Pitt entered its season opener with very little insightful tape available about UMass after the Minutemen only played four games last season and had a several transfer players across its depth chart.
That's not the case for Pitt's next opponent, Tennessee, who's coming off a 38-6 win over Bowling Green on Saturday. The Volunteers are coached by Josh Heupel, who faced off against Pat Narduzzi's Panthers twice over his three year head coaching stint with Central Florida (UCF), beating Pitt 45-14 in 2018 and watching Pitt return the favor at Heinz Field 35-34 in 2019.
"We've got a Tennessee team that we haven't played the personnel there," Narduzzi said during his Monday press conference at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. "But Josh Heupel coming from UCF, having two games with them, gives us a little bit of an advantage. It gives them an advantage as well because they know who we are both sides of the ball."
Heupel took over as head of the Volunteers this offseason, but has already started to implement the style of play that helped build his 28-8 record as UCF's head coach. UCF was known for moving fast on offense with plenty of drives that featured no-huddle from start to finish, preventing defenses from substituting players and testing their endurance to stay on for longer drives.
Pitt's 35-34 win over UCF came with a wild finish as Kenny Pickett caught a pass in the end zone for a two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter that would later be dubbed "the Pitt special." Narduzzi knows trick plays won't be the answer this time around against Tennessee.
"They saw ‘Pitt Special’ (in 2019)," Narduzzi said. "They'll be ready for the Pitt Special. We'll be ready for the tempo. I think it's going to be a heck of a game. (Tennessee's offense) looks very similar (to UCF's offense). I'm sure they'll have some tweaks for us maybe that they didn't show in the first game. But very similar. I think they're snapping the ball faster. Probably an average of 11 seconds they're snapping the ball on offense."
That tempo is going to test a Pitt defense that only allowed seven points Saturday to UMass, recorded five sacks and a turnover on a fumble. There was plenty to be excited about for the Panthers' opening performance, including the five tackles and a sack recorded by defensive player of the game, defensive tackle Calijah Kancey.
But despite only allowing a touchdown during the fourth quarter and it coming against Pitt's backups, Narduzzi still sees things that need to get cleaned up on defense. Part of involves playing faster and his defenders trusting what they're seeing play-to-play so they can be aggressive and play more of the style of defense Narduzzi's Panthers have shown when they've been at their best over the years.
That especially is the case for Pitt's secondary that saw several defensive backs adapting to being full-time starters.
"Got a lot of confidence in Brandon Hill, and Erick Hallett. Rashad Battle played okay, not as well as he wants to, but that's his first game. I'v talked about the improvement from week one to week two with the guys. Some of those guys haven't played or been in that situation and they'll make the biggest improvement. Having that game experience under the belt, playing on the hash, see what they did wrong in a real game situation as opposed to a scrimmage. I think that really helps."
One group that didn't show out against UMass was Pitt's defensive ends, with Habakkuk Baldonado and John Morgan III as the Panthers' starters while Deslin Alexandre sat out with an injury. Narduzzi says Alexandre's getting closer to being ready to play but wouldn't confirm if he would be ready for Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn.
Still, Baldonado and Morgan didn't contribute to any of Pitt's five sacks on the day. Narduzzi attributed that to them thinking too much and not playing as hard because of that.
"I think there was a lot of thinking," Narduzzi said of his defensive ends' lack of production against UMass. The guys are not playing as fast. Again, Haba (Habakkuk) got his first start. John Morgan played a lot of football for us. It's just about consistency and playing fast. Maybe they didn't play as fast as we needed them to play. That happens when you're trying to prepare for everything. They have all these things on their menu, things to worry about. We'll get them playing a little bit faster this week. React to what you are going to see. Don't think, ‘They're going to come with this next because of this set.’ There's a lot of things like that with all the things we try to cover the week before an opener that you don't know about."
One aspect of Tennessee's up-tempo offense that could also impact Pitt's defense is how it could prevent the Panthers from using their heavy rotation of substitutes. Narduzzi's defense thrives on being aggressive on every down with players firing on all cylinders, hitting, running and fighting to dominate the line of scrimmage while causing as much chaos as possible.
But a big part of that involves having fresh legs, and Pitt can afford to have fresh legs with a rotation of Cam Bright, Phil Campbell, SirVocea Dennis, Wendell Davis, John Petrishen and Chase Pine, among others. If Tennessee's moving at its no-huddle pace, don't expect to see those players to hit the field nearly as much and for Pitt to have more plays out there with a linebacker set that starts a series.
Those linebackers will need to be active against Tennessee's athletic starting quarterback Joe Milton III.
"His size and athleticism and that canon arm he's got makes it difficult," Narduzzi said of Milton. "Obviously a transfer from Michigan. He's 6-foot-5, 240 lbs., and he can run. He's a big athlete that we're going to have to get down. One guy might not get him down. We're going to have to get two, three, four guys there. We are going to have to run to the ball, then we are going to have to get home quickly because they will snap it between seven and ten seconds."
After handing its business against UMass Saturday, Pitt could have a lot of its defensive communication and fundamentals put to the test early by its first SEC opponent since it lost to Mississippi in the BBVA Compass Bowl in 2013.
