SENIOR LINEBACKER LEADS DUKES DEFENSE
Out of the corner of his eye on a fateful spring day in 2017, Jerry Schmitt saw an oncoming missile.
Thankfully for the Duquesne football coach, not to mention the greater Pittsburgh area, it wasn’t an actual missile. But given what was transpiring in front of him, his description of it more than two years later remains apt.
During the Dukes’ third spring practice in advance of the 2017 season, Schmitt stood behind his offense as it executed an inside run with one of its tailbacks. In this instance, an unmistakably physical play came with a burst of speed. Shortly before the handoff, Schmitt noticed one of his linebackers, seemingly out of nowhere, coming over the top of a block and, in midair, stoning the running back within a second of him receiving the ball from the quarterback. Who is that and where did it come
from? Schmitt recalled thinking. After a moment of confusion, he had his answer — it was Brett Zanotto, one of his team’s newest and soontobe most impactful additions.
“From that point on, we sort of had to tone him down a little bit in practice because he was going to hurt some people,” Schmitt said. “We got him to practice a little smarter. That play right there was like something you see out of highlights from Super Bowls.”
While coaches have had to occasionally hold Zanotto back in practice, Duquesne’s opponents haven’t been as fortunate.
Heading into his senior season, Zanotto, a Franklin Regional graduate, has emerged as a defensive leader for the reigning Northeast Conference champions and the league’s preseason favorite for the upcoming 2019 season. On the heels of a stellar junior season in which he had a team- high 89 tackles, including 54 solo tackles, Zanotto enters his final year of college football shouldering justifiably large expectations for himself and his team.
“I’m just very, very grateful to be here and be in this situation,” Zanotto said.
That he’s accomplishing what he is a mere 25- minute drive from his native Murrysville, at a place where his family is regularly able to watch him play, makes Zanotto’s career that much more fulfilling. His way back home, though, wasn’t exactly straightforward.
Zanotto was a standout under coach Greg Botta at Franklin Regional, earning first- team all- state and Post- Gazette Fabulous 22 honors as a senior. A three- star recruit pursued by a handful of Power 5 programs, he committed to Maryland, where he made an immediate impact in 2015, finishing with 23 tackles, the most of any freshman on the team. Six games into that season, however, coach Randy Edsall was fired and under a new coaching staff led by D. J. Durkin, Zanotto didn’t see any action in 2016.
Following that season, Zanotto opted to transfer. As he searched for his next step, one suitor emerged larger than the others. Schmitt and his staff had recruited Zanotto out of high school, even once they knew he was likely headed to a bigger program, and with mutual interest on both sides, they resumed their pitch. They stressed the familiarity of home, Duquesne’s academic offerings and his connections to players on the roster, which included former high school teammate Carter Henderson and Greensburg Central Catholic graduate Nate Stone.
“If Brett wanted to be in his hometown playing football where he didn’t have to sit a year, then this was a great match,” Schmitt said. “It turned out to be one.”
By the time he came for his official visit, he was sold. The transition to a new school and a new home — even in a part of the country that very much is home — can be difficult for any player, but through that process, Zanotto remained focused, guided by a goal.
“It’s going to be a little uncomfortable at first,” he said. “You’ve just got to get used to your surroundings. I just wanted to come here and show people I could play football. I just wanted to get respect from teammates and the coaching staff.”
Beginning with those early practices, he did just that. Zanotto started all 11 games as a sophomore in 2017, playing more of a supporting role behind veterans like Henderson and Stone. His production took a giant leap as a junior last season, when he finished tied for fourth in the NEC in solo tackles and fifth in total tackles.
Most important, he played a crucial role for a team that went 9- 4 and recorded the program’s first Football Championship Subdivision playoff win.
“We don’t win the championship last year without him making the plays he did,” Schmitt said. “We had a lot of guys who set records catching the ball and throwing the ball and with A. J. [ Hines] running the ball. A lot of those guys put up numbers. But when I talk to opposing coaches, that was the guy who was a true key on our defense. He made plays everywhere. We just expect him to continue to get better.”
Throughout his time at Duquesne, Zanotto has impressed coaches not only with what he has done, but how he has done it. Zanotto, as Schmitt describes him, is a tough, relentless and instinctual player at a position that rewards such traits. He is a hard worker who goes about his work quietly, making him both something of an old soul and a product of the area that raised him.
That quiet demeanor is something, at least on the field, Zanotto is working to change a bit. He has led much of his career by example, but at a spot on the field that demands constant communication, he is taking steps to become more vocally assertive. If he can do that, a better version of what he has been the past two seasons is, for Duquesne coaches and teammates, quite the appealing thought.
“Some days, I’ve got to be like ‘ OK, I’ve got to be on my stuff today. I’ve got to be a little louder than I was yesterday,’” Zanotto said. “Sometimes, the team’s going to need some more juice than other days. I’ve got to be the guy that’s going to bring that juice.”