Pitt opened the final week of spring camp 2018 on Tuesday with another practice in the indoor facility in the South Side.
- The most notable personnel development came on the offensive line where, for the first time this spring, redshirt senior Alex Bookser was lining up at left tackle. This was a flip at the tackle spots, as Bookser moved from right tackle to left tackle and redshirt sophomore Bryce Hargrove slid from left tackle to right tackle.
What’s behind that move? I can’t say for certain, although we’ll ask Pat Narduzzi about it after practice. Part of me thinks that, in the last week of spring camp, the coaches want to get some snaps for Bookser on the left side and for Hargrove on the right side, just to give them some familiarity with those spots when training camp comes.
Ultimately, Stefano Millin is going to be the starting left tackle, which means Bookser will be moving back to the right side. I would guess Hargrove backs him up there, with Jerry Drake as the listed backup to Millin but Bookser being available to move to LT if Millin goes out with a long-term injury.
Interestingly, the coaches also flipped the second-team tackles, with Drake going from left to right and Carter Warren going from right to left. Spring is a time of trying different things, and that seems to be the case on the offensive line, although we haven’t seen too many changes up to this point.
- One position where we haven’t seen any changes at all is punter. I know, the punter isn’t exactly a high-profile position, but I mention it here because I actually don’t think they have more than one on the roster right now. Kirk Christodoulou took every rep in the punt drills on Tuesday, and if there’s a backup, I can’t name him.
Now, that’s not a terrible thing. Christodoulou has looked pretty good this spring. He has moments of inconsistency, but on Tuesday, he was booming his kicks, bouncing a few off the rafter high in the ceiling of the indoor facility. There was a shank or two, but he’s getting a lot of hang-time - it even seems to have improved since the start of spring camp.
We haven’t seen Christodoulou do any of the roll-out/Aussie-style punts, but I think that’s still in his arsenal. The coaches probably want him to master the “traditional” punts first and then sprinkle in some of those roll-out kicks strategically.
- The coaches have said they want all of the defensive backs to more or less know all of the positions - safeties and corners - but there are still some separations. The corners are corners, for instance, but they are split into boundary and field distinctions, with Dane Jackson and Damarri Mathis on the field side and Jason Pinnock and Paris Ford on the boundary side.
Similarly, the safeties have those designations. Damar Hamlin and Phil Campbell line up next to each on the first team, for instance, with Hamlin to the field and Campbell to the boundary. Dennis Briggs is also to the boundary; that one I’m sure of. Beyond that, it seems like the coaches are doing different things with the other backups. It looks like Therran Coleman and Bricen Garner are both learning boundary responsibilities, although both guys have the athleticism to play field (Coleman really could do either one; he’s strong enough in coverage to play the field and physical enough - with a big-enough body - to move up in the box as the boundary safety).
Ultimately, the coaches want those guys to know all of the positions so they can move them around. I feel confident about Hamlin and Campbell being the starters; what will be interesting will be seeing how the coaches rotate in the backups and which spots they rotate at.
- We’ll also be keeping an eye out this season for various secondary alignments that could include a fifth defensive back. For two and a half seasons, that fifth DB in Pitt’s third-down package was a safety, and then last season the coaches worked a nickel package in with a third corner. This year, the coaches have a lot of options. They could continue to use Briggs as the extra DB in the Delta package, or they could use Coleman or even Paris Ford as a nickel and get a lot of different looks out of those alignments.
That’s definitely a benefit of the depth they’ve built in the secondary.
- We’ve talked about Taysir Mack potentially playing this season if the NCAA changes the transfer rules to allow transfers in good academic standing a one-time opportunity to play right away. Pat Narduzzi and Kevin Sherman both said they were keeping the door open on that one last week, and it occurs to me that, during the brief open window for media viewing this spring, we’ve seen Mack working with the first-team offense pretty much every practice.
At first, I thought that was a product of various personnel situations that had resulted from different players being limited in practice at different times. But in the wake of hearing Narduzzi and Sherman say those things last week, I’m drifting from that theory. I think they might be, at least provisionally, planning for Mack to be eligible. If it doesn’t work out, they haven’t lost much, since there are plenty of reps to go around. But in the past, players who weren’t going to be eligible didn’t get much in the way of first-team reps - definitely not like Mack has this spring.
- Several dignitaries were in attendance early in Tuesday’s practice, including Athletic Director Heather Lyke, Deputy Athletic Director Christian Spears and Associate Athletic Director Jen Tuscano.
- The most notable personnel development came on the offensive line where, for the first time this spring, redshirt senior Alex Bookser was lining up at left tackle. This was a flip at the tackle spots, as Bookser moved from right tackle to left tackle and redshirt sophomore Bryce Hargrove slid from left tackle to right tackle.
What’s behind that move? I can’t say for certain, although we’ll ask Pat Narduzzi about it after practice. Part of me thinks that, in the last week of spring camp, the coaches want to get some snaps for Bookser on the left side and for Hargrove on the right side, just to give them some familiarity with those spots when training camp comes.
Ultimately, Stefano Millin is going to be the starting left tackle, which means Bookser will be moving back to the right side. I would guess Hargrove backs him up there, with Jerry Drake as the listed backup to Millin but Bookser being available to move to LT if Millin goes out with a long-term injury.
Interestingly, the coaches also flipped the second-team tackles, with Drake going from left to right and Carter Warren going from right to left. Spring is a time of trying different things, and that seems to be the case on the offensive line, although we haven’t seen too many changes up to this point.
- One position where we haven’t seen any changes at all is punter. I know, the punter isn’t exactly a high-profile position, but I mention it here because I actually don’t think they have more than one on the roster right now. Kirk Christodoulou took every rep in the punt drills on Tuesday, and if there’s a backup, I can’t name him.
Now, that’s not a terrible thing. Christodoulou has looked pretty good this spring. He has moments of inconsistency, but on Tuesday, he was booming his kicks, bouncing a few off the rafter high in the ceiling of the indoor facility. There was a shank or two, but he’s getting a lot of hang-time - it even seems to have improved since the start of spring camp.
We haven’t seen Christodoulou do any of the roll-out/Aussie-style punts, but I think that’s still in his arsenal. The coaches probably want him to master the “traditional” punts first and then sprinkle in some of those roll-out kicks strategically.
- The coaches have said they want all of the defensive backs to more or less know all of the positions - safeties and corners - but there are still some separations. The corners are corners, for instance, but they are split into boundary and field distinctions, with Dane Jackson and Damarri Mathis on the field side and Jason Pinnock and Paris Ford on the boundary side.
Similarly, the safeties have those designations. Damar Hamlin and Phil Campbell line up next to each on the first team, for instance, with Hamlin to the field and Campbell to the boundary. Dennis Briggs is also to the boundary; that one I’m sure of. Beyond that, it seems like the coaches are doing different things with the other backups. It looks like Therran Coleman and Bricen Garner are both learning boundary responsibilities, although both guys have the athleticism to play field (Coleman really could do either one; he’s strong enough in coverage to play the field and physical enough - with a big-enough body - to move up in the box as the boundary safety).
Ultimately, the coaches want those guys to know all of the positions so they can move them around. I feel confident about Hamlin and Campbell being the starters; what will be interesting will be seeing how the coaches rotate in the backups and which spots they rotate at.
- We’ll also be keeping an eye out this season for various secondary alignments that could include a fifth defensive back. For two and a half seasons, that fifth DB in Pitt’s third-down package was a safety, and then last season the coaches worked a nickel package in with a third corner. This year, the coaches have a lot of options. They could continue to use Briggs as the extra DB in the Delta package, or they could use Coleman or even Paris Ford as a nickel and get a lot of different looks out of those alignments.
That’s definitely a benefit of the depth they’ve built in the secondary.
- We’ve talked about Taysir Mack potentially playing this season if the NCAA changes the transfer rules to allow transfers in good academic standing a one-time opportunity to play right away. Pat Narduzzi and Kevin Sherman both said they were keeping the door open on that one last week, and it occurs to me that, during the brief open window for media viewing this spring, we’ve seen Mack working with the first-team offense pretty much every practice.
At first, I thought that was a product of various personnel situations that had resulted from different players being limited in practice at different times. But in the wake of hearing Narduzzi and Sherman say those things last week, I’m drifting from that theory. I think they might be, at least provisionally, planning for Mack to be eligible. If it doesn’t work out, they haven’t lost much, since there are plenty of reps to go around. But in the past, players who weren’t going to be eligible didn’t get much in the way of first-team reps - definitely not like Mack has this spring.
- Several dignitaries were in attendance early in Tuesday’s practice, including Athletic Director Heather Lyke, Deputy Athletic Director Christian Spears and Associate Athletic Director Jen Tuscano.
