PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Missing last week with an undisclosed injury, Pitt Head Coach Pat Narduzzi said he expects ACC leading rusher Israel Abanikanda to play Saturday at Virginia.
Sophomore Rodney Hammond was the feature back last week in a win against Syracuse running for a career-high 124 yards and a touchdown. C’Bo Flemister ran for 42 yards in basically one series with a one-yard TD run.
Mentioning that Virginia has improved every week after a slow start, Narduzzi is pleased with some of the areas they’ve gotten better at starting with that ground game.
“I think there are a lot of areas we’ve improved,” Narduzzi said. “Obviously, we’ve improved our run game from a year ago. I think our pass game continues to improve as we have some consistency in the quarterback spot again. We started throwing it pretty good out of camp against West Virginia and Tennessee. Then we get a hurt quarterback and never got back in a groove. We started running it more and kind of liking the run. Kedon was as sharp as he’s been last week and he’s had another good week of practice.”
“We can build on it,” said Panthers offensive lineman Jake Kradel. “See what we do well and keep doing it. We’ve established the run, now time to get the pass game going. Us opening up the run will open up the pass.”
Narduzzi also mentioned his run defense has improved citing the young linebackers getting more and more game experience. The D also improving in the fourth quarter, after giving up 38 points in the previous two games, the Panthers shut the Orange down.
“We all just wanted it, came out and played together,” said Pitt safety Brandon Hill. “Just have fun, that’s the main thing, have fun out there. Pitt football is about a ‘party in the backfield’. That’s what we try to emphasize every week with the D-line getting pressure, the front 7 getting pressure and the secondary handling the back end.”
“You hopefully learn from prior mistakes in North Carolina and Louisville,” Narduzzi said. “Just got to go make plays and do your job, that’s what is comes down to. Everybody did their job.”
Those pair of losses took the Panthers out of the ACC Championship, but Panthers players saying there is still a lot to play for.
“We still can win out and win that ninth game at the bowl game,” Hill said. “We can still have the success the guys talked about. Just go out and have fun with this group of guys because they change. Cherish these moments we have with these guys, cherish these wins.”
“Nothing has really changed,” Narduzzi said. “It's one at a time, and I know that sounds cliche and you guys are looking at me like I'm crazy, but it's all about Virginia this weekend. If we saw our guys, like, ‘Oh, let's get a push for this,’ it would be like, ‘What's wrong with you? Why didn't you push before?’ You don't see it like that.”
Last year Virginia quarterback Brennan Armstrong completed 73.5% of his passes for 487 yards and three touchdowns against the Panthers. New coaching staff and a new offense for the Cavs as Armstrong has only one 300-yard game and only one game with more than one touchdown pass and that was two in the opener against Richmond. Armstrong has been more of a problem with his feet, rushing for 222 yards and three touchdowns in the last three games.
“He gets out of the pocket,” Hill said. “I had an encounter with him last year and missed him,” Hill said. “He kind of ducked me a little bit. (This time) we’ll see.”
Panthers pregame starts at 9a on Saturday with Bob Pompeani, Dorin Dickerson and Paul Zeise. Panthers Gameday hosted by Larry Richert with Dickerson and Pat Bostick at 10. Bill Hillgrove on the call at noon, all on 93.7 The Fan.