PITT DEFENSIVE END TAKES AFTER MENTOR
During Pitt’s Thursday morning team meeting, Pat Narduzzi called up different players from different position groups to explain what they can do better in practice.
“Fortunately enough, they brought me up,” walkon defensive end Chris Maloney said. “I explained some fundamentals on the D- line. And when I was done speaking, I looked around. Then, I turned around and there was a big picture on the projector.”
The screen read: On scholarship.
“I just kind of lost it,” Maloney said, still
emotional after Pitt’s final practice of training camp. He thanked his teammates, his family and especially his mother, Christine. She was his first phone call after finding out, labeling her his “rock” throughout the years.
“I can’t thank everyone who’s been involved enough,” he said.
Narduzzi said Maloney, who’s appeared in four games and stood out on scout team, “earned” the opportunity. With Ohio State transfer Ryan Jacoby in tow and now Maloney on scholarship, the Panthers are at their 85-scholarship limit — plus their list of super seniors who won’t go against that count this fall.
Maloney’s journey is in some ways similar to those who came before him. He toiled away in practice, changed positions and flipped from offense to defense when needed. But interestingly enough, Maloney had one of college football’s most successful walkons in his corner before he even joined the program.
Maloney and All- ACC center Jimmy Morrissey went to the same high school. Maloney and Morrissey — then a sophomore and senior, respectively — starred at La Salle College High School and won the Philadelphia Catholic League title in 2015.
Morrissey joined Pitt as a walk-on in 2016 and was put on scholarship after winning the starting center job a year later. The Las Vegas Raiders draft choice went on to start 47 games for the Panthers while rec e i v i n g the 2 0 2 Burlsworth Trophy, given to college football’s top former walk-on.
It was actually Morrissey who introduced Maloney to Pitt’s football program. Maloney, a threetime first-team PCL honoree, attended college camps but didn’t garner any offers. He visited Pitt’s campus as a normal student, with no intentions of playing football, when Morrissey invited him to the Panthers’ South Side facility.
Morrissey ended up playing Maloney’s tape for recruiting assistant Karlo Zovko. From that point on, Maloney stayed in contact with Zovko and defensive line coach Charlie Partridge, who eventually extended a preferred walk-on opportunity.
When Maloney arrived in 2018, Morrissey took him under his wing.
“He helped me know the pitfalls. What to do and what not to do with coaches, doing scout team,” Maloney said. “He definitely helped me along the way.”
Maloney helped himself, too. The redshirt junior came in as a defensive end, moved to tight end when Narduzzi needed depth assurances and switched back to defense midway through last season. Partridge praised him through the years, mentioning him as one to watch as far back as Aug. 2019.
“That kid at some point, I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but that kid is going to play football for Pitt,” Partridge said two years ago. Now, Maloney 0Maloney will have that opportunity as a scholarship player, not a walk-on.
He’ll be a depth piece; there are no illusions that Maloney is going to start over John Morgan, Deslin Alexandre, Habakkuk Baldonado or Dayon Hayes off the edge. But Narduzzi, Partridge and the Pitt staff wouldn’t have put Maloney on scholarship if they didn’t think he deserved it.
And to Maloney’s credit, Thursday morning is something he’s always envisioned.
“I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. That was a subconscious factor in my head. I wanted to prove that I could play D-I, Power Five football,” Maloney said. “... I hoped this was coming. And thank God it did.”
“I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. That was a subconscious factor in my head. I wanted to prove that I could play [Division I], Power Five football. ... I hoped this was coming. And thank God it did.””
— Chris Maloney