Asked if there’s anything particularly surprising about him, Will Gragg thought for a second or two before replying.
“I’m a big music guy,” he said. “The Weeknd, Drake, PartyNextDoor.”
OK, on its face, that’s not much of a shock that a 21-year-old enjoys three of the most popular acts in hip-hop and R&B. But Gragg, Pitt’s graduate transfer tight end, was born in Arkansas, played in high school in Arkansas and went to the University of Arkansas for his first three seasons of college football.
“I’m a country boy,” Gragg said with a grin and a deep Southern drawl Saturday afternoon. But not a country music fan?
“Not at all.”
Here’s my chat from after practice today with Will Gragg. It’s easy to see why he was a popular player in Arkansas even without much on-field success. pic.twitter.com/wGFKc3b1QZ
— Brian Batko (@BrianBatko) August 4, 2018
So far though, after two training camp practices, he’s loving his time at Pitt both on the field — where he’s expected to provide an immediate shot in the arm for the offense — and off of it.
“You know I’m from the country, but the city folks, they really get down and they really like me,” he laughed. “They’ve really taken a hold to me. The Pittsburgh folks, they’re good.”
Coach Pat Narduzzi and offensive coordinator Shawn Watson hope the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Gragg will be good to them. The Panthers haven’t even put on pads yet, and Gragg doesn’t appear to be jumping right in with the first-team offense, but the coaching staff wouldn’t have contacted him this offseason if they didn’t like what they saw on film.
Gragg graduated from Arkansas in three years with his bachelor’s degree in Recreation and Sport Management, so he has two seasons to establish himself with the Panthers. With quarterback Kenny Pickett in need of some weapons on offense, the head coach wouldn’t mind that happening sooner rather than later.
“Will was a guy we targeted. We loved what he saw,” Narduzzi said. “I just love his attitude. … We thought it was a position of weakness coming in, and the strong survive out there.”
Narduzzi added that there weren’t any connections between Pitt and Gragg — who also considered Louisville and Baylor as transfer destinations — when the Panthers began recruiting him. But Watson remembers courting Gragg when Watson was on staff at Texas, and really, that didn’t put him in a very exclusive club.
Gragg had big-time offers from all across the country when he decided to stay home and play for the Razorbacks, and it sounds as if his pedigree has already been evident in a helmet and shorts on the South Side.
“The one thing that’s stood out about Will Gragg is just his route-running,” Narduzzi said Saturday. “The guy can push the field. It’s different than maybe some of the other guys, so I really think that he’s gonna really help us in the passing game.”
That’s certainly more speculation than anything at this point, given that Gragg was a seldom-used piece at Arkansas. When you redshirt your first year as a four-star recruit, don’t see the field your second season either, then play in 10 games but catch just five balls for 61 yards, there isn’t much of a proven resume to point to.
But simply being in an SEC program, which produced two NFL draft picks at tight end while Gragg was there, could serve him well as he tries to get up to speed in Pitt’s offense. At least that’s how his new offensive coordinator sees it.
“He’s a really good pass matchup, and he’s eager and willing in the run game,” Watson said. “He knows what he has to do to develop. … I like what he brings to our table as a matchup guy.”
Watson also mentioned Gragg’s older brother, Chris, who played at Arkansas and in the NFL with the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills as a former seventh-round draft pick. Will Gragg will need to carve out his own niche, but it won’t be without his brother’s help.
“I talk to him five, six times a day,” Will Gragg said. “I talk to him before practice, I talked to him after practice [Friday] night. Just going over film, he’s telling me my footwork, how to stick on my routes and things like that, so he’s always been in my corner anytime I needed him. That’s my best friend.”
What Will Gragg won’t do is have any hard feelings about how it ended for him at Arkansas. He refers to his new quarterback, Kenny Pickett, “a beast” and said the two have been working on chemistry since he got to town. He sums up Narduzzi as “down to business, and I like that.”
But with the Razorbacks in his rearview, Gragg — who calls himself “a jack of all trades” — feels reinvigorated by a change of scenery after leaving his hometown school, where his ambitions and aspirations fizzled out.
“You never can point a finger on those things,” Gragg said.
“I think it’s good for me to get a fresh start and be able to come out here with new coaches, new coordinator, new tight ends coach, and just new players around me. These guys wanna win, and I feel like we’ve got the players around us to do it.”
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: August 4, 2018, 6:20 p.m.