Pitt Encouraged by Progress of Punt Team

The Pitt Panthers believe their punt team will be much stronger than it was a year ago.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers' punt team struggled mightily at times last season. At the beginning of the year, they struggled to get the kicks off. As the year progressed, even when they could get the kicks away, they didn't go very far. 

At one point, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi was at such a loss for a solution that he listed three punters as co-starters and used all three in some games. But the panthers are optimistic that portion of their special teams will take a step forward in 2023. 

“I would say right now, the punt team is looking pretty decent," Narduzzi said. "We’ve been stuck [indoors] so we’ve been hitting the roof a lot. So we’ll find out a little bit more when we get to go outside.”

The Panthers have options at punter. Special teams coordinator Andre Powell said they have worked two players - redshirt sophomore Caleb Junko and junior Jeff Yurk, a transfer from Elon - as their primary punters in practice. Junko was a part of the rotation last season while Yurk was setting records and earning FCS All-American status. Those two have both been impressive and have been aided by some streamlined communication as well, according to Powell. 

“We changed some things around," Powell said. "It’s a lot of the things we’ve already done. We just organized it a little better, gave it terminology and we’re just a lot more specific. We’ve got two good punters. We got two good snappers and we’ve got enough personnel to be really good on our punt team.”

Even with that unit taking big strides forward so far in spring ball, Powell has areas that his kickers need to improve in. He likes the legs both Junko and Yurk have but wants them to reign it in and kick with more control. They love distance but Powell wants to see some better hangtime as well. 

“[Yurk]’s a strong leg guy," Powell said. "He’s got to work on hang time. I mean, he kicks the ball and it goes too far with not the appropriate hang time. Junko kicked a 70-yard punt on the turf [this week]. A 70-yard punt. We snapped it on the minus 43 yard line and he kicked it out of the endzone. He’s got a strong leg but if he kicks it 70 yards in a game, he’s probably going to have to make the tackle. So we don’t want it to go quite that far.”

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