USA TODAY International Edition
Quarterback looks to make more history at Pitt
In first start, Pickett led upset of undefeated No. 2 Miami (Fla.)
It ranks as one of the more intriguing, and from a distance perplexing, angles as the college football season approaches.
The sum total of quarterback Kenny Pickett’s experience is one start, plus a few other appearances, as a true freshman a year ago at Pittsburgh. Yet the way the Panthers have rallied around him, and expectations surrounding both the sophomore signal caller and the program, seem to defy logic.
At least to someone who doesn’t know Pickett. “He’s a leader out there on the field — I’ve said it 100 times — and our team trusts in Kenny Pickett,” Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi said last week.
See what I mean. Pittsburgh is all-in on the 6-2, 220-pounder.
Granted, his one start was historic, as Pickett stepped in for the final game last season and knocked off the unbeaten, No. 2-ranked Miami Hurricanes, the first time the Panthers had beaten a top-two team at home. Ever. And Pickett was the offense, accounting for all three of their touchdowns, including an electrifying 22-yard run, in a 24-14 victory.
But there has to be more to it, right?
“He’s like a rock star out there. He’s the man,” said New Jersey quarterback guru Tony Racioppi, who has worked extensively with Pickett. “He has that charisma, and players just gravitate to him. You listen to some of the older players there. Players rally around him. He’s the guy. You have fifth-year seniors talking about him being the leader, so that says it all right there.
“He does a great job of being confident without beBryce ing overboard cocky.”
He did happen to throw for 242 yards, including a 74-yard hookup, after stepping on the field in the nextto-last-game, a loss at Virginia Tech.
What say you, Kenny Pickett, about all this.
“It happened to me at Ocean Township (High), and it’s happening here,” said Pickett, who became a starter as a sophomore for the Spartans. “I would definitely say it is more of a natural progression. It’s something that when I’m on the field, it just naturally comes out of me and some of the offensive linemen have talked to me about it. I really don’t have any other explanation for it. It’s just naturally happening. I’m not thinking, just letting loose and having fun playing the game I love to play.”
Here’s the word I’m looking for: leadership.
“He is definitely mature beyond his years,” Racioppi said. “If you asked me to sum up Kenny Pickett in a couple of words, I would say, ultra-talented, hard worker, incredibly confident. He’s confident, and going from high school to Pitt, nothing really changed. He was ready for that opportunity the entire season last year.”
They are the traits Pickett has exhibited throughout his career, while his brand of enthusiasm on the field in infectious. That was apparent during the Miami game when, in front of a national television audience, he completed 18 of 29 passes for 193 yards and a touchdown, with two rushing scores.
“That bar’s up there, as far as where he set it against No. 2 Miami,” Narduzzi said. “That’s what everybody is expecting on Sept. 1 (against Albany), so he’s got to go out and deliver that. Anything less than that, everybody is probably going to be like, ‘Oh, man!’ Kenny’s a great kid, a great player.”
Not everyone has bought into the hype. The Panthers were picked to finish fifth in the Atlantic Coast Conference’s seven-team Coastal Division. And the reality is that you have to go all the way back to Dan Marino’s senior season in 1982 to find the last time the Panthers were ranked in the Top 10 at season’s end.
Pickett did not mince words with the local media before the start of training camp when he said the Panthers’ 5-7 campaign in 2017 was “embarrassing,” as the program’s run of nine consecutive seasons with a postseason appearance ended.
“The expectations are like they were back in the old days in my mind and in our eyes, and I think you can see that now in how we’ve prepared and how we’re looking at this season,” Pickett said. “I know we have a lot of high goals and we can’t wait to get started.
“This was a perfect fit for me coming out of high school. I knew that, and when I came to Pittsburgh it just kind of hit home about how this is really my second home in terms of the area and the people and the mind-set, how I play, the kind of team I want to be around, and so on.”
If this summer is any indication, the feeling is mutual, given how Pittsburgh has embraced Pickett.