It was fitting enough for Damar Hamlin, Jordan Whitehead and Dane Jackson to be on the Pitt sideline for Saturday's Blue-Gold spring football game, as it turned out that their successors at safety capped strong springs with game-changing plays in the defense's 33-32 victory over the offense at Acrisure Stadium.
The biggest play came from P.J. O'Brien, whose 50-yard interception return for a touchdown swung the game in the defense's favor with 8:23 to play, turning a 24-18 deficit into a 31-24 lead which it added upon with a Jimmy Scott fumble recovery to help seal the Blue team's come-from-behind victory over the Gold team.
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One of the many players on Pitt's defense which had his helmet covered from front to mack in 'TAKEAWAY' stickers all throughout the spring, O'Brien helped Pitt's defense to two scrimmage wins and then a victory in the finale of the spring game.
"Just putting in that extra effort, man," O'Brien said. "With my fellow DB players, they always hand me up. But it started from last season, learning everything from Erick Hallett, man. Him being my roommate, I was aggravating him, like, 'I need to get all of the information I can get from him for when my time comes. I need it. I need to know everything about this position.' Field safety, that's probably the hardest position in college football, 100 percent."
Hamlin and Whitehead gave way to Hallett II and Brandon Hill at their respective safety positions within the Pat Narduzzi defense. The former two are starters in the NFL, with the latter two set to begin their respective pro careers with the upcoming NFL Draft. O'Brien, along with Javon McIntyre and Peters Township product Donovan McMillon are next in line, with McIntyre presenting himself as the player which perhaps has taken the largest leap of any Pitt player this spring.
But on Saturday, it was O'Brien's turn to turn heads.
"I'm always full with energy, and I always try to challenge myself," O'Brien said. "Even in practice if I know the play or what's going to happen, I still try to challenge myself, say in my scooch, read my keys, and everything will lead me to the play. ... So, I'm on my side about to go on defense (before the interception), and Jordan Whitehead was like, 'hey, man, remember when you were young? Just read it, just read it. Stay patient.' I go out there and I tried to stay patient. I seen the tight end just run a drag route, and I just got in front of it. It was either a big hit or a pick six. I wasn't trying to hit my teammate or anything like that. We need everybody as one, so I was like, 'I'm just going to go for the ball.'"
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McIntyre's six total tackles and two tackles for loss in the first half helped pace Pitt's defense, which had kept the game close in the first half if not for Daniel Carter's four-yard rushing touchdown and then Rodney Hammond Jr's subsequent 91-yard kick return TD to swing the game from a 9-7 affair into a 23-7 margin.
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McIntyre's second TFL of the game led to a later three-and-out for the offense, and that sparked the defense's scoring of 27 consecutive points in between the second and fourth quarters.
"We're still looking to see who those guys are, but we're going to need three starting safeties," Narduzzi said. "... P.J., he's got some juice to him, doesn't he? He can rattle off and he's got a lot of passion to him. I was happy, and we talked yesterday about making some plays, and I said, 'if you make a play, maybe I'll let you talk to the media,' I don't know if he told you that. He was probably too excited to get in here because he did make that play. It was a good play to pick off a freshman quarterback, so I'll always take that into account. I'll bust him about that, you didn't pick off Phil (Jurkovec) or Christian (Veilleux). He's had a lot of takeaways. I don't know if he had those takeaway stickers on his helmet today or not, I didn't look a that, but he's had a really good spring."
McMillon added three total tackles in the new spring game format, which awarded points to either side of the ball based on play outcomes. The new format also allowed for Narduzzi and his staff to align matchups in which ever ways they chose. Narduzzi said he did not consider playing the first-team offense against the first-team defense.
"We work turnovers pretty much every day," defensive coordinator Randy Bates said. "There's a certain drill we do. We rotate 'em. You win football games by getting turnovers. We obviously stress it. Sometimes it doesn't happen, but as we went back and studied last fall the thing that we felt was the biggest problem is we felt like we had a lot of 50/50 fumbles and interceptions that we didn't get. The ball hit the ground, we did didn't get on it, they did, or we were reaching for the ball and they did and nobody got it. We've got to get more of those and that's really been the plan."
There was the element of work, of course, but the elements of fun came to the forefront as they usually do during spring games. Aaron Donald and Qadree Ollison were among Panthers alumni which roamed the sidelines, and Bates even let a couple of his former players wear headsets in the fourth of the 10-minute quarters.
"P.J's had a great spring, and we've been really blessed the last, geez, I don't know how many years, with field safeties who have been awesome," Bates said. "In fact the one didn't do a great job making the calls in the second half. I'm a little disappointed. I told him, 'I'm not sure I can hire (you).' I don't know if you know that Hamlin called a couple series in the second half. Didn't do great. ... But between Damar and Erick Hallett and now P.J., we've been very blessed to have outstanding players there, and although P.J. hasn't had a ton of snaps, he did get a lot in the bowl game, and has continued to improve, and we're very excited about where he's going at this point. I think he's going to be an outstanding player. He is an outstanding player."
Bates added that Whitehead was calling the defense when quarterback Jake Frantl scrambled 14 yards for a touchdown to cut the defense's lead to 33-32 with 2:31 to play.
"They were the defensive coordinators, so donβt blame me," Bates said.
The offense, just as Narduzzi said it would be, was kept relatively vanilla as far as play calling, but there was something to the personnel utilized which allowed for glimpses of key players into the fall.
Such were the cases for running backs TJ Harvison and Derrick Davis Jr., each carrying the ball a team-high nine times with Davis, an LSU transfer and Gateway product, adding three catches. Davis had 24 yards on the ground and 15 receiving, with a 12-yard touchdown grab from Veilleux for the game's first scoring play in the first quarter.
"We wanted to see those young guys go, and we know what Rodney can do, what C'Bo (Flemister) can do," Narduzzi said. "... We want to give all of those guys a look and see what they have, but we feel good with the sable of the running backs we've got, and TJ, he's a baby right now but he's gotten better through the spring, and Derrick Davis is a big back. He's thick. I looked at him walking out and I was like, 'God, he's got some big legs. Big calves.'"
The offense was without key pieces Konata Mumpfield, Daejon Reynolds, and Gavin Bartholomew, each of who figure to be focal points for Jurkovec and Frank Cignetti Jr. in the fall.
Bub Means caught a pair of passes for a team-high 39 yards, which included a 21-yard haul which set the Panthers up on the 50-yard line on the drive which Carter capped with a touchdown. Pitt went 75 yards on 10 plays in 6:42 on that touchdown drive led by Jurkovec, who completed all three of his passes for 40 yards on that drive.
"I'm really impressed with Bub," Cignetti said. "First off, he's a great person, he's a hard worker, but I think we saw his leadership come out this winter, even before spring ball. You can see him coaching and helping and developing the other perimeter players. Bub is a big, strong, fast player that makes competitive catches. Really happy for Bub because he had such a great offseason, great spring, and excited to see where we take it."
Veilleux completed 6 of 9 passes for 74 yards and a touchdown. Jurkovec went 5-for-7 for 51 yards. Nate Yarnell completed 7 of 10 passes for 33 yards. Dieffenbach's lone pass resulted in the interception. Frantl, David Lynch, and Eli Kosanovich each played at quarterback, but neither attempted a pass.
"We took it day-by-day, and I think through 15 practices we came off the field saying each day that we did a lot of good things," Jurkovec said. "We strung together 15 really good practices, so we're proud of that."
