Pitt Signee Earns Lofty Comparison to Former Star
PITTSBURGH -- Pitt Panthers linebacker Cameron Lindsey hasn't even stepped on campus yet, but the bar has already been set extremely high by his new head coach.
Pat Narduzzi believes that Lindsey, an Aliquippa High School standout headed to play for his hometown school in Pitt, is up next in a proud lineage of Panthers linebackers and even reminds him of a former star now in the thick of his rookie year in the NFL.
"Football player, athlete, I think he can play all three positions," Narduzzi said of Lindsey when introducing him on National Signing Day. "I think he’s kind of like a SirVocea Dennis. I think he’s one of those guys that you can put at star, you can put at money, you can put at mike. I think he can do it all and he runs down on kickoffs and knocks people’s heads off.”
That's high praise for Lindsey. Dennis is one of the better players to wear the blue and gold in recent memory, particularly on defense and at linebacker. In each of his three seasons at linebacker, Dennis earned an All-ACC selection, culminating in first-team honors at the conclusion of the 2022 campaign.
He amassed 232 total tackles over a four-year career that included just one appearance during his freshman year and a 2020 season muted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Dennis reached double-digit tackles for loss in each of his last three seasons, ended his career with 15 sacks and created five turnovers before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected him in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft with the 153rd overall pick.
These are big shoes to fill for Lindsey, but Narduzzi feels he's more than capable of doing it with his intelligence, versatility and willingness to do whatever it takes to make the team better.
“He’s really smart, he’s athletic and like I said, SirVocea could play anything," Narduzzi said. "People say he’s a mike and a middle linebacker but he played everywhere for us. He was an outside linebacker playing inside. So we think he’s got great speed, he’s got great athleticism, we think he’s got a great mind for the game and he’s focused on what he wants to do.”
Lindsey will join a young and crowded linebackers room but as players ahead of him like Kyle Louis, Braylan Lovelace and Jordan Bass proved in each of their own freshman seasons, it's never too early to make an impact.
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