Pitt Football Week 7: Sights And Sounds From Practice

PITTSBURGH — The Panthers are back at work on the practice field preparing for Virginia.

Pitt warm ups (Photo credit: Alan Saunders)

Here are some observations from this week of practice:

Therran Coleman is back from his week moonlighting as the scout team quarterback. He and Damar Hamlin are getting a lot of reps at cornerback, but are still definitely behind Dane Jackson for playing time with Avonte Maddox out. Ryan Lewis and Narduzzi have both had good things to say about the young DBs this week.

It appears pretty clear that both players have passed Malik Henderson on the depth chart. With Virginia running a lot of four-receiver sets, it will be interesting to see if Narduzzi utilizes an extra corner. If he does, I think the chances for Hamlin or Coleman playing goes up significantly.

• Freshman quarterback Thomas MacVittie has been with the main practice group all season, but this week, he’s moved over to the scout team to help simulate Virginia quarterback Kurt Benkert. That’s not necessarily a knock on MacVittie, who had been working with the second team offensively up to this point.

Last season, Narduzzi used the scout team as a place to get Ben DiNucci exposed to a college-level pass rush. The quarterbacks on the main team wear red non-contact uniforms, but the scout team passers are free game, so MacVittie is dealing with a true pass rush for his first time at Pitt.

• Wide receiver Dontez Ford is back to practicing and was not sporting a non-contract jersey. The senior was injured in the Penn State game and is not listed on the two-deep for this week. We’ll see how he’s listed on the ACC injury report Thursday.

• Pitt has worn six different uniform combinations through six games this year, and they’ll debut a seventh Saturday, as the Panthers will be wearing their gold helmets on the road for the first time this season. The whole get-up will be unveiled on Friday, as usual.

Thomas MacVittie (Photo credit: Alan Saunders)

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