Kenny Pickett's love for football started at an early age

You’d never know it by watching the first 10 games of Pitt’s season, but there was a time when Kenny Pickett couldn’t stand up straight while holding a ball in his hands.

“My wife used to hold him standing up to shoot basketball,” Ken Pickett Sr. said in an interview with the Tribune-Review on Wednesday afternoon. “He’s had a ball in his hands since, I don’t know. He’s always had a ball in his hands, whether it was basketball, baseball, football.”

Eventually, Pickett fell in love with football over the other sports, but it didn’t take long. Ken estimates his son was about seven or eight at the time.

“He would want to spend a weekend at Jim Cantafio’s football camp in Lancaster without me even prompting it versus running around, spending time with his friends outside.

“It was all about quarterbacking. He was doing that fifth grade, sixth grade, all the way up to eighth grade. I really didn’t have to do anything. He was on auto-pilot.

“He just had a passion to try to be the best he can be and master the craft.”

New Jersey born and bred, Pickett has reached a climatic stage in his career, with the Panthers (8-2, 5-1) needing one victory to clinch the ACC Coastal championship for the second time in four years. Ken and his wife, Kasey (when she isn’t afraid to uncover her eyes), daughter, Alexis, and about 30 friends and family members will be at Heinz Field on Saturday watching Pickett’s final home game, a showdown with second-place Virginia.

“Are we nervous? Yeah, we’re nervous. But we’re just excited,” Ken Sr. said.

Pickett has pushed himself in athletics, but his family offers an impressive sports lineage.

Pickett’s father was an All-American linebacker at Shippensburg. Kasey played soccer at Kutztown. Alexis, who is one year older than her 23-year-old brother, was three-time all-conference in soccer at East Stroudsburg.

“I coached Kenny since he was five-years-old,” Ken Sr. said. “I knew there was going to come a point where he stopped listening to me. He’s been hearing the same voice for so many years.”

So at the dawn of his high school years, recruiters came calling. But Pickett — as loyal then as he was in January when he decided to delay his NFL career for one more season at Pitt — turned them away.

“He had opportunities to play at other (high) schools,” Ken Sr. said. “But at the end of the day, he wanted to play for coach (Donald) Klein (at Ocean Township High School) and the guys he’s played football with since he was 5 and 6 years old. To me, that showed a lot about his character because you don’t see that a lot these days.”

And those friends haven’t forgotten their buddy.

“This weekend, he’ll probably have 25 kids traveling from all over the place to see his last game at Heinz. They’re all high school friends,” Ken Sr. said.

Pickett, who used to play catch with Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins at Cantafio’s camp, has thrived on competition all his life, his dad said.

“He learns from it as well. He takes pieces of people’s game, and takes different pieces from different coaches. He’s good about that.”

When Pickett was deciding whether to return to Pitt, Ken Sr. offered his opinion, but he did not push his son in any direction.

“We told him we would support whatever he wanted to do,” Ken Sr. said. “We just felt there was a lot of pros to come back. He wasn’t able to enjoy (the 2020 season), hurting his ankle. He finished it up not the way he wanted to finish, not the way he wanted to leave his legacy. We were just happy he made the decision to go back.”

And not just because it was good for their son, who is a Heisman Trophy candidate, an all-time record holder at Pitt and one of the best quarterbacks in the nation. With 11,501 career passing yards, he needs 404 to push past Clemson’s Tajh Boyd and stand second in ACC history only to N.C. State’s Philip Rivers.

“The happiest moment for me is to see this program succeed,” Ken Sr. said. “There’s been a lot of up and down since Kenny’s been there. For my wife and I, it’s not so much about Kenny. It’s about coach (Pat) Narduzzi, coach (Mark) Whipple and the kids.”

“We’ve become such close friends with the kids and their families. Just to see them have this kind of year is really, really special. That’s one of the things we talked about when Kenny went back. This could be a really special season for Pitt, not just himself.”

Narduzzi won over mom and dad during the recruiting visit to their Oakhurst, N.J., home. Narduzzi credited his wife, Donna, who accompanied him before they attended a dinner in New York. Ken Sr. said Narduzzi put the hammer on the deal himself, just by showing interest in his son from the outset of the process.

“There’s one reason (Pickett picked Pitt),” Ken Sr. said. “Coach Narduzzi. North Carolina, Missouri, Boston College, Iowa, their head coaches were not as involved as coach Narduzzi.

“The head coach doesn’t really get involved in a lot of recruiting, at least what we saw. And coach Narduzzi was there with him from Day 1. There was a lot of trust and still to this day, there’s trust. I think that’s why he and coach Narduzzi are so close. They have a special relationship, special bond.”

The bond is so tight between the families that Kenny plays golf with Narduzzi’s son, Patrick, a scratch golfer.

Ken Sr. and his wife have been to every Pitt game since Pickett’s freshman season of 2017, except when they were shut out of the Boston College game last year due to covid protocols.

Kasey is there, too, with one self-imposed restriction.

“My mom,” Kenny said, “I don’t think she watches half the game.”

Ken Jr. confirmed his wife spends a lot of time with her head bent and eyes covered. Is she worried about injuries? Is she praying for victory?

“Both,” he said.

In any case,