O’Neill leaves Pitt, declares for NFL draft

him up for a professional future, and his unusual combination of size and quickness should help him in the run-up to the draft.

“I would like to think so,” O’Neill said, though he didn’t want to get into specifics of the intel he received from the NFL draft advisory committee.

“Now that the decision’s made, you go for it a hundred percent, two feet in, that’s what I’m gonna do — treat people the right way, work your tail off, and you gotta be happy with the results then no matter what.”

With Henderson, Whitehead and now O’Neill cutting their college careers short, the 2017 Pitt team — with its 5-7 record and all — will go down as tied for the most NFL early entrants in program history. In 2011, juniors Jon Baldwin and Henry Hynoski and sophomore Dion Lewis all bypassed their final years of eligibility. Baldwin was a first-round pick, Lewis — eligible after just two seasons because he spent a year at prep school — went in the fifth round and Hynoski wound up undrafted, but won a Super Bowl as a rookie playing fullback for the New York Giants.

For the Panthers, their attrition number is now up to six in the past two weeks. That’s three NFL draft declarations, two quarterback transfers and a dismissal. All but one of those departures were from the offensive side of the ball, and even Whitehead could be considered a part-time tailback.

At least in O’Neill’s case, there was no hard sell from Narduzzi to stick around.

“He was great throughout the whole process,” O’Neill said. “Everyone who has a decision like that, he wants to be able to educate them in the most informational way possible. It wasn’t ‘ You gotta stay.’

“There was none of that. It was ‘ What’s gonna be best for you and your family?’ He tried to be as objective as possible, which I respect the hell out of him for.”