Donovan McMillon Wants to be the Next Great Pitt Defensive Back

Donovan McMillon received just 15 snaps against Wofford in the season opener, finally receiving more snaps as the score got more and more out of hand. He was primarily the reserve option behind Javon McIntyre and P.J. O’Brien Jr., still learning the defensive playbook after arriving from Florida over the offseason.

He waited his turn, and it didn’t take long for his name to be called, as he just about tripled his snaps against Cincinnati in Week 2.

McMillon waited his turn, and it’s somewhat similar to how Nate Yarnell has waited his turn this season.

“I think that’s what Duzz and everyone preaches, that we as a whole team, we wait for our moment and when it comes up, we shine with it,” McMillon said Thursday night. “There’s no bad-mouthing other people, you might not play the whole season but when it’s time for our name to be called, you get up there and you make that play. So I think that shows really good character for (Yarnell).”

Yarnell wouldn’t accept the MVP honors himself, instead opting to share the most valuable player hype with his teammates, and he mentioned the way the defense managed to stand on its head and force stop after stop. McMillon, who played 60 snaps against Boston College, was certainly impactful.

McMillon was in on just about every tackle for Pitt, racking up 13 (eight solo), to lead the Panthers. And through 11 games, he’s third in the ACC with 99 tackles — 51 solo.

He had a game-high of five tackles entering the season, which he set against Eastern Washington last season, and since that opening game against Wofford, McMillon has recorded at least five tackles in every game this season. He’s hit double-digit tackles five times, including each of the last three games.

It’s been everything that McMillon imagined when he decided to come home after leaving Florida.

“I just envisioned coming here to play ball,” McMillon said. “That’s all I wanted. At Florida, I don’t think I got the opportunities I really needed and earned but when I got these opportunities here, that was just a blessing for me to be able to go out every week and go make these plays, And watching greats like Damar (Hamlin) and all of those guys, that’s something I dreamed to be like and I’m really happy with the opportunity to be in that spot right now.”

Pittsburgh Panthers defensive back Donovan McMillon (3) September 23, 2023 David Hague/Pittsburgh Sports Now

Though, the breakout performance, despite a very solid showing in the second half against Cincinnati, came against West Virginia in Morgantown, W.Va.

McMillon led the team with 18 tackles. 18. If it looked like he was in on every tackle, wrapping up a WVU receiver or laying his shoulder into a WVU running back, it’s because he probably was. McMillon made an impact across all three levels of the defense.

It was a solid defensive team effort against WVU, but McMillon — according to Pat Narduzzi — was exceptional. And it’s obvious watching the tape, too.

“I’ll tell you what, he’s flying all over the field, too,” Narduzzi said after the WVU game. “He’s making not only plays on this side of the field, but he’s running over there, too. There’s some great efforts by Donovan. Obviously, he had a winning performance.

“I’m not giving out grades here, but he played exceptional, and we expect our safeties to make those tackles when they have the opportunities.”

When it comes to the performance against Boston College, McIntyre took 64 of 71 defensive snaps, McMillon took 60 and while O’Brien took just 21 snaps, he made the most of it with an interception.

“P.J. has really grown a lot,” Narduzzi said. “I think it might be his third pick of the year. Especially in the second half of the season.

That was a great play down at the — we had some horrible field position that third quarter. I think it was — what was it? Third quarter we were at the minus 10 to minus 2 to minus 3. We were coming out. That was some brutal field position that they had, but when we gave them the ball at 25, they did a good job moving the ball.”

McIntyre, who missed an early tackle, rebounded beautifully throughout the remainder of the game. He recorded eight tackles (four solo), a tackle for loss and two pass breakups. McMillon found himself in on just about every tackle.  McIntyre is the do-it-all safety, who seems like he’s just waiting to unleash a playmaker ability considering he’s been close to a number of forced turnovers this season, and McMillon and O’Brien offer different levels of versatility in the pass game and the run game.

And all three are returning next season, the veterans who will help a young cornerback’s room grow into their roles in the defense. Cory Sanders is happy to have all three back in the defensive backs room.

Pittsburgh Panthers defensive back Donovan McMillon (3) October 5, 2023 David Hague/PSN

“P.J., he does well in coverage, and Donovan, as you see when we get into some of those heavier sets, 12 personnel, he was coming in last game against those guys and his wrestling background shows all the time,” Sanders said earlier this season. “He takes great angles, he’s a good tackler.”

McMillon has missed a couple of tackles this season, which will always happen in such a high-volume opportunity, and he’s still a work in progress when dropping back in true coverage situations, but he’s been the best run-stopper on the team.

He leads Pitt with 30 run stops this season, and his 8.5% miss rate is the highest on the team outside of Solomon DeShields.

And while Boston College racked up 154 yards on the ground, 118 from Kye Robichaux, the unit limited Thomas Castellanos to just 21 yards on 17 carries. The box score isn’t pretty, but the actual on-field result was.

“Like Dayon said, and I don’t know who else was up here before, but our whole mentality this whole week was to stop the run first,” McMillon said. “We knew that if we stopped that run we’d make them one-dimensional, and when that happened you saw what happened and they couldn’t score on us.

“When it comes down to it, these teams, they try to expose certain things in our defense. You see unbalanced like Syracuse, they went and ran 100 different formations at us, and Boston College came in tonight and ran different formations that we haven’t even seen. And we practice all week to stop the run and see what we can do to different formations.”

Pitt made corrections Thursday night against Boston College, after giving up a field on the initial drive, and it led to a win. McMillon and the Pitt defense have been taking it one game at a time, and the goal has been to go 1-0 every day. And now there’s just one more chance to go 1-0.

“I’m terribly sad the season’s already ending,” McMillon said. “I got a little emotional on the field when I saw the seniors, when we walked in today, like 365 days from now, I’m in that same spot. So I really value every day, every game that I get to be a part of and be a Pitt Panther.”

With M.J. Devonshire, Marquis Williams and A.J. Woods moving on at the end of the season, it will flip the dynamic in the secondary.

Erick Hallett and Brandon Hill left for the NFL after last season, and it left a massive void at safety, but after this season, there will be a major deficit at cornerback. The baton will be passed from the cornerbacks to the safeties, and McMillon — along with McIntyre and O’Brien — will be relied upon as leaders.

And McMillon is looking forward to it — and the challenge it brings.