‘Expect the Most out of Him:’ Jeremiah Marcelin Attacking Opportunity in Pitt LB Room

Pitt linebackers Kyle Louis, Rasheem Biles and Braylan Lovelace have their eyes set on improving yet again after an ultra productive season in 2024, and now another piece in the linebacker room is looking join that group and be the next breakout candidate.

Sophomore Jeremiah Marcelin has been the talk of Pitt spring camp and is someone that has received growing praise from coaches and teammates alike.

“Jeremiah, he’s known the defense since he got here. Every time you come to the facility, you’ll see him here. He’ll be in the same chair in the linebacker room. He’s a very smart guy, very mature for his age. You saw him a little bit during the season. I would expect the most out of him. That guy’s a dog,” Lovelace said two weeks ago.

Marcelin has all the tools to be a playmaking linebacker, especially with the speed he possesses while standing at a lean 6-foot-2, 235 pounds.

“He’s physical. He just got a knack. You need someone to puncture and blitz hard and I see that out of him right now,” Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said on Thursday.

In his first year with the program, Marcelin burned his redshirt after playing in 10 games primarily on special teams and as a reserve linebacker. According to Pro Football Focus, Marcelin logged 35 total snaps at linebacker and recorded one tackle.

With middle linebackers Brandon George and Keye Thompson gone, Marcelin is making his presence known in spring, especially at the ‘mike’ linebacker position.

“He’s rotating in there,” Narduzzi said. “He’s playing a little bit of the boundary as well, the ‘money’ backer. He’s doing a little bit of both. He’s physical. From what I see, he’s going to earn himself a role on third down as well when we get in our third-down package.”

Pitt sophomore linebacker Jeremiah Marcelin (32) works with Abe Ibrahim (52) at spring practice on March 13, 2025 / Ed Thompson. PSN

Narduzzi and others have pointed at Marcelin’s maturity despite just in his second season at Pitt. For Marcelin, he has also felt that leadership take a leap this spring.

“I think I’ve become real vocal,” Marcelin said. “I think everybody knew I was already physical coming in kind of showed on special teams where I had fit in. I think it’s the vocal side of being a ‘mike.’ I think I’ve taken on that control when it comes to being on the field, making judgement decisions at times at ‘mike,’ you got to do that at times.”

Marcelin believes the vocal side was bound to come out, but taking reps at the ‘mike’ sped up the process. Still, he is prepared for the role after learning from George and Thompson last year.

“Coming in, I was the guy to learn behind Brandon George and Keye Thompson. I fit into special teams. To me, it was about being the best man for the job. Last year, coming in as a freshman trying to fit in, it was being the best man for the job. Now, it’s the same ideas, I’m just in a different setting. I’m at ‘mike’ competing, taking reps instead of being a reserve linebacker playing special teams,” Marcelin said.

Marcelin is also absorbing as much knowledge as possible from the returning veteran players in the room.

“In the room, we really talk about how we want to play stuff against certain schemes just playing as a unit. Once you get to doing that, you start seeing how – y’all already know how they talk about Kyle and [Rasheem], the best linebacker returning duo in the nation – but it’s because those guys really study film and talk to each other and understand how they want to play stuff,” Marcelin said.

While Marcelin has embraced ‘the sharks’ moniker from Louis and Biles, he has brought in his own mantra that encapsulates the type of mentality he has known as ‘eat face.’

Locked In… pic.twitter.com/P73TRbUHaA

— Jeremiah Marcelin (@m1ahhh__) March 16, 2025

“To me, playing linebacker is all about physicality. You just want to run through somebody’s face. You just want to hit somebody. You just want to make somebody feel you at linebacker. That aggression helped fuel the rest of the linebacker room. The aggression I have just turned everybody else up,” Marcelin said.

While Marcelin is battling Lovelace for snaps at the ‘mike,’ there is no doubt that the young linebacker will be on the field in one way or another.

“We’re going to need six backers to rotate in there,” Narduzzi said. “We consider him one of those guys. We’re going to rotate him in just like we did Lovelace, Biles and Kyle Louis last year just keeping them fresh and getting more speed on the field.”