Simon trying to be a voice among the linebackers

Shayne Simon has not been around the Pitt program for very long, but he is certainly a veteran of the game. Simon was once a four-star recruit in the class of 2018 and signed to play with Notre Dame. He appeared in 31 games with the Fighting Irish from 2018-2021, but came to Pitt wanting a bigger role.

Simon was a big-time recruit in 2018. He chose Notre Dame over the likes of Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Stanford, UCLA, and Wisconsin. Despite those lofty rankings, he just never could quite carve out a significant role.

That all changed last season.

Simon came to Pitt and quickly found a starting job. In fact, he started all 13 games last season. He had slow start to the 2022 campaign, but Simon started to find a groove mid-year and is hoping to carry that over to 2023.

The Notre Dame transfer only recorded nine tackles in Pitt’s first five games, but then the light started to click. Simon started produce with a career-high nine tackles in Pitt’s win over Virginia Tech and became a more intricate part of the defense during the team’s five-game winning streak to end last season.

Just watching Simon progress throughout the season, it appeared he started to look more comfortable in Pitt’s defensive scheme and that has been his feeling as he works his way through his second training camp in Pittsburgh.

“I think year two in the system, I kind of know a little bit more and see where you failed last year and where you kind of had some setbacks and how to improve them this year and try to work on getting better and better,” Simon told reporters after Pitt’s practice on Wednesday. “I think definitely having that year under my belt is helpful. Everyday I kind of look at myself and see where I can improve on and keep going forward like that.”

Simon is one of four regular returning starters from last year’s defense. Pitt is certainly experienced with the amount they rotate on that side of the ball, but Simon will be a player they will need to lean on as they usher in some new starters. He will team up with fellow linebacker, Bangally Kamara, as a returning starter for this year. The linebackers could be a strength of the team with those two back, and Simon feels experience will play a major factor in that.

“I think it just feels like a lot of older guys this year, a lot of guys able to to play last year between me, Solly (Solomon Deshields), and ‘Gally (Bangally Kamara), you know Brandon George has played before, but he was hurt last year obviously but he’s played a lot in the system,” Simon explained. "I feel like at the top we have a lot of old guys trying to bring the young guys around and show them the ropes a little bit.”

Simon’s comfort in Pitt’s defense became more apparent, but he will be playing a new spot this year. With the departure of SirVocea Dennis to the NFL, Simon is expected to takeover that middle linebacker spot. He got a taste of it last year at times, and even started a game at that spot in Pitt’s bowl win over UCLA, a game in which he had six tackles and a TFL against the Bruins.

“It was a confidence builder,” Simon said of that starting assignment at middle linebacker. "It wasn’t perfect, but it kind of helps you see right and wrong and what you did well and try to improve on those things.”

Simon credits finding his place in the defense and playing within the structure of it helped his second half surge last season and it’s something he can build on for this season.

“I think if I can improve on that and get better at that, I can make more plays for the defense and help us be better,” he said.

Simon, along with Kamara and George gives Pitt three solid, experienced linebackers at the top of the defense. Even DeShields played a significant part on last year’s team, but beyond those guys the depth chart gets young pretty quickly.

Pitt has a trio of true freshmen linebackers in Jordan Bass, Rasheem Biles, and Braylan Lovelace. In addition to those three, redshirt freshman Kyle Louis missed last season with an injury, so he has yet to see some game action.

Even though Simon has not been with the program for an extended period of time, he has quickly ascended to the top of the room as one of the leaders.

“I’m just trying to be a voice,” Simon said of being a leader in just his second year. “I feel like I can give a different perspective since I’ve been somewhere else in the past. I have some experiences from that standpoint from that tenure over there, so I think I just try to bring a different voice, different mentality. I’ve been around the block a little bit and played college football before, trying to be another voice for the guys.”