Pitt defense hopes to keep pace with Tennessee's up-tempo offense

By Pat Narduzzi’s stopwatch, Tennessee will snap the football between 7 and 12 seconds after the end of the previous play about 75% of the time Saturday.

Operating against that tempo, Pitt strong safety Brandon Hill might have enough time to get in place, size up the opposing players, steal a quick look or signal to a teammate and — if he’s lucky — even catch his breath before the next wave of players rushes toward him.

“You can’t relax,” said Hill, who will line up opposite Tennessee coach Josh Heupel’s hurry-up offense for the third time in four years (once in 2019 when Heupel coached Central Florida). Hill intercepted a pass in last season’s Pitt victory.

“You have to be always moving. You have to be alert,” he said.

Such is the nature of the challenge the Panthers will confront at Acrisure Stadium in a battle of ranked teams: No. 24 Tennessee at No. 17 Pitt.

Pitt defensive line coach Charlie Partridge hopes his group is equipped with enough manpower to handle Tennessee’s speed on what is expected to be an 80-degree day. His chances are good: Partridge used 10 players on the defensive line Thursday night against West Virginia, and that rotation — or, something close to it — probably will be repeated Saturday.

Partridge is not expecting an easy chore, but it’s one he has been tasked to undertake previously.

“Thankfully, we (are facing) these guys in our minds for the fourth time (two when Heupel was at UCF, once last year in Knoxville, Tenn.),” Partridge said. “We learned a hard lesson down in Orlando that first year (in a 45-14 loss in 2018). Whatever your plan is, you better make sure it’s tight and concise and you don’t get too cute in terms of what you’re trying to do schematically, so the kids can operate and communicate extremely quickly.”

It’s instructive to note that Pitt has defeated Heupel’s teams two of three games, but the Panthers have allowed 113 points in the process.

Partridge said Tennessee is running plays four seconds faster than it did a year ago, when Pitt won 41-34.

“A year ago, we were facing them after one game together (it was Heupel’s first season at Tennessee). Now, we’re facing them after 14 games together. It’s really not a surprise to us that they’re operating at that optimum speed.

“This group is different. They have it down to a science.”

Partridge and the rest of the Pitt coaches — like most teams — spend hours studying video of the opponent and even what the opposing coach did at another job. For the West Virginia game, coaches watched the 2010 Alamo Bowl between Texas Tech and Michigan State because WVU coach Neal Brown was the Red Raiders’ offensive coordinator at the time.

“You can’t help but look at the tree of coordinators,” Partridge said. “We have a lot of time. You have all those months going into a big first game.”

With less time this week, Pitt can’t afford to be any less detailed. Coaches will note anything that might give their team an advantage.

“You may have one of the officials on the sideline begging for the ball (after Tennessee runs a play),” Partridge said, “and he’s being ignored as that player is throwing it to the umpire so it gets set that much faster.

“If you’re getting that thing off at an average of 12 seconds, you’re operating at a level that really can’t get much faster within the rules. You have to, in some ways, marvel at how they do it. It’s impressive to watch them work.”

At practice this week, Pitt is trying to simulate Tennessee’s speed. That’s not easy for a team accustomed to huddling up before most plays.

“Our goal in practice is to get the play off in 10 seconds, which is hard,” Partridge said. “I think we do a good job of trying to simulate that.”

Heupel’s offense worked last season and against Ball State last Saturday, a 59-10 victory. In 2021, the Volunteers were ninth in the nation in yards per game (474.9) and seventh in points (39.3). They were no better than 98th in points under previous coach Jeremy Pruitt.

“Tempo is one of the tools that we use to apply pressure to a defense,” Heupel said at this year’s SEC media days. “There’s a lot of things that we use. That’s one of our best and greatest tools, for sure.”

With Kenny Pickett at quarterback, Pitt’s offense kept pace in 2019 and last season, and the Panthers won both games. With Pickett gone, the defense might need to play even better than it did previously.

Pitt has seen many up-tempo offenses in recent seasons, but Partridge said this one is unique.

“What they’re able to do play after play after play is something we work year-round at introducing (at practice). During spring football, we’ll mix a period in where we present this kind of tempo to them, couple times during fall camp and, obviously, this week we’re committed to it,” he said.

“If we can handle it at the tempo Tennessee is able to maintain, then we’re going to be in good shape against other teams that are in a no-huddle tempo situation because they do it as well as anybody in the country.”

Note: Pitt cornerback M.J. Devonshire was named ACC Defensive Back of the Week after his game-winning interception against West Virginia.