Some thoughts on Saturday’s Blue-Gold Game:
- The first thing we were all looking for was an indication of what Matt Canada’s new offense would be. Chad Voytik once quipped about the overlap between Paul Chryst’s system and Jim Chaney’s that “We’re going to run the ball and we’re going to throw it,” and that’s probably an apt descriptor for any comparison between what we saw last season and what we saw on Saturday.
However, a couple things were notable about the offense:
- The first was tempo. This offense likes to keep things moving. It starts with breaking the huddle: the center and the receivers are the first ones out; in fact, the center is on the ball before the rest of the linemen even come out of the huddle. And once everyone gets to the line of scrimmage, there isn’t much delay before the ball is snapped.
Pat Narduzzi said that Tyrique Jarrett even complained - jokingly, at least in part - about the use of tempo in Saturday’s scrimmage since his team only had two defensive tackles (a lack of depth that was further on display when Connor Dintino - a former DT who now plays center - had to take a few snaps on defense in place of Jarrett).
- So the offense wants to move things along, but they also have some pre-snap action in the system. We didn’t see a ton of it on Saturday, but one thing coaches and players kept saying throughout spring camp was that the offense uses a lot of shifts and motion, even more than last year’s offense did. Since the 2016 Pitt offense is going to have to manufacture and exploit matchup advantages, those shifts and motions will come in handy, and we’ll see more of those this season than we saw on Saturday.
- One new wrinkle that was easy to see was the use of two running backs in the backfield. On several occasions, Matt Canada put Darrin Hall as the tailback and Qadree Ollison behind the left guard and tackle, almost as an H-back. Once or twice, Ollison took a sweep handoff out of the formation, but no matter what they do out of that look, it’s a change from last year.
And given the running backs they have on this team - Ollison, Hall, Rachid Ibrahim and Chawntez Moss are all capable backs - using as many of them as they can is probably a good idea.
- That said, I think the coaches are still looking for explosion out of the backfield. Moss brings some of that - or, at the very least, more than the other backs - but the coaches want more. That’s why Jordan Whitehead is still an option (although is one carry on Saturday went for a loss), that’s why George Hill will probably get a look on offense and that’s why this guy is such a priority target:
Judson didn’t commit on his visit, but by all accounts, things went very well. He tweeted that he would visit again this summer, and I think Pitt’s got a great shot at landing him.
- Speaking of explosion and playmaking ability, we all got an eyeful of what Quadree Henderson and Jester Weah could do on Saturday. With Henderson, the 107 rushing yards on four attempts were a continuation of what he was expected to do when he was being recruited, as well as what he flashed on his game-opening kickoff return for a touchdown against Navy.
Pitt needs that kind of athleticism and speed in the offense - hence the anticipation for Maurice Ffrench to get on campus - and you can see why the coaches used Henderson in the season opener last year.
As for Weah, Narduzzi said it best after the game: we all got to see what the coaches have been seeing all spring. People kept telling me that Weah was catching a lot of passes in practice, but that’s one of those things you have to see for yourself. And he did it on Saturday. Weah didn’t catch every pass thrown to him, but he did pull in three receptions for 102 yards, including a 42-yard grab in the third quarter that set up a touchdown.
If Weah can get some consistency in all facets of his game, it can really open up the offense. That goes for Tre Tipton, too, who wasn’t really a factor on Saturday but did get some positive reviews this spring.
We all know Pitt needs playmakers on offense, particularly at receiver, and with Henderson, Weah and Tipton - plus Dontez Ford and the incoming freshmen - there are some potential options on the roster.
- I thought the use of Scott Orndoff was an encouraging sign for the offense. The senior tight end had three receptions for 34 yards and a touchdown - by comparison, he didn’t reach three catches until the fourth game of the 2015 season; in fact, he never had a three-reception game all season (although JP Holtz did it five times). But they used Orndoff on the kind of passes that seem to fit him well, hitting him in stride on roll-outs or shooting for him in the end zone, as was the case on his touchdown grab.
- We wrote quite a bit about the issues at backup quarterback, and I think those were on display Saturday. Two things stuck out:
1. Manny Stocker is clearly the No. 2, which seemed to be the case earlier in spring camp.
2. It’s pretty telling that Nate Peterman and Stocker took almost all of the snaps. The work for Adam Bertke and Ben DiNucci was pretty limited.
- Peterman wasn’t sharp, but that runs contrary to everything we heard throughout spring camp. By all accounts - in talking to coaches and players - Peterman had a pretty good spring. He had a few nice throws on Saturday, but he didn’t seem to be on-point throughout the game.
- On defense, Elijah Zeise was the obvious standout, with a game-high eight tackles - all solo stops - and he made the plays all over the field. The biggest thing for Zeise is learning how his position fits in the defense, which is a change from the offense; on offense, Zeise had to learn his position, but in this defense, every player really needs to understand how all 11 positions fit together. That takes some time.
So far, he seems to be taking to the Star linebacker position well. He brings athleticism, which the coaches want to have more of at linebacker.
- Dane Jackson also made the big play with an interception - and a near-miss on a second pick in the end zone - but he’s still coming along in the defense. I think he’ll definitely be on special teams this season, but I’m not sure if he’ll be part of the defense just quite yet.
- Beyond Zeise and Jackson, the defensive standouts were probably who you would expect: Jordan Whitehead and Dewayne Hendrix. The former put up 7 tackles and a sack, and while the latter didn’t quite come up with the 4.5 sacks he had in the first spring scrimmage, he still recorded two quarterback hurries and a sack.
Those two guys will likely be the biggest playmakers on Pitt’s defense this season, and they looked the part on Saturday.
- The first thing we were all looking for was an indication of what Matt Canada’s new offense would be. Chad Voytik once quipped about the overlap between Paul Chryst’s system and Jim Chaney’s that “We’re going to run the ball and we’re going to throw it,” and that’s probably an apt descriptor for any comparison between what we saw last season and what we saw on Saturday.
However, a couple things were notable about the offense:
- The first was tempo. This offense likes to keep things moving. It starts with breaking the huddle: the center and the receivers are the first ones out; in fact, the center is on the ball before the rest of the linemen even come out of the huddle. And once everyone gets to the line of scrimmage, there isn’t much delay before the ball is snapped.
Pat Narduzzi said that Tyrique Jarrett even complained - jokingly, at least in part - about the use of tempo in Saturday’s scrimmage since his team only had two defensive tackles (a lack of depth that was further on display when Connor Dintino - a former DT who now plays center - had to take a few snaps on defense in place of Jarrett).
- So the offense wants to move things along, but they also have some pre-snap action in the system. We didn’t see a ton of it on Saturday, but one thing coaches and players kept saying throughout spring camp was that the offense uses a lot of shifts and motion, even more than last year’s offense did. Since the 2016 Pitt offense is going to have to manufacture and exploit matchup advantages, those shifts and motions will come in handy, and we’ll see more of those this season than we saw on Saturday.
- One new wrinkle that was easy to see was the use of two running backs in the backfield. On several occasions, Matt Canada put Darrin Hall as the tailback and Qadree Ollison behind the left guard and tackle, almost as an H-back. Once or twice, Ollison took a sweep handoff out of the formation, but no matter what they do out of that look, it’s a change from last year.
And given the running backs they have on this team - Ollison, Hall, Rachid Ibrahim and Chawntez Moss are all capable backs - using as many of them as they can is probably a good idea.
- That said, I think the coaches are still looking for explosion out of the backfield. Moss brings some of that - or, at the very least, more than the other backs - but the coaches want more. That’s why Jordan Whitehead is still an option (although is one carry on Saturday went for a loss), that’s why George Hill will probably get a look on offense and that’s why this guy is such a priority target:
Judson didn’t commit on his visit, but by all accounts, things went very well. He tweeted that he would visit again this summer, and I think Pitt’s got a great shot at landing him.
- Speaking of explosion and playmaking ability, we all got an eyeful of what Quadree Henderson and Jester Weah could do on Saturday. With Henderson, the 107 rushing yards on four attempts were a continuation of what he was expected to do when he was being recruited, as well as what he flashed on his game-opening kickoff return for a touchdown against Navy.
Pitt needs that kind of athleticism and speed in the offense - hence the anticipation for Maurice Ffrench to get on campus - and you can see why the coaches used Henderson in the season opener last year.
As for Weah, Narduzzi said it best after the game: we all got to see what the coaches have been seeing all spring. People kept telling me that Weah was catching a lot of passes in practice, but that’s one of those things you have to see for yourself. And he did it on Saturday. Weah didn’t catch every pass thrown to him, but he did pull in three receptions for 102 yards, including a 42-yard grab in the third quarter that set up a touchdown.
If Weah can get some consistency in all facets of his game, it can really open up the offense. That goes for Tre Tipton, too, who wasn’t really a factor on Saturday but did get some positive reviews this spring.
We all know Pitt needs playmakers on offense, particularly at receiver, and with Henderson, Weah and Tipton - plus Dontez Ford and the incoming freshmen - there are some potential options on the roster.
- I thought the use of Scott Orndoff was an encouraging sign for the offense. The senior tight end had three receptions for 34 yards and a touchdown - by comparison, he didn’t reach three catches until the fourth game of the 2015 season; in fact, he never had a three-reception game all season (although JP Holtz did it five times). But they used Orndoff on the kind of passes that seem to fit him well, hitting him in stride on roll-outs or shooting for him in the end zone, as was the case on his touchdown grab.
- We wrote quite a bit about the issues at backup quarterback, and I think those were on display Saturday. Two things stuck out:
1. Manny Stocker is clearly the No. 2, which seemed to be the case earlier in spring camp.
2. It’s pretty telling that Nate Peterman and Stocker took almost all of the snaps. The work for Adam Bertke and Ben DiNucci was pretty limited.
- Peterman wasn’t sharp, but that runs contrary to everything we heard throughout spring camp. By all accounts - in talking to coaches and players - Peterman had a pretty good spring. He had a few nice throws on Saturday, but he didn’t seem to be on-point throughout the game.
- On defense, Elijah Zeise was the obvious standout, with a game-high eight tackles - all solo stops - and he made the plays all over the field. The biggest thing for Zeise is learning how his position fits in the defense, which is a change from the offense; on offense, Zeise had to learn his position, but in this defense, every player really needs to understand how all 11 positions fit together. That takes some time.
So far, he seems to be taking to the Star linebacker position well. He brings athleticism, which the coaches want to have more of at linebacker.
- Dane Jackson also made the big play with an interception - and a near-miss on a second pick in the end zone - but he’s still coming along in the defense. I think he’ll definitely be on special teams this season, but I’m not sure if he’ll be part of the defense just quite yet.
- Beyond Zeise and Jackson, the defensive standouts were probably who you would expect: Jordan Whitehead and Dewayne Hendrix. The former put up 7 tackles and a sack, and while the latter didn’t quite come up with the 4.5 sacks he had in the first spring scrimmage, he still recorded two quarterback hurries and a sack.
Those two guys will likely be the biggest playmakers on Pitt’s defense this season, and they looked the part on Saturday.
