Everything was lined up for Pitt to have its best season under Pat Narduzzi in 2020.
His quarterback, Kenny Pickett, was entering his third full season as a starter. His defense was loaded with a three players projected to be selected in the early rounds in Jaylen Twyman, Paris Ford and Patrick Jones II, with a slew of seniors behind them to fill out a roster.
Then as the pandemic changed the world, Spring practices were cancelled and the very existence of the season became in doubt. The coaches had to hold Zoom calls with their players to go over the schemes and concepts as their players sat in their homes to listen, ask questions and learn.
Then they lost their best player, Twyman, who was part of the 2019 All-ACC team, when he opted out for the season.
But through all of it, Pitt has looked to thrive through their struggles. When they couldn't meet in person, they maximized the opportunity to focus on learning more about the game. When they faced the question of accountability for young college students to not participate in parties and situations that might expose them to COVID-19, they accepted it as a challenge of self-discipline.
And the team seems to be better for it.
During the Spring, the coaching staff had extended Zoom meetings with players to go over the theory of the game and provide more in-depth mental reps for how different play calls would work. Senior guard Bryce Hargrove said on Tuesday via Zoom that it helped the group understand the game more.
"We learned what our flaws were, and now we're working on those," Hargrove recalled from their meetings. "There's so much stuff we learned every day. I liked having mental days like that. We'll go on our grease boards and coach [Dave] Borbely would pick me out to run the meeting or he would pick Jimmy Morrissey out to lead the group. We learned so much from that process."
For a player like Hargrove, who's played in all 27 Pitt contests over the past two seasons, that might seem like more of a refresher. But for the newly announced starting Mike linebacker, Wendell Davis, the process helped take his mental preparation more so he could see results when they finally took the field during the Summer.
"Easy part of that was we had a lot of mental reps," David recalled. "There were a lot of meetings with stuff on the whiteboard. The hardest part of that was physical reps, because if you're not physically doing it you can only go so far. I'm one of those people who needs to go out there and physically do something in order to get it done."
Davis is in a unique position after playing mostly special teams in 2019 and ascending to a starting spot in the middle of a highly touted Pitt defense as a redshirt sophomore. He asked what his coaches needed of him after last season and didn't let the difficulties of a pandemic impede his path to becoming a starter at 20 years old.
"This was definitely a goal I set for myself before the season started," Davis said of becoming a starter. "At the end of every season we have meetings with our coaches, so I pretty much asked coach [Rob] Harley and coach [Narduzzi] what they wanted to see out of me to earn that spot. They gave me advice on what I could do, I looked at their notes on that, and focused on that going into Fall camp. Coming in as a young Mike linebacker playing Narduzzi's defense, you can be timid at times making calls. They wanted me to be more vocal, that's what they wanted to see. I knew the rest would take care of itself if I played hard with good technique, so I wanted to be more vocal and be more of a leader."
The Mike linebacker carries a lot of responsibilities. It's the position in a 4-3 defense where most communication flows to and from, requiring a lot of talking, understanding and relaying of information in a span of seconds.
On Davis' journey he's leaned on learning from Pitt players from last year and leaders still on the roster in 2020. Last year he cited the now graduated linebacker Saleem Blackwell.
"As a young linebacker, I had a lot of great guys to look after" Davis recalled from last year. "Saleem was my guy. He really took me under his wing and showed me a lot. When things got rough, he always kept me up. I applaud him a lot because it helped me a lot as far as my development."
And this year, redshirt senior starting outside linebacker Phil Campbell has helped push him even further.
"Phil Campbell is a great player," Davis said. "He helped me a lot by staying on me. For example, last Spring he might not have said something, but coming in this year he's gotten on me if I didn't communicate. That helped me out because the seniors demand that of me, because if I don't make calls we're going to be in trouble. All of the guys from the d-line, to the outside backers to the safeties for them demanding calls for me, that helped me a lot. I don't want to let those guys down or the team down."
But what Hargrove would emphasize is that Pitt's leadership isn't just carried by its senior leadership. It's bolstered by young players like Wendell Davis and sophomore running back Vincent Davis who also find themselves leading by example and holding other players accountable.
"We have a lot of leaders," Hargrove said. "Not just the captains or the seniors. We have young guys stepping up too. A young guy who stands out to me is Vincent Davis, he's stepped up a lot, even vocally, as a redshirt sophomore. I appreciate that because we see the young guys stepping up and saying something, and that pushes us to learn from each other. And that's how you become a great team."
Part of what's helped with the transition into this season was keeping the same coaching staff, something Hargrove noted when praising his offensive line coach Dave Borbely.
"It means a lot," Hargrove said of keeping the same coaching staff. "I like working with coach Borbely. He's a great o-line coach. He's easy to understand, easy to relate to, and he does well at developing us by finding something we need to improve and helping us improve right away. We all appreciate that and it's why we play harder for him."
But make no mistake, Hargrove sees a difference in this year's team from where it's been in recent years.
"There's definitely a different atmosphere," Hargrove said. "We all hold each other to a higher standard, and ourselves to a higher standard. We all want to do great so bad, we hold each other up so that our play is at a high level. And that's off the field, on the field, our discipline is at a high level."
That discipline has been key in holding each other accountable off the field. As classes open and students roam the streets of Oakland, the players emphasize policing themselves to stay out of situations that might lead higher chances of testing positive for COVID-19 and not being able to play in a game.
"It's just self-discipline," Wendell Davis said of the message resonating with the team. "I'll drive around Friday night to get some food and you see some kids having fun at off-campus houses doing some college kids things. And as a 20-year old, of course that would be fun and part of the college experience. But for us to keep the season going we all have to be responsible. I would be doing my team a disservice if I was to go out there and be selfish and then lose a spot because I wanted to go party. It's all about how bad you want it. If you really want to play you're not going to do that stuff. It's a sacrifice. Sacrifice that pleasure time to be with the team."
And after enduring all this, Pitt looks like they're ready to keep sacrificing. Not just for college football and their season to continue, but also because they believe this team can go far. Their goal isn't just to finish the season, and Hargrove illustrated that the team message is to stick to the ultimate goal of winning the ACC.
"Open communication's been the best way," Hargrove said of how the players hold each other accountable. "We remind each other every day that we have an ultimate goal. We ask, 'what's more important? One day's satisfaction or our ultimate goal at the end of the season?' Everybody agrees that it's our ultimate goal of playing these games, winning these games, going to the championship and winning. Outside of staying here late to get in my workouts, treatments and film, I go right home and stay there."
As the team approaches their season opener against Austin Peay, we'll see how Pitt handles the testing process and how much of the team is available. Narduzzi explained yesterday and extensive testing process every game week that would include four tests during a week, including one the players received today, that would determine if they have COVID-19.
Should we see all or the large majority of the team available to play on Saturday, it would show that at least through training camp and the first week of the season that the players are buying into the message from the coaches and the leaders.