Pitt WR Konata Mumpfield Leading On and Off the Field

Konata Mumpfield wasn’t around for the conference title in 2021, but he’s one of the most experienced players on the offense. He’s one of the most trusted players on the team.

There’s a reason Mumpfield was voted a team captain by his teammates before the season.

And with four games left in the regular season (and a guaranteed bowl appearance), he’s just 26 yards away from setting a new career-high in receiving yards with the Panthers. He’s taken the next step on the field this season, serving as the WR1, but he’s been just as important off the field.

It’s not exactly a young wide receiving corps (with Poppi Williams and Censere Lee having experience and Kenny Johnson getting some reps last season), but it’s a brand-new offense led by a second-year freshman quarterback.

Pitt has leaned on Mumpfield from a leadership standpoint, especially as the offense has stagnated over the last few weeks.

“He’s lead by example, like on Sunday, they had an all-players meeting, they had a players-only meeting,” JJ Laster said Tuesday after practice. “So, they could talk about what happened on Saturday, and Konata was a part of it, he was one of the captains. So, he’s doing a great job of leading those guys, getting those guys to rally together and just say, hey, the season’s not over, we still got a lot of ball to play.”

Pitt didn’t hit the standard its come to expect in a bad loss to SMU, but it was the continuation of three straight weeks of subpar play. If the Panthers are to return to the lofty heights experienced earlier this season, it starts in practice.

It’s the little details, the fundamentals emphasized throughout the week, that will get the Panthers back to where they want to be.

Pittsburgh Panthers wide receiver Konata Mumpfield (9) September 14, 2024. Michael Longo/PSN

“When we come out for practice, don’t take practice for granted,” Mumpfield said. “Making sure we dominate our one-on-ones in practice because that ultimately translates to the games. So, just making sure we go over the details, our depth, running the right routes, making sure we’re in the right spot for the quarterback and obviously doing extra. What you get in is what you get out.”

A loss isn’t the end of the world for the Panthers. Pitt is a good football team, with all of its goals still within reach, but as Mumpfield said, good teams bounce back from adversity.

“I think we’ll bounce back well,” Mumpfield said. “This is a tough team, we have a lot of grit, we have a chip on our shoulder and we got a lot of dogs. You can see it from the Cincinnati game and even this game, even though we was down a lot, we fought hard no matter what the score was. We kept each other motivated and kept each other up.”

There’s determination in the locker room, and on the practice field, but it comes down to execution on the field on Saturdays.

Opposing teams have responded to the offensive success this season by disguising coverages, playing cover 2 or cover 3 and dropping as many as players in coverage — forcing Eli Holstein to adjust on the fly. It’s worked. It’s forced the coaching staff to give those looks in practice, helping Holstein adapt to coverages he’s never seen before.

But the wide receivers can help take some of the weight off Holstein’s shoulders by identifying and attacking coverages, too.

“We also talk about pre-snap and post-snap read, the things that let you know whether it’s zone or man,” Laster said. “All depends on the alignment of the DB, all depends upon the alignment of the safety and different things like that, to give them keys on whether it’s zone or man. But also, you just gotta be able to post-snap read. After the snap is snapped, you gotta get your eyes to the coverage and see whether it’s zone or whether it’s man, different things like that.”

Mumpfield, along with a veteran like Poppi Williams, have been able to consistently diagnose coverages and create opportunities for Holstein.

Mumpfield has been targeted 51 times this season, which is a team-high, and he’s turned those targets into 33 receptions for 541 yards (16.4 yards per reception) and three touchdowns.

Pitt has used Mumpfield out wide this season the most since his freshman season at Akron (61% of his snaps), and it’s led to more opportunities in the offensive system. He’s racking up just over 5.1 yards after catch per reception, which is par the course for his Pitt career, but his average depth of target (13.7) is way higher than either of the past two seasons.

Mumpfield and Desmond Reid, somewhat unsurprisingly, have been the most effective route runners this season. Their 1.95 yards per route run pace the team.

If Pitt is going to bounce back against Virginia, Mumpfield — on and off the field — should be a big reason why.