With sound knee, Pitt's Lucas Krull eager to reconnect with quarterback Kenny Pickett

Lucas Krull didn’t get mad at the question.

He is in such a good mood these days, with a sound knee and new hope for his football career, there is little that bothers him.

But he did want to make something clear:

The knee is fine. Krull, a senior tight end at Pitt, is back and ready to do in 2021 what an injury early in the season prevented him from doing in 2020.

Pitt practiced for the third time Thursday — the first spring session in pads — and Krull later was asked during a video conference call if the knee was ready to withstand the hitting.

“When I tell you I’m 100%, I’m 100%,” he said. “It’s just like we’re playing ball again in fall camp of 2020. I have no issues. I have no restrictions, no limits. Not sore on the knee. I feel great.”

Said linebacker Cam Bright: “Lucas is looking good, like he never got hurt. You wouldn’t even have thought he got hurt if you didn’t know.”

A year ago, Krull (6-foot-6, 260 pounds) transferred from Florida with the intent to play one season, inject life into a dormant tight end group, catch red zone touchdown passes, help Pitt win games and then go, happily, into the NFL.

The injury ended those hopes after he played in one game and caught one pass for 6 yards against Syracuse.

He planned to return in time for a bowl game, but when the team decided not to extend its season, he accepted the extra year of eligibility from the NCAA and reset his goal for the spring.

“By the end of November, I was starting to feel good,” he said. “Then, we decided as a team we would not do the bowl game. If we were going to play in a bowl game, I was going to play. It was a team decision, and I stand behind my brothers, no matter what. Things change. You have to adapt to adverse situations.”

Still, the season was difficult for Krull.

“I’m not going to sit here and act like everything was sunshine and rainbows because there were a lot of dark days,” he said. “I’ll be honest. It was tough. You have everything on the line for that year. I was supposed to be here for one year and go to the NFL.”

Krull attended Pitt’s Pro Day on Wednesday, with the thought he could have been among his 16 former teammates who worked out for the NFL.

“They come back, and a lot of them look completely different,” he said. “They look great. They look like they haven’t eaten a carb in I don’t know how long.

“You see that stage and you say, ‘Yeah, it could have been me.’ ”

But Krull is not thinking negative thoughts.

“You can’t sit there and think that. You have to think: ‘What’s my role right now? What’s my life like right now?’ ”

Krull is among nine tight ends spread among all four classes — four seniors, two juniors, one sophomore and two freshmen. The hope among Pitt’s coaches is one or two will help resuscitate the tight end position.

In the past two seasons, seven tight ends have combined for 47 catches, 431 yards and two touchdowns. What Pitt needs is a tight end to step up and do what Seton LaSalle graduate Scott Orndoff did in 2016 when he caught 35 passes for 579 yards and five touchdowns. Since Orndoff left, no Pitt tight end has come close to those numbers.

Krull knows the history but doesn’t care to talk about it.

“We have to worry about what’s here right now,” he said. “The future right now is with me and the younger guys. I’m preaching to them every day we have to be playmakers. When our number’s called, we have to make a play and that’s what we’ve doing.

“Things are changing. You’re going to see the tight end’s going to play a big role in this offense. Coach (Mark) Whipple (offensive coordinator) has been doing a wonderful job, making those right calls, getting us involved, getting our confidence up.

“The old stuff’s the old stuff. We’re here now and things are going to change.”

Krull was thrilled to learn that quarterback Kenny Pickett is returning this season, but he wanted to know why he needed to go on Twitter to learn his friend’s good news.

“I was like, ‘You have to be kidding me. You’re not going to call me first and let me know the good news.’ I was so fired up. That was the best news I heard in a long time.

“Words can’t describe how excited I am. You kind of see it right now in Day 3. We’re already putting in a lot of new stuff for him and me. It’s going to be a lot of fun. (Jersey numbers) 8 and 7, there are going to be a lot of connections.”

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