Time to separate
Film fanatic is close to grabbing role as starter
Defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman is making the most of his fall camp.
Pitt’s Jaylen Twyman glanced at the practice field countdown clock as it dipped below one minute Wednesday morning at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side. As the secondteam special teams took to the grass, the defensive tackle inched away from the sideline. And inched away. And inched away.
When the clock hit zero and the horn blew, Twyman bounced to the adjacent turf field and was one of the first to arrive at the tackling dummies. Pitt’s third practice period finished and the fourth began with No. 97 ready to go.
“It’s all about the little things,” Twyman, an upandcoming redshirt sophomore, said after Wednesday’s practice. That approach has fueled Twyman to fend off two veterans in battling for a starting job.
The defensive tackle situation is a simple one. There are three contenders for two first- team spots: Twyman, senior Amir Watts and redshirt junior Keyshon Camp. Watts, who made 10 starts in 2018, was listed as one of the starters on the preseason depth chart. Twyman and Camp were separated by an “OR” at the other spot.
But that depth chart was largely based on what coaches saw in the spring. Speaking before Pitt’s 11th practice of fall camp, head coach Pat Narduzzi intimated that the picture has since changed.
“Keyshon and Jaylen?” Narduzzi said, when asked about the separation between Camp and Twyman. “Really, it’s a three- man war in there for who’s going to get their name [ announced] on game day. But Twyman is playing at a high level right now. Maybe as high as you can get. … Watts and Camp are really fighting to be that guy right now. That’s the way I see it.”
Defensive line coach Charlie Partridge echoed that, saying last week that Twyman has “elevated his game” and “put himself in a position where he could very easily be a starter” in 2019.
How has Twyman done that? By doing the same thing he did in high school, at H. D. Woodson in Washington, D. C.
“He was a serious guy in the film room,” said Twyman’s high school coach, Greg Fuller. “On his own, with the staff, with his position coaches, he learned as much as he possibly could. … He got on guys and took them with him when he went. ‘ Let’s go. We’re going to watch film. We’re not sitting around.’ Every free period of time that he had, he was watching film.”
Twyman has done the same on the South Side.
When asked why things are clicking in camp, the defensive tackle offered three reasons: “I’m slowing things down as I grow older, this is my third camp in the program, and I’m just watching a whole ton of film.”
How much exactly? Well, everyday after practice, Twyman takes an ice bath, grabs lunch and then breaks down 30 minutes of film by himself. Then, it’s off to a team film session. And after that — you guessed it — he’s watching film individually again.
Camp, one of two players competing with Twyman for time, said the redshirt sophomore is “locked in.” Meanwhile, Narduzzi called Twyman a “gym rat” and claimed he is in the film room as much as the coaching staff. It’s paying dividends, too.
Twyman — who started just once in 2018, but made four tackles against Clemson in the ACC title game — said he understands the game better now than he did last fall. He’s more comfortable in his stance. He’s accurately reading keys. He’s taking the right steps, building on the foundation he laid in high school.
In high school, Twyman picked up tendencies on film that even assistant coaches missed. The teenager parlayed that knowledge into 91 tackles as a senior, a threestar rating by Rivals and offers from Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Michigan State and more.
Ultimately, Twyman chose Pitt, where he has since looked up to Aaron Donald as a role model. That’s why he changed his number from No. 55 to 97 in the spring, because Donald “inspired” him. “I want to be a great player like himself,”
Twyman added in March.
Interestingly enough, Fuller — Twyman’s high school coach — said, unprompted, that his former pass- rusher reminds him of Donald.
To expect that kind of success from Twyman would be unfair. But, at the very least, should Twyman secure a starting job and rack up the stats, it won’t be because he lucked into it. It’ll be because, like Donald, he worked for it.
“He’s got a plan everyday,” Narduzzi said of Twyman. “He’s about as focused as you can get a guy to be focused. If you had 110 guys as focused like that guy, man. It’s amazing, his desire out there on the field.”