Traditional leaders likely for Pitt
Albany.
“You know, I don’t wanna say there was a lack of leadership [last year],” offensive lineman Alex Bookser said. “It just was a smaller senior class, and when you have less guys, it’s harder to hold everybody accountable. … It’s not to say the guys last year did a poor job — they didn’t at all — it’s just that there’s a lot more of us.”
• Pitt’s quarterback isn’t a senior, but it also helps that he’s a natural leader in his own right. Pat Narduzzi said recently that he would rather not see Kenny Pickett voted a team captain, but there’s no doubt that he’ll be one in spirit either way.
“I think that just comes with time, and the older I get, the more reins I have,” Pickett said. “And I feel I have a really good hold on the offense right now, and the team, in terms of when I talk, guys listen.”
How does that manifest itself on a day-to-day basis? Pickett gave a glimpse at what he might tell a teammate who’s going half-speed or not up to par mentally.
“You don’t show up to work today, that’s why you go 5-7. I’ll say that to the guys,” Pickett said. “If some guy’s having a bad day, ‘Winning teams don’t have bad days.’ They don’t have off days like that.”
• That attitude certainly has made Pickett’s right tackle a big fan of him. Bookser called him “super smart” and “a tremendous competitor.”
“Not afraid of anybody, not afraid to tell me to shut up, you know?” Bookser said, later adding that the 6foot-2 Pickett is the one guy on the team who’s allowed to tell the 6-6, 315-pound Mt. Lebanon native to be quiet.
“Quarterback owns the huddle,” Bookser grinned.
• Narduzzi seems pretty tired of discussing his largely unproven receiving corps. One of the most pressing questions looming over the offense is who will emerge as Pickett’s top targets, given that Jester Weah graduated after leading the team in receiving two years running, but Narduzzi isn’t offering up much insight there.
“Everybody,” he responded when asked which wideouts he expects to separate themselves from the pack. “I don’t expect anybody. I don’t have favorites. I want guys that are gonna make plays that our quarterbacks can count on making the catch. That’s up to them to decide. I don’t decide who those guys are. … We know who’s got talent, but you’ve gotta show it.”
• Shilique Calhoun, if you’re reading this (highly doubtful), Narduzzi would like to needle you. Calhoun was a standout defensive end for three years at Michigan State, where Narduzzi was defensive coordinator, and as Narduzzi recalls, Calhoun always wanted a shot to play tight end.
That never happened, and Calhoun’s very lucrative consolation prize was being drafted in the third round by the Oakland Raiders in 2016. Now, in a fullcircle sort of coincidence, Calhoun’s younger brother Kaymar Mimes, who signed with Pitt in February as a defensive end, has flipped over to tight end.
“We had a little tryout,” Narduzzi said. “We weren’t here as coaches, but had Kenny and the quarterbacks take him out there and work with some of those defensive ends. He just showed he had a natural athletic ability and a natural tendency to be a tight end. He runs good routes, he understands what’s going on.
“And I’ll put this out there for Shilique … Shilique was never a good enough athlete to be a tight end. I told Jaymar he’s definitely a better athlete than his brother, who I enjoyed coaching up at Michigan State.”
• Narduzzi is well aware of the reaction that Pitt football alumni and diehard fans had to the sudden resignation of longtime equipment manager Tim “Ox” Enright less than two weeks before camp began.
“Stepping away from the game after plenty of years, 20-some years working here, 30 overall combined as a Pitt guy,” is how Narduzzi described Enright’s exit.
He wasn’t asked about Enright specifically, but went out of his way to mention him.
“Change is good,” Narduzzi said. “We’re always gonna get better. And we love Ox to death, we wish him luck — we had a great, fantastic time together. But he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do.”
• One person who didn’t mind the heat Saturday on the second day of practice, when it was 80 degrees and crept up toward 90 eventually, was 285-pound defensive tackle Keyshon Camp. Camp, a Lakeland, Fla., native, wore what appeared to be a short-sleeved hoodie underneath his practice jersey with the sun beating down.