Pitt's Calijah Kancey will miss bowl game with injury
Pitt will play its bowl game without an important player for the second consecutive season.
Defensive tackle Calijah Kancey, the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, tweeted this morning that he will not play in Pitt’s bowl game because of an unspecified season-ending injury he suffered in the third quarter of the Duke game Nov. 19. He also missed the regular-season finale the next week in Miami, his hometown.
Quarterback Kenny Pickett didn’t play in the Peach Bowl last season as he prepared for the NFL Draft.
Thankful???????? #H2P pic.twitter.com/xZrJikeYWG
— Calijah Kancey (@Ckancey8) December 2, 2022
Kancey gives Pitt strength in the middle of the defense against an opponent’s run game while providing a pass rush that, at the least, disrupts a quarterback’s intentions when he escapes a sack. Pitt leads the nation in sacks per game (3.75 average).
In 11 games, Kancey recorded 31 tackles, 14 1/2 tackles for loss (including 7 1/2 sacks) and 10 of Pitt’s 53 quarterback hurries (nearly 20%). His TFL total is tops among the nation’s interior defensive players. In 37 career games in four seasons, he has compiled 92 tackles, including 34 1/2 TFLs (16 sacks), with three passes defensed and a forced fumble.
He was named to the All-ACC first team and Pro Football Focus’ All-American team. Kancey is the only player in the country selected a finalist for the Outland Trophy (nation’s best interior lineman) and Bronko Nagurski Trophy (national defensive player of the year).
He will be honored Friday night in Charlotte, N.C., at the ACC Honors program.
Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
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