Pitt Coach Andre Powell Using GPS to Keep RBs Fresh
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PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers were powered by a dynamic running game in 2018, when they ripped off a 6-2 record in ACC play to overcome a slow start and earn the first ACC Championship Game berth in program history. Qadree Ollison and Darrin Hall combined for more than 2,300 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns on 347 attempts that year.
The impact of that massive workload was felt on the field immediately, as they spearheaded a drastic in-season comeback, but it has also spilled over into the proceeding years, long after they have moved on from careers as Panthers. Because in between their gaudy gameday performances, running backs coach Andre Powell was tasked with keeping them fresh.
For Powell, that meant diving into methods he wasn't very familiar with. Up until 2018, he had coached primarily with his eyes and his instincts. Data from the GPS trackers Pitt players wore during practice and games told him how far each Panther ran and how fast they did it, but that information was going largely ignored.
"We started using GPS when I was at Maryland," Powell said. "We tracked it but we never did anything with it. Really, I never paid any attention to it until 2018 and that was after I had been here for three years prior to that."
It wasn't until Powell began to notice Hall and Ollison run slower and with less intensity that he began searching for answers. He found some in the numbers.
"Casually, we’d go over those numbers in our meetings and I’d notice where Hall and Ollison were hitting their top speeds and one week I noticed they weren’t there," Powell said. "I went back and looked with the help of our strength coach at the time and it’s pretty evident."
Powell said Hall and Ollison's top speeds on gameday had a direct correlation to their weekday workload. Powell had to pay close attention to the numbers in real time and balance the need for preparation with preservation.
"Going back to when we first started using GPS in 2018 with Ollison and Hall here, their top speed was about 20 miles per hour on the GPS," Powell said "And when they went much more over 1,000 on Tuesday and over 3,000 yards on Wednesday, they never hit 20 [miles per hour] on Saturday. ... So that’s like racehorses, you got to make sure you get your horse to the race fresh."
2018 was the last time the Panthers had a 1,000-yard rusher. Prior to this week, no Panther had run for 100 yards in consecutive games since that year either. Israel Abanikanda broke that trend after rushing for 152 yards against Tennessee and 133 yards against Western Michigan this season. He currently leads the ACC in all-purpose yards and is on pace to become the first Pitt tailback to reach the millennium mark since Hall and Ollison four years ago.
As a result, Powell has had to dive back into his data and watch Abanikanda diligently with the help of his digital assistant, the GPS. Abanikanda was on the field for 76 plays - the most he'd endured in any game of his career - and ran roughly 7,600 total yards two weeks ago when the Volunteers were in town. Powell estimates he surpassed that when carrying the ball a career-high 31 times against the Broncos so this week's practice will feature a strict yardage limit.
On Tuesdays, Abaniknada can expect to log about 3,000 yards before seeing his work reduced to around 1,000 yards per day for the rest of the week. It's all about preserving one of his best attributes - that top speed of roughly 21 miles per hour that was on full display when he went 76-yards up the gut of the Volunteers for a touchdown.
While the technology has helped Powell see the game in a new dimension, he still has to trust his gut. He's human and the machine is not, but their mesh point is where great things can happen for Pitt.
"We have a lot of technology," Powell said. "We try to use it to our advantage when we can apply it and we just try to gain every advantage that we can gain. Our nutritionist, she’s trying to gain an edge with what she feeds our kids and how she coaches them on what to eat at night. Our strength staff, our training staff, we’re trying to use everything we have at our disposal.”
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