Tuesday Pitt Football QB Notebook: Building Rhythm on Deep Routes

It took the Pitt Panthers some time to find a rhythm while they worked on the vertical passing game.

PITTSBURGH -- An intense weekend scrimmage on Saturday was followed by a night practice and a day off on Monday. You could tell there was some rust on the Pitt Panthers' quarterbacks on Tuesday as they worked 

The vertical passing game was a focal point of Pitt's work on Tuesday, with Tiquan Underwood and Frank Cignetti barking calls and corrections to their pass throwers and pass catchers as the two groups worked together during the early portions of practice. 

They began with quick hits over the middle, in routes breaking at five yards of depth. Then they increased the degree of difficulty with eight yard outs before uncorking go routes and deep post patterns.  

Kedon Slovis and Nick Patti were both unable to connect consistently with the groups of Panther receivers streaking down the field on vertical routes. Standing near the thirty yard line and throwing into the endzone, Cignetti wanted his quarterbacks throwing to goal line or within two to three yards. 

According to calls from a team manager, who was watching where balls landed at Cignetti's request, the two quarterbacks were hitting the mark after some initial misses. 

"That should be a completion," Cignetti said every time a ball thrown on target hit the turf. 

But the chemistry came along as the reps did and by the time the Panthers had moved on to tossing post routes, they looked like simple pitches and catches. 

Slovis and Patti threw primarily to Bub Means, Konata Mumpfield, Jaden Bradley, Jaylon Barden, Jared Wayne, Myles Alston, Gavin Thompson and Jake McConnachie  while the younger receivers and quarterbacks worked on the opposite side of the field. 

Another point from Tuesday's practice worth noting was that head coach Pat Narduzzi mentioned three different defenders who came up with interceptions - Bangally Kamara, Rashad Battle and Shayne Simon. That trio is understood to be real competitors not just for playing time, but for starting spots, which would indicate that they were playing against Pitt's top offense. 

Narduzzi declined to say who threw each of the picks. 

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