KALAMAZOO, Mi. — Pitt’s first travel roster of the season has been released, and while a few key names made the trip to Kalamazoo, a few more didn’t make the trip from Pittsburgh.
Nick Patti did not make the trip to Western Michigan this week, leaving the quarterback competition — which is still a game-time decision — between a very questionable Kedon Slovis and the duo of Derek Kyler and Nate Yarnell.
Patti finished last week’s game against Tennessee after Slovis was knocked out of the game at halftime, battling his own injury after taking a sack in the fourth quarter. Still, his injury ended up being enough to keep him out of contention this week — and possibly beyond.
Rodney Hammond Jr. also will miss the second consecutive week after suffering a lower leg injury against West Virginia in Week 1. He did not travel to Kalamazoo, so Israel Abanikanda will again receive a heavy workload — which resulted in 175 yards of offense last week — and be supplemented by Vincent Davis and Daniel Carter.
Owen Drexel also went down in the fourth quarter of the Tennessee game, helped off the field by a pair of teammates. Terrence Moore replaced Drexel, and he will likely make his first start this week.
Devin Danielson went down in the first quarter against Tennessee, and he did return to action. David Green, Tyler Bentley and Deandre Jules will rotate heavily alongside Calijah Kancey on the defensive line.
Deslin Alexandre, who suffered an arm injury against West Virginia, dressed last week against Tennessee, but he didn’t play any snaps. He traveled to Kalamazoo. The same goes for Gabe Houy, who hasn’t played at all this season but dressed for both the WVU and Tennessee games.
Sean FitzSimmons, Ryan Baer and Ryland Gandy — aside from Sam Vander Haar — are the only true freshmen to make the trip for Pitt this week.
What happened to Hayes he didn’t play at all