Another Freshman Breaking Out For Pitt Offense
PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers have heaped endless praise upon the four true freshmen receivers - Kenny Johnson, Lamar Seymore, Israel Polk and Zion Fowler-El - that have been lighting up training camp so far. The coaching staff also believes there's a wealth of talent at linebacker that entered in the latest recruiting class.
Now the Panthers can add another name to the group of true freshmen standouts impressing as summer training camp hits it's dog days - running back Montravius Lloyd.
"And I’ll tell you, Montrvius Lloyd - I don’t know if you guys have heard from Montravius yet," Head coach Pat Narduzzi said. "But Montravius has stepped up. He’s getting better every day, so
Narduzzi has said previously that he's been impressed with Lloyd's speed but as the pads come on, the power has been noticeable as well. Entering his college career as one of the lower-rated players in Pitt's 2023 recruiting class, Lloyd is outplaying his recruiting site evaluation so far even as a summer enrollee that is behind some of his peers in terms of learning the playbook.
Lloyd looks the part of a Power 5 running back even as he's just a couple of months into his college career. Listed at 5'10 and 185 pounds, on the field and in pads, he looks more like redshirt senior C'Bo Flemmister or redshirt sophomore Derrick Davis, who both weigh north of 200 pounds.
Narduzzi is eager to see how he carries the weight into a fully-padded and live scrimmage this weekend. It's one thing to carry size but to use it effectively is quite another. But Narduzzi warned not to sleep on Lloyd's athletic ability, because he's eager to see the true freshman tailback - who played all over the field in high school - take on a variety of roles coming out of the backfield.
"He’s a tailback but we’re going to throw to the tailback out of the backfield," Narduzzi said. "He’s caught a couple nice wheel routes out of the backfield, so he’s an athlete who can do a lot of different things."
The Panthers have a deep running backs room led by Rodney Hammond, C'Bo Flemmister and Daniel Carter with LSU transfer Derrick Davis progressing. But Narduzzi isn't counting Lloyd out of the rotation just yet.
"There’s another tailback," Narduzzi said. "You go, ‘Hmm, he might be able to play for us this year, too.’"
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