One of the most interesting things to come out of Pitt defensive coordinator Josh Conklin's long interview on this week's Panther-Lair Show was his comment that the most pleasant surprise this spring has been the defensive tackles.
In fact, given the 2014 production of that unit - to wit, 10 tackles for loss and three sacks from four primary contributors - it was downright surprising to hear Conklin praise the group like he did.
"When you want to talk about probably the most pleasant surprise, it's our interior Those guys are really important to our defense, and I've been happy with them. I think we've got some really good players at that position."
Head coach Pat Narduzzi echoed that statement on Thursday.
"On the inside, I feel really good right now I think we've got four guys we can play in there, maybe five, that I've been impressed with."
So far this spring, the top pairing has primarily been senior Darryl Render and junior Tyrique Jarrett, who has been working at first-team nose guard while Khaynin Mosley-Smith has been sidelined with an injury.
Mosley-Smith returned to practice on Thursday, although Jarrett still took a lot of first-team reps during the open media window. To hear the coaches tell it, though, the big tackle from Taylor Allderdice has done more than just fill in for Mosley-Smith this spring.
"Tyrique has shown something for nine practices, really," Narduzzi said. "He's lost 17, 20 pounds, I think. I met his girlfriend last night and she said she wants him to lose 10 more or she's breaking up with him. So we have that already organized; he's got motivation now.
"Tyrique's doing a great job. He really is. He can be a special player for us."
Narduzzi added that Jarrett is right around 340 pounds right now. He didn't want to put a specific target weight on Jarrett, but a loss of another 10 pounds or so seems to be what the coaches want to see.
"If he got down to 330, I think he'd be a machine," Narduzzi said.
It's almost a bit strange to think of the defensive line in those terms. That unit was such a non-factor last season that it seems foolhardy to expect such a big year-to-year improvement with no personnel changes - the only real change is that David Durham graduated and JUCO transfer Allen Edwards will join the team this summer - but Narduzzi and Conklin like what they have seen so far.
Conklin talked about the alignment for the defensive ends as being one change that can lead to more production - he wants them lined up outside to avoid heads-up battles with tight ends or tackles - and they also seem to believe that these players can do more than they have in the past. We'll see what comes with the front four, but if that unit can improve even a little, it could be very significant for the defense as a whole. Everything gets easier in the back seven if the front four can make a positive impact.
- The defensive tackles showed a bit of what the coaches were talking about during a blitz pickup drill in Thursday's practice. The drill was run with a center, a guard and a tackle, and the appropriate defenders on the other side of the ball. While the point was to send blitzers and test the offensive linemen and running backs in picking up those blitzers, a number of snaps were blown down when the defensive tackles collapsed the pocket.
Naturally, the offensive linemen haven't done a whole lot in terms of scouting the blitzes like they will for opponents this season, which leaves them at something of a disadvantage since the blitz designs catch them by surprise and that opens opportunities for the defensive tackles to push the pocket. But those defensive linemen deserve some credit for their work. Jarrett had a few nice pressures in that drill.
- One other rep that stood out: Jaymar Parrish doing a pretty solid job picking up Nicholas Grigsby and other blitzing linebackers. We've talked a lot about Parrish and the role of the fullback, and while it still seems to be determined exactly how that position will be used, he showed a bit of what he can do in pass protection on Thursday.
- It seems to me that I haven't mentioned Tyler Boyd very much this spring. That's probably because it feels like there isn't much more to say: quite simply, he practices like he plays, which is to say, he looks like an NFL player. He seems to have taken everything he did well before and elevated it. He looks better than ever, and obviously that's a big part of why Pitt is expected to be successful this season.
"Tyler Boyd is an unbelievable receiver," Narduzzi said. "I try to quick-whistle when he catches the ball; I'm blowing it real quick so no one hits him too much He's just making some unbelievable catches and runs and making people miss. He's been really, really good. He might be the best receiver I've seen."
- Boyd's not perfect, though, and he doesn't win every drill. During one-on-one drills Thursday, Boyd lined up against Reggie Mitchell, and while the junior receiver got good position in the rep, the redshirt junior safety got a hand inside to bat the ball away. That's a good play by Mitchell, and Pitt would do well to have its safeties be assets in coverage this season.
- That was one rep that went to Mitchell, but for the most part, the reps against Boyd don't go in favor of the defense. In most cases, he is being covered by Avonte Maddox or Lafayette Pitts - the first-team cornerbacks - and while Narduzzi said he likes the way Maddox and Pitts have responded to the challenge of covering one of the nation's top receivers, one of those two corners has been better than the other.
"Maddox is doing a better job than Pitts is right now, but Pitts will get there," Narduzzi said. "Pitts has got to probably lose five, maybe seven pounds, just to continue to go. He's good for two plays. Today we went with a 12-play series: fast-tempo, no-huddle, just trying to gas them because we're going to see that during the year. We're trying to work a ton of different situations that we may see, so the offense ran some no-huddle at them today, just try to gas them.
"Lafayette was good for a couple plays, and then all of a sudden he needed to come out, so we had to work that substitution. That's a situation that you've got to know: how many plays can Johnny go as opposed to Tom?"
That's not a good look for Pitts. These cornerbacks obviously have to be focused on the task at hand, but there's no doubting the impact Jordan Whitehead will have when he arrives. In that interview with Conklin, it's clear that the coaches expect Whitehead to be on the field from the start. He'll definitely contribute on special teams, but it seems apparent that the coaches expect him to have a role in the defense, whether it's at cornerback, safety or in the defensive sub-packages.
Quite frankly, I think the sub-packages are option No. 3, and Whitehead will have every opportunity to win a starting job. Pitts has areas where he struggles - he hasn't been great in coverage the last two years, and former secondary coach Troy Douglas pointed out how Pitts was not good at playing the ball in the air - but those things can be worked on and corrected and improved; he can't afford to have conditioning as an issue.
In fact, given the 2014 production of that unit - to wit, 10 tackles for loss and three sacks from four primary contributors - it was downright surprising to hear Conklin praise the group like he did.
"When you want to talk about probably the most pleasant surprise, it's our interior Those guys are really important to our defense, and I've been happy with them. I think we've got some really good players at that position."
Head coach Pat Narduzzi echoed that statement on Thursday.
"On the inside, I feel really good right now I think we've got four guys we can play in there, maybe five, that I've been impressed with."
So far this spring, the top pairing has primarily been senior Darryl Render and junior Tyrique Jarrett, who has been working at first-team nose guard while Khaynin Mosley-Smith has been sidelined with an injury.
Mosley-Smith returned to practice on Thursday, although Jarrett still took a lot of first-team reps during the open media window. To hear the coaches tell it, though, the big tackle from Taylor Allderdice has done more than just fill in for Mosley-Smith this spring.
"Tyrique has shown something for nine practices, really," Narduzzi said. "He's lost 17, 20 pounds, I think. I met his girlfriend last night and she said she wants him to lose 10 more or she's breaking up with him. So we have that already organized; he's got motivation now.
"Tyrique's doing a great job. He really is. He can be a special player for us."
Narduzzi added that Jarrett is right around 340 pounds right now. He didn't want to put a specific target weight on Jarrett, but a loss of another 10 pounds or so seems to be what the coaches want to see.
"If he got down to 330, I think he'd be a machine," Narduzzi said.
It's almost a bit strange to think of the defensive line in those terms. That unit was such a non-factor last season that it seems foolhardy to expect such a big year-to-year improvement with no personnel changes - the only real change is that David Durham graduated and JUCO transfer Allen Edwards will join the team this summer - but Narduzzi and Conklin like what they have seen so far.
Conklin talked about the alignment for the defensive ends as being one change that can lead to more production - he wants them lined up outside to avoid heads-up battles with tight ends or tackles - and they also seem to believe that these players can do more than they have in the past. We'll see what comes with the front four, but if that unit can improve even a little, it could be very significant for the defense as a whole. Everything gets easier in the back seven if the front four can make a positive impact.
- The defensive tackles showed a bit of what the coaches were talking about during a blitz pickup drill in Thursday's practice. The drill was run with a center, a guard and a tackle, and the appropriate defenders on the other side of the ball. While the point was to send blitzers and test the offensive linemen and running backs in picking up those blitzers, a number of snaps were blown down when the defensive tackles collapsed the pocket.
Naturally, the offensive linemen haven't done a whole lot in terms of scouting the blitzes like they will for opponents this season, which leaves them at something of a disadvantage since the blitz designs catch them by surprise and that opens opportunities for the defensive tackles to push the pocket. But those defensive linemen deserve some credit for their work. Jarrett had a few nice pressures in that drill.
- One other rep that stood out: Jaymar Parrish doing a pretty solid job picking up Nicholas Grigsby and other blitzing linebackers. We've talked a lot about Parrish and the role of the fullback, and while it still seems to be determined exactly how that position will be used, he showed a bit of what he can do in pass protection on Thursday.
- It seems to me that I haven't mentioned Tyler Boyd very much this spring. That's probably because it feels like there isn't much more to say: quite simply, he practices like he plays, which is to say, he looks like an NFL player. He seems to have taken everything he did well before and elevated it. He looks better than ever, and obviously that's a big part of why Pitt is expected to be successful this season.
"Tyler Boyd is an unbelievable receiver," Narduzzi said. "I try to quick-whistle when he catches the ball; I'm blowing it real quick so no one hits him too much He's just making some unbelievable catches and runs and making people miss. He's been really, really good. He might be the best receiver I've seen."
- Boyd's not perfect, though, and he doesn't win every drill. During one-on-one drills Thursday, Boyd lined up against Reggie Mitchell, and while the junior receiver got good position in the rep, the redshirt junior safety got a hand inside to bat the ball away. That's a good play by Mitchell, and Pitt would do well to have its safeties be assets in coverage this season.
- That was one rep that went to Mitchell, but for the most part, the reps against Boyd don't go in favor of the defense. In most cases, he is being covered by Avonte Maddox or Lafayette Pitts - the first-team cornerbacks - and while Narduzzi said he likes the way Maddox and Pitts have responded to the challenge of covering one of the nation's top receivers, one of those two corners has been better than the other.
"Maddox is doing a better job than Pitts is right now, but Pitts will get there," Narduzzi said. "Pitts has got to probably lose five, maybe seven pounds, just to continue to go. He's good for two plays. Today we went with a 12-play series: fast-tempo, no-huddle, just trying to gas them because we're going to see that during the year. We're trying to work a ton of different situations that we may see, so the offense ran some no-huddle at them today, just try to gas them.
"Lafayette was good for a couple plays, and then all of a sudden he needed to come out, so we had to work that substitution. That's a situation that you've got to know: how many plays can Johnny go as opposed to Tom?"
That's not a good look for Pitts. These cornerbacks obviously have to be focused on the task at hand, but there's no doubting the impact Jordan Whitehead will have when he arrives. In that interview with Conklin, it's clear that the coaches expect Whitehead to be on the field from the start. He'll definitely contribute on special teams, but it seems apparent that the coaches expect him to have a role in the defense, whether it's at cornerback, safety or in the defensive sub-packages.
Quite frankly, I think the sub-packages are option No. 3, and Whitehead will have every opportunity to win a starting job. Pitts has areas where he struggles - he hasn't been great in coverage the last two years, and former secondary coach Troy Douglas pointed out how Pitts was not good at playing the ball in the air - but those things can be worked on and corrected and improved; he can't afford to have conditioning as an issue.
