Thursday Pitt Football Practice Takeaways: Rebounding and Running Backs
PITTSBURGH -- Everyone was in a good mood on as the Pitt Panthers prepared to practice on Pittsburgh's South Side Thursday morning. Players danced to throwbacks songs while they stretched, the ACC Network crew was in attendance and the media got a rare glimpse at the Panthers running real 11-on-11 plays.
Weather: 68 degrees with 76% humidity and bright sunshine, which made it feel much hotter than the temperature indicated.
Dress: Pitt wore just their shells - shoulder pads and helmets - after practicing in full pads and going through a fully-padded practice the day before.
Soundtrack: It was Throwback Day -- Lookout Weekend by the Black Eyed Peas ft. Esthero (which samples the 1984 Debbie Deb classic by the same name) and When I See U by Fantasia.
Observations from a sun-washed South Side follow below.
Panthers Clean Up Penalties
Head coach Pat Narduzzi was upset on Wednesday morning. 22 hours removed from the end of a poor practice by his Pitt Panthers, he called the players out publicly. Narduzzi called them "sloppy" said he expected better attention to detail.
By the time Thursday morning had rolled around and Narduzzi was giving his daily pre-practice briefing to assembled media, he had changed his tune.
"[Wednesday was] much better," he said. "I looked back and tried to compare it to our kids today, it was just the focus. ... Trying to get these teenager ... just getting them to focus daily is a struggle."
Narduzzi pointed specifically to the penalties, which he says were out of hand on Tuesday and decreased dramatically the following morning.
"I just compared the penalties from the other day to yesterday and it was like night and day and that comes down to focus."
Peek at Run Game
Pitt gave a rare look at full team reps during the portion of practice open to attending media. The lineups were varied, with no clear distinction between first, second or third teams, but there were some plays that featured true "good-on-good" matchups, where players presumed to bear heavy snap counts this season faced off. Familair names along the front seven of the defense - Calijah Kancey, Habakkuk Baldonado SirVocea Dennis and others - challenged assumed starters along the offensive line like Owen Drexel, Carter Warren and Marcus Minor.
Quarterbacks Kedon Slovis and Nick Patti threw on an adjacent field while Nate Yarnell and Derek Kyler made handoffs to Vincent Davis, Rodney Hammond and Israel Abanikanda in the backfield against the defense.
Among the highlights were a pair of long runs into the secondary for Hammond. Actual yardage was hard to judge as he ran past would-be tacklers who held up short because no one was in full pads. But he bounced the ball outside twice, running for seven to nine yards before a defender could make contact.
Dartmouth transfer Derek Kyler also fooled the defense with completion off of play action to Ky Wright, who rumbled for down field after hauling in the wide-open pass.
Powell Not Ready to Name Lead Back
Pitt wants to run the ball a lot more this season and no one is shy about saying so. But who will do that running is still somewhat of an open question. The Panthers return their three top rushers from last season and while Narduzzi has named Israel Abanikanda his unofficial lead back earlier in camp, running backs coach Andre Powell wasn't prepared to name a depth chart leader.
"Right now, we're just repping guys, giving them everything. That will work itself out. I'll tell you one thing, we have five talented backs."
Abanikanda, Hammond and senior Vincent Davis are all prime candidates for carries, but Powell also said that Daniel Carter is capable of playing tailback and called Notre Dame transfer C'Bo Flemister the toughest of the five backs and a "football junkie". He said adding there will be plenty of room for Flemister to contribute to this year's team.
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