The Sharks Give Pitt Exactly What’s Needed for Defensive Success

In the 1975 smash hit Jaws, the titular “villain” isn’t seen on screen for nearly an hour and a half. A giant, man-eating shark is scary, but just the idea of the monster lurking unseen was enough to instill terror in the hearts of millions.

It’s not real; there is no Amity Island, a fictional town off the coast of Long Island. The odds of a shark attack are about 1 in 11.5 million. But Jaws isn’t just about that physical fear, it’s psychological. There’s an unstoppable force lurking somewhere beneath the surface. And it’s the soundtrack — the main theme, specifically — from composer John Williams that instills a grim sense of foreboding.

A solo tuba player alternates between E-F and F-F#. It’s unnerving. Williams has described the theme as, “grinding away at you, just as a shark would do, instinctual, unstoppable.” It’s no wonder the Pitt linebacking corps likens itself to a shark. Instinctual. Unstoppable. Grinding away. 

But there isn’t just one shark lurking in Pittsburgh, there’s a whole shiver.

Pittsburgh Panthers linebacker Rasheem Biles (31) August 31, 2024 Photo by David Hague/PSN

There was blood in the water at Acrisure Stadium last week.

Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord was one of the top quarterbacks in college football entering a Thursday night game against the Panthers, but he was devoured by the Sharks nonetheless. It wasn’t pretty.

It was like dipping a diver into shark-infested waters without the steel cage. The Sharks feasted.

“We hungry,” Kyle Louis said after the game. “We hungry for respect, we hungry for anybody that tries to come in here and think they can disrespect us. And just think they can get away with it. We pride ourselves on being called the Sharks, like if you come in here, you better learn how to swim. It’s that simple.”

McCord barely tread water as five of his 64 pass attempts were intercepted. And it was the Sharks who made an impact.

Rasheem Biles got the party started, setting the tone, as Kyle Louis said, with a 35-yard pick-six. He jumped a pass intended for ‘Cuse wideout Trebor Pena, reading it perfectly. Brandon George didn’t return his interception for a touchdown, but it still may have been the interception of the year. And Louis had the longest interception of the night, playing another pass perfectly, returning the pick 59 yards for a touchdown. All in one quarter.

“And (Braylan Lovelace) was left out, so you know he had to get one, caught one off a screen,” Louis said. “So, I’m definitely proud of my Sharks.”

Lovelace had the only interception of the second quarter, hauling in a poorly thrown screen off the bounce and racing 33 yards to the end zone. It was the third defensive touchdown of the half — 21 of 31 first half points.

It was a statement performance for the defense but especially for the Sharks.

The Sharks — Louis, Biles, George, Lovelace and Jordan Bass, in this instance — combined for 32 tackles (18 solo), four tackles for loss, two sacks, four interceptions (three returned for touchdowns), a pass breakup and three quarterback hits against Syracuse.

“We all got stuff to prove,” Biles said after the game. “We all hungry. We just know what we want; we want to get to that next level. We want to be the best in the nation, and we’ve been saying that since we started calling ourselves the Sharks. We want to be the best in the nation. We just keep training for that, preparing for that and we do all the extra stuff we need to do.”

It’s an entirely new starting unit. Pitt had to replace all three starters at linebacker, and the unit — considering its youth and inexperience — was a question mark. It’s not anymore.

“It’s called development,” Narduzzi said last Thursday. “It’s called coaching. Coach Manalac does a great job with those Sharks, as we well know. Sharks were on attack today. Jaws would be proud of what happened out there today. Again, we knew it in spring ball. I mean, Kyle Louis was our best linebacker in spring ball. You could ask anybody on the offense, defense. Kyle Louis has been dominant. He remains dominant.

“Biles is right there with him. Lovelace, the last two weeks, that guy’s played lights out as well. Brandon George continues to play solid inside. It’s called development. It’s a style of defense we play. We’re attacking. It’s what we do. I don’t think Syracuse saw a defense like us coming into that game.”

Pittsburgh Panthers linebacker Brandon George (30) August 31, 2024 Photo by David Hague/PSN

Syracuse hadn’t seen a defense like the Panthers, sure, but it was the Sharks that rattled McCord. The Sharks struck early — and often.

It’s a movement on and off the field.

“People don’t understand, it’s really deep with us,” Biles said. “The more fans dressing up as sharks, we just love it because it’s really a movement. It shows how much work we put in, how good we are. So, every time we see some sharks, the signs, the shark animals that people have, people dressing up, it brings joy to us. I ain’t gonna lie, I might drop some Shark merch tonight.”

Pitt fans have embraced the Sharks to the utmost degree, with Acrisure Stadium boasting shark-clad fans as the Jaws theme plays over the speakers, but it obviously isn’t just a novelty. The Pitt linebacking corps is as good as its ever been under Narduzzi. If not the outright best.

It comes down to preparing for every single day like it’s the Super Bowl.

“That’s what we say every day in the room, every practice, every game is a Super Bowl,” Lovelace said Thursday. “No matter who we play, no matter what we’re doing and film study. All of us do film at the facility and also out of it. This game is everything to us, football is everything and we put our all into every week.”

It shows on the field. Pitt is allowing 22 points and 349 yards per game, way down from where those numbers sat earlier this season, and it’s large part because of the play at linebacker. Pitt sits top 10 nationally in run defense, allowing just 93 yards per game, and the tackles for loss, sacks and turnovers are up.

There’s a greater goal for the Sharks that’s shared by the defense as a whole. It’s nice to hear the Jaws theme at Acrisure Stadium, but it’s not needed for a shark attack.

“A lot of people still see us just being 9 and 3 or something, and we still taking that as disrespect,” Louis said. “We definitely hungry, we not complacent or satisfied, we don’t even care about the last games that just went on.”