Pitt saw three of its linebackers work out during its pro day Monday for NFL scouts, but now younger players at the position like Bangally Kamara and Solomon DeShields are looking to set a new tone for the position.
John Petrishen, Phil Campbell and Chase Pine each ran and did linebacker drills Monday, with Petrishen leading the group in overall performance. None are expected to be major draft picks, but combined between them shared 13 years of playing for Pitt football. That kind of experience is valuable and helped Pitt's defense finish sixth-best in the country against the run and have the second-most sacks in all of college football.
But now, there's excitement to see the younger talent that's been brewing behind the experienced players. Pat Narduzzi and linebackers coach Ryan Manalac were pretty excited to talk about how Kamara and DeShields were looking as Pitt entered its third week of spring practices for the 2022 season.
"I've got a couple of linebackers ready to come in here," Narduzzi said Tuesday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex after Pitt's sevenths spring practice. "Solomon DeShields, Bangally Kamara, and Shayne Simon all look good. But both DeShields and Kamara have been here longer and you're starting to see it."
Simon is a redshirt senior transfer from Notre Dame who's expressed his admiration for the aggressiveness in Pitt's style of defense.
"He's been more consistent but still needs details cleaned up," Narduzzi said of Simon. "We're not talking about perfect alignments yet, just to get in the right area. There's still many more details to go, but on moving, making tackles and attacking when the ball's snapped, I'm impressed."
But DeShields and Kamara are both on their third years with the program as DeShields is a redshirt sophomore and Kamara is a junior. Kamara played in all 14 games last season while DeShields played in 13, both featuring as special teams contributors and reserve linebacker options.
After two years of being backups who had to fight for time on special teams, both players, who are close friends, are excited what they can show as bigger contributors to the defense.
"We were on the bench together just dreaming about what we would be doing," Kamara said of DeShields and him over the past two years with Pitt football. "Now we can do it. We're not satisfied with just being here now. We have to roll with it."
Both have been making big plays in spring practices and are fitting right into the aggressive style of play that has Pitt's linebackers flying around the field, hitting, and challenging offenses in the run game and as pass rushers.
"A ton of growth every day," Manalac said when asked what he's seen from Kamara and DeShields. "They're long athletes with great range, ability, long arms to help them get off blocks and make plays. We're just fine-tuning all the details from situational awareness to locking in on alignments, key reads to efficiency, movement and collision skills. Each of those little things are growing and it's fun to watch."
DeShields is a two-way athlete who was recruited to Pitt as a linebacker, but spent time working at wide receiver, defensive end and linebacker during practices. His versatility as an athlete was seen as an asset to each group, but there was excitement from the coaches and players when DeShields decided towards the end of the 2021 season that he wanted to commit to playing linebacker.
"Solomon DeShields is big and athletic," Narduzzi said. "He looks like a defensive end, but he's done a nice job growing up. We had a conversation months ago when he told me he wanted to be a linebacker and he's really taken to it out there."
"It's exciting as a coach to see a guy who says, 'I want to be a linebacker,'" Manalac said of DeShields' commitment to linebacker. "Solomon's skills are unbelievable. He has the skills to be a receiver or a linebacker. You could see that on kickoffs when he would be the first guy down the field. He's a big, physical dude and to just focus on linebacker for him will be huge. That point in time he'll be able to reflect and look back to say that's what made the difference in his career."
For DeShield's friend, Kamara, the commitment to linebacker was an inevitable choice.
"I always knew he would come back," Kamara said of DeShields sticking with linebacker. "Sometimes you don't get a big guy like him to be a receiver. He's one of the most athletic guys I've seen, but we've always thought he was tough on offense and if you put him on defense he's going to be one of those guys. He's going to be an aggressive defender."
Despite working at various positions, DeShields has found time to hone his skills at linebacker and even developed different pass rush moves. One was an impressive move he used in Pitt's first live practice at Heinz Field Saturday, when he beat redshirt senior offensive tackle Carter Warren with a unique rip move that got a sack.
"DeShields had a sack off the edge," Narduzzi explained. "He faked going with one arm, and then used a rip that looked like it came from off the ground and then came around the corner strong. I haven't seen anybody really do that. He's big, strong, and athletic. You'll like what he looks like."
"Solomon had an unbelievable pass rush against Carter Warren," Manalac said. "He ghosted him with a long arm to clear the edge and get a nice clean sack. You see those flashes which are fun to see, and you're really excited about the growth of those two."
"That's one thing I worked on a lot," DeShields said of his pass rush skills. "I really worked on them a lot. I feel like I'm thriving coming off the edge on those blitzes. All those moves I've been working on during the offseason and it's nice to see them paying off in practice."
Manalac, who's coming his first year coaching Pitt's linebackers, goes from coaching one of the most experienced groups on the team with Petrishen, Campbell and Pine being in his ranks, to working with younger players. But that's not something he minds at all, as he welcomes their new skillsets.
"It was a great performance yesterday from JP, Phil and Chase on pro day," Manalac said. "We lost some familiar guys, but it's fun to watch the new guys' improvement and their work to move forward. It's an exciting time. "We had an experienced group last year, but now it's about slowing things down. There are different level of what our guys are learning now. You go a bit slower in the meeting room to go over the details and make sure they're acknowledged and understood. But the growth is larger, so it's fun to watch and see those connections be made so the guys play fast on the field."
"The challenge for them is to just fail faster," Manalac continued about his younger linebackers. "You're going to mess up. But go 100 miles per hour, make those mistakes and get better so you don't make those same mistakes the next day. It was really cool to see Bangally make a bunch of plays in the backfield."
Kamara and DeShields aren't afraid to say the difference between them and the linebackers who just participated in Pitt's pro day.
"Them leaving gave us an opportunity to be ourselves," Kamara said. "We bring our own flavor for what we do at linebacker. We're a bit more athletic. We move faster, we're bigger and everybody will see us coming this year."
Manalac's philosophy of failing fast seems to resonate with DeShields and Kamara. Both seem to relish the opportunity to attack on defense and appreciate Manalac's apprach to helping them correct their mistakes.
"Even if we do something wrong, do it fast" DeShields said. "If we're playing fast, all that has to happen is we get corrected. Then we're up to speed."
"Coach Manalac gives us a lot of room for improvement," Kamara said. "He doesn't let things stay in our heads. He gives us opportunities to fix our mistakes. That helps us a lot to be confident in our decisions because we understand our coaches behind us and they want to see from us at linebacker. It's not something crazy when someone makes a mistake. We just get asked what we saw, how we reacted and what we'll do better the next time. That helps us be better."
Both linebackers look big in person and move fast on the field. Kamara is listed at 6-foot-2, 220 lbs., but told us he's bulked up to 225 lbs. DeShields is listed at 6-foot-2, 235 lbs., but revealed he's slimmed down to 230 lbs. Both are faster types of players who've adapted to play linebacker, as DeShields has receiver experience and Kamara played tight end and receiver in high school. Campbell, Petrishen and Pine were solid, but not the fastest players at getting to the ball. Kamara and DeShields look to play at a different pace.
"We know where our talents are at," Kamara said. "We know we can contribute to things. We're excited, not nervous. We're just ready to get to the party."
Both get to play outside linebacker for Pitt around the team's top linebacker, SirVocea Dennis. Dennis led the team with 87 tackles and earned Second Team All-ACC honors last season. His biggest moments came with an interception returned for a touchdown in Pitt's win over Clemson and his 12 tackles and two sacks against Wake Forest in Pitt's ACC Championship win.
"He's been awesome," Manalac said of Dennis. "His leadership his phenomenal and his knowledge is awesome. His ability to talk to all three positions in our linebacker room is huge. He can teach are guys in the meeting and beyond about the little details and that's been tremendous. He makes sure they have the confidence to come out here and perform everyday in practice. His leadership is huge."
In addition to being an impressive athlete with good football instincts, Dennis is a smart football player who's been named to the All-Academic ACC Team. His intelligence in both football and life is an asset younger players like DeShields and Kamara lean on in the linebacker room while learning their roles in the defense.
"Voss is a leader," DeShields said of Dennis. "He's going to help us every play. He's like another coach on the field."
"He played all three positions for us," Kamara added about Dennis. "He's always giving us tips on what to do at money and star linebacker. He's really like another coach on the field. Voss is very smart, so he always makes sure we're on the right page on defense and we appreciate him a lot."
Pitt's linebackers entered this season with the biggest question marks after losing three players whose eligibility ran out. But the excitement around the reinforcements to the position matches the excitement to an offense featuring the entire offensive line returning, three dynamic running backs, the Biletnikoff Award winner in Jordan Addison at receiver alongside Jared Wayne and transfer Konata Mumpfield, as well as promising sophomore tight end Gavin Bartholomew. And that doesn't even include highly touted transfer quarterback Kedon Slovis.
Narduzzi says the competition between the offense and defense has been back and forth through seven spring practices. Last year, the offense was usually the winner while Kenny Pickett was under center. But lately Pitt's defense has been pushing to gain an edge.
"I'd say it's kind of a draw right now," Narduzzi said when asked whether his offense or defense has done better in spring practices. "Last Tuesday, the offense kicked the defense's butt. But Thursday, the defense kicked the offense's butt. Saturday there were a lot of good things on both sides, but it was more of a draw. They went back and forth, which was good. If I were to say who won, I would say 60 percent defense because they got after the quarterback."
• Narduzzi also spoke about new players who were making an impact in Pitt's secondary. Redshirt freshman Khalil Anderson has made a transition from cornerback to safety, providing a solid depth option behind starters Brandon Hill and Erick Hallett II.
"Another guy to keep your eye on is Khalil Anderson," Narduzzi said. "I've been impressed with the young guy out of Georgia. He's wearing number three and there's times he looked like our old number three, Damar Hamlin. He's got a really good football sense at safety. We moved him there from cornerback for spring ball."
That's high praise for Anderson, as Hamlin was a sixth round pick by the Bills in the 2021 NFL Draft.
But even younger than Anderson is Ryland Gandy, a true freshman who just started his first semester with Pitt this winter as an early enrollee. Just last month, Gandy was speaking for the first time before Pittsburgh media, talking about his excitement for his first spring ball sessions as he doubled as a football and track and field star in high school. Now, he's already turning heads.
"Noah Bigelow doesn't look as good as I want him to, but Ryland Gandy is a guy that I've noticed a lot of," Narduzzi said. "He's a young cornerback who's physical, tough and really smart right now. He's making moves and the Bigelows and (Tamarion) Crumpleys on our team better watch out for him."
After Narduzzi finished speaking with media Tuesday, he made sure to grab Gandy in his No. 18 jersey and show him off to us.
"You see him?" Narduzzi rhetorically asked. "Get used to seeing him. A lot of him."
