Pitt was back in the South Side for practice No. 3 of spring camp Saturday - the team’s third practice in as many days. Here are some notes from the media viewing window:
OFFENSE
- Mostly the same lineup on offense as what I saw on Thursday, although there were a couple notable things during the early walk-throughs. Redshirt freshman walk-on Jimmy Morrissey was taking snaps ahead of Alex Bookser at right guard; I doubt there’s much to that, but he was taking snaps there.
- Morrissey is also the second-team center behind Connor Dintino, although I suspect that Alex Officer would get the call if the coaches had to replace Dintino.
- We noted yesterday that redshirt freshman Tony Pilato was taking some snaps at right tackle on the first team; on Saturday, Jaryd Jones-Smith was back in the spot and Pilato was working at left tackle on the second team during the walk-throughs.
- I noticed Jerry Drake getting some second-team work at right tackle. As with all freshman linemen, he will benefit from a redshirt, but he’s got a good frame to build on.
- The tentative order at quarterback seems to be Max Browne, Ben DiNucci, Thomas MacVittie, Kenny Pickett and Jacob Zilinskas. I’m sure the coaches mix and match during seven-on-seven and 11-on-11 team drills, but that seems to be how they’re ordered during the early-practice walk-throughs.
- As we discussed on the board yesterday, it looks like Devon Edwards is back on offense and playing tight end, so that makes for two scholarship tight ends this spring - Edwards and Chris Clark. Clark is still the leader at the position and certainly looks the part, but Edwards helps provide an extra body for the spring. We’ll see if he stays there in the fall; I could see the coaches moving him back to defensive end if they feel like he could help more there. That might depend on the freshmen and whether one of them is a better option.
DEFENSE
- It was noted that, in the spring prospectus, freshman Deslin Alexandre is mentioned as working at nose tackle rather than the defensive end position he was recruited for. On Saturday, he was lining up at end, so perhaps that experiment was short-lived.
- Then again, there’s not much in the defensive line portion of the spring prospectus that is specifically tied to what we’ve seen in spring camp, largely because the defensive linemen are more or less interchangeable. Keyshon Camp, for instance, is mentioned as competing with Jeremiah Taleni for time at nose tackle, but Camp was lined up next to Taleni for a few of the drills I saw.
Similarly, Mike Herndon and Shane Roy are said to be competing with Amir Watts at defensive tackle, but I saw Herndon and Roy lined up next to each other quite a bit.
Again, I think that’s a product of the versatility of the linemen and the adaptability of the coaches’ goals for those positions. It may not be a good reflection on the spring prospectus - which is written by the sports information staff based on information they receive from the coaches themselves - but we know how football positions and rosters can fluctuate. Something can be written correctly on Tuesday and be incorrect on Wednesday (or later in the day on Tuesday).
- Elsewhere on the defense, Saleem Brightwell and Chase Pine continue to get a lot of work at middle linebacker, while Elijah Zeise and Brian Popp work at Money linebacker and Oluwaseun Idowu, Anthony McKee and Jalen Williams are at Star.
- I do think a position change happened on defense, as it looks like Henry Miller is now playing field safety behind Jay Stocker, who is behind Dennis Briggs. We’ll see if that swap sticks.
- Maurice Ffrench continues to wear a white defense jersey; I’ll ask Pat Narduzzi today if he’ll stick at cornerback or if the coaches are still planning to work him at two spots.
- Dewayne Hendrix is still a little limited - per Narduzzi on Wednesday - so the top sets of defensive ends during team walk-throughs on Saturday were James Folston and Rori Blair on the first team and Allen Edwards and Kaezon Pugh on the second team. I don’t know if Pugh is one of the top four ends right now (not counting Hendrix) because I think he’s still raw, but there are some tools to work with there.
SPECIAL TEAMS
- Yes, we have some special teams notes today since I kept an eye on that group for a bit during our viewing window.
- A few guys catching punts (probably who you would expect): Quadree Henderson, Maurice Ffrench, Rafael Araujo-Lopes, Tre Tipton, Avonte Maddox.
- I watched Ryan Winslow and Kirk Christodoulou punt from the 40 a few times (the 40 that is 60 yards from the end zone). Christodoulou dropped one in that landed at the 5 and took a high bounce and a slow roll toward the end zone; from the 40, I suspect some punt coverage specialists would have been able to down that one. He also had one bounce at the 1; that would have been tougher to recover.
Winslow had a nice punt I saw that was fielded at the 9.
- I had heard - and mentioned on the board - that redshirt freshman kicker Alex Kessman had gone on scholarship; Narduzzi confirmed as much on Friday, so I kept an eye on him during some field goal drills. These were just Kessman with a snapper and a holder - no linemen, no blocking team - but it was a good chance to see his leg. To that end, Kessman is pretty strong. He booted a solid kick from 50 that was good by a comfortable amount, and while his previous kick from 42 bounced off the right upright, it had more than enough power.
Kessman didn’t fare quite as well during the “live” drills with linemen and a field goal block unit on the field, but you’re not going to get far without a strong leg, and his looks pretty strong.
- Pitt is looking for a new long-snapper this year. Senior Nathan Bossory - the tight end who transferred Air Force as a quarterback - seems to be the frontrunner at this point, although the coaches are keeping an eye out for Cal Adomitis, who is enrolling as a walk-on from Central Catholic this summer. Walk-on Conrad Brake is also in the mix, and it looks like redshirt freshman Brandon Ford is getting a little work there to see if it could be a fit for him.
RECRUITING
- There were a bunch of recruits at Saturday’s practice, Vinny DePalma, Kwantel Raines, Jimmy McKenna, Keaton Upshaw, Devin Danielson and David Green. I didn't see Chase Wolf but he told me last night he was on his way, so I suspect he was there. We'll work to confirm that. I did see Upshaw - a 2018 tight end target - spending a lot of time with 2017 tight end signee Grant Carrigan.
OFFENSE
- Mostly the same lineup on offense as what I saw on Thursday, although there were a couple notable things during the early walk-throughs. Redshirt freshman walk-on Jimmy Morrissey was taking snaps ahead of Alex Bookser at right guard; I doubt there’s much to that, but he was taking snaps there.
- Morrissey is also the second-team center behind Connor Dintino, although I suspect that Alex Officer would get the call if the coaches had to replace Dintino.
- We noted yesterday that redshirt freshman Tony Pilato was taking some snaps at right tackle on the first team; on Saturday, Jaryd Jones-Smith was back in the spot and Pilato was working at left tackle on the second team during the walk-throughs.
- I noticed Jerry Drake getting some second-team work at right tackle. As with all freshman linemen, he will benefit from a redshirt, but he’s got a good frame to build on.
- The tentative order at quarterback seems to be Max Browne, Ben DiNucci, Thomas MacVittie, Kenny Pickett and Jacob Zilinskas. I’m sure the coaches mix and match during seven-on-seven and 11-on-11 team drills, but that seems to be how they’re ordered during the early-practice walk-throughs.
- As we discussed on the board yesterday, it looks like Devon Edwards is back on offense and playing tight end, so that makes for two scholarship tight ends this spring - Edwards and Chris Clark. Clark is still the leader at the position and certainly looks the part, but Edwards helps provide an extra body for the spring. We’ll see if he stays there in the fall; I could see the coaches moving him back to defensive end if they feel like he could help more there. That might depend on the freshmen and whether one of them is a better option.
DEFENSE
- It was noted that, in the spring prospectus, freshman Deslin Alexandre is mentioned as working at nose tackle rather than the defensive end position he was recruited for. On Saturday, he was lining up at end, so perhaps that experiment was short-lived.
- Then again, there’s not much in the defensive line portion of the spring prospectus that is specifically tied to what we’ve seen in spring camp, largely because the defensive linemen are more or less interchangeable. Keyshon Camp, for instance, is mentioned as competing with Jeremiah Taleni for time at nose tackle, but Camp was lined up next to Taleni for a few of the drills I saw.
Similarly, Mike Herndon and Shane Roy are said to be competing with Amir Watts at defensive tackle, but I saw Herndon and Roy lined up next to each other quite a bit.
Again, I think that’s a product of the versatility of the linemen and the adaptability of the coaches’ goals for those positions. It may not be a good reflection on the spring prospectus - which is written by the sports information staff based on information they receive from the coaches themselves - but we know how football positions and rosters can fluctuate. Something can be written correctly on Tuesday and be incorrect on Wednesday (or later in the day on Tuesday).
- Elsewhere on the defense, Saleem Brightwell and Chase Pine continue to get a lot of work at middle linebacker, while Elijah Zeise and Brian Popp work at Money linebacker and Oluwaseun Idowu, Anthony McKee and Jalen Williams are at Star.
- I do think a position change happened on defense, as it looks like Henry Miller is now playing field safety behind Jay Stocker, who is behind Dennis Briggs. We’ll see if that swap sticks.
- Maurice Ffrench continues to wear a white defense jersey; I’ll ask Pat Narduzzi today if he’ll stick at cornerback or if the coaches are still planning to work him at two spots.
- Dewayne Hendrix is still a little limited - per Narduzzi on Wednesday - so the top sets of defensive ends during team walk-throughs on Saturday were James Folston and Rori Blair on the first team and Allen Edwards and Kaezon Pugh on the second team. I don’t know if Pugh is one of the top four ends right now (not counting Hendrix) because I think he’s still raw, but there are some tools to work with there.
SPECIAL TEAMS
- Yes, we have some special teams notes today since I kept an eye on that group for a bit during our viewing window.
- A few guys catching punts (probably who you would expect): Quadree Henderson, Maurice Ffrench, Rafael Araujo-Lopes, Tre Tipton, Avonte Maddox.
- I watched Ryan Winslow and Kirk Christodoulou punt from the 40 a few times (the 40 that is 60 yards from the end zone). Christodoulou dropped one in that landed at the 5 and took a high bounce and a slow roll toward the end zone; from the 40, I suspect some punt coverage specialists would have been able to down that one. He also had one bounce at the 1; that would have been tougher to recover.
Winslow had a nice punt I saw that was fielded at the 9.
- I had heard - and mentioned on the board - that redshirt freshman kicker Alex Kessman had gone on scholarship; Narduzzi confirmed as much on Friday, so I kept an eye on him during some field goal drills. These were just Kessman with a snapper and a holder - no linemen, no blocking team - but it was a good chance to see his leg. To that end, Kessman is pretty strong. He booted a solid kick from 50 that was good by a comfortable amount, and while his previous kick from 42 bounced off the right upright, it had more than enough power.
Kessman didn’t fare quite as well during the “live” drills with linemen and a field goal block unit on the field, but you’re not going to get far without a strong leg, and his looks pretty strong.
- Pitt is looking for a new long-snapper this year. Senior Nathan Bossory - the tight end who transferred Air Force as a quarterback - seems to be the frontrunner at this point, although the coaches are keeping an eye out for Cal Adomitis, who is enrolling as a walk-on from Central Catholic this summer. Walk-on Conrad Brake is also in the mix, and it looks like redshirt freshman Brandon Ford is getting a little work there to see if it could be a fit for him.
RECRUITING
- There were a bunch of recruits at Saturday’s practice, Vinny DePalma, Kwantel Raines, Jimmy McKenna, Keaton Upshaw, Devin Danielson and David Green. I didn't see Chase Wolf but he told me last night he was on his way, so I suspect he was there. We'll work to confirm that. I did see Upshaw - a 2018 tight end target - spending a lot of time with 2017 tight end signee Grant Carrigan.
