Pitt Manhandles UMass 51-7 in Season Opener
(Pittsburgh,PA) For the first time in either school’s history, the Pitt Panthers and Massachusetts (UMass) Minutemen faced each other on a football field. And like good hosts, the Panthers welcomed their opponent into Heinz Field for their Season Opener and sent them home with a ‘lovely’ parting gift: A 51-7 beatdown that wasn’t as ‘close’ as the score indicated.
“It’s good to get number one under our belt. I thought our kids came to play.” Said Pitt head coach Pat Narducci “Early in the first half we did some things just to slow us down, whether it was a turnover, misalignment by a young receiver that can’t do it, just an unforced error. We had, I think, two turnovers and we had a snap go over the head in the second half. But overall, the offense put up 51 points, and the defense was pretty nasty early.”
The defense may have been ‘pretty’ ugly early, but they were very nasty the entire game as they held UMass to just 209 total yards. The defense completely shut down the Minutemen’s running game by limiting them to 42 yards and sacked UMass QB Tyler Lytle 5 times, 2 by Senior LB J John Petrishen whose jersey number was the same as the Minutemen’s points in the first half: 0.
“When we blitz them, we expect to get home.” Said Narduzzi “(Cornerback)Phil Campbell I thought played great. You’ll watch one of his first hits on the quarterback, if he just sticks a handout here, knocks the ball out, a turnover on a quarterback is more important than a sack, counts as a sack as well.”
On offense, the Panthers gained 597 yards against the Minuteman and scored at least 10 points each quarter. Senior QB Kenny Pickett was superb, passing for 272 yards (27-37) and passing for 2 TDs: One to TE (and Maryland Transfer) Lucas Krull, (led Pitt with 58 yards receiving) and Sophomore WR Jordan Addison. (5 rec, 40 yards)
“Yeah, I mean, he’s a war daddy, warrior, whatever you want to call him.” Narduzzi said of Pickett, who also took a nasty hit in the first-half “He’s tough. Again, just took a shot in the chest, I guess. I didn’t see it. My eyes were down the field.”
K Sam Scrarton’s 35-yard FG and an 18-yard TD run by RB AJ Davis finished the first half scoring for Pitt. (1-0,0-0 ACC) In the Second half, The Panther’s scoring continued on the ground as Vincent Davis and Israel Abanikanda scored TDs in the 3rd quarter and in the 4th quarter the backups came in and kept it going as QB Nick Patti and freshman RB Daniel Carter each scored TDs.
The Minutemen’s (0-1, 0-0 FBS Independent) only score came on a 1-yard run by QB Lytle.
“It was good to get Nick Patti out there and good to get Davis Beville on the field as well.” Said Narduzzi “So we got three quarterbacks reps today, and Davis took them down for a touchdown, and Nick scored one himself.”
The Panthers must now prepare to travel to Tennessee and take on the Volunteers of the Southeastern Conference. Many may feel that this isn’t a strong Tennessee team, but their 38-6 drubbing of Bowling Green proved otherwise. Narduzzi and the Panthers know that they must be prepared as they head into a hostile environment of Neyland Stadium next Saturday.
“Like I told the guys in there (locker room), you make your biggest improvement from week one to week two, I truly believe that, and we’ll clean up a lot of things.” Said Narduzzi “I think some of the guys will find out if they should be a starter.
This is a good scrimmage. It’s scrimmage number three. We only have two during camp, and that was scrimmage number three, and you can find out when the live bullets are flying who’s going to make a play and who’s not. So, there’s a lot of great things out there. We’ll look at the tape and I’ll have more information for you on Monday.”
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