Monday, August 10, 2015

2015 Miami Hurricanes Opponent Preview - Week 13 (at Pitt 11/27 Friday)

Miami Hurricanes 2015 Opponent Preview

Week 13

At Pittsburgh (November 27th – Friday)

The 2015 Miami Hurricanes Opponent Preview concludes with the preview of the Pittsburgh Panthers who hosts the U on November 27th, the day after Thanksgiving up in Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.  

In the Steel city, out is Paul Chryst, who left to run the show in Madison, Wisconsin and coming in is former Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi. He’s the 4th head coach there in the last ten seasons. If you include Mike Haywood, that’s five. There’s a new beginning up in the Steel City. When you look back on Chryst’s time there, if you speak to their fans up there, it’s like a few weeks they were world-beaters, and the next few weeks, they were terrible. Simply put there was a lack of consistency there.
Pat Narduzzi

Their opponents weren’t on their level, OK. Still, that team was very good and consistent early. They had the nation’s leading rusher for a while in RB James Conner. Everything was going pretty well, until the Iowa game. From that loss on, and for the next three weeks afterward, there were despair and another disappointing season was soon to come.

After gagging, and it was a gag job in Fort Worth vs Houston in the Armed Forces bowl, in which they blew a 25-point lead, they cleaned house. On the same day Chryst left for Madison,  AD Steve Pederson was shown the door, and soon after, all of Chryst’s staff were canned. They believe they have a winner in the making in Narduzzi, who won the 2013 Broyles Award for nation’s best assistant coach.

Even though he hasn’t coached a game yet, the fanbase up there is jacked for big things going forward. What he has done was have a strong presence on Social Media (i.e., Facebook and Twitter), a strong recruiting class, and bring back a defense that Pittsburgh is known for. He wants to bring the type of D that made Michigan State very successful and a National power.

Let’s talk about Pittsburgh’s Defense.

This is Narduzzi’s baby right here. With Narduzzi really running the show with the Defense, you won’t see the gag job again like you saw in Fort Worth vs Houston. They didn’t have many stars and whatever was there is gone. They lost to graduation, their two leading tacklers in Anthony Gonzalez (had a rookie tryout with the Pittsburgh Steelers) and Todd Thomas (UFA to Jacksonville) as well as backs leader Ray Vinopal (UFA to Dallas). There are many questions in Narduzzi’s first season as the boss in Pittsburgh.

Yes, they have a New DC coming in with Josh Conklin, coming over from FIU. He’s going to learn from one of the best in the business there, make no mistake; Narduzzi calls the shots with the D. While Conklin might not have the experience, he’ll make up for it with talent and good coaching While in University Park (Miami), his defense there led the nation in fumble recoveries (19), as well as second in defensive touchdowns (6) and fourth in turnovers gained (33). Consider this, that defense at FIU was 36th in yards allowed, and 4th in red zone defense, and he got a Broyles Award nomination, which is the same title Narduzzi won in 2013, running the defense in East Lansing.

Its going to all depend on how quick Narduzzi and Conklin can maximize the effort from their personnel, because there’s not a lot of experience there and lack of stars there. In fact, the only experience coming back is seniors Lafayette Pitts and Darryl Render.

Where they lack in experience, they make up for it in talent from the 2015 recruiting class, This includes CB Jordan Whitehead, who was ranked 13th in the nation at that position according to the folks at 247 Sports. Add to the mix fellow enrollees CB Malik Henderson, S Jay Stocker, S Dane Jackson, and others, and Narduzzi will have a defense that will be a force to be dealt with not this year, but really from next year on. If you’re going to get to their defense, you better do it this year because come 2017, that defense is going to be very dangerous and good, once Narduzzi’s has his system in place there.

Let’s talk about Pittsburgh’s Offense

Yes, Narduzzi thinks defense first, the offense will be run by Jim Chaney, who comes over from Arkansas, and he’ll have plenty of weapons at his disposal. Their two biggest weapons coming back are RB James Conner and WR Tyler Boyd.

Conner, as stated earlier, led the nation in rushing for a while before tailing off, and was even talked about in the Heisman. He would up 7th in the nation in rushing yards (1765) and 3rd in rushing touchdowns (26). He was the ACC Player of the Year in 2014, and was a first team All-American. The question is with Conner, what could he do for a encore?  They believe that he could have another monster year.

On the receiving corp, their leader is clearly Boyd (provided he stays out of trouble off the field).  He reminds their fans of Larry Fitzgerald. Other than Fitzgerald, he’s the other Pitt WR to have  two 1,000 yard seasons in their careers. That’s amazing.
While Conner got the pub and well-deserved too, Boyd had a solid season, and more impressive when you consider that he played with QB Tom Savage, who was known for the big play pass. 

After all that, all he did was rank second in the ACC in receiving yards (1261), yards per game (97.0), and touchdowns (8). Oh, and being a first team All-ACC player. Outside of Boyd, there’s really nothing else there. Though they have back TE J.P. Holtz and WR Ronald Jones. While they are nice players who can fill roles (combining for 440 yards in 2014), they are nowhere near the talent that Boyd is. As for the 2015 recruiting class here, they have in Tre Tipton and Gentry Ivery. Simply put, the leader is Boyd, again, provided, he stays out of trouble off the field. He had a DUI arrest in June and was suspended briefly. This is the leader of the WRs here, and a overall team leader.

As good as Conner and Boyd are, the biggest question mark on O, is at QB. Chad Voytik had a nice season. He was 4th in the ACC in QBR and 3rd in passer efficiency rating (140.2). He’s a slow starter, but finishes strong late. With Conner and Boyd, they’re not going to ask him to do too much. He could get better, and they’ll want him to manage the game and not make the big mistake.

Voytik’s can get even better here and Chaney will work with him to see that he gets better. Cheney’s experience will really come into play here, when you consider the resume of this man. He’s coached big time football at major place and even a short stint in St Louis, coaching the offensive line and tight ends.

While at Purdue for nine years, he coached a certain Super Bowl QB by the name of Drew Brees. His experience will work wonders for that offense in the Steel City.

What to expect from Pittsburgh

Looking at them on tape, you can see why the excitement in the Steel City is high. Narduzzi is bringing the enthusiasm and a toughness that Pittsburgh is known for.  If you’re going to get Pitt, get them this year because no one is going to want to face them in the coming years having to game plan for that defense.  They have a tough schedule to be sure with GT, Notre Dame, Duke, and Louisville. They could surprise some people in Year 1 of the Narduzzi era.
From their Spring Game

The Gag job in Fort Worth by Pitt vs Houston

From last year at Sun Life when Conner had a big night vs The U
In this game, it’s the regular season finale on a short week (day after Thanksgiving). It’s likely to be very cold up there. It’s going to be a White Knuckle type of game, but I have to believe in the end, our experience, and making enough plays late will be the difference. The U, I predict will survive and leave Heinz Field with a very hard fought win. 
This is the final part of this series for this season. 

No comments:

Post a Comment