Tuesday was Day Two of spring camp 2015, and while the coaches and players moved forward with installation and acclimation, the themes remained largely the same.
Chief among those themes is one that seems like the early favorite to define spring camp 2015:
Energy.
That was a common topic for discussion in the post-practice media scrums. The players who were interviewed, including James Conner, Tyler Boyd and Alex Bookser, talked about, as did head coach Pat Narduzzi and defensive coordinator Josh Conklin. And the consensus was this:
The coaches have brought a lot of energy, and the players are trying to keep up. No players would emphatically state that they prefer Narduzzi and company's high-energy approach to practice, but they all acknowledged that it exists.
And from the coaches' side, Narduzzi and Conklin acknowledged that the players still have some ground to make up to reach the level of energy the staff wants. Narduzzi said that adjusting to the tempo was an issue in Sunday's camp-opening practice, and while it was better on Tuesday, it wasn't where he wanted it to be.
"They have a ways to go, as far as having that energy throughout a two-hour practice. I don't know what it was like before; I just know what we like to do. But I think there is either an adjustment or something that they need to figure out."
What do the players need to adjust to or figure out, exactly?
"We need to have better motors all the time, and our guys will figure out that out. It's habit. People are creatures of habit, and what they've done before, we've got to break and get them to do what we want them to do."
And that comes back to comparisons between Narduzzi's staff and its predecessor, the Paul Chryst staff. Simply put, Narduzzi's staff moves faster and with more energy than the previous regime. That's not to say that one approach is better, but the differences are clear, and Narduzzi's staff conducts itself the way it does because those coaches believe that the team simply needs to play with more intensity.
Will running extra hard in a spring camp drill beat Georgia Tech in Atlanta next fall? Maybe, maybe not. But Narduzzi and his assistants believe that it will help.
It bears mentioning that the energy on the practice field isn't exactly balanced. Glance to one end of the field, and Conklin and Rob Harley are pushing the defensive players with some heavy intensity. At the other end, the vibe is different. The offensive staff isn't taking it easy on the players - few offensive line coaches would be accused of going light, and John Peterson certainly won't be accused of that - but the energy is different.
The offensive staff is a veteran crew, one that is full of coaches who have been around and know their business. Jim Chaney has been coaching a long time. Tim Salem has been coaching a long time. Kevin Sherman and Andre Powell and Peterson have been coaching a long time. And all of those coaches act like veteran coaches.
So they might not be running constantly for two hours like Harley seems to be, but maybe they don't need to be. Pitt's defense needs the upgrade, and in addition to the schematic changes that have and will come, perhaps that extra boost of energy, that extra push of intensity can help get the Panthers into better shape on that side of the ball.
Maybe that unit lacked a little bit of intensity or a little edge, and that's what Narduzzi is talking about when he talks about habits that need to be broken. Conklin touched on something similar Tuesday:
"Like the backside defensive backs, the backside corners, the backside safeties, the backside defensive ends, sometimes those guys don't understand the level of what it really takes to get to the football. That's just a habit, believe it or not; getting that trained up is a big deal. So we're going to get them to run to the football and get the effort where we want to.
"We have great coaches on the staff. We have a great staff. So the fundamentals and technique, we'll get that stuff coached up. But we have to get that energy and the tenacity that we want to play with at a different level. That's got to happen, and it's got to happen quickly."
It seems like the coaches watched last year's film and came away with some clear ideas of non-schematic improvements that have to happen for the defense to improve.
Or it's just coach-speak, since there has never been a football coach in the history of the game who felt like his players played fast enough or with enough intensity.
- When it comes to coaches setting a tone for energy and intensity, the linebackers have two who can set the bar pretty high in Harley and graduate assistant Scott McKillop. Harley is constantly in motion, and McKillop made his Pitt career by playing with a ton of passion (as well as knowledge and a whole lot of ability). The linebackers occasionally break into two groups, with Harley coaching one and McKillop coaching the other, and both groups get some pretty strong coaching in those situations.
- Turnovers have been emphasized pretty heavily through the first two days of spring camp. The team spends one period working through a series of turnover-focused drills. For the offense, that means ball security drills. But for the defense, that means a series of drills aimed at one goal:
The scoop.
We'll have video of some scoop drills Wednesday, but the coaches are emphasizing it for players at all three levels of the defense. Linemen, linebackers and defensive backs all work on getting their hands down, scooping the ball and running with it.
Forcing fumbles is one thing, but the coaches want the defensive players to be equally adept at not just corralling the ball once the fumble is forced, but picking it up and going with it.
- Narduzzi still tends to work in the middle of the field and oversee things - he said Tuesday that he uses a mini-recorder to make notes during practice since it's quicker than writing down notes - but he definitely tends toward the defensive side of things. He might not take over any position drills, but he's watching all of them and steps in from time to time to offer further guidance or coaching or a high-five or what-have-you.
This is the way many envisioned the Narduzzi staff operating: Conklin is the coordinator and he's running the defense, but Narduzzi is heavily involved and will be until Conklin is ready to do it on his own.
As mentioned above, the offensive coaches know their business, and they run things on their end. Narduzzi still looks like an overseer in the middle of the field, but he's on the defense's side of the 50 most times.
- Defensive line coach Tom Sims isn't quite Harley or Conklin or Narduzzi when it comes to overt energy, but he's no slouch. He's also no fan of his players lining up offsides or jumping early, as evidenced by a watch-the-ball drill where the penalty for one player lining up offsides or jumping early was an up-down - or two or three or four or five - for the entire position group.
If you want players to force accountability on each other, make the entire position group do up-downs for the errors of one player. Some of that started to take place after the third or fourth mistake led to more up-downs on Tuesday.
- Chad Voytik has looked solid during the open media window portions of the first two practices. He obviously wants to show Chaney and Narduzzi what he can do and how he can run the offense, but he also should be careful not to overdo it or psyche himself out in trying to impress the coaches. Voytik is a smart kid and he should be able to pick up the offense; he just needs to focus on the film work and translating that to the field under the watchful eye of Chaney.
Voytik does look like he's in even better shape than he was, and he is moving well.
As for his backup, redshirt freshman Adam Bertke, there are two notable attributes: his size and his arm. Bertke is 6'6" and 240 pounds, and he looks every bit of that. And his arm is really strong. He hasn't thrown too many deep passes during the media window, but he puts some zip on his throws, even in lighter drills with the receivers.
- Speaking of the receivers, it looks like Dontez Ford is the No. 2 opposite Tyler Boyd, and Zach Challingsworth seems to be the top third receiver, which could actually be a good role for him. Challingsworth also seems to be the main reserve at Boyd's position, with Jaquaun Davidson, Elijah Zeise and Kellen McAlone behind Challingsworth. On the other side, Chris Wuestner backs up Ford, with Jester Weah, Jordan Jones and Joey Brungo behind Wuestner.
- Pitt will hold practice No. 3 of spring camp 2015 on Thursday, and that will be a notable one since the players will put on full pads for the first time this spring. The Panthers will follow that with a scrimmage on Saturday morning.
- Be sure to check out video of pictures from spring camp.
This post was edited on 3/18 1:05 AM by Chris Peak
Chief among those themes is one that seems like the early favorite to define spring camp 2015:
Energy.
That was a common topic for discussion in the post-practice media scrums. The players who were interviewed, including James Conner, Tyler Boyd and Alex Bookser, talked about, as did head coach Pat Narduzzi and defensive coordinator Josh Conklin. And the consensus was this:
The coaches have brought a lot of energy, and the players are trying to keep up. No players would emphatically state that they prefer Narduzzi and company's high-energy approach to practice, but they all acknowledged that it exists.
And from the coaches' side, Narduzzi and Conklin acknowledged that the players still have some ground to make up to reach the level of energy the staff wants. Narduzzi said that adjusting to the tempo was an issue in Sunday's camp-opening practice, and while it was better on Tuesday, it wasn't where he wanted it to be.
"They have a ways to go, as far as having that energy throughout a two-hour practice. I don't know what it was like before; I just know what we like to do. But I think there is either an adjustment or something that they need to figure out."
What do the players need to adjust to or figure out, exactly?
"We need to have better motors all the time, and our guys will figure out that out. It's habit. People are creatures of habit, and what they've done before, we've got to break and get them to do what we want them to do."
And that comes back to comparisons between Narduzzi's staff and its predecessor, the Paul Chryst staff. Simply put, Narduzzi's staff moves faster and with more energy than the previous regime. That's not to say that one approach is better, but the differences are clear, and Narduzzi's staff conducts itself the way it does because those coaches believe that the team simply needs to play with more intensity.
Will running extra hard in a spring camp drill beat Georgia Tech in Atlanta next fall? Maybe, maybe not. But Narduzzi and his assistants believe that it will help.
It bears mentioning that the energy on the practice field isn't exactly balanced. Glance to one end of the field, and Conklin and Rob Harley are pushing the defensive players with some heavy intensity. At the other end, the vibe is different. The offensive staff isn't taking it easy on the players - few offensive line coaches would be accused of going light, and John Peterson certainly won't be accused of that - but the energy is different.
The offensive staff is a veteran crew, one that is full of coaches who have been around and know their business. Jim Chaney has been coaching a long time. Tim Salem has been coaching a long time. Kevin Sherman and Andre Powell and Peterson have been coaching a long time. And all of those coaches act like veteran coaches.
So they might not be running constantly for two hours like Harley seems to be, but maybe they don't need to be. Pitt's defense needs the upgrade, and in addition to the schematic changes that have and will come, perhaps that extra boost of energy, that extra push of intensity can help get the Panthers into better shape on that side of the ball.
Maybe that unit lacked a little bit of intensity or a little edge, and that's what Narduzzi is talking about when he talks about habits that need to be broken. Conklin touched on something similar Tuesday:
"Like the backside defensive backs, the backside corners, the backside safeties, the backside defensive ends, sometimes those guys don't understand the level of what it really takes to get to the football. That's just a habit, believe it or not; getting that trained up is a big deal. So we're going to get them to run to the football and get the effort where we want to.
"We have great coaches on the staff. We have a great staff. So the fundamentals and technique, we'll get that stuff coached up. But we have to get that energy and the tenacity that we want to play with at a different level. That's got to happen, and it's got to happen quickly."
It seems like the coaches watched last year's film and came away with some clear ideas of non-schematic improvements that have to happen for the defense to improve.
Or it's just coach-speak, since there has never been a football coach in the history of the game who felt like his players played fast enough or with enough intensity.
- When it comes to coaches setting a tone for energy and intensity, the linebackers have two who can set the bar pretty high in Harley and graduate assistant Scott McKillop. Harley is constantly in motion, and McKillop made his Pitt career by playing with a ton of passion (as well as knowledge and a whole lot of ability). The linebackers occasionally break into two groups, with Harley coaching one and McKillop coaching the other, and both groups get some pretty strong coaching in those situations.
- Turnovers have been emphasized pretty heavily through the first two days of spring camp. The team spends one period working through a series of turnover-focused drills. For the offense, that means ball security drills. But for the defense, that means a series of drills aimed at one goal:
The scoop.
We'll have video of some scoop drills Wednesday, but the coaches are emphasizing it for players at all three levels of the defense. Linemen, linebackers and defensive backs all work on getting their hands down, scooping the ball and running with it.
Forcing fumbles is one thing, but the coaches want the defensive players to be equally adept at not just corralling the ball once the fumble is forced, but picking it up and going with it.
- Narduzzi still tends to work in the middle of the field and oversee things - he said Tuesday that he uses a mini-recorder to make notes during practice since it's quicker than writing down notes - but he definitely tends toward the defensive side of things. He might not take over any position drills, but he's watching all of them and steps in from time to time to offer further guidance or coaching or a high-five or what-have-you.
This is the way many envisioned the Narduzzi staff operating: Conklin is the coordinator and he's running the defense, but Narduzzi is heavily involved and will be until Conklin is ready to do it on his own.
As mentioned above, the offensive coaches know their business, and they run things on their end. Narduzzi still looks like an overseer in the middle of the field, but he's on the defense's side of the 50 most times.
- Defensive line coach Tom Sims isn't quite Harley or Conklin or Narduzzi when it comes to overt energy, but he's no slouch. He's also no fan of his players lining up offsides or jumping early, as evidenced by a watch-the-ball drill where the penalty for one player lining up offsides or jumping early was an up-down - or two or three or four or five - for the entire position group.
If you want players to force accountability on each other, make the entire position group do up-downs for the errors of one player. Some of that started to take place after the third or fourth mistake led to more up-downs on Tuesday.
- Chad Voytik has looked solid during the open media window portions of the first two practices. He obviously wants to show Chaney and Narduzzi what he can do and how he can run the offense, but he also should be careful not to overdo it or psyche himself out in trying to impress the coaches. Voytik is a smart kid and he should be able to pick up the offense; he just needs to focus on the film work and translating that to the field under the watchful eye of Chaney.
Voytik does look like he's in even better shape than he was, and he is moving well.
As for his backup, redshirt freshman Adam Bertke, there are two notable attributes: his size and his arm. Bertke is 6'6" and 240 pounds, and he looks every bit of that. And his arm is really strong. He hasn't thrown too many deep passes during the media window, but he puts some zip on his throws, even in lighter drills with the receivers.
- Speaking of the receivers, it looks like Dontez Ford is the No. 2 opposite Tyler Boyd, and Zach Challingsworth seems to be the top third receiver, which could actually be a good role for him. Challingsworth also seems to be the main reserve at Boyd's position, with Jaquaun Davidson, Elijah Zeise and Kellen McAlone behind Challingsworth. On the other side, Chris Wuestner backs up Ford, with Jester Weah, Jordan Jones and Joey Brungo behind Wuestner.
- Pitt will hold practice No. 3 of spring camp 2015 on Thursday, and that will be a notable one since the players will put on full pads for the first time this spring. The Panthers will follow that with a scrimmage on Saturday morning.
- Be sure to check out video of pictures from spring camp.
This post was edited on 3/18 1:05 AM by Chris Peak
