Virginia Run D Faces Stiff Challenge From Physical Pitt Panthers

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Last Saturday, Pitt amassed 484 yards running the football against Duke. It was the most yards Pitt had rushed for in 43 years.

Not since the days of Heisman winner Tony Dorsett had the Panthers grinded out that many yards with their ground attack. That record was 530 yards rushing against Army in 1975.

The men from the Steel City bring their running game to Charlottesville on Friday night (7:30 p.m. start) to face No. 23 ranked Virginia. A strong run defense has helped the Cavaliers string together a three-game winning streak, good enough to put them at 6-2 overall and at the top of the ACC Coastal Division standings at 4-1.

Pitt is No. 22 nationally in running the ball (227.9 yards per game), and Virginia is No. 20 in stopping the run (113.0). Something’s gotta give.

UVa co-defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga said after Wednesday morning’s practice that the challenge is to be more physical than Pittsburgh, which isn’t an easy thing to do.

“Coach [Bronco] Mendenhall uses a term: ‘You’ve got to be prone to violence,’” Poppinga said about stopping the run. “That’s just football. That’s the phrase we’re using this week.”

In UVa’s lone two losses (at Indiana, and at N.C. State), the Cavaliers couldn’t stop the run and paid dearly. Things have changed since that loss to the Wolfpack. For three weeks in a row, the Wahoos have been spectacular against the run, holding then-No. 16 Miami, then Duke, then North Carolina, to less than 100 yards each rushing.

When I asked Mendenhall on Monday if it was mind-boggling to watch Pitt run for more than 400 yards on Duke in his scouting of the Panthers, and how much extra emphasis he was putting on stopping the run this week, he didn’t blink.

“Oh, it’s huge, because I believe Duke is a good defensive team,” Bronco said.

Duke is ranked No. 53 in the land (129 FBS teams) against the run at 146 yards per game, even after that performance against Pitt last weekend.

“Big plays led to all kinds of yardage on both sides of that game,” Mendenhall added. “I think that’s atypical for that kind of game to happen, but it did, where both sides were having a significant number of big plays.”

Pitt won a track meet of a game against Duke, 54-45.

“Pitt is a unique challenge,” Mendenhall said. “I think they’re very physical. That comes from the past couple years that we’ve played and just learning about our ACC opponents a little bit better. They’re a physical and tough football team, so you have to be really sound in your fundamentals.”

The Panthers use a lot of motion and misdirection in their running game, something that Mendenhall said his defensive players will have to exhibit eye control.

Poppinga said against Duke that Pitt had great success on the edge.

“I think they’ve found a guy that they like now, getting to the edge and doing the fly sweep that No. 10 did a year ago, the Henderson kid,” Poppinga said. “I think they found a couple of guys that they like doing that with and they got to the edge a couple of times against Duke and it really hurt Duke.”

One of those guys was freshman V’Lique Carter, who ran for 137 yards and two touchdowns in his college debut. He only required seven carries to pile up those numbers, that’s 19.6 yards per attempt.

Qadree Ollison, who leads Pitt in rushing (99.4 ypg), is attempting to become only the sixth player in Panthers history to reach multiple 1,000-yard rushing campaigns. He stacked up 149 and a TD on 18 carries against the Blue Devils. Quarterback Kenny Pickett also rushed for 76 yards and a score. Two other backs each had more than 50 yards rushing.

Pitt has beaten Virginia three years running, mainly because the Cavaliers couldn’t stop the Panthers’ physical running game.

“Over the past three weeks, specifically in the run game I think we’ve [been prone to violence],” Poppinga said. “This is a whole different level this week.

“Credit [Pitt] the last two years (against Mendenhall’s defenses) they have gotten after us in the run game, so a great challenge for our guys to be able to stop the run and be able to control the game if we can do that. If not they’ll be able to dictate the entire game and that’s what they did against Duke.”

Pitt’s offense did whatever it wanted to against Duke because the Panthers were effective with the run and the Blue Devils couldn’t stop them.

It all starts with Ollison, a big, physical senior, who’s 6-2, 225.

“I think [Ollison] does a great job of running downhill similar to the Connor kid,” Poppinga said.

He was referring to James Connor, a true star for Pitt, and who is now starting for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“Ollison is a hard guy to tackle,” Poppinga added. “They have some good complements to what they like to do, so it’s a tough scheme. We’re going to have to be locked in mentally to all the shifts and motions and the adjustments we’ll have to make. After practice today, I think we have a pretty good plan.”

Virginia should be fairly healthy defensively for the challenge. Jordan Mack, who has missed UVa’s winning streak with an injury, has looked good in practice, but is still being monitored.

“We’re getting him in sparingly at this point, seeing how he feels when he makes contact,” Poppinga said. “I would anticipate Jordan playing a little bit this week.”

Apparently, Malcolm Cook will split some time with Mack, Rob Snyder and Zane Zandier at inside linebacker. Tim Harris, who missed the second half of the UNC game after being shaken up, is apparently healthy and practiced Wednesday, according to Poppinga.

Clearly, Pitt’s misdirection stuff is going to be a challenge, one that Duke never could solve. A lot of it comes in the pre-snap, when the Panthers use the motion and shifts in an attempt to confuse the defense.

“That’s all they’re trying to do,” Poppinga said in terms of trying to cause confusion. “A little eye candy is what we call it. Everybody has to be locked into what their keys are. Eyes on their keys and do their job.”

Meaning, players who are responsible for the perimeter, need to play the perimeter. Guys who defend the inside, need to play the inside.

Mendenhall said that Virginia’s defense against the run is better this season because that became a point of emphasis from the minute the Cavaliers’ lost to Navy in the Military Bowl last season, when the Midshipmen’s option offense ran all over the Wahoos.

“Just the sheer weaknesses that were exposed, we had kind of played around and through as much as possible through two years,” Mendenhall said. “But there had to be a completely recommitted effort to size, strength, fundamentals, and just simply the mindset to continue to play in your gap over and over and over again, and what that looks like and what that feels like, and what mindset that requires.”

He called it a relentless pursuit of run fundamentals after that thrashing.

Poppinga said over the last three weeks that the defense has changed its scheme a bit (during the bye week), putting its better players on the field, more experienced players, more playmakers.

“What it came down to is our mindset has been better,” Poppinga said. “We’ve challenged our guys and they’ve stepped up to the challenge.”

He pointed out that in UVa’s four conference wins (Louisville, Miami, Duke, and UNC), the Cavaliers have managed to hold each to less than 100 yards rushing.

“When you control the run, that gives you a great chance to be successful,” Poppinga said. “This is the biggest challenge we’ve had up to this point.”

Virginia is a 7.5-point favorite in the game according to oddsmakers. Pitt, at 4-4 overall, has had some tough defeats vs. Penn State, Central Florida, and Notre Dame. The Panthers are also in the Coastal Division mix with a 3-1 ACC record, the only loss coming against North Carolina (38-35) on Sept. 22.