PITTSBURGH — The story of Pitt football’s 2024 season will be decided on the offensive side of the ball.
After a dismal year of trying and largely failing to put up enough points on the scoreboard, the Panthers overhauled their system and staff.
There is curiosity, if not outright excitement, about what new offensive coordinator Kade Bell will bring to Pittsburgh, but there is a long way to go before this offense is ready for prime time (or noon on Aug. 31, in this case).
Spring ball was all about getting everyone comfortable with the pace. The assistant coaches threw install after install at the players so they had baseline knowledge of the system by the time fall camp came around. Now it’s time to get more granular, iron out details and make sure the operations of an intricate system are ready to go when Kent State visits Acrisure Stadium on the final day of August.
“We’re taking our game from where it was, ‘Yeah, it’s spring, go fast, and we don’t care if you make a mistake,’” wide receivers coach J.J. Laster said. “Now we’re going deeper into understanding alignments, assignments, spacing, leverages and things like that.”
Bell and his new starting quarterback, Nate Yarnell, are self-described perfectionists, so there might never be a point where they feel this team has mastered their new system. But they’ll get as close as they can before opening day.
“I think we’re taking it one day at a time,” Yarnell said. “We’re in a great place right now, and we have a lot of time left in camp to make sure everything’s right, so I’m really excited about the time we have left, and I’m excited to get after it.”
Working overtime
The offense is still a work in progress, and Yarnell said it became apparent early in the summer that just the regularly scheduled practice time wouldn’t be enough, so he and his teammates decided to do something about it.
In addition to their strictly regulated and NCAA-sanctioned conditioning, the Panthers’ offense spent hours of their summer weekends back on the fields at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. Led by quarterbacks Nate Yarnell and Eli Holstein, Pitt’s entire offensive unit repped play after play, working through different stages of the offensive install without the help of their position coaches. According to Yarnell, the entire unit turned in perfect attendance records.
“If anybody wasn’t there,” he said, “It would have been a problem.”
Head coach Pat Narduzzi doesn’t think these “OTAs” — short for organized team activities — necessarily led to a smoother first practice. Still, their willingness to put in extra hours reflects a sense of urgency that has dominated Pitt’s players and coaches since the calendar turned to 2024.
Their new system has been a lot to digest — and mastery of it is critical to their desire to rectify the shortcomings of 2023 — so every extra minute they use to run routes, fine-tune alignments and memorize assignments is time well-spent.
“I think it’s a huge change from the spring,” Yarnell said. “Just seeing how much more confident guys are in where they’re supposed to be and how they’re lined up and their route-running. And I think it showed up when we got on the field today.”
No respect, no respect at all
Pitt, and Narduzzi in particular, has demonstrated a notable openness to change in the face of a disastrous season. But despite all they did to address the failures of 2023, not many throughout ACC country are optimistic it will result in anything tangible.
The ACC revealed the results of its preseason poll, which was voted on by attending media at last week’s ACC Kickoff event on Wednesday. The Panthers were pegged for their lowest finish in the projected standings since joining the league in 2014.
Pitt was picked to finish 13th, just ahead of Boston College, Wake Forest, Virginia and Stanford. The Eagles even earned a surprising first-place vote, while the Panthers did not. Florida State is favored to repeat as ACC Champions, followed by Clemson, Miami and NC State in that order. Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and Cal were the only other teams to earn first-place votes.
There isn’t much belief in the Panthers right now, but that’s to be expected. After a 3-9 season, there isn’t much room to complain about disrespect, perceived or otherwise.
At the onset of their first training camp practice, Pitt players broke down an opening huddle on “1-2-3, ACC CHAMPS.” To realize that lofty affirmation, Pitt will have to stun just about everyone who follows its league, climb a long way up to one of the top two spots in the league standings and earn their respect the hard way.
