Virginia Defensive Line Key To Beating Pitt

By Jerry Ratcliffe

If Saturday night’s opener between Virginia and Pitt at Heinz Field is anything like the last few meetings, this game will be determined by what team rules the line of scrimmage.

One of the more interesting matchups in the game will be Young vs. Old, Experience vs. Inexperience. Virginia’s true-freshman nose tackle Jowon Briggs will be going against Pitt junior center Jimmy Morrissey.

This should be a game within a game, a sidebar of action worth watching. Briggs, at 6-foot-1, 295 pounds, has been a beast from the day training camp opened this month. He has drawn raves from Bronco Mendenhall and co-defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga, in addition to almost disbelief from defensive teammates.

At the nose position, Briggs will be responsible for the “A” Gaps, which means the holes to either side of Pitt’s center, Morrissey, extremely important for a defense to control or else risk getting gashed the entire game. That’s a lot to ask of a freshman, but Briggs, even at 17 years old, isn’t your average freshman.

Morrissey is 6-3, 305, and a hoss. He was third-team, All-ACC last season after starting the first 11 games for Pitt, sustaining a season-ending injury late in the win over Wake Forest, two weeks after the Virginia game. The injury ended Morrissey’s 23-game starting streak, and according to Pitt observers, the Panthers were never the same offensively after losing their starting center.

Virginia, which returns its entire defensive line from a year ago, and is actually seven players deep, should be stout against Pitt’s running game and the Panthers’ O-line, which features four new starters to either side of Morrissey.

Considering that UVA runs a 3-4 base defense, it’s something a little different that opponents don’t see week-in, week-out.

Morrissey was asked about that aspect in interviews this week and said that he got some exposure to it last year against Virginia and Georgia Tech, and some versus Central Florida.

“It’s fun [going against a 3-4],” Morrissey said. “I like having the nose right up on me, something you don’t see very often.”

That’s confidence in saying that going up against Briggs could be fun. It will be interesting to see if Morrissey feels the same way at the end of the night.

However, Pitt is exuding confidence offensively and some of that can be attributed to new offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, a quarterback guru if you will.

“[Whipple] is extremely confident and has a lot of swagger, and that confidence is contagious,” Morrissey said. 

Another source of Pitt’s confidence is offensive-line coach Dave Borbely, in his second year with the Panthers. Borbs had two coaching stints at UVA, with Al Groh from 2006-09, then with Mike London in 2015.

Borbely was singled out by Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi during this week’s press conference when the head coach was asked about going up against the Cavaliers’ 3-4 scheme with four new starting offensive linemen.

“We’ll find out,” Narduzzi said. “You never know whether you watched that Miami-Florida game, you don’t know what you’re going to get out of a freshman right tackle or out of a first-game starter, out of anybody. We’re going to find out. I feel comfortable with our offensive line. I really do.”

Miami allowed 10 sacks in that loss to the Gators.

“We’ll find out if [Pitt’s O-line] get an A, B, C or D (grade). I don’t think it’s going to be an F, but we’ll find out what kind of grade they get,” Narduzzi said. “I’m happy with those guys from the left tackle to the right tackle. Gabe Houy (6-6, 310 sophomore) has been really special.”

Narduzzi thought initially that Houy, who started one game last season, would be a tackle, but filled in at guard.

“I like the chemistry in that room,” Narduzzi said. “I like the coaching that’s going on in that room. I like their toughness.”

Toughness has been the mantra for Pitt football ever since Narduzzi arrived from Michigan State where he was defensive coordinator in a physical program. The Panthers literally beat up Virginia last season with a macho ground game that dominated the Cavaliers and cost UVA a strong chance at the ACC Coastal Division title.

The duo of 1,000-yard rushers from a year ago are now in the NFL and Pitt will be featuring younger, inexperienced backs, but with good backgrounds. Again, the O-line is new, and will be tested by a strong Virginia front seven that will rotate seven defensive linemen to stay fresh, and a corps of solid linebackers, backed by one of the ACC’s top secondaries.

Virginia’s goal will be to control Pitt’s ground game for the first time under Mendenhall’s watch, and force the Panthers’ new OC to put the ball in the air. Pitt will be ready to do so because Whipple has developed strong quarterbacks everywhere he has been, from the NFL to all levels of college football.

The question is how quarterback Kenny Pickett fares against a solid defense, a much-improved UVA defense from a year ago. One of Pickett’s main weaknesses a year ago was his inability to read coverages, and according to former Miami coach Mark Richt, Virginia is the best in disguising coverages of any team his Hurricanes faced during his time in Coral Gables.

One thing that Mendenhall is expecting out of his defense is more quarterback sacks, which means that Pickett could feel a lot of heat. Virginia had 26 sacks in 13 games last year, obviously an average of two per game. Mendenhall wants more.

“Since I’ve been a head coach, our brand of football … I think there are only three or four programs that the sack advantage means more to than ours,” Mendenhall said. “If we have more sacks than our opponent, that win rate is astronomical for us. It does matter. We know that and we’re focusing on it. To be dominant, that has to be added to what we’re already doing.”

Where will more sacks come from, scheme or personnel?

“Both,” Mendenhall said without batting an eye.

Poppinga has studied the analytics as well and knows exactly what more sacks means to his defense.

“We have to get one more than the other team,” Poppinga said. “If it’s one for us and none for them, then our offensive line has had an amazing day. That’s 92 percent over [Bronco’s] head coaching career.”

As Mendenhall pointed out, that is an astronomical win rate for his teams when they have one more sack than the opponent.

“It has been a major emphasis on our defense to create more sacks,” Poppinga said. “I can’t remember exactly how many we had last year (26), but I think we were in the 40s nationally (tied for No. 73). We want to be in the top 20. We want to average three sacks a game.”

Does that mean the Cavaliers will be blitzing the crap out of Pickett on Saturday night, sticking with the “Blitzburg” theme of the stadium, where the Steelers play?

“You’ve got to have everything,” Poppinga said. “Most people think third-down sacks are everything, but sometimes the best sacks come on first-and-10 because it puts [the offense] behind the sticks and they have a lot of ground to make up on second and third down. We were great on third down last year on sacking the quarterback. Now if we can do that one first and second down, we can make a big jump as a team.”

Some of that will start when Briggs and Morrissey go mano-a-mano in the middle, allowing linebackers or safeties a clear path to Pickett.