Pitt had a light practice on Friday as the team prepares for its second scrimmage of training camp 2015, which will be held on Saturday. Friday was the 12th day of camp, and the bumps and bruises have been noted to this point. So with a live, full-contact, 'play-for-your-job-and-hit-like-you-own-it' scrimmage 24 hours away, the coaches went light.
That meant just shoulder pads and helmets for the players; no leg pads. But that didn't mean Pat Narduzzi wanted the practice to be any less intense. He still expected full energy and hard work, and even though he's the head coach, Narduzzi didn't stay out of the mix.
During early-practice tackling/turnover drills for the defensive players, Narduzzi was right in the middle of things, coaching the players and encouraging them to keep their intensity up, despite the low/no-contact nature of the workout.
Naturally, the media viewing window didn't reveal much, but there were some things to see on Friday.
Running backs
We've talked a lot about the depth at running back - it's pretty good - and we've discussed how the various injuries have opened opportunities, specifically for freshman Darrin Hall. Those opportunities might dwindle a little bit, since Narduzzi said that redshirt freshman Qadree Ollison is close to returning to full action.
Ollison underwent surgery on his right pinkie finger prior to the start of training camp and has been limited for the first 12 days, but that period of limited activity could be coming to an end.
"The last four or five days, he got all the stiches out and all of that stuff," Narduzzi said. "At times, we put a yellow jersey on him which (means) we're not supposed to hit him. But he's trying to hit us. So it's a good thing. He's not afraid of contact and he's back in the mix as well, which we haven't seen yet. We imagine he's going to get some looks tomorrow."
When Narduzzi says "tomorrow," he is referencing Saturday's scrimmage. So Ollison's return to full contact seems imminent.
Of course, that doesn't mean Hall will be totally out of the mix. Chris James is still limited and Rachid Ibrahim has been on-again/off-again, so the freshman from Austintown Fitch will get his share of looks.
Elsewhere on offense
Narduzzi was less optimistic about redshirt senior center Artie Rowell than he was about Ollison. Rowell hasn't practiced this week, and while no long-term pronouncement has been made, Narduzzi wasn't sure when Rowell might return.
"I don't know. I don't know. We're going to be careful with everybody," Narduzzi said.
So there's no clarity on that one.
Alex Bookser seemed to be less limited Friday than he has been the past few days, and I had wondered what the coaches would do when he returned to full practice. As we all know, Bookser was at right guard in the spring and then shifted to right tackle after Jaryd Jones-Smith suffered a season-ending knee injury this summer.
But when Rowell and Bookser were held out of practice, Alex Officer had to move from right guard to center and Mike Herndon and Brian O'Neill had to step up at right guard and right tackle, respectively.
Given Boosker's relative experience at both right guard and right tackle, where would the coaches put him when he returned?
The answer, it turned out, was right guard, as the coaches opted to keep O'Neill at right tackle on Friday and bumped Herndon back down to the second team at right guard. My assumption is that that's more an evaluation of Herndon-vs.-O'Neill than it is a statement on which position is better for Bookser.
And another note on offense
If you listened to this week's Panther-Lair Show, then you know that I'm getting a bit bullish on the potential of the offense. I think everyone expects it to be a very productive group, but I've had my own questions about what we would actually see on the field.
Lately, though, I'm getting a bit more confident. Obviously James Conner and Tyler Boyd are really good, but I've heard encouraging things about the rest of the offense. In particular, there is positive talk aboutChad Voytik's play this week (and not just because Jim Chaney was emphatic about Voytik being the incumbent starter).
Some of the other receiving options are starting to develop as well, whether it's the presumed starterDontez Ford, some of the younger receivers like Zach Challingsworth and Elijah Zeise, a freshman likeQuadree Henderson or Tre Tipton or the potential of the backs and tight ends.
And then there's the Chaney Factor:
Pitt's offensive coordinator has been in the game for 30 years; 15 of those have been spent as offensive coordinator at an FBS schools. Add in three years of pro experience in the middle of those 15 and you've got a guy who has been coaching for a long time in a few different places; the result is someone who has seen a lot of offense and processed a lot of varying approaches to moving the ball and scoring touchdowns.
That means he should have a good working knowledge of offense that will allow him to tailor his scheme to the players he has while also making it difficult for defenses to get a read on what the offense plans to do.
That's how Narduzzi sees it.
"I can remember back in our first year at Cincinnati, it was like, 'This is easy; they're lining up in I-backs and you can put everybody in the box. You can bring everybody on defense, you can blitz everybody,'" Narduzzi said Friday. "But we're doing enough things to keep you off-balanced with different personnel groupings. We can line up in 22 personnel (two backs and two tight ends) and line up in empty, which means there's no one in the backfield.
"We're so multiple on offense, it's hard to…we have one period (in practice) and I'm like, 'How can they do that out of all those formations?' The formations and plays that our kids have learned - again, it's a lot of information overload - there's just so much we can do. So it's really one concept, but we can do it in so many ways. It's hard. It's not easy at all."
Of course, it doesn't hurt to have Boyd and Conner, and Narduzzi was asked if he had seen a running back/receiver combination like that in his years of coaching.
"You know what? No. Probably not, not to have both of them at the same time. We've had some good tailbacks through the years, but never a wideout like that at the same time. I don't think so."
Narduzzi may have been reflecting on his time at Cincinnati and Michigan State and whether his teams ever sported a combination like Conner and Boyd. He did face a few tough combos over the years, though; at Cincinnati, he squared off against a Louisville team that featured Michael Bush at running back and Harry Douglas at receiver (although Bush was better - and healthy - in 2005 and Douglas was more featured in 2006). And two years ago, Michigan State beat Ohio State in the Rose Bowl when the Buckeyes had Carlos Hyde at running back and Devin Smith at receiver (not to mention Corey "Philly" Brown, too).
Either way, Conner and Boyd are in rare company when it comes to running back/receiver duos. I think we all knew that.
That meant just shoulder pads and helmets for the players; no leg pads. But that didn't mean Pat Narduzzi wanted the practice to be any less intense. He still expected full energy and hard work, and even though he's the head coach, Narduzzi didn't stay out of the mix.
During early-practice tackling/turnover drills for the defensive players, Narduzzi was right in the middle of things, coaching the players and encouraging them to keep their intensity up, despite the low/no-contact nature of the workout.
Naturally, the media viewing window didn't reveal much, but there were some things to see on Friday.
Running backs
We've talked a lot about the depth at running back - it's pretty good - and we've discussed how the various injuries have opened opportunities, specifically for freshman Darrin Hall. Those opportunities might dwindle a little bit, since Narduzzi said that redshirt freshman Qadree Ollison is close to returning to full action.
Ollison underwent surgery on his right pinkie finger prior to the start of training camp and has been limited for the first 12 days, but that period of limited activity could be coming to an end.
"The last four or five days, he got all the stiches out and all of that stuff," Narduzzi said. "At times, we put a yellow jersey on him which (means) we're not supposed to hit him. But he's trying to hit us. So it's a good thing. He's not afraid of contact and he's back in the mix as well, which we haven't seen yet. We imagine he's going to get some looks tomorrow."
When Narduzzi says "tomorrow," he is referencing Saturday's scrimmage. So Ollison's return to full contact seems imminent.
Of course, that doesn't mean Hall will be totally out of the mix. Chris James is still limited and Rachid Ibrahim has been on-again/off-again, so the freshman from Austintown Fitch will get his share of looks.
Elsewhere on offense
Narduzzi was less optimistic about redshirt senior center Artie Rowell than he was about Ollison. Rowell hasn't practiced this week, and while no long-term pronouncement has been made, Narduzzi wasn't sure when Rowell might return.
"I don't know. I don't know. We're going to be careful with everybody," Narduzzi said.
So there's no clarity on that one.
Alex Bookser seemed to be less limited Friday than he has been the past few days, and I had wondered what the coaches would do when he returned to full practice. As we all know, Bookser was at right guard in the spring and then shifted to right tackle after Jaryd Jones-Smith suffered a season-ending knee injury this summer.
But when Rowell and Bookser were held out of practice, Alex Officer had to move from right guard to center and Mike Herndon and Brian O'Neill had to step up at right guard and right tackle, respectively.
Given Boosker's relative experience at both right guard and right tackle, where would the coaches put him when he returned?
The answer, it turned out, was right guard, as the coaches opted to keep O'Neill at right tackle on Friday and bumped Herndon back down to the second team at right guard. My assumption is that that's more an evaluation of Herndon-vs.-O'Neill than it is a statement on which position is better for Bookser.
And another note on offense
If you listened to this week's Panther-Lair Show, then you know that I'm getting a bit bullish on the potential of the offense. I think everyone expects it to be a very productive group, but I've had my own questions about what we would actually see on the field.
Lately, though, I'm getting a bit more confident. Obviously James Conner and Tyler Boyd are really good, but I've heard encouraging things about the rest of the offense. In particular, there is positive talk aboutChad Voytik's play this week (and not just because Jim Chaney was emphatic about Voytik being the incumbent starter).
Some of the other receiving options are starting to develop as well, whether it's the presumed starterDontez Ford, some of the younger receivers like Zach Challingsworth and Elijah Zeise, a freshman likeQuadree Henderson or Tre Tipton or the potential of the backs and tight ends.
And then there's the Chaney Factor:
Pitt's offensive coordinator has been in the game for 30 years; 15 of those have been spent as offensive coordinator at an FBS schools. Add in three years of pro experience in the middle of those 15 and you've got a guy who has been coaching for a long time in a few different places; the result is someone who has seen a lot of offense and processed a lot of varying approaches to moving the ball and scoring touchdowns.
That means he should have a good working knowledge of offense that will allow him to tailor his scheme to the players he has while also making it difficult for defenses to get a read on what the offense plans to do.
That's how Narduzzi sees it.
"I can remember back in our first year at Cincinnati, it was like, 'This is easy; they're lining up in I-backs and you can put everybody in the box. You can bring everybody on defense, you can blitz everybody,'" Narduzzi said Friday. "But we're doing enough things to keep you off-balanced with different personnel groupings. We can line up in 22 personnel (two backs and two tight ends) and line up in empty, which means there's no one in the backfield.
"We're so multiple on offense, it's hard to…we have one period (in practice) and I'm like, 'How can they do that out of all those formations?' The formations and plays that our kids have learned - again, it's a lot of information overload - there's just so much we can do. So it's really one concept, but we can do it in so many ways. It's hard. It's not easy at all."
Of course, it doesn't hurt to have Boyd and Conner, and Narduzzi was asked if he had seen a running back/receiver combination like that in his years of coaching.
"You know what? No. Probably not, not to have both of them at the same time. We've had some good tailbacks through the years, but never a wideout like that at the same time. I don't think so."
Narduzzi may have been reflecting on his time at Cincinnati and Michigan State and whether his teams ever sported a combination like Conner and Boyd. He did face a few tough combos over the years, though; at Cincinnati, he squared off against a Louisville team that featured Michael Bush at running back and Harry Douglas at receiver (although Bush was better - and healthy - in 2005 and Douglas was more featured in 2006). And two years ago, Michigan State beat Ohio State in the Rose Bowl when the Buckeyes had Carlos Hyde at running back and Devin Smith at receiver (not to mention Corey "Philly" Brown, too).
Either way, Conner and Boyd are in rare company when it comes to running back/receiver duos. I think we all knew that.
