Just like that, training camp is over.
It seems like it went fast. It’s hard to believe that Aug. 2 was more than three weeks ago and that Pitt has gone through an entire camp since then, but here we are: Aug. 24, camp is done and the season opener is a little more than a week away.
So, on the final day of camp, let’s start with some special teams.
- The news from Wednesday night that Caleb Junko was put on scholarship was actually a double-shot of news, since it also meant that Junko won the battle for the starting job at punter. Junko was competing with Elon transfer Jeff Yurk, and after watching both guys punt during spring camp and training camp, I think they were both good options.
I should note that my evaluation skills basically start and end at “Can they kick it really high and down the field?” But the answer to that question, for both guys, was yes. And they seemed to be able to put the ball in tight spots inside the 20 along the sideline. Which seems good.
- Pat Narduzzi said the competition between Junko and Yurk was a close one, but overall, he likes what he saw from the punt team in training camp.
“We spend a lot of time on punt, so I’ve liked that,” Narduzzi said. “As a head football coach, I want to see our punt team soar. Not only the punter but the protection and the whole deal, the whole - we’ve just done a lot, a lot of work on there and detailed it out. So I’m excited about that. And again, I’m excited about the focus our kids have had on it. It’s so important, it’s so critical. Everybody wants to play offense and defense; no one besides the specialists get recruited to play - you know, a gunner, we don’t recruit guys to play the gunner on the punt team or the left guard on the punt team or to be the L5 on the kickoff team. But they’ve all got to buy in to what we’re trying to do and if you want to win a championship, you better be good in special teams.”
- The punter spot is set, then, and kicker is obviously locked in. Ben Sauls missed four field goals last season; three were in the first three games, and he proceeded to make 15 of his next 16 attempts to finish the season, with the lone miss a 54-yard kick at Virginia that hit the upright but had plenty of distance.
- There was an interesting conflict of information on Thursday with regards to the kick return position. Narduzzi clearly stated that Rodney Hammond was Pitt’s top returner on kickoffs; running backs coach/special teams coordinator Andre Powell, however, named a bunch of names for kick returns - and none of them was Hammond.
“We’ve got Nwabuko, Bub, A.J. Woods in the kickoff return game. We’re trying to really have the fastest guy on the field with the ball in his hands.”
That’s pretty interesting, I think. We all kind of watched in disbelief as Israel Abanikanda complemented his 251 offensive touches with another 12 kick returns (and probably three times as many kick return opportunities that went for touchbacks); it didn’t seem to make much sense to have the team’s most valuable offensive weapon in that position.
But then there seemed to be a consensus that Hammond, who will be Abanikanda’s replacement as Pitt’s RB1, would take over that role now. The coaches talked at various points about the value of a running back returning kicks: a lot of that special teams role comes down to finding the hole and hitting it, and that’s a fairly solid definition of what a running back’s job is.
So I guess that’s logical, but it still doesn’t seem like a great idea to put a running back in position to take even more hits than he will on offense.
But we have two coaches saying two different things. And it’s not just that Powell named multiple names and Narduzzi named just one; it’s that Powell didn’t say Hammond’s name at all. It’s entirely possible that Pitt is taking a different approach at kick return this year and Narduzzi would have preferred to keep that under wraps (some of these assistant coaches aren’t quite as guarded as the head coach). It’s also possible that Pitt is trying out some different approaches.
- I do like Powell’s line about having “the fastest guy on the field with the ball in his hands.” My personal belief has always been that coaches should spend as much time as they can developing and coaching the blocking scheme on kick returns and then give the ball to the fastest guy so that if the blocking is executed, the returner has the horsepower to go all the way.
I’m far less interested in breaking tackles on kick returns than I am in being able to outrun everybody on the field (in this way, Abanikanda was a good KR option). So guys like A.J. Woods and Che Nwabuko make a lot of sense.
We’ll see who actually ends up there.
- Powell also mentioned Bub Means, and for all the hype we’ve seen, heard and written about his play on offense, he has also got a lot of mentions for his work on special teams. Powell name-dropping him as a potential kick returner is a new one, but the redshirt senior receiver is certainly involved in that third phase of the game.
One of the biggest ways is as a gunner on the punt coverage unit. Narduzzi mentioned this a week or two ago, but on Thursday morning, I watched Means operate in that role and I think you could tell that the coaches are excited about using him there. Even before the ball was snapped, various assistants were calling out for Means specifically to make a play, and he did just that, racing downfield on a nice, high punt from Junko to get to Devonshire before the ball did.
“Bub’s going to be a factor in a lot of different ways,” Powell said after practice on Thursday.
- Have I mentioned Means’ physical skills before? You know, the size, speed and athleticism? Have I talked about them at all? I think I have.
- Elsewhere on the offense, Powell said that the staff would like to have four running backs ready to go. Hammond is the obvious top option; after him is C’Bo Flemister and Daniel Carter, and then Powell said there’s a battle between LSU transfer Derrick Davis and freshman Montravius Lloyd for the fourth spot. I thought that was interesting: Lloyd had looked good, but it’s notable that he’s ahead of fellow freshman TJ Harvison, who enrolled in the spring (both likely won’t play this season, according to Powell) and battling with Davis, who is an upperclassman and also enrolled in the spring.
- Those are a few thoughts from Thursday, and we’ll have a lot more over the weekend heading into the first game week of the season.
It seems like it went fast. It’s hard to believe that Aug. 2 was more than three weeks ago and that Pitt has gone through an entire camp since then, but here we are: Aug. 24, camp is done and the season opener is a little more than a week away.
So, on the final day of camp, let’s start with some special teams.
- The news from Wednesday night that Caleb Junko was put on scholarship was actually a double-shot of news, since it also meant that Junko won the battle for the starting job at punter. Junko was competing with Elon transfer Jeff Yurk, and after watching both guys punt during spring camp and training camp, I think they were both good options.
I should note that my evaluation skills basically start and end at “Can they kick it really high and down the field?” But the answer to that question, for both guys, was yes. And they seemed to be able to put the ball in tight spots inside the 20 along the sideline. Which seems good.
- Pat Narduzzi said the competition between Junko and Yurk was a close one, but overall, he likes what he saw from the punt team in training camp.
“We spend a lot of time on punt, so I’ve liked that,” Narduzzi said. “As a head football coach, I want to see our punt team soar. Not only the punter but the protection and the whole deal, the whole - we’ve just done a lot, a lot of work on there and detailed it out. So I’m excited about that. And again, I’m excited about the focus our kids have had on it. It’s so important, it’s so critical. Everybody wants to play offense and defense; no one besides the specialists get recruited to play - you know, a gunner, we don’t recruit guys to play the gunner on the punt team or the left guard on the punt team or to be the L5 on the kickoff team. But they’ve all got to buy in to what we’re trying to do and if you want to win a championship, you better be good in special teams.”
- The punter spot is set, then, and kicker is obviously locked in. Ben Sauls missed four field goals last season; three were in the first three games, and he proceeded to make 15 of his next 16 attempts to finish the season, with the lone miss a 54-yard kick at Virginia that hit the upright but had plenty of distance.
- There was an interesting conflict of information on Thursday with regards to the kick return position. Narduzzi clearly stated that Rodney Hammond was Pitt’s top returner on kickoffs; running backs coach/special teams coordinator Andre Powell, however, named a bunch of names for kick returns - and none of them was Hammond.
“We’ve got Nwabuko, Bub, A.J. Woods in the kickoff return game. We’re trying to really have the fastest guy on the field with the ball in his hands.”
That’s pretty interesting, I think. We all kind of watched in disbelief as Israel Abanikanda complemented his 251 offensive touches with another 12 kick returns (and probably three times as many kick return opportunities that went for touchbacks); it didn’t seem to make much sense to have the team’s most valuable offensive weapon in that position.
But then there seemed to be a consensus that Hammond, who will be Abanikanda’s replacement as Pitt’s RB1, would take over that role now. The coaches talked at various points about the value of a running back returning kicks: a lot of that special teams role comes down to finding the hole and hitting it, and that’s a fairly solid definition of what a running back’s job is.
So I guess that’s logical, but it still doesn’t seem like a great idea to put a running back in position to take even more hits than he will on offense.
But we have two coaches saying two different things. And it’s not just that Powell named multiple names and Narduzzi named just one; it’s that Powell didn’t say Hammond’s name at all. It’s entirely possible that Pitt is taking a different approach at kick return this year and Narduzzi would have preferred to keep that under wraps (some of these assistant coaches aren’t quite as guarded as the head coach). It’s also possible that Pitt is trying out some different approaches.
- I do like Powell’s line about having “the fastest guy on the field with the ball in his hands.” My personal belief has always been that coaches should spend as much time as they can developing and coaching the blocking scheme on kick returns and then give the ball to the fastest guy so that if the blocking is executed, the returner has the horsepower to go all the way.
I’m far less interested in breaking tackles on kick returns than I am in being able to outrun everybody on the field (in this way, Abanikanda was a good KR option). So guys like A.J. Woods and Che Nwabuko make a lot of sense.
We’ll see who actually ends up there.
- Powell also mentioned Bub Means, and for all the hype we’ve seen, heard and written about his play on offense, he has also got a lot of mentions for his work on special teams. Powell name-dropping him as a potential kick returner is a new one, but the redshirt senior receiver is certainly involved in that third phase of the game.
One of the biggest ways is as a gunner on the punt coverage unit. Narduzzi mentioned this a week or two ago, but on Thursday morning, I watched Means operate in that role and I think you could tell that the coaches are excited about using him there. Even before the ball was snapped, various assistants were calling out for Means specifically to make a play, and he did just that, racing downfield on a nice, high punt from Junko to get to Devonshire before the ball did.
“Bub’s going to be a factor in a lot of different ways,” Powell said after practice on Thursday.
- Have I mentioned Means’ physical skills before? You know, the size, speed and athleticism? Have I talked about them at all? I think I have.
- Elsewhere on the offense, Powell said that the staff would like to have four running backs ready to go. Hammond is the obvious top option; after him is C’Bo Flemister and Daniel Carter, and then Powell said there’s a battle between LSU transfer Derrick Davis and freshman Montravius Lloyd for the fourth spot. I thought that was interesting: Lloyd had looked good, but it’s notable that he’s ahead of fellow freshman TJ Harvison, who enrolled in the spring (both likely won’t play this season, according to Powell) and battling with Davis, who is an upperclassman and also enrolled in the spring.
- Those are a few thoughts from Thursday, and we’ll have a lot more over the weekend heading into the first game week of the season.
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