As Pitt's Henderson continues to earn recognition and respect for his abilities on Offense and Special Teams! It is time to recall when Coach Pat Narduzzi made his first appointments to his Staff after being hired.
What a difference in seeing Special Teams run under Coach Pat versus Harris, Wannstedt, Graham, and Chryst inattention that removed all the hard work of OC Units & DC Units, just to see them l see some games by 2 to 3 poor Special Team play. It is good to see how Pitt is winning close games on Special Teams instead of losing them like under the coaches.
In the 1970-80s, one could see Major and Sherril's attention to Special Teams paid off in many games too, and Coach Narduzzi made it a Priority Hire Again! Smart Coaching shows up on Special Teams to win games too. Only more evidence as far as I am concern that Coach Pat Narduzzi took the time to find and hire a Coach with great ST Experience and made it an important aspect to winning games, and it is no coincidence that Bama had a Special Team All American named too?
Great Review On Andre Powell being hired:
Excerpts & Links:
TODAY VERSUS...
In appointing Andre Powell as his special teams coordinator and running backs coach, Pat Narduzzi added to the Pitt staff an accomplished coaching veteran with nearly 30 years of experience. Powell's influence was evident during the 2015 season. From a special teams standpoint, Pitt led the ACC and ranked fourth nationally with five blocked kicks. The Panthers additionally were among the country's leaders in punt return defense (19th, 4.19 yards per return) and kickoff return defense (30th, 19.23 yards per return).
LINK:
http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/andre_powell_949201.html
VERSUS BACK WHEN HIRED:
Second Link:
......Then there's Powell.
Having a full-time special teams guy, if nothing else, is an accomplishment in itself. Paul Chryst initially did not have one and only added one later when special teams for the Panthers was an absolute mess. Even then, they didn't have a true special teams lead. Taylor Mehlhaff was a graduate assistant working with special teams under Chryst, brought in during 2013 after serving as a quality control special teams guy at Tennessee for one year. Again, a guy with not much experience and he wasn't even fully in charge of the unit, anyway.
Like Andrews, Powell also brings a lot of experience to the table. He's been a special teams guru and has nine years of experience coordinating special teams with North Carolina, Clemson, and most recently, Maryland. He's got more than 20 years of experience as a position coach, overseeing mostly running backs and special teams. In addition to the three programs mentioned above, he's had stops at Virginia, Army, VMI, Rhode Island, and was a Graduate Assistant with South Carolina and Indiana.
Testudo Times, SB Nation's Maryland blog, also says that the Terps' special teams improved drastically with his hire.
One more thing to like? His recruiting experience. His bio at Maryland says his primary areas for recruiting have been northwest Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia. The Ohio thing is intriguing as is Maryland and Virginia since Pitt is now in the ACC. You can look at that bio link and see that many of his units have performed very well.
These positions aren't as important as the coordinator positions, obviously, but on the surface, there's lots to like with these hires.
LINK:
http://www.cardiachill.com/2015/1/7...dave-andrews-notre-dame-andre-powell-maryland
What a difference in seeing Special Teams run under Coach Pat versus Harris, Wannstedt, Graham, and Chryst inattention that removed all the hard work of OC Units & DC Units, just to see them l see some games by 2 to 3 poor Special Team play. It is good to see how Pitt is winning close games on Special Teams instead of losing them like under the coaches.
In the 1970-80s, one could see Major and Sherril's attention to Special Teams paid off in many games too, and Coach Narduzzi made it a Priority Hire Again! Smart Coaching shows up on Special Teams to win games too. Only more evidence as far as I am concern that Coach Pat Narduzzi took the time to find and hire a Coach with great ST Experience and made it an important aspect to winning games, and it is no coincidence that Bama had a Special Team All American named too?
Great Review On Andre Powell being hired:
Excerpts & Links:
TODAY VERSUS...
In appointing Andre Powell as his special teams coordinator and running backs coach, Pat Narduzzi added to the Pitt staff an accomplished coaching veteran with nearly 30 years of experience. Powell's influence was evident during the 2015 season. From a special teams standpoint, Pitt led the ACC and ranked fourth nationally with five blocked kicks. The Panthers additionally were among the country's leaders in punt return defense (19th, 4.19 yards per return) and kickoff return defense (30th, 19.23 yards per return).
LINK:
http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/andre_powell_949201.html
VERSUS BACK WHEN HIRED:
Second Link:
......Then there's Powell.
Having a full-time special teams guy, if nothing else, is an accomplishment in itself. Paul Chryst initially did not have one and only added one later when special teams for the Panthers was an absolute mess. Even then, they didn't have a true special teams lead. Taylor Mehlhaff was a graduate assistant working with special teams under Chryst, brought in during 2013 after serving as a quality control special teams guy at Tennessee for one year. Again, a guy with not much experience and he wasn't even fully in charge of the unit, anyway.
Like Andrews, Powell also brings a lot of experience to the table. He's been a special teams guru and has nine years of experience coordinating special teams with North Carolina, Clemson, and most recently, Maryland. He's got more than 20 years of experience as a position coach, overseeing mostly running backs and special teams. In addition to the three programs mentioned above, he's had stops at Virginia, Army, VMI, Rhode Island, and was a Graduate Assistant with South Carolina and Indiana.
Testudo Times, SB Nation's Maryland blog, also says that the Terps' special teams improved drastically with his hire.
One more thing to like? His recruiting experience. His bio at Maryland says his primary areas for recruiting have been northwest Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia. The Ohio thing is intriguing as is Maryland and Virginia since Pitt is now in the ACC. You can look at that bio link and see that many of his units have performed very well.
These positions aren't as important as the coordinator positions, obviously, but on the surface, there's lots to like with these hires.
LINK:
http://www.cardiachill.com/2015/1/7...dave-andrews-notre-dame-andre-powell-maryland
Last edited:
