salem thinks you’ll recognize Matt Flanagan.

The Pitt tight ends coach says that the newest addition to his position group is very reminiscent of a recent fan favorite.

“Matt Flanagan is JP Holtz,” Salem said at Media Day on Tuesday. “If you just walk those two guys through, they almost look the same, they act the same, their mannerisms are the same, they play the same. I mean, really, that’s probably the closest - if any of the Pitt fans want to know who Matt Flanagan is, it’s JP Holtz. That’s really what it is. Okay, so JP Holtz is a hundredth of a second faster than he is. There’s really no difference. That’s truly who he is. He’s JP Holtz.”

Redshirt junior offensive tackle Brian O’Neill played with Holtz for two seasons at Pitt - 2014 and 2015, when O’Neill was a freshman and a redshirt freshman and Holtz was a junior and a senior.

“I think Matt’s a little more outgoing.” O’Neill said Tuesday. “He smiles a lot more than JP Holtz did. JP Holtz is my guy, but he kind of walks around with an edge to him; Matt walks around with a big smile on his face.

“He’s really excited at practice. You can tell he loves to play football. That’s one thing you have to appreciate about him: he has so much fun out there every day. He’ll do whatever you ask him to do. Not that JP wouldn’t, but the way he carries himself in terms of personality, I see a difference. But the way they play the game is pretty similar: they’re both big, strong kids who love physicality and love to block.”

Flanagan arrived at Pitt in May as a graduate transfer from Rutgers, and blocking was considered to be his specialty - at least partially due to the lack of significant receiving stats in his collegiate career. He played in 33 games over the last four seasons for the Scarlet Knights, starting 17 and catching 18 passes for 145 yards and three touchdowns in the process.

For comparison, Holtz had more catches in each of his final three seasons at Pitt than Flanagan had in his career at Rutgers, and the Shaler product finished his time at Pitt with 81 career receptions for 931 yards and 11 touchdowns.

But there’s something to be said for the environment. After all, Rutgers quarterbacks completed less than half of the 328 passes they attempted in 2016, and no Rutgers player reached 500 receiving yards. So maybe Flanagan’s stats are more a reflection of the Scarlet Knights than they are of the Chester (NJ) native’s ability.

He certainly thinks he can do more than he has.

“I work hard every day to try to be able to be a professional pass-catcher and route-runner,” Flanagan said Tuesday. “Obviously, it hasn’t, for one reason or another, it hasn’t really come out that way with the stat line. But that’s kind of the job of tight ends sometimes, you know? So I’d like to contribute any way I can.”

Flanagan’s new head coach thinks there is a lot of ways he can contribute.

“Matt Flanagan has been tremendous,” Pat Narduzzi said Tuesday. “I think you guys will be impressed when you see No. 88 get a chance to step out there and do some things. I've been impressed with what he's done.”

Flanagan is listed at 6’6” and 260 pounds, which puts him right in line with the rest of Pitt’s tight ends this season - four of the six scholarship players at the position are listed at 6’5” or taller - but his experience was just as enticing as his intangibles for the Pitt staff. Of the five scholarship tight ends Pitt was projected to have prior to Flanagan’s transfer, only redshirt senior Devon Edwards had played in a game for the Panthers (and he has largely played on special teams and, for a few games last season, defense).

“I found out right away that he got his release in early December,” Salem said, “and you went back to watch Rutgers football tape and you saw a kid that had actually played in games, actually out there blocking guys from Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. I mean, actually blocking them. So it was like, wow, are you kidding me?”

After Flanagan told the Rutgers staff that he intended to transfer, Pitt quickly became a school of focus.

“It’s a great school academically; being able to go and get an MBA was something that I was really excited about,” he said. “Also, just the culture around the team. I was really impressed with that, and on the visits when I spent time with the guys, I could tell it was a really strong team, not only talent-wise but also off the field.”

To that end, Flanagan said he has enjoyed the process of getting to know his new teammates, even if he’ll only be spending one season with them.

“It’s been awesome from start to finish. Everybody’s been really helpful, guys reaching out, the support staff around here is really good about making sure I know what’s going on and everything. But being kind of an older guy, you kind of know what a football team looks like, you know how it’s run; it’s just being dropped into a different bucket, dropped into a different culture and trying to not only contribute but add whatever you can to the culture that’s established.”

On the field, Pitt needs someone to fill the sizeable void left by Orndoff, who was the Panthers’ second-leading receiver in 2016. Clark is the obvious candidate, but Flanagan will have an opportunity to contribute as well, either competing with Clark for playing time or possibly getting some looks as a fullback/H-back in the role that George Aston made famous last season (an injury to Aston could open that opportunity for Flanagan).

But while the depth chart would be appealing for an incoming grad transfer, Flanagan said he didn’t necessarily consider it when looking at Pitt.

“The biggest thing I wanted to do was pick a scheme that I think I would enjoy playing in,” he said. “Having watched the success they had last year was really something that I was excited about, so I really didn’t think much about that kind of thing. If anybody’s going to take a fifth-year grad transfer, hopefully it’s for a good reason. Hopefully they think I can contribute in whatever way that is. So I was more focused on that and picking the right offense I would enjoy playing in and thought I would excel in.”