As Gold Team quarterback Kenny Pickett got out of the shower after Pitt’s spring game, he had to give Blue Team cornerback Dane Jackson some kudos.
“You made it look like you weren’t getting out[side],” Pickett told him.
“Yeah,” Jackson admitted afterward with a sheepish grin. “I kinda did bait him.”
And with that, a defensive struggle — to say the least — mercifully ended with a decisive play to give the annual Blue-Gold scrimmage some pop. Jackson’s 60-yard interception return with 57 seconds left Saturday at Heinz Field provided the only touchdown of the day and gave Blue a 10-3 victory over Gold.
Jackson even busted out a celebration, grabbing an air arrow from an imaginary quiver and shooting it into the bright blue sky as linebacker Quintin Wirginis egged him on in the end zone.
“When it comes to the spring game, we’re having a little fun,” said Wirginis, who seemed appropriately unaware of the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. “It’s good to see that defensive score.”
That’s how you put up only 22 yards of team offense and win a “game,” though of course like any spring camp-ending scrimmage, the proceedings on the North Shore were much more about fanfare and Panthers camaraderie than results and statistics.
But if you do want the grisly stats from four 10-minute quarters of quarterbacks in red don’t-touch-them jerseys and nothing resembling real kick or punt returns, Gold’s offensive output was better but still measly at 172 yards. In his first live action since the Miami upset last November, Pickett finished 12 of 23 for 140 yards and that fateful pick-six. His counterpart, junior-college transfer Ricky Town, was just 1 of 9, but at least the completion was a 46-yarder to Michael Smith. Both were “sacked” a combined 13 times, but never actually brought down.
“The reality is, today for us, it’s practice 15 but we get a chance to have a little fun and divide the team up,” said assistant head coach/defensive line coach Charlie Partridge, who was the nominal head coach of the Blue Team. “From the minute we started the draft last week until the end of the game, I think that’s what we saw, was our kids having fun.”
It was clear that entering their fourth season under Pat Narduzzi, the Panthers have stacked much more depth on the defensive than offensive line. The head coach noted that it’s easier to play defense than offense in this mock-game setting to begin with, but given the relative youth of the starting offensive lines, neither side rushed for more than 32 yards. One apparent bright spot was the play of redshirt freshman tailback A.J. Davis, who had 38 yards on 13 carries.
“Just standing behind it and watching some of the slippery moves, he’s a slippery guy,” said Narduzzi, who parked himself in the backfield with a whistle throughout the game. “He did himself some more playing time, just based on what I saw.”
Narduzzi also saw plenty of pressure from his front sevens. Patrick Jones was credited with 2.5 sacks, and fellow redshirt freshman Rashad Weaver 1.5, along with a tackle for loss as he blew past his man all game. Pickett insisted there was “definitely” one called sack that he would’ve escaped, but alas, it gave Narduzzi a chance to assess the progress of his defense as a whole and whether it might be the best he’s had as a head coach.
“I’m cautious saying anything, because we’ll find out in September,” Narduzzi said. “You don’t win a championship in the middle of April. I think we have depth. Are we a championship-caliber defense yet? I don’t know. We’ll find out. But I think we can be pretty good.”
It also hurt both offenses that senior tailback Qadree Ollison was held out by injury, as was a slew of wideouts. Ruben Flowers caught five passes for 58 yards and Indiana transfer Taysir Mack had three for 62, but missing were leading returning receiver Rafael Araujo-Lopes, Aaron Mathews, Tre Tipton, Dontavius Butler-Jenkins and Shocky Jacques-Louis.
“Those five guys, in particular, in our plans, are big,” said offensive coordinator Shawn Watson, who served as Gold’s head coach. “We should have everybody back here the first session of summer school.”
Indeed, Pitt now enters the long summer portion of the offseason, with three and a half months until the 2018 opener Sept. 1 against Albany at Heinz Field. Most significant to Narduzzi was that all participants got out unscathed Saturday, which was an afternoon of alumni returning, former coaches Johnny Majors and Walt Harris roaming the sidelines, and an announced crowd of 8,089 enjoying a long-awaited burst of nice weather.
In the end, all were glad that Jackson delivered the one big play and spared everyone from whatever scheme Narduzzi might’ve cooked up for an “overtime.”
“A lot of people were thanking me afterward about that,” Jackson said with a laugh.
NOTE — Before the game, Pat Narduzzi announced that the winners of Pitt's annual Ed Conway Award for most improved players of spring were redshirt senior offensive lineman Connor Dintino on offense and redshirt junior linebacker Anthony McKee on defense.
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: April 14, 2018, 9:14 p.m.
Updated: April 14, 2018, 9:15 p.m.
