Attention centers on QB Browne
Coach, players say transfer is humble, ready
At ACC media day, there’s any number of ways to hear a coach or player talk about a subject. First there’s a big news conference for each team with TV cameras rolling and typists taking down every word. Then there are smaller sessions that last for an hour or so. There’s also interview after interview taking place on “radio row” throughout the day.
And every time Pat Narduzzi or a Pitt player sat down to speak, they were asked about Max Browne.
That’s no surprise, given that his story checks a lot of boxes. Quarterback. Graduate transfer. Former fivestar recruit. The Panthers have had Browne in the fold on campus since January, so he went through all of spring camp and the spring game discussing his transition from Southern California to Pitt, but he was still a hot topic for the assembled ACC media in Charlotte, N.C.
“I think he’s ready,” said the man who will be protecting Browne’s blind side, left tackle Brian O’Neill.
“One thing I can say about him is he came in and said, ‘How can I help Pitt?’ not ‘How can Pitt help Max Browne?’ And that attitude has been displayed to everyone,” O’Neill said.
Indeed, it’s always a good sign when your quarterback doesn’t speak in third person.
O’Neill was one half of Pitt’s player representatives Friday, along with senior cornerback Avonte Maddox, so Browne wasn’t on display to speak for himself. But Narduzzi and O’Neill did plenty of that for him, because people kept asking.
“He’s a humble, humble kid. You wouldn’t know if he played at USC or Upper St. Clair High School last year,” Narduzzi said of Browne’s benching at his first school. “He’s just a great kid. He doesn’t carry that cross with him.”
Browne’s offensive teammate in attendance agreed. O’Neill mentioned he watches a lot of college football and that Browne lost his job to Sam Darnold, who has blossomed into a trendy preseason pick to win the Heisman Trophy as the Trojans’ star.
“There’s no, ‘He couldn’t cut it there, so he’s coming here.’ That’s not the case at all,” O’Neill said of Browne. “Did people think that about Nate Peterman? Absolutely not. I don’t think there’s been an ounce of that.”
Narduzzi said he listed Browne as the starter on Pitt’s preseason depth chart simply because he had to pick a name, but that Ben DiNucci continues to compete for the job.
Network prep in works
As preparations for the ACC Network take shape, Heather Lyke envisions that Petersen Events Center soon will have a new look, too. Pitt’s athletic director shared some insight Friday on her department’s planning process for what the conference hopes will be a boon of a new linear television channel.
“It’s a massive undertaking, and also incredibly exciting,” Lyke said of Pitt’s role as one of 15 campuses readying for the launch of the ACC Network in 2019. “We have a major investment. There’s infrastructure costs, there’s infrastructure pieces to it, there’s personnel pieces to it.”
While the channel will debut in fall 2019, each school must be ready to go by fall 2018. That means putting money into new or upgraded studios and figuring out how to best produce original content in-house.
That also means creating space for those new facilities, and Lyke and her staff see an area where it makes sense to expand. Currently, they’re designing the “back-of-the-house studio,” but plans for the “front of the house” place it in the main atrium at Petersen Events Center, near the escalators and next to the team merchandise store.
“The renderings are drawn up pretty sharp. I think it’ll give the public and our fans and our students and our community an opportunity to see what goes into the production of the network,” Lyke said.
Lyke said she doesn’t yet have an exact number in terms of the financial commitment needed but called it “a significant investment.” According to a recent report from the Hampton Roads Daily Press, athletic officials at Virginia and Virginia Tech estimated their infrastructure costs between $5 million and $7 million.