PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Last Saturday not only did the Panthers face an FCS opponent, but a quarterback making a third college start. Big difference in the offensive challenge for Pitt this week hosting Cincinnati.
Emory Jones starts at QB for Cincinnati playing in his 46th college game. The 6’2”, 210-pound transfer started his career at Florida and played for Arizona State last year while having had a few big games
· Nearly led Florida to upset win over Alabama, combining for 272 yards and a TD
· 21-27, 209 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT, 144 yards rushing v Tennessee
· 14-22, 273 yards, 4 TD v Vanderbilt
· 21-36, 261 yards, TD, 2 INT vs. Utah
· 23-32, 243 yards, TD, rush TD v USC
In his first game with the Bearcats, against Eastern Kentucky, he was nearly perfect. Jones was 19-23 for 345 yards and five touchdowns. He also rushed for another 26 yards as Cincy won 66-13.
“Great player, athletic,” said Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi. “I don't know if he's Malik Cunningham, but really athletic.”
The reference to the former Louisville quarterback who was coached at Louisville by now Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield. There were mixed results in those matchups-Cunningham beat Pitt last year going 10-21, 122 yards with two touchdowns and an interception with 46 yards rushing. Panthers won the other matchup holding Cunningham to 9-21 for 107 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions and rushed 13 times for three yards.
Narduzzi said they’ve already looked back at Louisville tape to see how Satterfield’s offense worked with Cunningham. They will also go back to every team that they played that has an athletic quarterback to study where their own Panthers defense is vulnerable. He also knows that Satterfield at Cincinnati, with a different quarterback, will throw something at them they haven’t seen.
The know Jones likes to scramble. He didn’t have to do that against EKU because they were having so much success throwing the ball. They have to be ready for it though.
“They've got some quarterback draws, and quarterback draw is a new thing probably that they got in the off-season,” Narduzzi said he noticed from film. “They weren't a big quarterback draw with Malik, but seems to be a lot of quarterback draws with having routes out there, RPO stuff.”
“So they've got some new stuff in there. We've seen plenty of draws through the years, so we'll be okay there.”
1st things 1st
Narduzzi was pleased at how his team focused on their play and took care of business against an FCS team last Saturday. Is the Pitt head coach concerned about his team thinking ahead to September 16 at West Virginia?
“I would say they were locked into game 1, and hopefully they'll be locked into game 2, and again, my job, again, to make sure they don't overlook anybody,” Narduzzi said. “But I don't know how you'd overlook a team that was in the playoff just a couple years ago and is really a good football team, and they've got talent. They've got speed.”
“Again, state of Ohio, they get a lot of Ohio kids. They're a good football team.”