It's still winter, but Pat Narduzzi opens spring drills at Pitt

Three weeks before the end of winter, Pat Narduzzi opened spring drills Monday morning at Pitt, only 67 days after the last game of 2019.

With the outdoor fields on the South Side still wet from winter, drills were held at the indoor facility at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.

He did so with the same 10 on-field assistants from a year ago — a rarity in college and pro football — but a new strength and conditioning staff. Michael Stacchiotti, formerly an assistant with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, replaced Dave Andrews, who left for Iowa State and took most of the staff with him.

Narduzzi, who is the first Pitt coach since Dave Wannstedt to start a sixth season, has seven starters returning on both sides of the ball, including quarterback Kenny Pickett, who will be a three-year starter this season.

Plus, punter and holder Kirk Christodoulou, kicker Alex Kessman and long snapper Chris Adomitis are back.

There are high hopes on defense where defensive linemen Rashad Weaver and Keyshon Camp, who were out last season with knee injuries, return to a veteran group. Safeties Paris Ford (Steel Valley) and Damar Hamlin and defensive linemen Jaylen Twyman and Patrick Jones II would have been NFL draft candidates this year, but they decided to return.

Hamlin (Central Catholic), who was part of the 2016 recruiting class, successfully petitioned the NCAA for a fifth season because of an injury-plagued freshman year.

Things were so familiar Monday morning that Hamlin said, “This Day 1 was different than a lot of Day 1s. It felt like a Day 10, just because everybody’s clicking, everybody knows the expectations.”

Narduzzi bolstered his numbers on the offensive line when rising junior Grant Carrigan (Pine-Richland) and redshirt freshman Jason Collier shifted from tight end. Meanwhile, sophomore Kaymar Mimes moved from defensive end to tight end.

Injured players Jerry Drake, an offensive lineman, and Albert Tucker, a linebacker, no longer are on the roster and won’t count against the 85-man scholarship limit. But they remain with the team on permanent medical scholarship.