Pitt needs Pickett's grit to win, but must balance his health

Kenny Pickett was the driving force that kept Pitt in the game before its 31-30 overtime loss to Boston College Saturday. His 24 completions on 47 attempts for 266 yards, two touchdowns and one interception along with 14 carries for 36 yards and a touchdown was the closest element of Pitt's offense that could be considered consistent.

But Pickett would suffer an ankle injury late in the third quarter, forcing him into the trainer's tent before he would eventually return in the fourth. He finished the game, even leading a game-tying field goal drive to end regulation and throw a touchdown pass in overtime to Taysir Mack.

Pat Narduzzi confirmed that Pickett is further along in his recovery from his injury than expected, but that Pitt has to see how Pickett practices this week before making any decisions on whether he will start against No. 13 Miami this Saturday at Noon at Hard Rock Stadium.

"Kenny, he's banged up," Narduzzi said Monday. "But he was a lot better yesterday than I thought he might be. We'll see what happens at practice this week, but the one thing I know about Kenny is he's tough as can be. You talk about nails, that guy -- that last run he had down on the goal line, he's tough, and it's going to be hard to hold him out, that's for sure."

Narduzzi more than acknowledged Pickett's toughness after the game on Saturday, when he said he 'would go to war' with Pickett any day. That respect is more than deserved as Pickett has been a consistent contributor for Pitt all season, and the biggest reason the offense has improved from last season.

Pickett leads the team in scoring with five rushing touchdowns and eight passing touchdowns through five games. Those efforts have Pitt averaging 31.6 points per game, eighth best in the ACC, which is much better than the 21.5 points per game averaged in 2019, which ranked 13th in the ACC.

A big part of how Pickett has been better this season has been using his improved athleticism as a willing runner to extend plays, run for yards and buy time for receivers to get opening while scrambling outside of the pocket.

But doing that consistently every game comes with inherent risks, as we saw when Pickett was hurt against Boston College. Narduzzi talked about those risks and some of the worries Pitt has, but also acknowledged that this is just Pickett's style of play.

"Yeah, I mean, Kenny is a tough guy," Narduzzi said. "Last week some people thought when he got targeted (in the NC State game) that it was a head, but it was actually he had the wind knocked out of him, just so we're all straight there. I don't know if I mentioned that to you last week. You know, when he got banged up, it was on a quarterback scramble. There's nothing else you can do. You'd like him to maybe throw it away if he doesn't like what he sees, but I wish he'd just stay in the pocket and throw the ball because he had a guy wide open even on that play over the middle, if you go back and look at the videotape. So it's just kind of hanging in there." 

"Kenny likes to -- sometimes he's pulling it on some of the run game and doing it himself," Narduzzi continued. "But it's really more of him like in a scramble, and if he feels like he doesn't see what he likes down there, then he's going to take off, and those are the ones -- it's hard to tell a quarterback, sit in the pocket and take a sack, either, because you guys will be upset about that. Obviously we want to be smart. You see him slide at times, you see him -- which I think is a good change-up; sometimes you slide, sometimes you don't, and I think that takes the defense kind of out of what they -- even a week ago he slid the first time, then after that every time he's going down, now he's going headfirst for two more yards on a scramble."

Pickett's willingness to run has led to 45 rushes through five games, a nine per game average. That's the second most on the team behind Vincent Davis's 74 attempts, but it's also more than the next two running backs' attempts combined in A.J. Davis with 20 and Israel Abanikanda with 23. Narduzzi explains away Pickett's usage of his legs as him just wanting to win. 

"But when you're a competitor and you're tough like that, he's going to compete, that's for sure," Narduzzi continued. "You saw how he came back. He's tough, and I could tell Kenny to run out of bounds or take a knee. He ain't taking a knee. That's not Kenny Pickett. He's Pitt tough."

If Pickett can't go this week, there is no solidified backup to take his place between Davis Beville and Joey Yellen. Beville is listed as the first backup at quarterback on the team's depth chart, but Yellen was the quarterback that went in for Pickett after his injury against Boston College. Yellen wouldn't throw any passes but Davis would take two handoffs that would end in a touchdown.

Narduzzi remained non-committal on who would replace Pickett against Miami if he was unavailable.

"It comes down to the practice week and a gut feeling of what you're doing well and what you need to do," Narduzzi said. "We've got confidence in both of those guys. And again, it comes down to the practice reps that you do well, and obviously just like in the NFL, your backup doesn't get a ton of reps and you're trying to narrow it down. I wish we had a pure No. 2 right now and we don't, and if any one of those guys ever had extensive time in a real game, then I think you'd find out who those were." 

"But until that time comes," Narduzzi continued. "All we can do is base who that backup quarterback is off of practice reps and what they do during practice and how they fit into that defense. If you throw a couple picks during the week as the backup quarterback, you probably aren't going in. And I'm not saying anybody did that, but I'm just giving you the hardest example. It's pretty simple, who's locked in, who understands the game plan better, who fits into what we're doing that week offensively."

• Pitt announced an official 3:30 p.m. kickoff time for its October 24th Saturday game against Notre Dame at Heinz Field. The game is set to be televised on ABC, which would be the first time a Pitt game was aired outside of the ACC Network in 2020:

 • SirVocea Dennis was named ACC linebacker of the week Monday for his 11 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks against Boston College:

Dennis' 31 tackles ties Paris Ford for most on the team and his 6.5 tackles for loss are third-most, only behind Patrick Jones and Rashad Weaver who both have seven each. Dennis is listed as a backup behind Cam Bright, but even before Bright was hurt, Dennis has seen plenty of action.

Bright saw limited action against Boston College, but Narduzzi expects he will be back at a full capacity this week. Still, that doesn't mean Dennis won't see plenty of action.

"Yeah, obviously Cam came in," Narduzzi said. "I think he took five plays. He's still a little bit banged up, one of those day-to-day guys that I think he'll be fully operational this week. But SirVocea Dennis is a football player. I love that guy. If we were playing with four linebackers, he's a starter, and I consider him a starter, period. He can go in and play all three positions. He's smart. He obviously starts for us on 3rd down. That guy is as good a football player as you're going to be around as a linebacker. That guy is going to be a future star in the ACC. So it's a little banged up but he was able to go and obviously travel, and our trainers and doctors do a great job with those guys trying to get them back on the field, and that's obviously a plus."

• Jones was also named the ACC defensive lineman of the week after his three sack performance against Boston College:

His seven sacks leads all of college football and his 1.4 sacks per game is the most in the conference.