Pitt Take 5: Significance of Clemson game soars beyond ACC Coastal standings

A look at the ACC standings shows Pitt in first place in the Coastal Division.

Even if Pitt (5-1, 2-0) loses to Clemson (4-2, 3-1) on Saturday at Heinz Field, the Panthers will remain in the lead and might stay there until almost Thanksgiving. Pitt’s next three opponents — Miami, Duke and North Carolina — have a combined 3-8 record in the conference. On paper, Pitt’s toughest test after Clemson appears to be Virginia (5-2, 3-2) and quarterback Brennan Armstrong, who leads the ACC with an average of 403.4 aerial yards per game.

The Panthers are undefeated in two conference games and own the tiebreaker over one-loss Virginia Tech while five other teams have at least two defeats.

What’s most important is the big-picture opportunity Saturday’s game presents. If Pitt wins, the victory will be worth more than just one digit in the agate section of the newspaper. The No. 23 Panthers will be making a statement that it belongs among the best teams in the nation. Dare we say, Top 15?

Winning the ACC Coastal for the second time in four years is nice and looks good on a banner, but Pitt should — and does — want more.

Keep that mind while pondering these five thoughts and analyzing the outcome Saturday night.

1. Calijah, the bulldozer

Whether it's this draft cycle or next, Pitt DL Calijah Kancey is a player we're going to talk about much, much more.pic.twitter.com/NlcehSZsr4

— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) October 16, 2021

After every game, Pitt players vote on the biggest hit. Voting was unnecessary this week after what Pitt defensive tackle Calijah Kancey did to Virginia Tech running back Jalen Holston.

Lined up on the outside, Kancey ran a stunt, looped behind a group of bodies and, suddenly, appeared with a clear shot on Holston, who slid over to pass block. Kancey ran over the unsuspecting 215-pound back with every bit of his 275 pounds. Aaron Donald-like, Kancey leveled Holston and quarterback Braxton Burmeister at the same time.

Defensive line coach Charlie Partridge didn’t see the full, violent impact of the blow from the sideline but was grading the tape on the airplane ride home when the play appeared.

“I had my headsets on and said, ‘Ooooh.’ The kids around me knew what play I must have been on and they started laughing,” he said.

The play was the perfect blend of Kancey knowing Holston would be in that spot and Holston having no idea he was coming.

Defensive tackles are often blockers opening lanes for linebackers to get to the ball, but Kancey has three sacks of his own.

“His overall awareness,” Partridge said, “combined with tremendous work ethic, the formulation of his development of his body, all of those things are what you guys are seeing on Saturdays now.”

2. I wanna be like him

Pitt wide receiver Jared Wayne ran into Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin one day and asked him a question.

“What makes Chase Claypool special?” Wayne wanted to know.

Over the past two seasons, Wayne has watched Claypool closely, and not just because they are both Canadian. Both are big-body wide receivers, Claypool 6-foot-4, 238 pounds, and Wayne 6-3, 210.

“(Tomlin) said, ‘He’s a big guy who can do small-guy things,’” Wayne said. “That’s one thing I tried to focus on over the offseason and carried it through to the season so far.”

Asked to describe small-guy things, Wayne said, “Ask Jordan Addison.”

Wayne hasn’t had the opportunity, but he’s hoping to pick Claypool’s brain to “see how he works on and off the field.”

“The ball’s in the air. He wants it more than the DB,” Wayne said. “I like his game a lot. A guy I definitely try to emulate and replicate.”

Wayne was targeted six times and made all six catches for 94 yards against Virginia Tech, including a sideline grab where he outjumped the defensive back. ESPN analyst Andre Ware called it a “grown-man catch.”

Speaking for his wide receiver teammates, Wayne said, “When the ball’s in the air, we think it’s ours every time.”

3. Players only

There always has been some debate about the effectiveness of player meetings that exclude coaches. But quarterback Kenny Pickett asked for permission to hold one after the loss to Western Michigan, Pat Narduzzi had no problem with it, and the Panthers are 3-0 in its wake.

Pickett said his message to the team was, “You can’t waste a day. You can’t waste a game.”

Linebacker John Petrishen said the Western Michigan game “really punched us in the mouth and humbled us a lot.”

“We were riding high off that Tennessee win and Western Michigan kind of put us back in our place a little bit,” he said. “We learned what the weaknesses of our defense were and what we could do to improve that. Better we found out early in the season, rather than in a really important game at the end of the season.”

Petrishen called the loss “a nightmare.”

“I think we found out we weren’t invincible,” he said.

4. Climbing the ladder

Pickett is averaging 322.3 aerial yards per game, lifting him to eighth among ACC quarterbacks all-time with a total of 9,918.

By throwing for 246 yards, he will leapfrog the four quarterbacks directly in front of him — Miami’s Brad Kaaya, Duke’s Thaddeus Lewis and Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson of Clemson — and land in fourth place.

The top three are Philip Rivers of N.C. State (13,484), Tajh Boyd of Clemson (11,904) and N.C. State’s Ryan Finley (11,147).

Pickett needs to maintain his pace over the second half of the season and play in at least one postseason game to catch Boyd. Rivers’ record never will be broken.

With 854 career completions, Pickett has a shot at 1,000 after recording 143 through the first six games. The Pitt record of 867 is held by Alex Van Pelt.

5. Behind every good man is a good woman

There are many ways coaches get recruits to sign on the dotted line, and some even mimic the best ones. But Narduzzi, serendipitously, used one that is only available to him when he was recruiting Pickett.

When he visited Pickett’s family at their home in Oakhurst, N.J., after the 2016 season, Narduzzi was accompanied by his wife, Donna. They were on their way to the College Football Hall of Fame dinner in New York City.

“I think it’s the only home visit my wife has ever gone on,” Narduzzi said. “My wife got that one done. She was the reason. Great visit.”