From the moment he arrived on Pitt’s campus in early 2023, Braylan Lovelace knew he was going to have to turn things up a notch if he was to succeed as a Division I football player.

Not that Lovelace wasn’t proud of what he did in high school at Leechburg, where he was a standout two-way player.

But Lovelace always knew that there was a deep ravine of difference in skill and size that he would have to bridge in making the transition from WPIAL Class A to ACC football.

“Coming from Leechburg, it was me vs. some other people,” he said. “I wasn’t playing against grown men. I never really was doing too much violently. I was just running the ball, playing freely, doing me.”

Lovelace’s days as a tailback — he rushed for 4,170 for his prep career — ended upon joining the Panthers, where he promptly was inserted into the outside linebackers room.

During his true freshman campaign, Lovelace had played in 11 games for coach Pat Narduzzi, and any concerns about his ability to hack it at Pitt looked to be shelved.

Then, last year, Lovelace took another step, appearing in all of Pitt’s 13 games with four starts, posting 53 tackles (10 1/2 for loss), four sacks and an interception.

For Lovelace, a component to his successful development has been a hard-hitting approach.

“Now that I’ve got here, I’ve got a little something to me,” Lovelace said. “Playing against grown men, I’ve got to be violent in everything I do. Nothing I do can be patty-cake here, patty-cake there. You’ve got to bring something with you at all times. There’s no lacking on a play because, if you do, you’re going to get blown up.”

Narduzzi thinks enough of Lovelace’s acumen and potential that, heading into 2025, he has switched the position of his junior linebacker.

The past two seasons, Lovelace has played Pitt’s Money outside linebacker spot. Now, he has emerged as Pitt’s presumptive starter at the Mike middle linebacker.

Narduzzi has been pleased with what he has seen from Lovelace.

“Being able to move in and play that Mike position … it’s been an easy, smooth transition for him,” Narduzzi said. “Anytime you can take an outside linebacker and move him to the Mike … and I think Kyle Louis could do it and Rasheem (Biles) could do it, but we wanted to keep those guys where they were. (Lovelace has) done a nice job out there.”

Narduzzi went as far as to compare Lovelace to former Pitt standout linebacker SirVocea Dennis, a three-time All-ACC middle linebacker now in Year 3 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Lovelace missed playing with Dennis by one season, but he watches Dennis’ collegiate snaps in the film room to help facilitate his transition to inside linebacker.

For quarterback Eli Holstein, Lovelace is a player he has to be aware of — in the run game, in coverage and as a blitzer — anytime Pitt’s first-team offense squares off against its defensive counterparts.

“I love Braylan at that Mike position,” Holstein said. “He adds a different element of athleticism in just being able to cut and cover guys out of the backfield. But he’s also not shy of contact. He wants to make a big play, do the right thing and make a lot of explosive plays. Braylan’s going to do that game-in and game-out.”

Lovelace admitted that he’s never been much of the rah-rah type of leader, preferring to let his actions speak. But at his new position, speaking up — and loudly — comes with the territory.

Along with Biles and the All-American Louis, preseason expectations are for Pitt’s linebackers to be among the team’s strongest positions.

As the season-opener Aug. 30 vs. Duquesne gets closer, Lovelace knows what he has to do to take his game to the next level.

“I need to come up more as a vocal leader for the defense,” he said. “At the Mike spot, that’s someone who talks the most because you’re the center of the defense. My whole life, I’ve been a leader that’s set by example. I don’t do too much talking, too much screaming and all that. I just do what I do and help other guys to try to emulate that.

“I just think I need to become more of a vocal leader and play a little bit more violent than outside linebacker last year. There’s a lot of bigger people in front of me at all times.”

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