Despite the big victory, Pitt has plenty of work to do

When speaking to reporters and his team this week, Pat Narduzzi will choose his words carefully.

He wants everyone to know more good news than bad surfaced after video review of Pitt’s 51-7 victory last Saturday against a weak UMass team, but he also doesn’t want to give the impression that everything was perfect.

“Kids were locked in, focused on getting the job done, felt it during the week,” he said.

But the following events were points of interest during video study:

• A fourth-and-1 failure by freshman running back Rodney Hammond that made Narduzzi question the personnel decision.

• A bad snap over the quarterback’s head that led to one of the Panthers’ two turnovers.

• An early alignment error early that led to a penalty and, eventually, a punt.

• A dropped pass in the end zone that forced Pitt to settle for a field goal.

• Even isolated cases of “loafs … here and there,” which Narduzzi pointed out Monday during his weekly news conference.

None of it had anything to do with the outcome, and they are problems any good team can fix. But the opponent won’t be so forgiving Saturday at Tennessee, where more than 84,000 starved-for-success Volunteers fans will fill the air with noise.

(The other four road games also will be no picnic. Did you see the chaos in Blacksburg, Va., Friday night? Pitt visits there next month.)

“There are little things we can work on, but their attitude was great,” Narduzzi said. “The focus is great, and their effort for the most part was pretty good. I can pull a guy here or there and call out some loafs in all three phases that we have to clean up.”

The initial review of the running game was good in an area that needs improvement from a year ago. But it must be tempered by the opponent. Pitt ran for 223 yards against the Minutemen, who allowed an average of 273.5 last season.

Hammond was the leading – and busiest – rusher, with eight carries for 44 yards. Six running backs were given opportunities, and each had an attempt of 11 or more yards. Hammond, Izzy Abanikanda, Vincent Davis, A.J. Davis, Daniel Carter and Todd Sibley combined to average 5.5 yards per carry.

“I was happy with the backs for the most part,” Narduzzi said. “They made the right reads. Sometimes, that’s as big a problem as anything. There was carryover from fall camp as far as the run game goes.”

Abanikanda was the No. 1 tailback at the outset of camp, but he didn’t start and carried only seven times for 30 yards. The talk surrounding Abanikanda this summer seemed to indicate he would get at least twice as many carries.

“He was probably high average (in the coaches’ grading system),” Narduzzi said. “I don’t think any of our tailbacks, we could say, were winning (grades). He played well.”

Much of the credit went to assistants Dave Borbely (offensive line) and Tim Salem (tight ends), who were forced to adjust to some tweaks in the UMass defensive scheme.

“You don’t know what you’re going to see, but you’re prepared to make those adjustments as they go,” Narduzzi said.

Narduzzi said he isn’t necessarily looking for a “bell cow” running back.

“I’d like to have three or four. We’ll eventually find one or two. But you’re going to play two or three backs,” he said. “They’re going to need blows. You’d like to have two or three (backs) you feel really good about going into the game. We feel that right now.”