Veteran Pitt Safety Unit Wants to Make More Splash Plays in 2024

If there’s one unit on the Pitt defense that doesn’t need much scrutiny, it’s the safeties. Cory Sanders has his unit in tip-top shape, just a season after entering last summer as a question mark, and it’s not just the starters. It’s the entire unit.

Javon McIntyre, Donovan McMillon and P.J. O’Brien Jr. are the established trio. McIntyre and McMillon figure to be the starters, with O’Brien rotating as a heavily used No. 3, and Cruce Brookins and Jesse Anderson aren’t far behind. It’s a unit with potential star power, but it’s also a position group loaded with potential.

McIntyre, who started to work into the Pitt safety rotation at the end of the 2022 season (playing very well at times and experiencing some teaching points at others), was tabbed as the No. 1 safety last spring. And the No. 1 safety he was. McIntyre, who can play either field or boundary safety, is the leader of the room. But he’s certainly not alone now.

McMillon was new last spring, arriving as a mid-year transfer from Florida, and it took time to adapt to a defensive scheme unlike anything he’d seen at the college level. He wasn’t a Day 1 starter, O’Brien was, but they should both play quite a bit in 2024.

There was plenty of potential when it came to the safeties last season, but it took a few games last season for the pecking order to develop. McIntyre was — and is — the top field safety. McMillon, after being inserted into the starting lineup against West Virginia last season, is the top boundary safety. O’Brien is technically the No. 2 behind McIntyre, and he’s the third starter behind McMillon.

McMillon is a thumper; O’Brien is best dropping back in coverage and McIntyre does a little bit of everything.

The unit grew last season, but by all accounts, there was so much left out on the field.

“I feel like last year I had a good season, but I could’ve turned it into a great season — I had four missed opps,” McIntyre said last month. “So, I feel like if I just catch them picks, I could’ve had a great season. Did what I wanted to do personally, achieve my dream, so if I do that, I feel like I turn the table.”

McIntyre was good last season, recording 85 tackles (43 solo), 3.5 tackles for loss and seven pass breakups, but he left so much more on the field. He found himself in the right position, at the right time, but he wasn’t able to finish plays. The splash plays weren’t there. The chances were there, McIntyre had his hands on some footballs, but he wasn’t able to finish. He’s focusing on the little details now. 

“I feel like I’m a good football player, but the little stuff can make you turn into an average player on some plays, and I feel like that made me turn into an average football player on some plays,” McIntyre said. “Just my alignment, maybe just my eyes in the right spot at the right time. So, the little things for me is gonna turn over to the big things allowing me to make more big plays, and plays on the ball.”

McMillon, who arrived last winter and spent much of the offseason just learning from older guys like M.J. Devonshire and Marquis Williams, is in the same boat as McIntyre.

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

He was the first 100-tackle defensive back at Pitt since Jordan Whitehead in 2015, and he racked up 105 tackles (54 solo), 0.5 tackles for loss, a pass breakup and a forced fumble. But that’s just one turnover forced (the only one between himself and McIntyre), and that’s not gonna cut it. O’Brien picked off three balls and forced a fumble, but he was basically on his own as a splash player on the backend.

McMillon is confident that the added time together, the confidence in the system, will lead to having more next season — and producing more next season.

“Whenever you’re going through a new defense, new place, new beginning, you might have worries or be a bit nervous, but now I get to have fun,” McMillon said last month. “And when you’re having fun, you get to lead. Being vocal throughout the defense is something I’ve tried to work on because now we’re the old heads on the defensive side of the ball. Being vocal, having fun and trying to not just make plays but splash plays.”

The potential for splash plays is high. McIntyre, especially, put himself in a position to make plays. He was close to a handful of interceptions — after picking off two passes in 2022. O’Brien made plays. McIntyre is confident that the splash plays will come in abundance this season, and it stems from an increased level of confidence on the field.

“We walk into this building, and everyone here has confidence that we’re not a 3-9 team; everyone knows that” McIntyre said. “We did not play up to our standards at all. We’re built on the pillars back there, attitude, effort, toughness, knowledge and I feel like we didn’t have any of them pillars last year, so we’re trying to incorporate them pillars into our game and if we do that, we’re gonna have the result we want to have.”

The safeties are experienced — at least, McIntyre, McMillon and O’Brien are. The cornerbacks, the ones returning, aren’t. It’s, as McMillon said, almost a complete 180. Where there was Devonshire, Williams and A.J. Woods last season, there’s McIntyre, McMillon and O’Brien now.

There’s an expectation in the Pitt safeties room to not help just the young safeties (Brookins and Anderson) but the cornerbacks as a whole — Ryland Gandy, Tamon Lynum, Rashad Battle, Tamarion Crumpley and Noah Biglow.

“Last year, I was becoming that leader, and now this year I’m definitely that leader,” McIntyre said. “Like, me, (Donovan) and P.J., we’re all leaders in that safety room because we all got experience and have starts under our belt. But I feel like my role is a leader and just to help the young guys with the playbook, even if you’re not in my position group.”

McMillon also pointed to confidence. It’s not exactly a “new” unit, but it’s a very different unit — bolstered by new additions via the transfer portal and the high school ranks. The safeties have the added benefit of being together for quite some time now. O’Brien is very vocal, McMillion is trying to be and they’re all working together. It’s comfortable.

There’s a certain level of friendship in the Pitt safeties room, one that transcends bonds built on the football field, and those bonds bode well for the future.

It isn’t as if the Pitt defense just collapsed last season. It certainly wasn’t the strongest unit in recent memory, but if there had been any sort of offensive support, the unit would have looked a lot better. There will be tweaks, certainly, a lot of self-scouting, and that’s in the pursuit of reaching the standard set by past Pitt defenses.

“I feel like we had major growth,” McIntyre said. “Even through the season last year, me, Don and P.J., we grew so much from Week 1 to Week 12, and now from the winter to the spring, I can just see all of our growth — on the field, off the field.”