When Pitt takes the practice field following an offseason scrimmage, the tell tale sign of which side of the ball won is indicated by the color of their jerseys. The winning side wears blue, while the losing side is in white.
When Pitt walked to the practice field on Tuesday morning, it was the offense donning the blue, which was a clear indication that side of the ball got the better of the defense on Sunday for the team’s final scrimmage of training camp.
“I guess I probably should say the offense won the scrimmage,” Pat Narduzzi told reporters ahead of Pitt’s Tuesday practice in the Southside. “I don't know if you guys knew that. So the offense did come out on top. I want to say like 39 to 25, something like that. And it was a good scrimmage.”
The team held two major scrimmages during this training camp. It was made known the defense took the victory in the first one. The word out of that scrimmage was that the offense struggled, not with turnovers, but minor operation issues that were apparently fixed up on Sunday.
“Again, offense was much cleaner than they were in the last scrimmage,” said the Panthers’ head coach. “I think the ones and twos on offense had one penalty the entire game, which was impressive. I don't know if I've ever seen that before. The defense had a few, but not often.”
Of course, the major storyline surrounding this team at this stage of camp is who will be the starting quarterback. Narduzzi was asked about the battle between junior Nate Yarnell and redshirt freshman Eli Holstein, though he was not ready to tip his hand on that battle.
“We’ve got two quarterbacks that are really good,” said Narduzzi. “Those are hard decisions, and let's take it day by day. I mean, getting into game planning and who's picking up game plans and all that. I feel like we have two really good quarterbacks to win with right now.”
Of course, Pitt needs wide receivers to catch the ball for whoever the quarterback may be. It’s known senior Konata Mumpfield is at the top of the list, but a few more names are starting to emerge.
“You know, Poppi Williams had a good day,” Narduzzi recalled of Sunday's scrimmage. “Poppi had probably, he was the guy that popped out to me, Poppi popped out. Kenny Johnson had a good day. I'm trying to think of who else. So those are the two that stand out to me right off the bat.”
It has been expected all along Pitt would have Rodney Hammond and Desmond Reid anchoring the running game, but according to the Pitt head coach, another name is starting to push at the top: Derrick Davis.
“Like he’s just playing with his pads down low, physical, hard runner, like you better get in a weight room if you're gonna tackle that guy this year,” he said of the junior tailback.
With the offense winning, it was not necessarily because of poor defense according to Narduzzi. The first scrimmage left some anxiety because of the offense’s play, but it did not appear to be the case with this one for the defense, despite not coming out on top.
“Not at all,” Narduzzi said when asked if he was concerned with the defense’s performance. “I was disappointed with the offense the last scrimmage. This one, I was not disappointed. The offense just plugged away at the defense.
The head coach added, ‘I slept better Sunday night than I did last weekend, last Saturday night.”
There still remains some questions about the depth chart, but there should be eased tensions about the offense itself. With first-year coordinator Kade Bell installing a new scheme, there were questions about how it would all work, but it appears to be progressing at this stage of camp. With the season fast approaching, things are starting to fall into place for the opener on August 31st against Kent State at Acrisure Stadium.
