Powell on the running backs, the punters and more

Pitt running backs coach and special teams coordinator Andre Powell met the media on Thursday and talked about the backs, the punters, the run game and more.

Here's the full rundown of everything he had to say.

What have you seen from Rodney that gives you confidence that he’s ready to take on a top-back role this year?
Powell: The one thing that gives me the most confidence about Rodney is his maturity and his overall knowledge of our system and football in general. He has really, really worked hard at learning football - not only offense but defensive football as well, which helps you anticipate.

What were your takeaways from Izzy’s performance yesterday?
Powell: Pretty good. Pretty good.

How much pride does that give you, seeing a kid come in here as a three-star and then put on a show like he did this past fall and then earn himself a lot of money by showing out like that?
Powell: Well, DNA is most of that, alright? That’s mostly DNA. But you know what? The kid really matures. And that’s the whole process. You know, trust the process. Izzy was a talented guy; let’s don’t lose focus of that. But what Izzy did, he learned football. I talked to a couple of those scouts that interviewed him and they talked about what anticipation he had, what good vision; a byproduct of that is being able to know where the line’s going, who they’re working to, to anticipate. It’s all about anticipation.

Do you see a similar thing with Rodney?
Powell: Yeah, because two years ago, Izzy would just run. He’d run into our guys’ backs, he’d run in the wrong hole. When he learned where the ball should go based on the defense and also learned that every run is not a home run - sometimes a three-yard run is a good run. So Rodney is doing the same thing.

Now listen: Rodney’s DNA is different than Izzy’s DNA, alright? He’s 217 pounds, ran a 4.3 40 and vertical 41. I’m not for sure Rodney is that. But Rodney is a talented back and he’s gotten a lot better.

I saw Rodney working on the side today with punch-blocking. Is he getting better at pass protection?
Powell: He needs to. That’s a hole in his game right now. He’s got to learn how to protect the quarterback.

How’s Derrick as a learner?
Powell: In Derrick’s defense, he went to LSU and played defensive back, and then went to running back the last three or four games his sophomore year. So Derrick’s got a ways to go. Is he talented? Yeah, he’s really talented. But he’s got to learn - I mean, it’s a lot of moving parts on our offense. We’re checking, we’re checking to certain looks, things move, all the different adjustments in pass protection. So he’s behind, but we’re going to work to get him up to speed.

What has impressed you the most about TJ so far and how does he fit into that room?
Powell: TJ’s a hard worker. He’s a hard worker. He’s trying really hard. There’s so much volume. If you just look at this script here, we’ve got so many plays, so many adjustments, and it’s hard to come in because it is a lot. It’s beginning to slow down a little bit for him. He’s got some “high school Harry” things we’re trying to break him out of. He can’t just run around the edge every time; he’s got to stick it in there and run vertical. But he’s getting better, so I’m not discouraged at all by his performance thus far.

That phrase - slow the game down - it comes quicker for some than it does others, but how do you as a coach help expedite that whole process?
Powell: It’s time. You know, free time. I explain to these guys, college football is like a career. It’s not a job. I explain it to them like, if you’re a postal worker - obviously, there’s nothing wrong with being a postal worker - but when you go home at 5 o’clock, you’re done. But if you’re a doctor, that’s a career. When a doctor goes home at night, he’s researching, he’s talking to other doctors. So it’s your time outside of mandatory time that’s going to speed up the process.

How’s the punt team coming along?
Powell: Good. Good. We changed some things around. It’s a lot of the things we’ve already done, but we just organized it a little bit better, gave it terminology and we’re just a lot more specific. We’ve got two good punters. We’ve got two good punters. We’ve got two good snappers. And we’ve got enough personnel to be really good with our punt team.

I was going to say, we get to see some of the punt drills but it seems like you only work two guys, and they weren’t necessarily the guys who played last year, right?
Powell: That’s correct. That’s correct.

So is it just that those guys have separated themselves?
Powell: That’s correct.

Jeff transferred in. What has he shown you?
Powell: He’s a strong leg guy. He’s got a strong leg. He’s got to work on hang time. I mean, he kicks the ball too far with not the appropriate hang time.

Junko kicked a 70-yard punt on the turf Tuesday. A 70-yard punt. He punted the ball - we snapped the ball on the minus-43; he kicked it out of the end zone. So he’s obviously got a strong leg, but if you kick one 73 yards in a game, he’s probably going to have to make a tackle. So we don’t want it to go quite that far.

Daniel has told us a few times, ‘Hey, I can play tailback.’ What kind of role do you see for him this year?
Powell: Daniel is like an adjustable wrench. He can do anything in the backfield and some things on the line that the tight ends do. He’s the smartest guy in the room, so like yesterday, I did an experiment. I asked TJ - I drew up a front and I said, ‘Come up and draw where everybody’s going on power.’ He wasn’t even close. I said, ‘Daniel, come up’ and Daniel coached the play like a coach. He talked about the deuce block going to the backside, he talked about the gap, he talked about the guard pulling inside leverage, the fullback, where he’s supposed to be. I told TJ, three years ago, he couldn’t do that. Daniel may be one of the smartest guys I’ve been around. He can do a lot of things. Special teams, offense, just so glad we’ve got him.

What’s the value of that in a room?
Powell: What’s the value of a guy that can do anything?

And to have that when you’re not around?
Powell: I don’t know if you can put a price tag on it. It’s unbelievable.

For guys like Daniel and Rodney, are things hitting the ground running a lot more this year because Frank’s offense has had a year with them. We’ve heard a lot of that from the receivers but how are the running backs handling it?
Powell: The same. Much the same. At the end of last year, the receivers and the quarterback group clicked a little bit better, so we’re just picking up where we left off from last year in the running game.

I think it was last year, you suggested that Rodney would look impressive in games but he was also coming in late in games when the defense was a little tired.
Powell: I think that was more - last year, Rodney was coming in late in games because we had a guy named Israel Abanikanda. So they would look at me like, ‘Coach, am I going in?’ And I’m like, ‘You want me to take that dude out?’ So it wasn’t knock on Rodney; just, Izzy was such an impressive performer.

Two years ago, in Whipple’s offense, Rodney was a change-of-pace back. We’d put him in the second quarter when guys were a little bit worn out, we’d put him in to close out games in the fourth quarter. One of the things that Whipple wanted to look at when he came in at halftime was, ‘How many plays have we run on offense?’ Because he was always wanting to put a lot of wear and tear on the defense and then we would put the guy with fresh legs with not a lot of hits on him, he would go in the games and he was different for those guys to tackle, as you guys saw.

How much of a jump is it for Rodney to be the guy that goes out there first play of the game?
Powell: Here’s the thing about Rodney: Rodney is a tough dude. Rodney, he’s tough. So Rodney will get the same yards, I think, and more, because he will play more, but Rodney has a knack for, when everybody thinks he’s stopped, he’s not. He’s not stopped. He always finds a way to get two or three more yards when everyone thinks he’s stopped. That’s one of the things that makes him special.

Who are some of the best guys among your running backs that put in that off time when you’re not around?
Powell: All of them put in off time when I’m around. And those young guys spend a lot of time with Daniel. TJ, Caleb, they spend a lot of time with Daniel.

You talked about having a couple of punters, but this is the second year of Byron as your long-snapper after having Cal for so long. How much more confidence does that give the punter room, knowing that Byron’s there to kind of manage everything?
Powell: It’s like anybody else: you think about how many freshmen played for us on defense last year. You know why you don’t play freshmen? Because they make mistakes. They don’t hear the check. How many freshmen played for us on offense last year? So he’s just like a safety or a defensive tackle. He’s young, first year playing, so he made some mistakes. He’s gotten better at it. He’s a little bit more mature. That room is mature. Last year, I think there was some immaturity. We held them accountable and there may have been a little bit of, ‘Coach is picking on me,’ maybe. But this year, those guys are on top of it.

You said two punters.
Powell: Caleb right now, and Jeff, are the top two punters.