In walking around the Beano Cook Fields and taking in Pitt's spring football practices at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, one small uniform adjustment would catch anybody's eye.
There are a number of players -- too many to account for, really -- which have been wearing a massive sticker on the front of their helmet, horizontally spanning their foreheads, to go with their blue practice jerseys to signify the reigning scrimmage winner.
That sticker reads "TAKEAWAY."
Credit where it is due to those stepping up, and especially so with standout players like Calijah Kancey, SirVocea Dennis, Brandon Hill, Erick Hallett II, and others departing and testing the NFL waters. This unit has picked up right where it left off from last season, and with new leaders emerging within the room, the upper-hand has been seized by Pat Narduzzi's defense heading into Saturday's 1 p.m. spring game at Acrisure Stadium.
"Consistency. Just following your fundamental and technique," Marquis Williams said Tuesday on the South Side. "Whatever you're learning in the classroom, bring that out to the field. We've got the best coaches in the country; they're not going to steer you different. So, listening to what you've been taught in the classroom and bringing that on the field and keeping that consistency, that's all we need."
(Note the smile and the affirmative nod from Williams at the 1:57 mark of the above video, when I prefaced my question to him by mentioning the defense has had the upper-hand in Pitt's spring scrimmages. You can tell he is proud of that.)
Of course, some of the idea that Pitt's defense has been succeeding against the offense this spring can be attributed to the fact that three of Pitt's top four quarterbacks -- Nate Yarnell excluded -- are either completely learning or are re-learning Frank Cignetti Jr's offense.
Some players have those white stickers printed with the all-caps "TAKEAWAY" in black font once, twice, three, and some four times over slapped on their helmets. While some perception could lie around negativity around the offense, that should be more of a credit to a physical and hard-nosed Pitt defense which has shown how adept it is at getting those takeaways. Pitt's defense has won each of the team's two Saturday scrimmages this spring.
Why? How? Ask Donovan McMillon ...
"Just being consistent, working to be the best we can at each position and working in locks together," McMillon said. "I know the big thing for us is that we communicate and we tackle the running backs and make the quarterback stressed under pressure. We continue to do that, it'll be a fun spring game."
Narduzzi noted two important things about the spring game: There will not be a draft for the teams, and the offensive play calling will be kept vanilla.
But is there an added motivation for the offense this week because the defense is 2-0 in spring scrimmages?
"I think so," Narduzzi said. "Any time you get punched in the face, you want to come back and get a swing in, but that goes -- I mean, every period's like that a little bit. The offense wins this period, defense wins the next, so there's continuous adversity during the scrimmages, during the practices from Period One to Period 18."
