Pitt Football
Storylines to Follow as Pitt Looks to Take Down No. 17 North Carolina
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1 year agoon
It’s a pivotal week for Pitt. It will be hard to knock off No. 17 North Carolina, but with a loss, Pitt would drop to 1-3 and face an uphill battle to earn a Bowl game.
There are questions offensively and defensively, but none more important than quarterback, and some of those questions will be answered this week against UNC. Here are some storylines from this week that should be monitored.
And rest assured, there will be plenty more leading up until kickoff.
Phil Jurkovec Starting, Rodney Hammond Jr. in Line for Big Day
Pat Narduzzi was asked point-blank Thursday at his weekly press conference if Phil Jurkovec will start against No. 17 North Carolina this weekend.
“Yes,” he said immediately.
I guess that settles that. Jurkovec, as expected, will start against UNC Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium. And once again, Narduzzi made sure to emphasize that he does not place the blame for the offensive ineptitude this season on Jurkovec’s shoulders.
“We’re getting a lot of pressure,” Narduzzi said. “We’re not protecting like we’d like to, that’s why the run game has got to be clicking, and we’ve gotta give our quarterback time.”
He pointed to execution and details. In his eyes, if there is no execution, he believes there might be too much going on offensively. So, slim it down, execute the little details and finish. But that’s easier said than done — especially as Jurkovec has made the easy plays look difficult this season.
Narduzzi has faith in his coaching staff — who interact with the offense more on a day-to-day basis — to fix what has been ailing the offense.
Pat Narduzzi Confirms Jurkovec Will Start, Hammond Will Receive Heavy Workload
Legendary Larry Fitzgerald to Serve as Honorary Captain
Larry Fitzgerald is back in town to be inducted into the Pitt Hall of Fame tonight, but before he’s honored at Acrisure Stadium during the Pitt-UNC game, he will serve an important role right before kickoff.
Fitzgerald will serve as Pitt’s honorary captain against No. 17 North Carolina, Pat Narduzzi told WPXI’s Jenna Harner Thursday.
“Larry means the world,” Narduzzi told Harner. “He’s actually gonna be our honorary captain, so I guess I’m announcing that to the world right now here with you guys. But we read off what he’s done, and you talk about the, I think it was over 1,400 catches and 17,000 yards, 121 TDs in the NFL. It’s just like, ‘Wow.’
“He’s an amazing football player, an amazing person and we’re excited to have him back.”
Pitt Legend Larry Fitzgerald Named Honorary Captain Against UNC
The Task of Stopping ACC Player of the Year Drake Maye
With all due respect to the likes of Bryce Corriston, Emory Jones, Garrett Greene and Nicco Marchiol, Pitt is in for an entirely different test this week against North Carolina’s Drake Maye.
Maye, a 6-foot-5, 230-pound second-year starter, tested Pitt last season in Chapel Hill, N.C. and passed — literally — with flying colors. He shredded the Pitt secondary to the tune of 388 yards and five touchdowns, adding 61 yards on the ground, in a 42-24 beat down — with 28 unanswered in the second half.
And it wasn’t as if Pitt played all that poorly for the majority of the contest. Maye is just a quarterback who sit back in the pocket and hit any throws he wants off of arm talent alone, or he can escape the pocket and fire a 40-yard dart to the back corner of the end zone on the move.
As Pat Narduzzi said Monday, it will be a little bit different this week with Maye in town after a few weeks of run-heavy opposing offenses.
“This week we’re going to go from playing the wishbone and run to the first or second pick in the draft throwing it wherever he wants to because he can make every throw,” Narduzzi said. “Pressure doesn’t bother the guy because he can really run. He’s elusive, and not a quarterback run guy, but it’s scramble to throw the football down the field and get first downs if he has to.”
How Pitt is Approaching the ‘Best Quarterback in the Country, Probably’
The UNC Defense Has Improved Since Last Season
I’ll admit that I thought a subpar defense, more of the same from last season, would hinder North Carolina this season. And then UNC handled Spencer Rattler and South Carolina in the season opener.
And then the defense didn’t allow nearly 60 points to Appalachian State. Progress. And a smooth-sailing win over Minnesota last weekend kind of cemented that it’s not the same defense anymore. It may not be a top defense in the ACC, but it’s not a liability.
It’s only been three games, and conference play is just kicking off this week, but it appears that the North Carolina defense is much improved — especially up front.
“Yeah, they’re better,” Andre Powell said Tuesday after practice. “They’re not an overly complicated defense, so it allows their guys to play fast and they’re talented, so it looked like the typical North Carolina defense. And we’ve got a big challenge in front of us to score points. We know their offense can score points, and we’ve gotta score some points this week.”
Pass Protection is a Serious Problem
It may sound like a weird choice, but if there’s a player that Pitt is missing from last season’s roster, it’s Marcus Minor.
Minor, a two-year starter at left guard who played 91% of Pitt’s offensive snaps over the last two seasons, provided a steady hand at a position of need on the interior of the line. His loss, maybe even more so than Carter Warren, has been felt this season.
Ryan Jacoby was expected to be the starter at left guard this season, but after suffering a season-ending injury in summer camp, Jason Collier Jr. started the season at left guard. And then it was Blake Zubovic — after Collier was benched, and true freshman BJ Williams slid into the lineup.
It hasn’t gone well. But it isn’t just at left guard. The offensive line as a whole has taken a step — or two — back this season.
Rodney Hammond Jr. Ready to Carry the Load
There was a sentiment around the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex last week that Rodney Hammond Jr. needed more touches.
Whether it was Pat Narduzzi saying he’d like to give Hammond 50 carries against West Virginia or Frank Cignetti Jr. saying he absolutely wanted to give Hammond — and all the running backs — more touches, there was an expectation that Pitt wouldn’t come out throwing against WVU like it did against Cincinnati.
And, to the coaching staff’s credit, Pitt came out with 11 straight runs on the opening drive against WVU. Hammond himself turned seven carries into 41 yards.
It was more work than he had received in either of Pitt’s first two games. But after that opening drive, Hammond didn’t receive another carry until the second quarter. He only received seven more carries throughout the rest of the game.
Hammond says he isn’t worried about it though.
Noise From Boo City, Pa.
He didn’t mean to do it, but Pat Narduzzi unintentionally gave a growing movement of angry Pitt fans the best name anyone could’ve ever imagined.
Boo City, PA. Population Phil Jurkovec.
It’s the harsh reality Jurkovec is facing as he returns home to Acrisure Stadium this weekend for a matchup against No. 17 North Carolina. Narduzzi can say all he wants that fans are booing him, not Jurkovec (and fans will be booing Narduzzi himself now, too), but the loudest boos will be reserved for the failing starting quarterback.
Through three games, Jurkovec is the worst starting quarterback in the ACC. He’s completed 35-of-75 pass attempts (46.7%) for 474 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions. He’s the most inaccurate and least prolific quarterback in the conference.
And it’s his play on the field that has cost Pitt in losses to Cincinnati and West Virginia. There were even boos on the road in Morgantown, W.Va. last weekend. It will not be a happy homecoming this weekend.
“Who were they booing? I think they were booing me, just so we’re on the same page,” Narduzzi said Monday at his weekly news conference. “Did they say boo Phil or boo Coach? Like, there were boos, so I don’t know who they were at. At least from what I hear because I don’t hear those things with my headphones on, and I’m not sure our kids really do, either.
“I’m sure someone said something to him or to me or whatever and said there was boos. I think there was boos in the first game someone said, correct? We’re in Boo City. Boo City, PA.”
Pat Narduzzi Sticking With Phil Jurkovec Despite Noise From ‘Boo City’
Quarterback Decision is Frank Cignetti Jr.’s to Make
It’s no secret that Pat Narduzzi is a defensive-minded head coach, but it’s clear now that he’s not all that involved with the offensive personnel decisions this season — especially at quarterback.
Narduzzi hasn’t wavered from his position that Pitt shouldn’t just “pull the plug” on Jurkovec though.
As the calls for Phil Jurkovec to be benched have grown louder and louder over the last two weeks, especially after such a poor showing against West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl, Narduzzi has remained steadfast in his support of the sixth-year senior.
“You know what, he’s a leader in that huddle,” Narduzzi said Monday at his weekly news conference. “He’s a guy you trust. You’ve seen it every day.”
Donovan McMillon Providing Just the Boost Pitt Needs
Pitt started to take a longer look at Donovan McMillon against Cincinnati, giving him 44 defensive snaps (basically the entire second half), and he was happy to just be on the field a bit more.
His snap count jumped from 15 against Wofford to 44 against Cincinnati, and the temptation to crave more, to demand more, might’ve been there for other players. Especially as success followed. But McMillon enjoyed playing more football.
“Wherever that goes,” McMillon said last week, “I’m just excited to go out there and play football.”
And it certainly turned into more football as he turned that success into his first start against West Virginia over the weekend.
It, obviously, didn’t go how McMillon or anyone at Pitt would’ve liked, but it certainly wasn’t because of his efforts defensively.
Donovan McMillon Has Been Just What Pitt Needed in the Secondary
