The new-look Pitt offense with Phil Jurkovec as its new leader was not going to go to Page 99 of its playbook against a Football Championship Subdivision opponent like Wofford. This season opener was never going to be about flashiness or explosiveness in bunches from a unit that was set to trot out its third signal-caller in three openers.
But, at the same time, it took a while for the playbook to go into Page 2. After the Panthers net 26 yards on their first 14 plays of the game, things started to click for the fifth-year senior and his offense, beginning with a beautifully placed ball to Bub Means for 24 yards that set up a 10-yard walk-in score from Rodney Hammond on the next play.
From that point, Jurkovec settled in, turned the book ahead many pages, and looked closer to the star that came out of Pine-Richland a handful of years ago than the player who struggled to find his footing at Notre Dame and then Boston College. The flipping of the pages allowed for Jurkovec to air it out and run when needed, giving Pitt's offense a renewed swagger in its 45-7 win over Wofford Saturday at Acrisure Stadium.
"The first drive, I told him that one doesn't count," Pat Narduzzi said. "We just came out and whatever, but that happens sometimes. I thought Phil was really good. I thought executed the game plan. I wish they were out a couple of times late instead of trying to throw. You know, grass in front of him. He is such a good runner, let him run. There's nothing that defense hates more than scrambling out of the pocket, decent coverage, and then you throw an incomplete pass. So that's something we'll clean up. He is smart, and he just hadn't had an opportunity to run very much in practice. That's something that comes with going out there and taking your first hit as a quarterback. But I was really, really happy with where he was after Game 1."
After those 26 yards on 14 plays to begin the game, Jurkovec led Pitt to 210 yards on the next 20 plays to close the first half. Jurkovec spread the ball with a nearly flawless ease, as he completed 10 passes to nine different receivers with six of them registering a catch of 16 or more yards. His settling-into was ushered in with two Hammond rushing touchdowns and an additional one from Daniel Carter, giving Pitt a 28-0 lead by the midpoint.
This offense was not going to take the field with everything figured out from Play 1. Jurkovec clearly took the first drive of the game to get his legs underneath him. But, once that tide turned with the perfect lead-in to Means to set up the first Hammond score, Jurkovec threw the ball with confidence and did not try to force anything into where it needed to go. At one point, Jurkovec completed a streak of 15 out of 17 passing attempts to seven different receivers. Jurkovec ended his Pitt debut by completing 17 of 23 passes for 214 yards and a touchdown while carrying the ball seven times for 41 yards and a rushing TD. That performance equaled to a 166.4 rating.
"I don't think a lot of it was, 'we're going to try to get the ball to this guy on this play,'" Jurkovec said. "It's just reading out the plays, and we've got a lot of weapons. We were rotating guys in, and you could see that a lot of guys could play out there. ... I think it's just reading out the plays. Whatever's called, you're going to read, make those reads, but you're not going to specifically target a person. We can do that at times but most of the times you're reading out the progression."
Jurkovec claimed the rocky start was "shaking off some rust," but his homecoming after years spent at two different programs went about as well as it could have.
"Felt great to out there on that field playing with the guys," Jurkovec said. "We put in a lot of work, so it felt good to get the first one."
He was pulled in favor of Penn State transfer Christian Veilleux with 13:35 to play in the game, as most of the Panthers' starters followed to the bench for the fourth quarter. Veilleux commandeered a 15-play, 80-yard drive that took 9:06 off of the clock in the fourth quarter. It ended on a 39-yard touchdown pass to Jake McConnachie, who was recently put on scholarship by the program.
Grains of salt should be taken and applied here, given the opponent, but Pitt (1-0) showed exactly what it needed to against the Terriers (0-1).
The playbook didn't have to be opened beyond those few pages, and the defense shut down any potential of struggle against an inferior FCS team. That same defense that had to replace six NFL-bound players -- including the ACC Defensive Player of the Year and unanimous All-American -- looked like it hardly had skipped a beat. It accounted for four sacks totaling 33 yards while holding Wofford to 126 yards, including a net 34 yards on 23 plays in the first half. It would have looked more pristine if not for a 75-yard touchdown reception by Wofford's Tyler Parker with 1:13 remaining to break the shutout.
"This is a special team," captain Shayne Simon said. "We've got a good group here and we all locked in this week and paid attention to details and I think that helped us out with this week and (with) staying focused. It was a good job for us and (we've got to) keep that going for sure."
Wofford rushed for minus-one yard and was stuffed to 1-for-9 on third down. Situational football skills can be difficult to translate from team practices and scrimmages, but Pitt passed the test Saturday by holding its first opponent to next to nothing in the "money" situations.
"That's what we talk about winning, the 'money down,'" Narduzzi said. "Whether it was on offense. Again, we had some third down and fourth down conversions, and defensively I know those money downs that we had opportunities to. And again, there will be some stuff that we're going to clean up, and it will get much better. I can tell you that."
Many of the players who had their first tastes of impact in the 2022 regular-season finale against Miami and the subsequent Sun Bowl were on the forefront of the playmaking. Dayon Hayes, who recorded three sacks in that Miami game, sacked Wofford quarterback Bryce Corriston on the first play from scrimmage to set the tone for a dominant day. Bangally Kamara, Samuel Okunlola, and Bam Brima recorded sacks, and Brima scooped up a fumble on a botched handoff that resulted in a 23-yard touchdown run from Jurkovec.
"When Sam got his sack, I was like, 'all right, I need another one now," Hayes said with a grin. "We all try to up each other."
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE ESSENTIALS
• Box score
• Live file
• Team feed
• Top 25 scores
• Schedule
• ACC standings
• Statistics
THE INJURIES
• Out for the season: G Ryan Jacoby (leg).
THE SCHEDULE
The Panthers host Cincinnati at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Acrisure Stadium.
THE CONTENT
• Visit the Pitt team page for more from Acrisure Stadium.
