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Grant Carrigan Hopes to Be Pitt’s Answer at Tight End after Summer at Tackle

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Grant Carrigan is a now tight end.

For the first three years of his Pitt career, that sentence wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense as a lead item.

A Pine-Richland alum, Carrigan came to Pitt as a three-star prospect at the position and after redshirting his first season, played a good bit of tight end for the Panthers in 2018 and 2019, working in behind veterans Will Gragg and Nakia Griffin-Stewart.

Carrigan was always a blocking-first option at tight end, and with the emergence of redshirt freshman Kyi Wright as a legitimate threat at the position and the additions of junior college transfer Daniel Moraga and Florida graduate transfer Lucas Krull this offseason, the Panthers’ braintrust decided Carrigan’s talents might be more suited to tackle.

So he made the position switch down the hall from Tim Salem’s tight ends room to Dave Borbely’s offensive line lounge, gained a little bit of weight and started to study up. Carrigan first made the switch for the spring, when he filled in as the starter at right tackle while Gabe Houy underwent surgery. During training camp, he continued that work, up until Krull was injured in advance of the Austin Peay game and Carrigan was re-assigned his No. 84.

“I expected to the play tackle at the beginning of the season, but we needed a tight end,” Carrigan said. “There’s a need for it, and I’m able to do both. So that’s where I’m at right now.”

For the former tight end turned tackle, turned tight end again, there won’t be much of a learning curve. Salem is still the tight ends coach, Mark Whipple is still the offensive coordinator and Kenny Pickett is still throwing passes. For the most part, it’s like he never left.

“The run game is good,” he said. “The only thing that’s really just gonna be new, again, is Yeah, running routes and which isn’t hard. It’s just a process and learning the routes and stuff, which is all familiar, because I was there before.”

Carrigan’s time as a tackle this summer was spent alongside fellow back-up at that position Carson Van Lynn. Saturday, the duo found themselves next to one another on the right side of Pitt’s line, as Carrigan replaced Krull and Van Lynn filled in for Houy.

“He helped me out, the whole room really helped me out,” Carrigan said. “Last week in the game, we were right next to each other, which is exciting. I’m excited to be right next to him playing.”

Sandy Schall, Coldwell Banker
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Justin Dietrich
Justin Dietrich
3 years ago

yea we hoped that in 2018 and 2019…

Mr.thisthatsoforthandtheother
Mr.thisthatsoforthandtheother
3 years ago

The TE situation continues to be an ongoing problem that is borderline embarrassing. Salem is supposed to be a recruiting “animal” but can’t seem to recruit for his own position.

How can this continue to happen????

Why does Narduzzi allow it to continue to happen???

 
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