I've been looking over my notes from Saturday's game, and here are a few things I noticed about the rotation at cornerback.
- Jason Pinnock played the entire game, which I think you would probably expect.
- Marquis Williams got the start opposite Pinnock and was in for all but two defensive snaps (more on those two in a second). Williams replaced AJ Woods in the starting lineup; Woods did not play on defense and only logged a couple special teams snaps, leading me to think he might have been banged up.
- The two snaps when Williams was out came in the first quarter. On the fifth play of Syracuse's fourth drive, Tommy DeVito threw a deep pass that was incomplete. Williams was in coverage and tapped out after the play. When he came out, he was replaced at cornerback by Erick Hallett, which was pretty interesting to see since Hallett is a safety, not a corner. But he seemed to be the next man up at CB and he played two snaps there while Williams was out. Those two snaps were second down and third down; on the third down play, Pitt went to its Delta package, where Hallett would normally line up as a third safety. Instead, he stayed at cornerback and Brandon Hill joined as the extra safety. Williams returned to the base defense on the next Syracuse possession.
- Syracuse's next drive brought out something new (for this season): the nickel. Whereas Pitt's Delta package is basically a 3-3-5 with three safeties in the secondary, the nickel has a 4-2-5 alignment and the extra defensive back is a corner. Pitt hasn't used the nickel much under Narduzzi, but the most we've seen of it over the years has been against Syracuse. On Saturday, the coaches went with the nickel on the first snap of the Orange's fifth drive, and the corners were Pinnock, Williams and Hallett, with Williams technically as the "nickel" since he was lined up over the slot receiver.
Pitt only used the nickel for one snap on that possession but came back to it for three plays later in the game. We'll get to that in a minute.
- The cornerback rotation seemed to be set, but on Syracuse's third drive of the second half, Hallett got hurt during a third-down snap in the Delta. This complicated things, given his apparent role as the third corner. It wasn't necessarily a problem in the Delta package, as Hill stepped into Hallett's role for the two remaining snaps Pitt ran with that personnel. But on Syracuse's final possession in the fourth quarter, the coaches brought the nickel package back out. This time Williams slid inside to the nickel role and freshman Rashad Battle, who had not played on defense throughout the game, came in as an outside corner.
So that's where things stand. If I had to guess, I would say that Woods was not 100% so Hallett was the No. 3 corner, but when he got hurt, they had to turn to the freshman. That's just my guess. We'll see what happens this week against Louisville.
- Jason Pinnock played the entire game, which I think you would probably expect.
- Marquis Williams got the start opposite Pinnock and was in for all but two defensive snaps (more on those two in a second). Williams replaced AJ Woods in the starting lineup; Woods did not play on defense and only logged a couple special teams snaps, leading me to think he might have been banged up.
- The two snaps when Williams was out came in the first quarter. On the fifth play of Syracuse's fourth drive, Tommy DeVito threw a deep pass that was incomplete. Williams was in coverage and tapped out after the play. When he came out, he was replaced at cornerback by Erick Hallett, which was pretty interesting to see since Hallett is a safety, not a corner. But he seemed to be the next man up at CB and he played two snaps there while Williams was out. Those two snaps were second down and third down; on the third down play, Pitt went to its Delta package, where Hallett would normally line up as a third safety. Instead, he stayed at cornerback and Brandon Hill joined as the extra safety. Williams returned to the base defense on the next Syracuse possession.
- Syracuse's next drive brought out something new (for this season): the nickel. Whereas Pitt's Delta package is basically a 3-3-5 with three safeties in the secondary, the nickel has a 4-2-5 alignment and the extra defensive back is a corner. Pitt hasn't used the nickel much under Narduzzi, but the most we've seen of it over the years has been against Syracuse. On Saturday, the coaches went with the nickel on the first snap of the Orange's fifth drive, and the corners were Pinnock, Williams and Hallett, with Williams technically as the "nickel" since he was lined up over the slot receiver.
Pitt only used the nickel for one snap on that possession but came back to it for three plays later in the game. We'll get to that in a minute.
- The cornerback rotation seemed to be set, but on Syracuse's third drive of the second half, Hallett got hurt during a third-down snap in the Delta. This complicated things, given his apparent role as the third corner. It wasn't necessarily a problem in the Delta package, as Hill stepped into Hallett's role for the two remaining snaps Pitt ran with that personnel. But on Syracuse's final possession in the fourth quarter, the coaches brought the nickel package back out. This time Williams slid inside to the nickel role and freshman Rashad Battle, who had not played on defense throughout the game, came in as an outside corner.
So that's where things stand. If I had to guess, I would say that Woods was not 100% so Hallett was the No. 3 corner, but when he got hurt, they had to turn to the freshman. That's just my guess. We'll see what happens this week against Louisville.
