The 3-2-1 Column: Pickett, RBs, recruits and more

In this week’s 3-2-1 Column, we’re thinking about Kenny Pickett, running backs, freshmen, recruits and more.

THREE THINGS WE KNOW

Time for the test Pat Narduzzi had some interesting comments on Thursday when I asked him about Kenny Pickett and the progress he’s made this summer - really, the whole offseason, but training camp, in particular.

Here’s what Narduzzi said:

“I think you find those things out on game day. I think you find it out, really, on game day. It’s hard to see it in practice. He’s become a better leader. I think he’s throwing the ball better, I think he’s reading things better. But you find out on game day. To say he’s better - you know, I don’t see him any different right now than I saw him a year ago except for leadership and a different guy telling him what to do. But I’m sure on game day we’re going to see some changes and I think that’s when the test is. It doesn’t matter if you studied for the test; it’s what happens when test day gets there. And it’s coming soon.”

I thought that was pretty interesting. Pretty telling, really, because it seems to me that Narduzzi might have the same opinion that a lot of people have, the same opinion that I have. And it might be less of an opinion than a mindset, because my mindset right now is that I don’t have much of an opinion on Pickett. I think he has shown good and bad in his career, with enough good to think it can become the dominant characteristic of his play and enough bad to think that might be who he really is.

I don’t know yet what kind of quarterback Kenny Pickett is, and I won’t know until the games start.

It seems to me, Pat Narduzzi feels the same way.

I get the distinct impression from that quote, especially the portion I highlighted, that Narduzzi is in wait-and-see mode with Pickett. He believes that Pickett can give the Panthers the best chance to win, but he also knows that Pickett didn’t play very well for significant stretches last season.

The verdict on the 2018 offense was that it was Shawn Watson’s fault. That’s why he got fired, and that’s fine: the offense was bad (the passing game, at least) and cost the team multiple games. When that happens, the coordinator tends to get fired.

It’s comfortable for everyone to put the Notre Dame game and the Miami game and the Stanford game on Watson. It’s an acceptable narrative and one that we can all get behind.

Unless the offense struggles again. Then the focus turns to Pickett. Watson has been something of a deflector for Pickett, a shield from the blame for the offense’s performance. But if he plays poorly under the direction of a new coordinator, then the narrative shifts.

So those first few games, those first few tests, as Narduzzi said, are something of a proving ground. Call it the “Prove Watson Was To Blame” period. Or call it the “Prove Pickett Can Get The Job Done” period.

It doesn’t matter what name you come up with, just like it doesn’t really matter what happened in training camp. All that matters is how Pickett performs with the spotlight on him.

Don’t need another Hall and Olls’
Okay, nobody ever gave Qadree Ollison the nickname “Olls” but we really should have. Major missed opportunity to reference so many Hall & Oates songs over the last four years. Oh well…

Anyway, there’s been so much talk this offseason about replacing Darrin Hall and Qadree Ollison, and understandably so. As you might have heard, they each rushed for 1,000 yards last season. As you might have heard, they accounted for 2,357 of Pitt’s 3,191 rushing yards last season. As you might have heard, they combined for 21 of the team’s 30 rushing touchdowns last season.

As you might have heard, Ollison is No. 7 on Pitt’s all-time rushing list with 2,859 career yards and Hall is a few steps behind with 2,189.

As you might have heard, Pitt’s entire running back roster for 2019 has a combined career rushing total of 412 yards - 19 yards less than Ollison and Hall had against Virginia Tech last season.

You’ve heard all of those things, and chances are, you’ve spent a fair amount of this offseason wondering how Pitt is going to replace all of that production. I’ve wondered about it, too.

But in the last week or so, what’s become eminently more interesting to me is not the numbers but rather the way Pitt will get the numbers. The “how” more than the “what.”

Because as we’ve talked to the players and coaches and watched the way things have developed throughout training camp, it’s become clear that this year’s group of running backs, despite being quite unproven, has something that last year’s group didn’t have:

Versatility.

Ollison and Hall were big backs in almost every sense of the term. They had size and ran with power, not always breaking tackles but still being tough to bring down. They had speed; there were more than enough breakaway plays last year to speak to that. But they didn’t have what you might call…electricity.

That’s where this year’s group is different. This group has some legitimately “electric” playmakers at running back, it seems. Sure, Todd Sibley and AJ Davis are still bigger backs and Sibley, for one, has pretty good speed. But in the younger group of running backs, there are some guys who can make things happen.

One of them is Vincent Davis, the freshman who has been one of the camp standouts for his performances in Pitt’s scrimmages so far. He has opened a lot of eyes and put himself in position to see playing time.

Another is V’Lique Carter. Pat Narduzzi said on Media Day that Carter would be working at receiver, but he’s going to see snaps all over the place and he’s got the talent to make plays.

Those guys add a different element to this offense, an element that the offense hasn’t had in quite some time. Quadree Henderson did it in 2016, but that was all jet sweeps; this year, Pitt has a chance to make those kinds of plays out of the backfield.

It should be really interesting to watch. Might be pretty entertaining, too.

A few others who could see action
Vincent Davis won’t be the only freshman to get on the field this season. There are always a few guys who see action, and the numbers will only increase thanks to the NCAA’s change in the redshirt rule.

Now that players can appear in as many as four games and still preserve their redshirt, the coaches are going to be keeping a pretty open mind about who can and cannot help the team, even if it’s just on special teams.

Vincent Davis seems like he’s headed for playing time; he’d probably go at the top of the list right now. On Thursday, Narduzzi also mentioned receiver Jared Wayne and linebackers SirVocea Dennis and Leslie Smith.

Wayne is really interesting to me. It’s not like Pitt is completely wide open at receiver like it is at running back. The Panthers have Taysir Mack and Maurice Ffrench and Aaron Mathews and Tre Tipton; that’s four experienced upperclassmen. For Wayne to have broken through either into that group or right up behind it is a pretty strong testament to how he’s been practicing and how he has adapted to the college game.

I don’t know what kind of opportunities will be there for Jared Wayne, but he can get as many as four games to show what he can do; if he can help this offense, he’ll keep playing.

Smith and Dennis are in a similar boat, although not altogether the same one. Those guys have a bunch of upperclassmen ahead of them, and while those upperclassmen don’t have the experience that the older receivers have, the top six in the linebacker room seems pretty firm.

Still, the coaches can find opportunities for guys like Dennis and Smith. They can play on special teams, of course, and they can also work in certain defensive packages as they get used to the “game speed” of college football.

With all four of those guys, the four-game rule gives them a chance to show the coaches whether they’re up to the task of playing in the ACC without automatically killing their redshirts.

The four-game rule will get other guys onto the field, too. Brandon Hill probably has a pretty good shot at seeing some reps, although safety is pretty strong ahead of him. Brandon George could be a special teams helper like Dennis and Smith. And with AJ Woods’ speed, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to have him try a kick return or two, maybe even a punt return if you trust him.

TWO QUESTIONS WE HAVE

Where were those guys ranked?
This isn’t really one of those questions where we don’t know the answers because we certainly do, but it’s a topic I want to discuss.

On Thursday, Narduzzi mentioned four freshmen specifically: Vincent Davis, Jared Wayne, Leslie Smith and SirVocea Dennis.

And I’m sure that those were exactly the guys you had pegged for early playing time when they signed, right?

No, of course not, and neither did I. I’ll admit that my expectations were pretty low for Vincent Davis, and while he still has to actually do something in a game before we get too far ahead of ourselves, his strong performance in camp has been a really positive development.

I thought highly of Jared Wayne after seeing him at Pitt’s prospect camp last summer (the coaches did, too, and they offered him based on that camp performance). I don’t know if I pegged him as a freshman who could see early playing time, but I thought he had a lot of potential and a pretty high ceiling.

Smith and Dennis…I don’t think anybody put those guys high on the list of freshmen who would get on the field. Smith was the first commitment in the 2019 class and Dennis was the last one, so they’ve got that connection. But they’re also connected as physically impressive linebackers.

Smith isn’t the biggest guy, but he rushes the passer like he’s shot out of a cannon and really moves well on the field. Dennis is bigger (and a year older, since he did a post-grad year at the Peddie School) and looks physically like he could step onto the field right now.

And yet Dennis was arguably Pitt’s lowest-ranked recruit in the 2019 class and Smith and Wayne weren’t far ahead of him. Vincent Davis was ranked a 5.7 three-star recruit, which put him just out of four-star range. Still, for all of these guys to have good enough camps to put themselves on the radar for playing time, well, that says something about them.

We won’t rag on the recruiting rankings here - that happens enough on the message boards - but it’s probably a good lesson to not always base every judgment on the stars. As we’ve said before, the stars serve as a good piece of info, but they’re only one piece of info to consider, and guys like Davis, Wayne, Smith and Dennis have shown (so far in their careers) that one piece of info doesn’t tell the whole story.

Now we get to see what they do on the field.

Can Pitt keep everybody?
One of the recruits who committed to Pitt in the class of 2020 started his senior season Wednesday night, and to say it went well would be an understatement.

Henry Parrish absolutely dominated. And even that seems to be selling the young man’s accomplishments short.

Playing for Columbus High School in Miami against a fairly strong Belen Jesuit team, Parrish had a fairly unbelievable stat line:

17 carries, 324 yards, 3 touchdowns.

That’s 19.1 yards per carry. He ran for an 80-yard touchdown on the first play of the game and added one from 76 yards later. That’s a heck of a way to start a season.

And it’s not like Parrish was a slouch last year, when he ran for 1,878 yards on 181 carries and was named the offensive player of the year in Florida’s highest classification. He entered his senior season as one of south Florida’s top offensive playmakers, and on Wednesday night he looked like he was ready to carry that mantle.

Parrish was a big score for Pitt when he committed on his official visit in June. He picked the Panthers over offers from Florida State, Indiana, Iowa, Miami, Michigan, Penn State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wake Forest and West Virginia, among others. But getting the commitment was one thing; now comes the next part - what might actually be the hardest part:

Keeping the commitment.

Parrish told Rob Cassidy from Rivals.com that he’s planning an official visit to South Carolina, and while he says that’s his only planned official, other schools are certainly going to push for him (especially if he keeps having 300-yard rushing games).

We’ve known this since June, though. Pitt got some really good commitments that month, landing recruits with strong Power Five offer sheets. That’s a positive, of course, but it also means those schools probably won’t give up. Maybe some of the programs targeting Henry Parrish landed a running back in the last few months and that might mean they’re not taking another one, but there are plenty of schools out there that can use a guy who can do the things Parrish does.

Or Jordan Addison. Or Solomon DeShields. Or Dayon Hayes. Or any number of the other recruits who are committed to Pitt.

We saw it last year when Brandon Mack and Khadry Jackson ended up backing off their June commitments and signing elsewhere, and the odds favor Pitt losing at least one of the current class. That’s why the recruiting process never really ends until Signing Day, and the Pitt staff has a long way to go until then.

JUST ONE MORE THING

The news of the week came by way of transfer, and there were intriguing angles all around this one.

The transfer was safety John Petrishen. That would be former Central Catholic safety John Petrishen. That would be former Central Catholic safety John Petrishen who went to Penn State.

Central Catholic -> Penn State -> Pitt

Normal path, isn’t it?

The news of Petrishen’s transfer was met with a variety of reactions, which I expected. But I can’t say I fully understood people who came out strongly against it. For starters, Petrishen is joining the team as a walk-on. Pitt is, by our count, full on scholarships and Petrishen isn’t taking one of those spots (not right now, at least).

With that as the context, then, where’s the downside? He was a talented player in high school who was pursued by the Pitt coaching staff, and while he hasn’t done much at Penn State - appearing in 16 games in four seasons, all on special teams - there’s really no negative in this situation.

Petrishen is a local kid who grew up as a Pitt fan and will get to spend his final two years of college football wearing a Pitt uniform. Maybe he’ll contribute on special teams later this season. Maybe he’ll play on defense next year. Maybe he’ll get a scholarship spot.

Or maybe he won’t do any of those things.

But I’m struggling to see the downside in this move? If it’s not a win/win, it’s at least a no-lose/no-lose, isn’t it?