Change doesn't alter Pitt defense's quest to be the best

The talk around the Pitt football team is the defense Pat Narduzzi has built could be his best in six seasons as coach of the Panthers.

That’s a heavy load of expectations to carry around and probably too optimistic of a statement now that All-ACC defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman has opted out.

But the burden doesn’t appear too heavy for Phil Campbell III.

Campbell, a senior outside linebacker, said the defense could be special.

“Last year, we were pretty good (15th in the nation in average yards allowed, 312.9), but we felt like we could have been No. 1,” he said. “It’s just the minor details that will take us to being No. 1.

“This year, we’re really (pushing) each other. I believe that this could be the best Pitt’s ever been. I really believe that.”

With apologies to Hugh Green and Sal Sunseri, All-American defenders on Pitt’s great 11-1 teams four decades ago, this season’s defense can be very good.

Great? That’s a question without an answer until the end of the season, especially with No. 1 Clemson, No. 10 Notre Dame and No. 24 Virginia Tech (coaches’ poll) on the schedule.

At the outset of training camp, Narduzzi admonished a reporter who suggested the defense has arrived at its targeted point of performance.

Wrong word. Wrong notion, too.

“Nobody’s arrived. We still have a long way to go,” Narduzzi said.

The most recent look at Pitt’s defense, when Twyman and cornerback Dane Jackson (drafted by the Buffalo Bills) were still on the team, revealed a unit that allowed 438 yards to Eastern Michigan in the Quick Lane Bowl. That was a season high for a Pitt opponent in a game that didn’t go into overtime.

Yet word from training camp (two weeks old Friday) is there is more speed at linebacker, with returning players Campbell and Cam Bright on the outside and Chase Pine in the middle.

“Phil Campbell has been a beast lately,” Narduzzi said. “He looks really good. Cam is like he was last year, very, very good, doing a great job.

“I think we have two of the nicest outside linebackers in the country, two athletic guys.”

Meanwhile, sophomore Wendell Davis is chalenging Pine for the starting job in the middle.

“He looks like the real deal,” Narduzzi said. “This kid came back focused, locked in. Chase being a senior, you’d love to see him crank it up and be the starter, but Wendell Davis is giving him a run every single day. Watch out.”

The challenge will be measuring up to last year’s standard.

Pitt and SMU led the NCAA in average sacks per game (3.92), with a total of 51 (only Ohio State had more). Subtract sacks recorded by players no longer on the team, and Pitt’s total would be 28, still in the upper 50% of the nation.

Campbell recorded 5 1/2, including two in the bowl game. This year, he slides over to the other side of the field to the “money” position where Kylan Johnson had 6 1/2 sacks last season. Bright, who backed up Campbell at “star” and finished third on the team with 62 tackles, inherits that position.

Campbell said the defense will be better after spending a good portion of the offseason watching video, looking for weaknesses.

“We see what we could do better, how teams attacked us,” he said.

Campbell said another reason for optimism is defensive coordinator Randy Bates. This will be Bates’ third season stewarding the defense and helping Narduzzi design its look from play to play. It has improved every year Bates has been on campus.

After finishing 69th in the nation (396.6) the year before Bates arrived, it was 59th in 2018 (387.6) before making a significant jump to 15th last season.

There are several holdovers on the two-deep depth chart, but five players who started in the bowl game are gone.

Challenges and changes don’t bother Bates, a retired lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and a former coach at the Naval Academy.

“Adapt, improvise and overcome,” he said, repeating what he learned with the Navy Seals. “Every day, there’s something unique that’s going on. How we adapt to it is how we will win or lose.”

Players appreciate Bates’ enthusiasm, especially when he drops and does pushups with the group.

“He’s enthusiastic from the second you walk in the building,” Campbell said. “It’s hard to be in a bad mood around someone like that.

“He loves football. He loves coaching us. And I love playing for somebody like that.”

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