Pitt's defense took major steps last year toward being a more complete unit on the Panthers' campaign to becoming ACC champions. That aggressive style is now Pat Narduzzi's brand of football that attracts recruits who want to fit into that mold.
After a third straight season finishing in the top three Division I teams in sacks and third straight season finishing in the top eleven in run defense, Pitt looks to maintain its reputation.
The Panthers opened their spring practices Monday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, looking to see the early stages of who would step up in their campaign to repeat as ACC champions.
"Great enthusiasm and attitude today," Narduzzi said. "Guys came out to work. Lots of details we're working on with new things, but we still have to find out who the 2022 offense and defense is going to be."
After each win last year, Narduzzi and his players, from leaders to freshmen, mentioned the team's 24-hour rule that was about forgetting a win or a loss once a game had passed so that everyone in the program was focused on the next opponent. In a much grander scale, Narduzzi and the Panthers described their approach to the new season with the same mentality, not putting much weight on them being the reigning ACC champions.
"What happened last year?" Narduzzi said sarcastically when asked about building off an ACC Championship. "I don't remember. This is 2002 and it's a different tune. We're going to prepare the same way. What we did last year doesn't matter and it's not going to help us win football games this year. Confidence will be high, but that doesn't matter."
Even fifth-year senior and 2020 team captain Deslin Alexandre was trumpeting that idea after finally achieving the goal of being a conference champion for the first time since joining the ACC in 2013.
"Those were great times, but that's behind us," Alexandre said. "Now we're off to a new season. We're trying to fine-tune the little details and the things we missed before. We need to continue to do the same things to win again. It's about detail and discipline. It's just about the attention to detail in everything we do — those minor things like a step or a strike that you have to really study film to see, but they go a long way."
Despite Alexandre being the only returning captain from the 2021 team with Kenny Pickett and Cal Adomitis preparing for the NFL Scouting Combine and Cam Bright transferring out of the program, it's linebacker SirVocea Dennis who looks to be the leader of the unit.
"SirVocea's one of the smartest guys on defense, if not the smartest guy on defense," Narduzzi said. "He's great and we can challenge him mentally with a bunch of different stuff. He's going to be huge in coaching the rest of the guys up. He's been working with them the last two months, watching tape with them and getting them coached up. He's a coach on the field."
Dennis finished with a team-high 82 tackles last season and the Panthers' third-most tackles for loss with 10. He made one of the most pivotal plays of the season with an interception returned for a touchdown against Clemson at Heinz Field, in a win that helped Pitt set up for their run to win the ACC Coastal division and earn a trip to the ACC Championship game.
Dennis chuckled when told that Narduzzi regarded him as one of the smartest players on defense, and tried his best to deflect from that notion by praising both his current teammates and his former mentors.
"At this point I just try to be the smartest guy, but everybody in the linebacker room is smart," Dennis said. "There's always a competition there. But it's good that there's competition. I try to lead, but last year it was hard. I had unbelievable mentors like Cam Bright and Des (Alexandre). Everybody was trying to prime me for that role and I'm trying to take it on headstrong."
Pitt's linebacker group has the most turnover of any unit on a team that has several returning players. The departures of Bright and Wendell Davis, along with Phil Campbell and John Petrishen running out of eligibility made for the need to recruit linebacker Shayne Simon out of Notre Dame in the transfer portal. But that still means players like Bangally Kamara and Brandon George, who only saw limited snaps at linebacker last season, will be expected to step up this year.
"It's weird not having all those guys out there," Narduzzi said when asked about not having Pickett practicing with the team. "It doesn't matter who it is. It feels weird not having Phil Campbell out there. It's always weird, but we've dealt with that over the past couple months. But hey, all those guys will be out here soon for pro day."
Pitt's pro day is currently scheduled for March 21.
"Bangally made major jumps," Dennis said. "Especially from his freshman year to now. Now he's trying to understand the defense, his concepts and roles in the defense. Bangally's going to be a bright young kid for us."
But they won't be the only reinforcements Pitt has at linebacker, as Narduzzi confirmed that Buddy Mack III, a 6-foot-1, 200 lbs. junior who was recruited to the program as a safety, would transition to the role of STAR linebacker during spring ball.
"Buddy Mack is one guy who I think is moving to outside linebacker," Narduzzi said. "He's a quick-twitch guy who can grow into that position, but we'll watch the tape and see where he is. We can always move him back to safety because he's really smart, but we want to see what he has at linebacker."
The STAR linebacker role in Pitt's defense is most like the SAM linebacker role in a traditional 4-3 defense. That linebacker is primarily tasked with more coverage responsibilities and expected to make plays in space.
"We don't play with a nickel, but that STAR position is linebacker and a safety," Narduzzi said. "He's got to be tough enough to be a linebacker but athletic enough to play in space. We've always made those moves to get guys closer to the ball and get him active."
For Dennis, the challenge of being the leader of the group isn't something that's unusual. He became used to that last year as he transitioned to being the team's primary MIKE linebacker and a big part of the team's communication on switches, audibles and on-field adjustments. But still, the feeling of not having players like Campbell and Petrishen around, who were both sixth-year seniors because of the COVID eligibility waiver, was an adjustment.
"It's different and weird," Dennis said of Campbell and Petrishen not being around. "When they were in the room, I was considered the young guy. Now I'm the oldest guy in the room. It's definitely weird adjusting to the change, but our guys have been in the room. My role is still the same, just with different pieces behind it. I just want to get me and the guys to play up to the level we were last year."
Alexandre sees Dennis as one of the players who will step up in their leadership role this season, among others.
"Guys like Voss (Dennis), Calijah (Kancey), and a bunch of guys on offense," Alexandre said of Pitt's emerging leaders "Nick Patti is one of them, but you continue to show guys the right way to do things, be vocal and speak up in the times to speak up."
Nobody is mistaking the need for younger players to step up this year whether they're the role players from last years who need to become leaders or guys who sat on the bench needing to become regular contributors. But there's an excitement to lean into the brand built for the defense that's helped the group focus on their primary goals while still more than five months away from the season opening game against West Virginia at Heinz Field.
"Obviously we're young with not too much experience," Dennis said of the linebacker room. "But they're eager to learn and willing to get things done by putting in the work. Being in coach Narduzzi's defense, we like to be aggressive. That's what we hang our hats on. Once you turn on the tape, we see the standard we have to live up to. Those guys have seen it and I'm sure they'll live up to it."
• Narduzzi indicated Patti is back to 100 percent after his broken collarbone during the Peach Bowl and that he's practicing in full capacity. Pitt won't have their quarterbacks hit, even during the live practices of spring practices.
"We believe in him," Alexandre said of Patti. "If you just watch it on TV, you're not out here everyday. We've seen Patti do things like that over and over, and when it came time to do it, he did what we knew he could when his opportunity came."
• Narduzzi only briefly discussed Kedon Slovis, the team's new quarterback added from USC in the transfer portal, who is the frontrunner to replace Pickett as the team's starter.
"The ball comes out of his hand really good," Narduzzi said of Slovis. "But we'll watch the tape and make closer evaluations. I'm happy with where he is in the new offense. He's having fun and enjoying the process."
• Narduzzi didn't go into much detail about how the team has dealt with adjusting to two new offensive coaches in coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. and receivers coach and passing game coordinator Tiquan Underwood, but he did say the two have been working relentlessly since their arrival. He even joked that both have been around the team facility so much that he thought they might be sleeping there and rivaling the reputation of Tim Salem, the team's tight ends coach who is known for working long hours.
• Alexandre briefly talked about Aaron Donald, the former Pitt defensive lineman-turned NFL superstar who won a Super Bowl for the first time just weeks ago with the Rams.
"It was so much fun," Alexandre said about watching Donald win a Super Bowl. "Just to see a guy we see train here every day during the offseason who we all look up to, rise on the biggest stage of our game, it's an honor."
