Calijah Kancey earned player of the week honors for Pitt with five tackles and a sack against UMass during the Panthers' 51-7 victory in the season opener. Not only was Kancey highlighting the stat sheet, you could see him being a real problem for UMass' line almost every snap he was one the field.
Pitt's coming off just seeing an All-ACC defensive tackle in Jaylen Twyman get drafted into the NFL, and now could be on the verge of having another star player at the position as Kancey shows his growth as a sophomore. His performance Saturday earned him a place on Pro Football Focus' Team of the Week:
Calijah Kancey 🎱@PFF_College Team of the Week#H2P pic.twitter.com/82HcV29Pvm
— Pitt Football (@Pitt_FB) September 6, 2021
Kancey made a splash for Pitt early in 2020 as well with 27 tackles, seven tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks on the season that earned him being named to the Pro Football Writer's Association of America. But his best moments came early in the season and whenever Pat Narduzzi was asked about Kancey that year, he would often point out that Kancey had a lot of maturing to do and needed to be more consistent with his efforts in practice.
If you ask Narduzzi about how Kancey is now, it seems like the redshirt sophomore is far past Narduzzi's criticism last year.
"He's there," Narduzzi said when asked if Kancey's preparation has increased to the level he wants as a coach. "He is there. He played really well up front. He was our player of the week on defense. You watch him play with good feet, lock out, shed blocks. He looked like an All-ACC performer on Saturday night. Have to do it again against an SEC opponent this week."
Facing Tennessee Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn. will be a challenge with SEC caliber linemen, but Narduzzi's point about the improved fundamentals of Kancey is dead on. Often times in 2020 you would see him beat opponents because of raw, pure explosiveness and athleticism that was easy to manifest.
But to take the next step, Kancey had to more consistently use his hands to win leverage battles at the line, improve his footwork and work on the fundamentals that defensive line coach Charlie Partridge had been grilling into him.
Now, he's reaping the benefits of sticking to what Partridge has been preaching.
"I can pick up more tendencies now," Kancey said when asked after Pitt's Saturday win about what's different this year in his game. "Including formations and the little keys offensive lines give me before the snap. I got off the ball, shed my man, run to the ball and then everything came together. I took a risk on my sack because I saw the guard was light on his feet so I knew he was pulling and I took the risk. Coach Partridge is a great coach and he lets us have fun, but trust at the end of the day we're doing it his way."
Let's look at where some of the improved technique helped Kancey. Here's a play where Kancey was playing left defensive tackle and blew up the play by pushing UMass' right guard so far back that he changed the line of scrimmage all while keeping his right arm free to make the tackle in the hole:
Solid form staying low, keeping his feet chopping and using his hands to push the offensive lineman into the backfield and keep his chest free for leverage.
But Kancey's also extremely explosive off the ball and knows how to combine that explosiveness with better technique now to become more than a handful for offensive lines. As he continues to earn accolades, more teams will focus on trying to limit him with double-teams and chip blocks.
That didn't work for UMass however, as he beat multiple double-teams both against the run and as a pass rusher. Watch this tackle for loss where you can see him split a double-team and blow up the run by himself. You can see him keep his pad level low and his hands tight inside the frame of his opponent. When he diagnosed the play, Kancey shoved one of the linemen down, went in the backfield and made the stop:
And again, his solid technique on display made this happen as you can see him win the leverage battle.
That technique also translates as a pass rusher, where Kancey can be the most disruptive to destroy opposing quarterbacks' pockets. Watch how dominant Kancey was in how he rode UMass' center straight to the quarterback in the backfield. First, it's his quick burst off the ball that has his shoulders already past the line of scrimmage by the time the center can square him up in his pass drop set. When his opponent tried to punch and stop his momentum, Kancey kept his shoulders squared to the backfield, preventing his frame from being exposed.
Once that was done, Kancey used his inside hand to get inside of his man's punch, and the rest was a matter of carrying momentum to the quarterback:
That's something every opponent has to be aware of when facing the Panthers, because giving up A-gap to a defensive tackle is an easy way to have every play blown up.
But now Kancey has to prove Narduzzi right by following that performance up with another strong performance against a much better opponent in Tennessee. If he can string together a few highly productive games and Pitt has a strong start to the season on its way to ACC play, Pitt could be in a position where both the team and Kancey are getting more of a national spotlight for being on the rise in college football.
