Why B.J. Williams Started Over Ryan Baer Against Cincinnati

Pat Narduzzi explained why the Pitt Panthers went with a true freshman over someone with more experience.

Author:
Stephen Thompson
Sep 13, 2023 7:59 AM EDT

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PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers were in a difficult position, having lost, Ryan Jacoby, a seasoned veteran they thought would be one of their starting guards, for the season midway through training camp.

As a result, the Panthers have had to rotate through two different starting right guards - from redshirt senior Jason Collier Jr. in the opener to true freshman B.J. Williams in Week 2. Ryan Bear had been impressive and versatile during training camp, but has been absent from the guard rotation through these past two weeks and head coach Pat Narduzzi said it's because the coaching staff has been careful not to overwhelm him.

"Ryan Baer is a great player," Narduzzi said. "He's kind of like that third tackle. You've got to be careful of repping a guy at different positions, and again, he's a ... jack of all, master of none, and that's our concern with a young guy like that. We want him to be that next tackle going in and get him prepared to right, left and right, whatever we want to do there. But playing him at three different spots, are we doing him a disservice?"

Pitt has been comfortable leaving Baer to learn both tackle spots because of how encouraged they are by Williams and his potential. Williams played just one series with the starting offensive line in Week 1 and got a whole game in against Cincinnati last weekend.

Narduzzi expects some significant steps forward as Williams plunges fully into his initial game reps as a college player.

"You look at BJ Williams took his first game reps, and he's going to get better," Narduzzi said. "He's going to learn a lot from really game 2 to game 3, for him game 1 to game 2 of just being in there. He was nervous the week before coming in in mop-up duty against Wofford. He goes, ‘Coach, I was nervous, but after the first play I was good,’ so I can't imagine what he was out there starting."

That said, the Panthers still believe in Baer's versatility and don't want to limit his potential if he proves to be their best option. So they're leaving the light on for Bear and others at guard heading into a marquee matchup at West Virginia this weekend.

"He could certainly go in there and play guard," Narduzzi said. "We'll look at it this week and find out what our best options are."

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