As a defensive-oriented head coach, Pat Narduzzi predictably loves to run the ball. And it’s not just a mindset; it shows in the numbers, too.
Only three times in his three seasons at Pitt has his team failed to rush for at least 100 yards in a game. It happened once in his first year. Happened in the season opener a year ago with an admittedly rusty James Conner. Now, it’s already happened once in Year 3, and Saturday’s putrid performance on the ground at Georgia Tech wasn’t just the worst under Narduzzi, but it was also the latest in a troubling trend for the Panthers offense.
In Week 1 against Youngstown State, Pitt (1-3) piled up 146 yards rushing in the first half and finished with 208. At Penn State a week later, 155 was good, but not enough for a win. The next time out, a huge early deficit against Oklahoma State contributed to just 103 yards on the ground, and this past weekend in Atlanta, Pitt put forth a new low in Narduzzi’s tenure with just 37 yards on 20 attempts.
“Early on, we played pretty solid. I thought last week, we played poorly against Georgia Tech,” running backs coach Andre Powell said Tuesday after practice. “Way below the bar for what our standard is. We gotta get better.”
Everyone on the offense has a hand in the failure to establish the run, from a mostly inept passing game, to a struggling offensive line, to the tailbacks themselves.
A backfield group that was considered a strength for Pitt entering the season — or at least one of depth — even after the loss of Conner hasn’t done much to help the cause. Redshirt junior Qadree Ollison, who entered the year as the starter, has been the most productive of the bunch but his 204 yards on the season came almost entirely in the first two weeks. In the past two games combined, the former ACC offensive rookie of the year has just 17 yards on 14 carries.
“We wanna run the ball,” Ollison said. “Our mentality is that no matter how many people they have in the box, we gotta be able to run the ball and that’ll eventually open up the pass game.”
Pitt’s run-pass balance, or lack thereof, is a bit of chicken-egg situation. Neither land nor air is producing much lately, so Narduzzi and his staff are trying to figure out whether the Panthers can’t run because they can’t throw or can’t throw because they can’t run.
He said Saturday that it doesn’t matter who’s under center, Ben DiNucci or Max Browne (who seemed to begin practice Tuesday as the starter) if the quarterback doesn’t have run support to keep defenses honest. But Monday he said that “might be” a byproduct of few big plays downfield.
Stuck in the middle of it all is Pitt’s offensive line, which might be the most significant culprit of all, a surprising development given that the unit returned three starters and added graduate transfer Brandon Hodges from Texas.
“Disappointing,” redshirt junior left tackle Brian O’Neill, the leader of the group, said Tuesday. “I think any time you don’t really play up to the standard you’ve kind of set for yourself, it’s not anything coach needed to tell us. The proof is in the pudding, the proof is on film, and as an O-line, we didn’t play up to the standard.”
O’Neill added that starting Tuesday, he and his linemates would start turning a corner. For the running backs, Ollison called it a particularly intense practice as the Panthers prepare for lowly Rice (1-3). If they can’t get the rushing attack back on track in that one …
“We've got to knock some people off the ball,” Narduzzi said Monday. “And I see tailbacks not taking good paths, too. There's a lot of things. It's not one guy, it's 11 guys all the time, and that's a fact.”
As for the backs, Conner’s still roaming the South Side facility, but doing so as a member of the Steelers. Ollison and sophomore Chawntez Moss are listed as co-starters, while junior Darrin Hall has just one carry and two receptions the last two weeks. Freshman A.J. Davis scored a touchdown against Youngstown State when Moss was unavailable but hasn’t gotten any work since.
According to Narduzzi, the older players have been more consistent in practice, but perhaps the ship hasn’t sailed on the four-star recruit making an impact.
“When he’s got the ball in his hands, he’s a good guy,” Powell said, though he was careful not to make any guarantee of more snaps. “But all the things he has to do when the ball’s not in his hands kind of bogged him down. But he’s improving. He’s spending more time in here, he’s studying more, and we’re very proud of his progress.”
Now if only the running game could make some progress.
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: September 26, 2017, 8:46 p.m.
