Dave Wannstedt walked through the darkened hallways of the South Side training facility and was surprised to see a light burning inside the weight room.
The Baldwin native and former Pitt football coach was home visiting his mother last summer and he had decided to tour the Duratz Athletic Complex to check out the recently completed renovations. Wannstedt and the Pitt assistant athletic director accompanying him were curious about the activity in the weight room. Nobody else was supposed to be in the building.
July is the one month when football goes into hibernation. Coaches spend actual quality time with their families. Players are scattered across the country, digging their toes into sandy beaches and catching up with old friends. It’s the last time their bodies feel whole before five months of mayhem that shocks their systems and tests their will.
Wannstedt opened the door and saw a familiar figure. It was Aaron Donald working out with the same intensity he had shown years earlier in his father’s basement during early-morning training session. That was before Wannstedt had recruited the undersized defensive lineman to Pitt in 2010. Before Donald swept almost all of the national awards in his senior season. Before the Penn Hills High graduate had earned three NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors with the Rams. Before he demonstrated his love for his alma mater by cutting a seven-figure check to pay for upgrades to the first floor of the complex where he stood sweating on a summer afternoon in the weight room.
“That’s stuff you can’t teach,” said Wannstedt, who coached Donald for one season at Pitt. “The guy is in there working out when everyone else is on vacation.”
Donald is looking to add the one final prize that’s eluded him during a decorated eight-year pro career. After pressuring Jimmy Garoppolo into a game-clinching interception on Sunday and securing the Rams’ second trip to the Super Bowl in four years, Donald emphatically pointed to his ring finger. There was no mistaking the message or his desire to complete his quest next weekend against the Bengals.
Few fans outside the Pittsburgh area know the story of Donald’s meteoric rise from lightly-recruited lineman to the most dominant defensive player of his generation. DK Pittsburgh Sports spoke to a dozen former Pitt players, coaches, college opponents and media members to gain insight into his four years with the Panthers.
These are their recollections in their own words:
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Ray Vinopal (former Pitt safety): I hate to reflect poorly on some of my buddies on the offensive line, but Aaron was quite literally unblockable. There’s no other way to say it, and there’s no reason to put more words to it.
Vad Lee (former Georgia Tech quarterback): My dream of being drafted didn’t come true. But on the night Aaron Donald was drafted (in 2014), I got to see myself on ESPN in three highlight clips of him chasing me around the backfield. So I guess in some way my dream came true through Aaron Donald.
Brandon Connette (former Duke quarterback): Our offensive coordinator used to call really good players, ‘Boy Dogs.’ When we were game-planning against Aaron Donald, our coach said, ‘This is the Boy Dog of all Boy Dogs.’ I had never heard of him before that game. Oh, my gosh. I was running for my life on every single play.
K’Waun Williams (49ers cornerback, former Pitt defensive back): He never took plays off. It didn’t matter if it was spring ball or training camp. He was all about competing whether it was ping-pong in the locker room or beating an offensive lineman on the practice field. He disrupted everything with his dominance.
Matt Rotheram (former Pitt offensive lineman): We would get upset with ourselves because we were doing the best we could to block him. Then, you would see him do the same things to opponents on Saturdays. It was like, ‘See, man, we don’t suck.’ He’s the best defensive lineman to ever play college football.
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PITT ATHLETICS
Aaron Donald rushes the quarterback against Notre Dame.
Two years ago, Donald was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team for the relentless pressure he brings from the defensive interior. Not bad for a three-star recruit who attracted four scholarship offers: two from MAC schools, Rutgers and Pitt. Donald did not fit the 6-foot-4, 285-pound, run-stopping prototype that college coaches crave. Tempted to join his brother Archie Jr., at Toledo, the 6-foot, 270-pound Donald elected to stay home and play for Wannstedt.
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Ron Graham (former Penn Hills head coach): Recruiters didn’t trust his size. Where they made a huge mistake is not recognizing the size of his heart and his tenacity. He was quick, he had great hands and he played with leverage. It was like an art form to him, but so many of those (recruiters) were too focused on his size.
Wannstedt: We weren’t worried about that at all. When I was with the Bears, we had Chris Zorich and he was about the same size with the same movement and quickness. It was the same when I was at the University of Miami. We just wanted guys who could make plays.
Bill Hillgrove (radio voice of the Steelers and Pitt football): He was quick and explosive, but what always stood out to me was how he could control an offensive lineman with his hands.
Demond Gibson (former Pitt defensive lineman and Penn Hills assistant coach): People have seen videos of Aaron working against a guy who’s wielding (rubber) knives as he’s coming off the line. It’s a mind-over-matter thing. Those weapons are like the hands of an offensive lineman who is trying to get to your body or strike points. It’s all about sharpening your mind to things that are coming your way. The object is to keep an offensive lineman’s hands off you. . . . At Penn Hills, I told him he had to be a master technician. We really worked on hand placement and counter moves.
Chris Jacobson (former Pitt offensive lineman): He never gave up on a play. When I was blocking people, you knew you could get them in certain positions where they would give up. Aaron always found a way to maneuver out of that. He could ninja his way out of tight spots with leverage. He’d use a spin move or take your arms and put them in different places.
Wannstedt: The plan was to redshirt him. I actually had a conversation with him when he first got there. We had some good defensive linemen at Pitt at that time. So I kind of told Aaron that was the plan. After about two weeks of training camp, I remember (defensive line coach) Greg Gattuso coming up to me and saying, ‘Aaron Donald can help us win this year.’ So we ended up playing him as true freshman.
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PITT ATHLETICS
Aaron Donald still has a locker in the Pitt locker room. He frequently uses the weight room during the offseason.
Donald’s production steadily increased over his four seasons. As a senior, he led the nation with 28.5 tackles for loss. But the Panthers delivered a middling 27-25 record in his time with the program, and he played for three different head coaches. They never won more than eight games in a season and, as a result, Donald’s brilliance rarely drew national attention. Network sportscasts obsessed over South Carolina pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney, who parlayed the exposure into the first overall pick by the Texans in 2014. Donald ended up going 13th overall to the Rams, selected behind the likes of Justin Gilbert (Browns) and Eric Ebron (Lions).____________________
E.J. Borghetti (Pitt sports information director): It was all about Clowney going into the 2013 season. If you look at some of the preseason annuals, the guy who was supposed to win all the awards that Aaron ended up winning was Clowney.
Rotheram: Some people are surprised he played at Pitt. That’s usually the first thing I get. People are like, ‘I had no idea he went to Pitt.’ I don’t think he was recognized as much because we were like 6-6 a couple of years. People just kind of overlooked him a little bit.
Artie Rowell (former Pitt offensive lineman): I get the question all the time, ‘Who is the best player you ever played against?’ No one ever assumes I’m going to say Aaron Donald.
Vinopal: He got all the end-of-year recognition that he deserved, but he wasn’t a week-to-week headline guy like Aidan Hutchison was this year at Michigan. Did he deserve it? 100 percent. Did it bother him? I don’t think it did. It just motivated him even more.
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TOM REED / DKPS
Aaron Donald's jersey is displayed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It commemorates his first of three NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards that he has won.
Donald delivered a catalog of outstanding defensive highlights over his final two seasons, but one play epitomized his speed, power and determination. On Sept. 21, 2013, Donald burst through a hole in the Duke offensive line just as Connette was handing off to running back Josh Snead. Unsure of who had the ball, Donald bear-hugged both Blue Devils, dropping them for a stunning 4-yard loss. The highlight went viral. Five weeks later against Georgia Tech, Donald registered an outrageous six tackles for loss and forced two fumbles.
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Connette: I remember getting tackled and it’s like ‘I don’t have the ball.’ I looked at our running back and he’s on the ground, too, and I’m like ‘what the hell just happened?’
Borghetti: My reaction was the same as almost everyone in the press box and those watching on television that day. Astonishment. Pure astonishment. That’s just one of those signature plays and moments that will be remembered for decades from now.
Williams: I was just in awe. Who tackles two guys at once? I was in coverage on the play so I didn’t see it until later. But it was just breathtaking.
Vinopal: I just remember that clip being shown again and again the next day in film session. Coach (Paul) Chryst is not a very verbose guy, and he’s really even-keeled, but he said, ‘I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a defensive play this good in my career.’
Borghetti: Aaron’s game at Georgia Tech is one of the greatest individual performances by a Pitt player in school history. And I’m not limiting that to the defensive side of the ball and I’m not limiting it to a specific position.
Rotheram: The funny thing is the Georgia Tech offensive guard was one of the best they had had in decades, Shaq Mason. He’s still playing for the Patriots. It’s not like he was getting all those tackles for loss against bad guys.
Lee: Aaron Donald was just on a different level in terms of one guy changing an entire game. We ran a triple option. We were known for being a tough-nosed team, a team that could run up the middle, getting the defensive line tired, but he was such a combination of power and speed that he never got tired.
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PITT ATHLETICS
Aaron Donald poses with his haul of trophies earned during his senior season at Pitt.
Donald earned four national honors in his senior season — the Outland Trophy, the Lombardi Award, the Chuck Bednarik Award and the Bronco Nagurski Award. He also was a unanimous All-American selection. But what stood out to teammates and those associated with the Pitt program was the humility and commitment to team that Donald exhibited during that period.
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Hillgrove: It didn’t affect him all. He didn’t go into that ‘Oh, I’m really special now’ mode.
Borghetti: It was like a rock-n-roll tour in terms of the number of cities and flights and cameras he was showcased in front of. The next morning, he has four trophies to his name, and he’s in the Pitt weight room. I distinctly remember the strength staff saying, ‘This guy isn’t complacent.’ He was probably kicking at the stalls all week because he couldn’t watch film. He couldn’t get in the weight room. He couldn’t do football things. That’s what makes him so great.
Rowell: We still had a bowl game to play and Aaron got back in town very late after being on the road for a week. We were a morning practice team. After our meetings, we were on the field by 9 a.m., at the latest. Coach told him, ‘After individual drills, you are done. I don’t want you to practice. You are operating on very little sleep and I’m not going to put you in a position to get hurt.’ But every time coach pulled him off the field, Aaron would run right back out there. He didn’t want to miss any reps. It got to the point where Coach Chryst had to take his helmet and hold it in his arm for the rest of practice. That’s Aaron Donald.
Borghetti: We were a 6-6 football team. A better record would have gotten him to New York City as a Heisman Trophy finalist. The record and playing an unconventional position did not help his cause. If the award goes to the best football player in the country, nobody played at a higher or more dominant level at any position than Aaron Donald that year.
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GETTY
Aaron Donald reacts after the Rams defeated the 49ers in the NFL Championship Game on Sunday.
Eight seasons after playing his final game at Pitt, few players who called him a teammate or felt his wrath as an opponent are surprised by what Donald has accomplished in the NFL. He's a seven-time, first-team All Pro. They applaud not only his consistency, but his munificence toward his hometown and his alma mater.
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Hillgrove: He shares a lot of similarities with Cam Heyward. They never forgot where they came from. They value that. They value their fathers’ lessons. Aaron’s dad was the one who inspired him to get off his bum and work out when he was a kid.
Rowell: This is a guy who plays in L.A. and comes home in the offseason when it’s like zero degrees to stay close to his family and friends. He’s someone who loves Pittsburgh. He’s fully invested in his hometown.
Borghetti: He’s here so much that Coach (Pat) Narduzzi, who missed him by a couple of years, gave him his own locker in the locker room. (The first floor of the Duratz complex has been renamed the Aaron Donald Football Performance Center following his generous donation.)
Jacobson: Watching Aaron play in the NFL, and seeing what he does now is not a shock. I saw him do the same thing on the collegiate level and I saw how hard the guy worked. He’s always mastering his craft behind the scenes.
Borghetti: When they filmed that Centennial NFL commercial, they had Aaron seated next to Mean Joe Greene. To anyone who grew up in the 70s or had an affection for the Steelers or really pro football, Joe Greene was the gold standard. Well, with all due respect to Joe Greene, who is certainly one of the iconic figures of all time, Aaron Donald may have raised the bar for greatness. Not only for defensive tackles, but for defensive players overall. I think there will come a day when we talk about Aaron Donald as one of the iconic greats just as we do with Mean Joe Greene.
Rotheram: To me, he’s a trailblazer because now the NFL really values those kind of interior guys. When you put your best pass rusher inside against a guard who’s probably not your best pass blocker, it makes it really difficult. It’s not like if you’re a great edge rusher where they can slide the protection to you, where they can bring over someone to chip you. You can’t chip an (interior defensive lineman). A tight end can’t step inside the tackle and help the guard.
Wannstedt: I do Fox TV shows in L.A., and I’m out there every weekend with Michael Strahan and Howie Long — two of the all-timers. We’re obviously talking about Aaron and the Rams a lot. The respect and admiration and, I hate to say it, amazement for what Aaron does not one year, not only two years, but year after year is something special. I hear it all the time from two Hall of Famers. For me, as a Pittsburgh guy and someone who went to Pitt, it makes you really proud knowing he’s from our city.
