Pitt Football Practice Takeaways: No Such Thing As 'Title Defense'

The first day of practice granted some insight into how the Pitt Panthers are approaching their encore to 2021's historic campaign.

PITTSBURGH -- August, more than any other month in the college football calendar, is prime cliche season. When cleat hits turf for the first time in late summer coaches mask their anxiety, excitement and insight behind old adages about competition and development. Pitt Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi's opening statement to assembled media on Monday was no different.

In it, the seventh-year head of this Pitt program called this offseason 'the smoothest' a summer has been and claimed that his strength and conditioning staff had made his team more athletic across the board. 

'We are significantly stronger than we were a year ago,' Narduzzi said. 'Our numbers went up in the squat, the bench. We're fast.'

The first day of practice yielded little time or space to evaluate those claims in full but did grant some insight into how the Panthers are approaching their encore to 2021's historic campaign. 

No Such Thing As a 'Title Defense'

Every team, whether they won 12 games or lost 12 games in 2021, will tell you that they are turning the page now that 2022 has rolled around. The past is ignored, for better or worse. While that may be true, Narduzzi doesn't want to act like 2021 never happened. 

'There's no target on our back and we are not really defending any because it's not going anywhere,' he said. 'It's there. [The ACC Championship] trophy is not going to leave that area out there in front of the building.'

Narduzzi instead reframed the question, saying that his team won't be passive or emerge surprised when opponents counter. It can't be the same approach if the Panthers want to reach the same heights. 

'We are not going to be the hunted. We are going hunting ourselves,' Narduzzi said. 'We are going after them and we are going after them harder than we did a year ago. ... I think it will be fun to watch but we are not going to sit back and do the same thing we did last year and think it's just going to happen again.'

Versatility is the Goal for Cignetti, New Offense

Speaking of different, enter Frank Cignetti Jr. He's familiar with the Panthers after having spent 2009-2010 with them as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach - the same position he holds now. 

During the offseason, offensive tackle Carter Warren said that the offense Cignetti's installing won't be much different from what Pitt had run under the previous coordinator, Mark Whipple. But the Panthers are clearly interested in changing their approach, according to Cignetti. 

'We'd love to be balanced in terms of run vs. pass. Everything is different based on how the game plays out. Obviously, we'll have to see with the personnel groupings, whether we're run-pass balanced or not. Football's a situational game.'

Narduzzi emphasized that same point, one he's made several times this offseason, but still wants the offense to be adaptive. Moving from pass-heavy to balanced doesn't mean reverting to football's stone age. 

'I think we'll be a little bit more balanced football team. We are going to still sling it around like we do, and we are still going to, but we have got to establish a little bit more of a running game at times. And we're also going to play, I've told you guys in the past, we are going to do what the box dictates.'

Western Michigan Loss Still Serves a Lesson

Pitt's loss to Western Michigan in 2021 was the but of endless external ridcule, even for a team that finished with 11 wins and a conference championship. It was one of the few blemishes on a great season and it eats at the Panthers almost 11 months after the fact. 

'Everyone knows that we fell short last year, even though we won a championship,' senior defensive end Habakkuk Baldonado said. 'We could have been in the College Football Playoff if we didn't stumble in the ways we did.'

It has stuck with them so much that, in the practice facility during the offseason, televisions around the building flashed the final score from that game regularly. It's a reminder of how close they were and how hard it is to reach the new heights they're aiming for. It's a constant, brutally painful lesson, according to redshirt junior safety Brandon Hill.  

'We learned a lot from that game,' Hill said. 'Everybody hates to lose. ... To have that in the back of our mind for the rest of the season, I feel like that fueled us. ... We want to come out and give our best shot because we're always going to get theirs.'

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