Pitt's 22.5 points per game allowed ranked third among ACC defenses in 2019, while also ranking 37th overall in the NCAA. A year later and unit team retains several starters, but is missing its superstar defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman after he opted out of the season. That news was coupled with the fact that starting senior cornerback Damarri Mathis would miss the season with a non-football injury, requiring two young spots to be filled on defense from 2019.
Wednesday via Zoom, senior cornerback Jason Pinnock both acknowledged the challenge the defense faces and the confidence he has in the defense to still have a great year.
"It's definitely going to change when you have a projected first rounder leave the team and Damarri who would've been on his fourth year of experience at corner," Pinnock said of the defense missing both Twyman and Mathis. "But it's football, it's next man up mentality. That's something we've been dealing with and we have trust in all of our guys."
Pinnock and Mathis are close and were ready to go into their senior seasons together as starting cornerbacks in a secondary that featured another senior in safety Damar Hamlin and star safety Paris Ford who projects as a high pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. He revealed that Mathis told him before the news broke about his having to miss the season.
"He called me personally and was down on it," Pinnock recalled. "He knows I've had surgery before and asked how to battle that mentally. I've been there for him and told him not to beat himself because God has a plan. I explained that to him that we're just living in it, we have to accept it and let the adversity teach you."
Adversity has been a theme heading into the 2020 season. Between losing players, not having Spring camp, having to stay at home for most of the Summer and meet with players and coaches via Zoom, Pitt has had to adapt to a lot. Even now their players challenge themselves to be more responsible and hold each other accountable to make the right decisions through all this.
But on the field, Pinnock says the players' reliance on each other has become an advantage.
"You hit the nail on the head with what I'd start with," Pinnock said when asked about what's made them better through a complicated training camp. "The trust. We have a lot of trust in each other. We've made our mistakes together and we've had success together. And that's the biggest thing. On communication, we talk so much. I've noticed how much more we talk pre-snap now. Before it was just 'do your job,' but now we're seeing things we weren't seeing together before, whether that was 2018 and 2019."
That growth and chemistry is there even with the team having redshirt sophomore Marquis Williams starting at cornerback in Mathis' place. The majority of the defense has it down, but Pinnock acknowledged that Williams and redshirt sophomore cornerback A.J. Woods who Williams beat for the first start of the season, are both learning fast.
"They're gaining trust and earning trust everyday," Pinnock said. "Whether that's mentally with grasping the playbook or making the plays when the time comes. With our defense we have to have that edge, especially at corner. You're left on an island a lot. You have to know and believe you're the best. That's what we're seeing out of them and we're getting great production out of both of them."
There goes Pinnock using the T-word again, "trust."
Pinnock eludes to more of that trust being built through a Spring and Summer filled with Zoom meeting between players and coaches, as well as Facetime calls between players recapping what they just learned to each other.
"I was talking to my DB coach a few weeks ago and we were saying how much faster we're playing because we actually understand the concepts of the defense," Pinnock recalled. "You know what other pieces are doing and you know more about where the voided zones are and things like that. Even the younger guys surprise me when they answer questions."
Some of those younger guys include freshman cornerbacks Rashad Battle and Jahvante Royal. Pinnock is considered a bigger cornerback at 6-foot-0, 200 lbs. But both Battle and Royal stand at 6-foot-3, with Battle's 200 lbs. a little heavier than Royal's 195 lbs. They're the prototypical big corners of the future on the outside for the program. Pinnock sees that and is inspired by their growth with him in their freshman year.
When asked about what's helped the most with their quick growth in the program, Pinnock cited their willingness to listen to what the players and coaches are teaching.
"I would say receptiveness," Pinnock said of Battle and Royal's best traits. "Anytime you talk to them, there's no talking back, they just want to understand. They genuinely want to understand the concepts of the defense and opposing offenses. That's what's going to separate them and I keep stressing that to them to be receptive to not just coaches, but players in the room with you. They've been extremely receptive, and that doesn't touch their physique. They're big corners just like me. Trying to talk to them within their game of being a big corner, our game's different than a 5-8, 5-9, 5-10 corner. We've got to use our size."
Pinnock expanded the praise of Battle and Royal to the freshman class that's joined Pitt this season, citing their embracing of the obstacles that come with Zoom meetings and how they've turned a once-perceived disadvantage into a strength.
"They're really grasping the knowledge," Pinnock said of this freshman class. "And that's something with other classes that weren't given the opportunity because when you come in during the Summer time, things are flying. It's workouts, it's meetings and all type of stuff. Getting that downtime with the Zoom meetings and even our Factimes between teammates where we talk more football, we've had even more time to grasp what's going on within our defense, conceptually."
Learning about what's needed on the field and how to be responsible off of it is something this Pitt program seems to have gripped this Pitt team. Tuesday we heard from both the perspective of both senior and sophomore starters on how the players hold each other accountable in the face of a challenge that's never been in the way of a modern college football team.
Wednesday, Pinnock reinforced that message.
"I think people tend to forget these are 17, 18, 19, 20-year old guys," Pinnock said. "We're dealing with something that's one-of-a-kind with COVID going on, these protocols and trying to stay safe. We're also fighting the temptation to be a typical college student with partying or whatever. I'm extremely proud of the team, my room and everybody. It takes everybody."
And COVID-19 has brought so many other changes that don't necessarily impact play on the field, but still change the circumstances around the game. Pinnock talked about what it will be like with his parents not being there to watch him for the first time since he started playing at seven years old.
"I called my mom last night," Pinnock recalled. "I said, 'you haven't missed a game since I was seven!' It's crazy. My dad coaches me since I was seven all the way through high school and never missed a game. I know that they're there, just not physically there. So not having that sideline presence is going to be different for me, but it's something I have to adapt to. My parents have been extremely present in my athletic career. My grandma and my mom are my roadrunners, they'll drive or fly anywhere. But right now, they need to stay home and stay safe. I'm not letting my grandma out of the house."