Pitt puts on pads, produces two long scoring plays in spring drills

Real football returned to the South Side on Friday.

On the third day of Pitt’s spring drills, the team strapped on pads and started hitting each other on the indoor practice field at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.

The team also lined up in regular offensive and defensive formations and ran some scrimmage plays in one session that was open to the reporters.

There were two highlights that had spectators talking and players chest-bumping each other.

First, redshirt freshman quarterback Davis Beville threw a long touchdown strike to rising junior wide receiver Shocky Jacques-Louis. The pass caught Jacques-Louis, one of the fastest players on the team, in stride.

Jacques-Louis caught 23 passes for 348 yards (15.1 per reception) and two touchdowns last season, including a 74-yard score against North Carolina.

Then, freshman running back Israel Abanikanda — everyone calls him Izzy — burst through the middle of the line and outran the defense to the end zone.

Coach Pat Narduzzi wasn’t kidding Wednesday when he said Abanikanda “has a different gear to him.”

Not bad for a young man who was in high school only three months ago.

Abanikanda, 5-foot-11, 200 pounds, ran for 1,082 yards and 14 touchdowns on 139 carries last season at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Pitt won’t practice next week while the university is on spring break. Spring ball resumes March 17, with the fourth of 15 days of drills. The annual Blue-Gold Game will be at 5 p.m. April 11 and will be televised by the ACC Network.

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