As Pitt prepares for their showdown with Syracuse at Heinz Field on Saturday at Noon, they plan to build off a rushing attack that went for 147 yards and five touchdowns on 35 carries in their 55-0 win over Austin Peay.
The ground effort came from five different running backs, including last week's starter A.J. Davis, Vincent Davis, Israel Abanikanda, Todd Sibley Jr., and Daniel Carter.
After A.J. Davis' start with five carries for 24 yards against Austin Peay, Pat Narduzzi announced Thursday afternoon via Zoom that Vincent Davis would take over the starting job against Syracuse.
"They've all been good. It's going to come down to who's running like their tail's on fire," Narduzzi said when asked about which running back he favored this week. "That's what we're looking for and we'll eventually find it. We'll play them all and see what they got. But Vincent was the guy who showed up last week, so he'll start."
Vincent Davis ran for 43 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries against Austin Peay, a performance that was highlighted with several missed tackles. Narduzzi noted Davis' performance as the highlight of his running backs on Monday after the game via Zoom.
"They all did some good things," Narduzzi said. "But Vincent Davis was the guy that made people miss. Seemed like we take the words out of [running backs] coach [Andre] Powell's mouth, but when we block for seven, we get seven. We blocked for eight, we got eight. We blocked for three, we got three. You'd like to block for three and get eight, block for eight and get 28. You just need people to get in there and make things happen. Blocks were made but they won't be held forever. But a good running back is BYOB, be your own blocker. You've got to make people miss and that's one thing I saw Vincent do, and we saw him do last year. He's a good back."
That theme was certainly reciprocated by Powell, who spoke on Tuesday via Zoom and listed the priorities of focus for his running backs room.
"Our main job is to protect the football and we did that," Powell said of his running backs' performance last Saturday. "Our second job is to protect the quarterback, and we did that. Our third job is to extend the play. So if our line blocks a four yard play and we only get four yards, that's way below the bar. So we did not extend enough plays as well as I would've liked to have seen and that's one area we will work on."
Vincent Davis did the best job of that, forcing missed tackles in both the first and second halves of the game. Narduzzi noted that on Thursday and that he expects his running backs to break off a big run against Syracuse after their longest run against Austin Peay was a 17-yard scramble by Kenny Pickett.
"When I mentioned that last week, those guys need to make people miss," Narduzzi said. "You saw Vincent Davis do that two times. The offensive line needs to continue to block. A week ago we didn't turn somebody loose, but we're going to turn someone loose on Saturday, I can promise you."
Narduzzi said part of his admiration for his new starter is how he's seen him step up this season. Vincent Davis is a sophomore and already helping out a crowded running back room.
"Vince has really grown up," Narduzzi said. "He's out there tutoring guys, which I've never seen him do that before. He's not just about himself. That's an unselfish group of running backs and maybe too unselfish. I talk about being unselfish all the time but it's like they want to give everybody a turn. I'd rather have one guy back there and hand it off to him 50 times. But Vince has had a great week, and so has A.J. Davis. Izzy's [Israel Abanikanda] been good and so has Daniel Carter."
When it comes to the competition for carries in the room, Davis will tell you himself that the running backs feel they can rely on each other and have no problems sharing the carries.
"There's enough for anybody in the room," Davis said via Zoom on Tuesday. "We've got enough balls for everybody. It feels good having guys you can rely on if anything happens to one of us. In our room, anybody can make another guy miss. We need to set up blocks, execute the play running full speed, going from point A to point B. Last year it was the same guys, we just weren't mature enough. This year we're very mature, we understand more and understand the others around us and what we have to do. That's the difference."
And when asked about anybody that specifically stood out in the room, Davis made a point to mention Abanikanda, who put up 26 yards and a touchdown on five carries against Austin Peay, achieving the highest yards per carry average of any Pitt running back on the day.
"Everybody brings something different to the table," Davis continued. "But Izzy? That kid's a freak. He's different, powerful, strong, fast and can go 0-100 real quick. He hits his top speed very fast. He can run through you, make a person miss or run past you."
Powell noted Davis' maturity specifically and explained his outlook on the challenges of young players transitioning from the expectations of high school football to the demands of college football.
"Vince was a good player as a freshman," Powell said. "He got hurt and it set him back. But the biggest difference for Vince is how much knowledge he acquires. When you come in as a freshman, those guys come in June, and then you come back and start training camp, if a kid gets 12 plays in practice, he will probably do only half of them right because they just don't know. The transition from high school to college and the volume of things you have to know is so much greater. So kids memorize, but memorizing is not knowing. Until you know the 'why' of what you're doing, you really don't know. Through all the Zoom meetings we had when we couldn't be in front of them we focused on raising the knowledge of those players and my guys have done a good job."
Davis compounded Powell's point by saying that while his own natural talents help make him elusive, it's been Powell's coaching that's brought more out of him.
"It's instinct," Davis started. "But it's the work too that I've put in with coach Powell. Coach Powell pushes us to make extra moves, use the fundamentals and fight for extra yards. Use your stiff arm, hesitate and fight for extra yards. You have to make a play and make something happen."
One of the key elements of the run game that Pitt plans on winning with is in the red zone. They scored all five of their rushing touchdowns from the red zone against Austin Peay, and Narduzzi made a point to bring it up on Thursday.
"We can't give up on it," Narduzzi said. "There's going to be one yard gains and some losses, but we certainly worked on it and talked about what we have to do in the red zone. When you get down there it's smaller and the field tightens down. You have to run the ball when you get to the red zone and we'll continue to stress running the ball in the red zone. From the first practice of Spring ball, we've been in the red zone focusing on it for ten minutes."
Davis emphasized that the work Pitt's put into the red zone offense will show results, and soon.
"I'm just going to let you know now," Davis said with a smile. "You're going to see more touchdowns in the red zone. Everybody has a better understanding this year. No one's lost, we have a second year under our belt under coach [Mark] Whipple. You're going to see a lot of touchdowns. Ya'll will be doing a lot of celebrating."