Pitt was back on the outdoor fields in the South Side for the final practice of the week Thursday morning, and here’s a look at what stood out.
- I think one of the most interesting competitions is at the backup quarterback spot. I wrote on Tuesday that I thought Eli Holstein had moved past Christian Veilleux for the No. 2 job behind Nate Yarnell; I think it’s more back and forth than a penciled-in move, but Holstein definitely seems like the quarterback to watch this spring.
Yarnell hasn’t done anything to lose the top spot, from what we’ve seen and heard, but as Holstein has gotten more and more acclimated to the offense, he has climbed into a spot where he’s getting second-team reps and putting himself in position to push Yarnell.
- Like I said on Tuesday, I just think Veilleux’s turnover issues make him too big a risk; as long as Holstein protects the ball better than Veilleux, he’ll take over that No. 2 spot. There’s a lot to like with Holstein: he’s got a good arm, he’s really put-together and he can run - probably better than Veilleux or Yarnell. And with his size, he can break a tackle here and there.
I’m still putting my money on Yarnell as the starter this season, but the first half of spring camp has seen the competition get more and more interesting.
- Speaking of No. 2 spots, I think Derrick Davis is putting himself in position for the top backup job at running back behind Rodney Hammond. I’m curious to see how the coaches rotate the backs; they probably don’t want to sub too much mid-drive as they keep the foot on the gas with their tempo, but at the same time, running back is a position where they could probably move guys in and out quickly.
- I think there are questions about the rotation overall, too. Here’s an interesting note: last year, Hammond was Pitt’s leading rusher with 547 yards and four touchdowns on 118 carries; the last time the Panthers were led in rushing by a player with fewer attempts was 2005, when LaRod Stephens-Howling had a team-high 434 yards on 96 carries.
- I bring this up as a way of pointing out that 118 rushing attempts isn’t very much, and that was the workload for Pitt’s leading rusher last season. A lot of that was due to the injury-related carry totals for Hammond: he had single-digit attempts in five of Pitt’s first eight games and never carried the ball more than 15 times in a game last year.
As a result, C’Bo Flemister had 98 attempts. I don’t think there will be another back within 20 carries of Hammond this season, but somebody has to be the No. 2 now that Flemister is gone. Daniel Carter is back after carrying the ball 28 times in 2023, but I don’t see him playing much as a tailback (and maybe not much at all; I think this offense will have three receivers on the field far more than it will have a fullback). Montravius Lloyd is really interesting to me, because he looks bigger than he was last season. And Desmond Reid comes in with a working knowledge of the offense, which is big. The problem is, he’s not big. He’s quite small, as a matter of fact, and while that doesn’t mean he can’t make plays - I think he’s got the speed and quickness to make a lot of plays - I do think it limits the workload he can take on.
Meanwhile, Davis has decent size and good speed, and perhaps most importantly, he has finally settled into the running back role. I can see him being the first back off the bench, with Lloyd as the No. 3 and Reid sprinkled in for situations and packages.
- We have talked a lot about the defensive backs and the linebackers over the last week or two, but not as much on the defensive line.
So let’s talk about the defensive line.
- There aren’t exactly a lot of sure things in that unit. Dayon Hayes returns as a starter, but he’s the only one after Nate Temple suffered an injury that will cost him his final year of eligibility.
So that leaves a lot of open spots. At the other defensive end position, I think Nate Matlack, the transfer from Kansas State, is the front-runner to start. I’ve heard positive reviews on Matlack, who did a decent job with the Wildcats while playing in a defensive front that didn’t exactly feature the ends as pass-rushers. Now that he’s playing in a system that lets the defensive ends function as playmakers, it sounds like he’s doing well.
- I’m also hearing quite a bit of good things about Nahki Johnson. Going back to the offseason when Johnson first made the move from defensive end to defensive tackle, I heard from some people in the program that it felt like a very natural move. “Like a fish to water,” is what one person told me of the fit for Johnson in the interior.
Johnson won the Ed Conway Award for most improved player last spring, but I won’t rule him out going back-to-back - and making more of an impact than he did after winning it last year. Everything I’m hearing points to Johnson potentially starting at defensive tackle this season. Granted, those spots are wide open, but if he is running at the top of the list right now, I think it speaks well of his development.
- For the other starting spot, I’m penciling in Sean FitzSimmons. I think it would have been very interesting to see what FitzSimmons’ role would have been last season if he had been healthy all year. Instead, he only played seven games and logged double-digit snaps just once. That team had a lot of veteran defensive tackles, but I think injury kept FitzSimmons out more than inexperience.
Now that he’s healthy, I expect him to have a pretty good season - probably as a leader of the defensive tackles.
- That’s my early guess on a starting four: Hayes, FitzSimmons, Johnson, Matlack. The depth is another question, with a lot of unproven guys - both recruited players and transfers - vying for spots behind those four.
- The one thing I’ll say is this: I think the defensive tackles, in particular, will look quite different from last season. The players they rely on for those spots this season are going to be smaller than last year’s defensive tackles, but they’re also going to be quicker and, ideally, more explosive.
That’s the plan, and I think that’s kind of what Charlie Partridge was building to with the recruiting of guys like Isaiah Neal, Jahsear Whittington and Nick James. Pitt got a lot of mileage out of Devin Danielson, David Green and Tyler Bentley, but those guys didn’t exactly make much of an impact or make many plays in the backfield.
But when Pitt has gotten real production from defensive tackles, it has come from smaller guys like Calijah Kancey and Jaylen Twyman. Build-wise, I think the tackles this year will look a lot more like those guys than the trio that just graduated.
We’ll see what happens, since the players they’re going with this season are unproven. But I think it will be nice to get a bit of a different approach in the middle.
- The Panthers are done for the week, with no practices this weekend due to the Easter holiday. The team will get back to work next week and practice Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday each of the next two weeks, culminating with the Blue-Gold Game on April 13 at Acrisure Stadium.
- I think one of the most interesting competitions is at the backup quarterback spot. I wrote on Tuesday that I thought Eli Holstein had moved past Christian Veilleux for the No. 2 job behind Nate Yarnell; I think it’s more back and forth than a penciled-in move, but Holstein definitely seems like the quarterback to watch this spring.
Yarnell hasn’t done anything to lose the top spot, from what we’ve seen and heard, but as Holstein has gotten more and more acclimated to the offense, he has climbed into a spot where he’s getting second-team reps and putting himself in position to push Yarnell.
- Like I said on Tuesday, I just think Veilleux’s turnover issues make him too big a risk; as long as Holstein protects the ball better than Veilleux, he’ll take over that No. 2 spot. There’s a lot to like with Holstein: he’s got a good arm, he’s really put-together and he can run - probably better than Veilleux or Yarnell. And with his size, he can break a tackle here and there.
I’m still putting my money on Yarnell as the starter this season, but the first half of spring camp has seen the competition get more and more interesting.
- Speaking of No. 2 spots, I think Derrick Davis is putting himself in position for the top backup job at running back behind Rodney Hammond. I’m curious to see how the coaches rotate the backs; they probably don’t want to sub too much mid-drive as they keep the foot on the gas with their tempo, but at the same time, running back is a position where they could probably move guys in and out quickly.
- I think there are questions about the rotation overall, too. Here’s an interesting note: last year, Hammond was Pitt’s leading rusher with 547 yards and four touchdowns on 118 carries; the last time the Panthers were led in rushing by a player with fewer attempts was 2005, when LaRod Stephens-Howling had a team-high 434 yards on 96 carries.
- I bring this up as a way of pointing out that 118 rushing attempts isn’t very much, and that was the workload for Pitt’s leading rusher last season. A lot of that was due to the injury-related carry totals for Hammond: he had single-digit attempts in five of Pitt’s first eight games and never carried the ball more than 15 times in a game last year.
As a result, C’Bo Flemister had 98 attempts. I don’t think there will be another back within 20 carries of Hammond this season, but somebody has to be the No. 2 now that Flemister is gone. Daniel Carter is back after carrying the ball 28 times in 2023, but I don’t see him playing much as a tailback (and maybe not much at all; I think this offense will have three receivers on the field far more than it will have a fullback). Montravius Lloyd is really interesting to me, because he looks bigger than he was last season. And Desmond Reid comes in with a working knowledge of the offense, which is big. The problem is, he’s not big. He’s quite small, as a matter of fact, and while that doesn’t mean he can’t make plays - I think he’s got the speed and quickness to make a lot of plays - I do think it limits the workload he can take on.
Meanwhile, Davis has decent size and good speed, and perhaps most importantly, he has finally settled into the running back role. I can see him being the first back off the bench, with Lloyd as the No. 3 and Reid sprinkled in for situations and packages.
- We have talked a lot about the defensive backs and the linebackers over the last week or two, but not as much on the defensive line.
So let’s talk about the defensive line.
- There aren’t exactly a lot of sure things in that unit. Dayon Hayes returns as a starter, but he’s the only one after Nate Temple suffered an injury that will cost him his final year of eligibility.
So that leaves a lot of open spots. At the other defensive end position, I think Nate Matlack, the transfer from Kansas State, is the front-runner to start. I’ve heard positive reviews on Matlack, who did a decent job with the Wildcats while playing in a defensive front that didn’t exactly feature the ends as pass-rushers. Now that he’s playing in a system that lets the defensive ends function as playmakers, it sounds like he’s doing well.
- I’m also hearing quite a bit of good things about Nahki Johnson. Going back to the offseason when Johnson first made the move from defensive end to defensive tackle, I heard from some people in the program that it felt like a very natural move. “Like a fish to water,” is what one person told me of the fit for Johnson in the interior.
Johnson won the Ed Conway Award for most improved player last spring, but I won’t rule him out going back-to-back - and making more of an impact than he did after winning it last year. Everything I’m hearing points to Johnson potentially starting at defensive tackle this season. Granted, those spots are wide open, but if he is running at the top of the list right now, I think it speaks well of his development.
- For the other starting spot, I’m penciling in Sean FitzSimmons. I think it would have been very interesting to see what FitzSimmons’ role would have been last season if he had been healthy all year. Instead, he only played seven games and logged double-digit snaps just once. That team had a lot of veteran defensive tackles, but I think injury kept FitzSimmons out more than inexperience.
Now that he’s healthy, I expect him to have a pretty good season - probably as a leader of the defensive tackles.
- That’s my early guess on a starting four: Hayes, FitzSimmons, Johnson, Matlack. The depth is another question, with a lot of unproven guys - both recruited players and transfers - vying for spots behind those four.
- The one thing I’ll say is this: I think the defensive tackles, in particular, will look quite different from last season. The players they rely on for those spots this season are going to be smaller than last year’s defensive tackles, but they’re also going to be quicker and, ideally, more explosive.
That’s the plan, and I think that’s kind of what Charlie Partridge was building to with the recruiting of guys like Isaiah Neal, Jahsear Whittington and Nick James. Pitt got a lot of mileage out of Devin Danielson, David Green and Tyler Bentley, but those guys didn’t exactly make much of an impact or make many plays in the backfield.
But when Pitt has gotten real production from defensive tackles, it has come from smaller guys like Calijah Kancey and Jaylen Twyman. Build-wise, I think the tackles this year will look a lot more like those guys than the trio that just graduated.
We’ll see what happens, since the players they’re going with this season are unproven. But I think it will be nice to get a bit of a different approach in the middle.
- The Panthers are done for the week, with no practices this weekend due to the Easter holiday. The team will get back to work next week and practice Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday each of the next two weeks, culminating with the Blue-Gold Game on April 13 at Acrisure Stadium.