Pitt won its season opener, 55-0, over terribly overmatched Austin Peay Saturday at Heinz Field. Leading the way for the Panthers' most lopsided opening win under Pat Narduzzi was senior quarterback Kenny Pickett.
Pickett took charge with 277 passing yards from 14 completions on 20 attempts and one touchdown, on top of 23 yards on two carries for a rushing touchdown.
That's the way to start a season showing being more than just an experienced quarterback.
"He did a great job," Narduzzi said after the game via Zoom. "When we wanted to be explosive, he was explosive. Some of the things we did in the passing game to open up our run game, he was on fire. And again he led our offense. He's the key to our offense. He's a captain, but he's been a leader for the last three years, and he's going to be a great leader now as a captain and a quarterback. He did an outstanding job. I don't know if you could have played any better than Kenny Pickett played today."
It was a special day for Pickett as he was greeted by his mother, who drove from their home in New Jersey, outside Heinz Field before the game before watching it at a nearby hotel because fans couldn't attend.
"Special moment to have my mom there," Pickett said. "She's at every game and it means the world to me. I love my mom to death. Being able to hug her before the game means everything to me. I'm actually about to go meet her outside, they watched [the game] at the hotel."
Saturday marked Pickett's ninth game with multiple touchdowns among his 28 career starts. He led a Pitt offense that scored touchdowns in all six of its drives with Pickett at quarterback. The offense scored with five different rushers, the most the program has had in a single game since their 2016 win against Syracuse.
"I thought it was very clean," Narduzzi said of the offense. "Obviously we still had a couple dropped balls, but I thought it was as clean as we have looked. And like I said, I wanted to make a statement and I thought our run game looked solid. We played a lot of tailbacks today. I thought our O-line did an outstanding job of blocking. And then Kenny was sharp. Kenny put the ball where it needed to be 99 percent of the time and that's, there's a lot of decisions to make back there at the quarterback spot. So I thought our number one offense was very, very sharp."
Pickett even used his legs to spark the offense, scoring the second touchdown of the day on a six yard run where he dove and hit the pylon.
"He told me, I'm going to -- if that guy, that shoulder -- if that guy turns, I'm taking it, and he did," Narduzzi said while describing Pickett's touchdown run. "So he's a guy that can run with the football. We got a lot of confidence in him. There might be more where that came from."
Pickett had other opportunities before his touchdown as Pitt ran a no huddle offense with plenty quarterback option runs in the first quarter. But on all of them he would defer to his running backs until he scored.
Three of Pickett's 14 completions resulted in plays that went over 50 yards for Pitt, including a touchdown to new transfer wide receiver from Maryland, D.J. Turner.
"It's been pretty smooth because he's a veteran guy," Pickett said of Turner. "He goes about his work like a pro. I love playing with D.J. He was a huge pickup for us, was very underrated. Looking at him come in a week and a half ago and now we see how well he's done and picked up the offense, he'll get more and more plays added for him with his versatility moving forward."
Speaking on the other receivers he was able to connect with on deep passes, like freshman Jaylon Barden on a 68-yard pass in the second quarter, Pickett acknowledged the athleticism of his receivers.
"I think we got more speed," Pickett said. "We talked about guys running by people and creating separation. Obviously that'll be a huge asset to our game."
Half of Pickett's 14 completions went to true freshman slot wide receiver, Jordan Addison, who took his seven completions for 35 yards. Most of his completions were short range, but he dropped a deep ball that, if caught, would've most likely resulted in a touchdown.
"Yeah, I mean, and he could have probably had nine," Narduzzi said when asked about the Addison's seven receptions. "So I know he's kicking himself in the butt. He's a good football player. I think I've given you guys a preview what he could be and I think he's only going to get better every down. The scary part is him back there catching the punts. And for a freshman to go back and there catch punts, as a head coach, that's the one thing that's a little scary about putting a guy back there, but he was outstanding."
Addison made his first collegiate start and growing pains are to be expected of anyone his age, but Pickett showed how good a player should be when they're a senior with 27 starts under his belt.
Narduzzi said after the game that he wanted to make this season opener a statement game for everyone to see, and Pickett's leadership played a role in that.
"We talked all week just about coming out and making a statement," Narduzzi said. "I told the guys probably about a week and a half ago, maybe two and a half weeks ago, I guess when camp broke we started working on Austin Peay, that we were going to come out and make a statement. And since I've been here I felt like we haven't come out and exploded against anybody. I don't want to say played down, but the big emphasis today was to come out and play up and we were going to show that we were a different football team and really make a statement to the country about who we are and what kind of weapons we have on really all three phases of the game."
Narduzzi is now 5-1 in season opening games with his only loss coming against Virginia last season. But in three of those games Pitt has faced FCS teams and none of them featured a margin of victory as big as what Pitt put up Saturday. That lack of a dominating performance over the 18 games Narduzzi had previously faced FCS opponents like Austin Peay was a reason for him to want his team to dominate the way they did at Heinz Field.
"When we play up to our level, that's what an opener should look like," Narduzzi said after the win. "Probably one of our biggest margins of victory since I've been here, and like I said, going back to Youngstown State where we win in an overtime. I know Kenny didn't play in that game last year. I look at Eastern Michigan where we just kind of play hard enough just to win the football game and I wanted to prove that this 2020 team was a different team and they really are. In the attitude all week in practice they shrug everything off and (say) 'Let's go, Coach.' They're ready to go."
• Pitt's defense had six players lead the team with three tackles each: Paris Ford, Jason Pinnock, Patrick Jones II, Bangally Kamara, Devin Danielson and SirVocea Dennis. Ford coupled that with a tackle for loss and an interception.
• Narduzzi spread 29 carries among his running backs for a total of 113 yards. But Vincent Davis was the team's leading rusher with 11 carries for 43 yards, a 3.9 yards per carry average, and two touchdowns. Israel Abanikanda, otherwise known as Izzy, had the highest yards per carry average with 5.2 yards from 26 yards on five carries. Starting running back A.J. Davis had five carries for 24 yards, but no touchdowns.
Narduzzi wouldn't commit to saying any of the running backs distinguished themselves to be the primary ball carrier moving forward.
"I'm looking just at the sheet sitting in front of me," Narduzzi said when asked of his running backs. "I thought that they all did some good things. Vince Davis made some people miss. The running backs held onto the ball. It looks like Vince Davis had two touchdowns, but -- it looks like he had the most carries. But Izzy was impressive. I thought A.J. Davis was really good early. Again, we just didn't, you know, we were able to play a lot of guys and I think that's the best part of this football game today."
• Narduzzi spoke on the leadership by his team, noting how several seniors stepped up over the week and especially on game day.
"We've got four captains that are making sure the message gets across to everybody," Narduzzi said. "I think it comes down to your senior leadership. This is a senior-laden team, and just the leadership of our football team. I would say the best teams are teams that are led by their seniors and captains. And, again, our captains have done a great job at leading them, making sure what the standard was going to be today, what the standard is going to be for 2020."
When that leadership helped them establish a commanding 42-0 lead before the end of the first half, Narduzzi used the opportunity to get more snaps in his younger players.
"Until I get to watch the tape and really evaluate it, it's hard to say," Narduzzi said when asked about which depth players stood out. "The guy that sticks out to me was Dayon Hayes, as I mentioned already. Bangally, at linebacker kind of did some things out there. He's got a little attitude to him. Offensively it was good to get [Matt] Goncalves out there, which I think we had some high hopes for. Owen Drexel. Some guys that haven't played a lot of football here that got a chance to go in there. We're going to evaluate it and make sure they get better next week because you may need everybody. Brandon George played a little fullback today as well. It's a little package we have been working on. So Brandon George played both sides of the ball, played just about every special team, so he's an asset for us."
Narduzzi would expand upon Hayes' performance in his first game as a true freshman. The local graduate of Westinghouse had two sacks late in the game along with a forced fumble.
"We saw Dayon Hayes, our little hometown hero, come in there and get two sacks," Narduzzi said. "One was a strip sack. So there were a lot of good things. I mean, we've got to look at that tape and maybe we got to find a place for Dayon to come in there and get a pass rush because he had a heck of a speed rush early against their twos, of course. But overall, hey, we're 1-0 and I'm excited about where we are."