One aspect of Pitt football that nobody can dismiss from being a true asset is how tenacious Pat Narduzzi's Panthers are at getting in the backfield under Randy Bates' defense.
Pitt led the ACC in sacks and sacks per game with 46 over 11 games, a rate of 4.2 per game. The only team that had as many sacks as Pitt was ACC champion Clemson, and it took them an extra game to get there. Pitt also led the ACC in sacks with 55 in 2019.
The faces who led the Panthers in sacks during those years are gone to the NFL. Jaylen Twyman and Patrick Jones were drafted by the Vikings while Rashad Weaver was drafted by the Titans. Twyman was First Team All-ACC in 2019 before he opted out of the 2020 season, while both Jones and Weaver both earned consensus All-America status for their performances in 2020.
That's a high bar to replace for Pitt's defensive front, but defensive end Deslin Alexandre is more than up to the task. He's the leader of the group heading into this season, and comes off a strong year as a backup recording 18 tackles, three sacks, 6.5 tackles for loss across 11 games. The last time he had a full season that wasn't shortened by COVID-19, he registered 38 tackles with 5.5 sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss.
Now, the redshirt senior from Pompano Beach, FL, who's made the All-ACC Academic Football Team for two consecutive years, looks to improve on those numbers to meet that high bar set by Jones and Weaver.
"The goal is to get ten-plus," Alexandre said when asked how many sacks he aimed to get this season. "I don't like to say too much and come off cocky, but that's a real goal that me and coach (Charlie Partridge) see that I can reach this year."
Jones led the team with nine sacks across eleven games last season. If Alexandre is truly growing as a player, like Jones did, that high goal is definitely attainable. Jones went from having four sacks in 2018, to 8.5 in 2019 and then the nine he recorded in a shortened 2020 season. Now he's making plays for the Vikings in preseason football.
But Alexandre knows it's not just his raw talent that's going to give him the best chance. It's his defensive line coach Charlie Partridge, who has established a strong reputation of churning out talented players for the Panthers' defensive front year after year. Alexandre made it clear when he spoke at training camp just how much Partridge has helped him, just like he helped Jones and Weaver, and why he sees that kind of success for himself in 2021.
"If someone doesn't want the best out of you, they don't really love you," Alexandre said when describing Partridge. "I think coach Partridge really shows his love by getting the best out of us every day. He's not going to just let you be average. You see his track record, that comes from the little details he keeps pulling out of us when we're younger. You don't realize it at the time, but then when we're making plays, we think, 'Wow, coach was right,' and it goes without saying that if we don't get those things from him, we don't have that kind of success."
At 6-foot-4, 285 pounds, Alexandre has all the size and explosiveness to have that kind of success on the edge. He had a limited amount of chances as Pitt's defense wanted to make sure Jones and Weaver were the key edge rushers on obvious passing downs, but when Alexandre got his chances at the quarterback, he took them.
Watch how smooth he looked in this sack against Syracuse. You can see him win the one-on-one by firing off, ripping his arm underneath the hands of the offensive tackle, and then torque his body with great bend to cut to the quarterback and collapse the pocket:
That's something Pitt fans can expect to see more of this season.
But when talking to Alexandre, you get the sense of an athlete who's remained humble in his career and knows just how much work it takes to be a playmaker in Division I football. It's not just about showing up on game day, it's showing up to be intense and locked in for every single practice.
"The biggest thing we have to do this year is start fast, and stay fast," Alexandre said about team expectations this year. "And by starting fast, I mean right now, in camp, when it's hot and we're sweating out here. And that's what we're doing. We've got to make our mark right now so that when the season starts, we're ready to show everyone what we can do. Our goal is to win every game. We're not saying we're all that, but we look to approach every day, every snap and every game with a point to beat and win every day. But that starts right here in camp."
You see that kind of determination in Alexandre's tape already, as a guy who never gives up on a play. Here's one of his sacks from 2020 when Florida State's play rolled away from Alexandre's side on a designed rollout. You can see Alexandre beat his man off the ball, but as soon as he saw the quarterback on the move, he went into chase mode.
The quarterback managed to escape Weaver, Chase Pine and Damar Hamlin, but because Alexandre stuck with the play it still resulted in a sack in one of Pitt's biggest wins last season:
And you can see how big of a hit he made too.
Alexandre isn't just a guy who gets after the quarterback, either. He knows his roll as a run defender and plays physical to maintain his edge and collapse it down on run plays.
Watch how much push Alexandre got against Miami at the top of the screen. Even though the play is blown up by DeAndre Jules, Alexandre's collapsing of the right tackle closed down how much space there could be for the running back to escape, and he helped Jules finish the tackle for loss:
That's the kind of teamwork Alexandre believes in and preaches to his teammates.
There's no doubt he's a leader in the room, and he doesn't lose sight of where he stands as a redshirt senior after the back-to-back years Pitt has had leading the ACC in sacks. It's not just about him carrying the torch as a leading sack man for Pitt in the conference, but also making sure that torch is carried along the way by his teammates and successors who will play alongside him this year and be the future leaders of the group in the coming seasons.
"I'm really excited to pass down the torch just like (Jones and Weaver) passed their torch to me," Alexandre said about being a leader this season. "I attest a lot of my success to the little things that those guys taught me on and off the field. I'm excited to do that for these guys and we have a lot of young hungry guys who are ready to make a big impact this year."
There's an interesting battle developing for who gets the most snaps coming off the edge with Alexandre. John Morgan III had the most sacks last year among these young backups with four to go along with seven tackles for loss, but there's also a lot of excitement around sophomores Habbakuk Baldonado and Dayon Hayes.
Baldonado went down with an injury early in the season and didn't return, but has put in a lot of work to get back to full strength and is season as a major asset by Narduzzi and Partridge to the defensive plans this year.
Hayes is coming off a strong freshman season when he registered 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble despite playing only five games. At 6-foot-3, 260 pounds. the local product out of Westinghouse is one of the players Partridge is most excited to see come into his own this year.
"Dayon really came a long way this offseason," Partridge said of Hayes. "He just needed to mature, like all kids at that age. But you can see him shine in his workouts and in his practices. You can see how serious he's approaching things and that's going to pay off for him. If he stays on this trajectory, he's going to be getting extremely significant playing time."
Alexandre sees the potential in the group he leads, and even sees a little bit of himself in them.
"I see a lot of the young version of me in them," Alexandre said. "I see their hunger and how badly they want to learn. It's hard to make that jump from high school to college and humble yourself, but you're seeing that from them and that's really exciting. The success of that will show this year."
Here's a play where you can see both Morgan and Hayes play a game of 'meet me at the quarterback' against Miami. Both fired off the edge and engaged their offensive tackles by collapsing them into the pocket. Look at the leverage they establish with their inside hand position and the follow through on their leg drive to dominate the edges. You can see Morgan get the first push and chase the quarterback right into Hayes:
That's textbook technique, and a solid testament to Partridge's work as a coach.
If Alexandre keeps his trajectory trending upwards the way he has the past few seasons, he'll be a leader amongst a group of hungry defensive ends ready to make their mark under Partridge's tutelage.
