Reid, George, Holstein and Louis after the win over Kent State | Pitt football on Panther-Lair.com

like you're pretty good at just kind of absorbing contact and playing through it I mean what can you kind of talk us through that uh punt return there you got pretty good didn't oh yeah I I mean I wanted to catch it out the L but when it bounced I said yeah I got to pick this one up I seen everybody on my side I said yeah I'll pick this up and go right it's going to be a touchdown so that's that's what happened what you see on your touchdown run that you had from scrimmage seemed like the seeds parted and you just took off of The Middle oh yeah I mean I just seen one-onone with the safety that's what we want one-onone with the safety make him Miss I already know what I could do so once I get one-onone with anybody Sho I already know what's going to happen later in the game there was a draw call on Third and long where seemed like the whole team was spread out and then all of a sudden you had the ball and there was nobody to be around you how often have you guys worked on that look to get that that option I mean we we we game planed a lot of this stuff so we we practiced all that uh this whole week uh we know shoot we drop back they see the quarterback do this they going all the linebackers going to drop back and they going to be wide open so and that's what happened how familiar did today feel with your past work in Kate's offense I mean it's very familiar you know a lot of stuff he did I already seen it before so I already I mean I already coming into the game I already knew what was going to happen I mean I trust Kade I know what Kade could do the team the teammate we look we look real good this week so I already knew what was going to happen uh today you know a a bigger difference now you're major college football compared to playing in Western Carolina uh not really I I don't really see no difference really just being real I don't really see no difference just probably probably the speed a little they probably a little faster but that's it nothing really up desm what what we saw from Eli is that what you guys been seeing in practice oh yeah I mean the quarterback competition been real good uh they decided to go with Eli Eli looked real good in this week coming in uh and he looked real good today and we just keep we got to keep going what was the team's response when when you guys learned that Eli was going to be the start of this week say it again what was the team's response like the players you guys when you heard that Eli was the starter this week I mean shoot whoever whoever out there we got to do what we got to do so it wasn't really no oh Eli going shoot both of them look good it wouldn't matter who was in there so you explosive earlier this week you feel like you kind of showcased that oh yeah oh yeah I mean that's that's that's me I'm an explosive person I like to Showcase that that's one of that's in my skill case so talk about your speed and you talked about these opponents today being a little faster you were still a little bit faster than all of them uh I mean what's that like knowing that you weren't caught and you might have been surprised like oh man like what now I mean I mean I know me so no matter who we play who I there I know once I get past that second level it's over when the last time youo I can't even I don't even know probably when I was little obviously this offense has built a lot on speed I mean obviously you were making plays but what did you see from a guy like Kenny Johnson today I mean everybody played good to be honest o line started with the o line o line played real good uh the quarterback look real good Eli receivers were playing they butt off blocking running routes every I mean everybody did what they were supposed to do uh Kenny had some great catches so I mean we just got to go uh go on with this next week feels like I just when I was looking you up before you came to pit you can be more involved in the passing game you had two catches for eight yards you feel like that was just kind of just what you guys were calling today or is this kind of like more of the role you see for yourself in pits offense um no it just the way they was playing I mean they was giving up really everything uh so the receivers really getting open so it really went you a got to throw the ball to me so I mean going to the other games we don't know what's going to happen but I mean sure I'm just happy that even though I got two cats I'm happy with what the receivers did the quarterbacks did I'm happy what what happened today anything else all right thank you have a good day thank you how's it going everybody Brandon howdy howdy howdy Brandon break us down your your sack fumble and how that played out I don't remember no um it was just a it was a great play call by our coaching staff uh knowing the Tendencies of their offense and uh just players making plays all 11 guys did their job and that's what it allowed allow allowed the play to be successful how would you evaluate the defense as a whole today uh I think we have some cleaning up to do but I think we're flying around to the football I think we're we're back to kind of where we used to be as far as being violent being aggressive flying flying around just being a bunch of Rabbid dogs out there on the football field you can see like some of the guys got their first career sacks guys like Kyle Lewis guys like uh rashim biles all got their first career sacks like that's a tribute to them flying around going to the football playing hard going 1,000 miles hour seemed like you guys were able to get the quarterback a little bit more in the second half what changed for you guys um I think it was just a it was a couple adjustments that we made in the in the uh halftime Break um and then guys just being relentless going to the football I mean you keep going you keep going you keep going something's going to break eventually so many new faces in this defense do you feel like you guys maybe uh found something or came along a little bit learned something about uh how to play together in the second half um I wouldn't say that much I feel like guys got guys got comfortable in the in the defense comfortable in the flow of the game like you said there's a lot of new faces a lot of guys that are seeing their F their first crack at the at college football so um going forward I think we did a phenomenal job I think there's a lot to clean up yet and I think that we're going to clean that up uh tomorrow and over the next week so we can prepare ourselves for Cincinnati spoke about Kyle Lewis I me you love the team with 10 tackles today what you like about his performance he's a dog flying around the football going 100 miles an hour like I said that's that's a tribute to who he is as a person just 100 miles hour 100% of the time as a defense did you you know the past couple years you guys didn't have a lot of room for erir with uh you know the offense on scoring a lot of points did you guys feel the energy the offense was bringing to help you guys out um yeah we did I I seeing the offense was phenomenal this year um of of course everybody has to make improvements we all have to make improvements we're going to make improvements coming forward especially us as a defense but it was it was nice to feed off their energy uh coach Bel brings insane energy to the sideline um and then we were definitely feeding off that throughout the game less than less than 40 yards allowed rushing that's more like a b def you're familiar with uh absolutely like I said though uh in our mindset that's um that's not good enough so we need to we need to get back to drawing Bo make sure we our goal should our goal every week is zero yards rushing that's how we want to attack it that's how violent we want to be that's how aggressive we want to be as a defense you guys play aggressive you guys play with a lot of energy and with with with pits offense there's a lot more plays out there's a higher volume has practicing against them helped you guys kind of adapt to needing to maintain that energy for longer absolutely um going against them is is a trial every day and you got to come out you got to come out with your boots strapped on tight and ready to play um so that has definitely helped us as far as just being prepared to see hurry up offenses seeing offenses with a faster Tempo and really just perfecting getting the calls from the sideline at a moment's notice first impression in V against live action at the quarterback position um I didn't get a real good chance to watch him the whole time obviously as a defense when we come off the field we're making adjustments on the sideline trying to perfect our Craft um but uh judging from the scoreboard I'm guessing he did pretty well what was it like being out there as a captain obviously calling plays making adjustments and just leading the defense overall um it's not just it's not a oneman show as I I've said before like it's 11 guys in the football field at a time like it's I guess it's an honor to have have to see on my chest absolutely but um when you're out there you're not thinking about that you're thinking about how how can I help this team win a football game so that's kind of how kind of how I approached it and kind of how the rest of the captains approached it as well improvements needed to be made is there anything specific you guys saw where you were out there that you want to limit next week not that I not that I can put my put my finger on right now but obviously we there's always room for improvement nobody's ever perfect um when you strive for Perfection you achieve Excellence so that's our goal every day um to strive for Perfection and just trying to be excellent with what we go what we got going forward Brandon just to follow up on a question from a minute ago I mean you've been here a really long time you know I don't call me old like that I feel like today was like your first career start right I mean what this is your year you know what I mean to be that guy out there leading the need I me what did today how was today for you uh today was another football game for me uh you for the past obviously you guys seen me talk before like when you approach a game you approach it the same way every time like in the past couple years I've approached it the same way same preparation no matter who's putting on the hat in front of us for you're you sometimes you'll hear some of our guys talk about the guy in front of you is nameless and faceless like you we have you have to do your job in order in order to be to be a winning football team to be a good football team so that's kind of how we approached it going forward we always prepare the same way I always prepare the same way no matter who's in front of me film work uh recovery all that stuff so just another day in the office all good thanks bro thanks guys hey how's everybody doing today first college start I mean how do you think it went um went pretty good uh definitely some things I want to clean up here and there uh decision making for the most part was pretty good uh you know coach called a great game just made my job easy uh especially offensive line receivers running backs tight ends they did everything they needed to do to you know make it easy on me so you know made the game a lot uh slower uh more simple and I was just able to out there and to get the ball to The Playmakers um y'all see we we got a lot of them so it was a lot of fun today when you get Kenny in that one pass early in the game you figured this is it I got this thing handled now yeah well really that just that first completion was kind of like all right you know I'm here you know that the sticker out that I threw to him the first play was you know hey I got the the Jitters out the way I got the first completion out of there um you know so then I was able to just go play football from there more than a couple times you when you were throwing the ball especially to Kenny seemed like you were throwing the ball before guys were even into their breaks and you were hitting them in stride how has that been to kind of work that while you're also in a quarterback competition you're sharing reps with Nate to develop that kind of chemistry yeah that's just a chemistry you got to develop you know outside of practice um you know when I first got here me and Kenny were going up to the facility you know late at night just throwing balls like that uh me pop CJ you know we'd go out there and just you know go through you know we had a a list of what we were going through we go quick game rpos intermediate you go some deep stuff you know Red Zone and we were just getting the timing down you know because we knew you know point in time that day was going to come where we're going to be out there playing together and we got to be on time to make the make the play that 40 that 46 y was that the was that the call the whole way or is that just the read you just saw it and you're like Kenny's going to go get that one yeah I believed in Kenny you know was Step Up um you know they rolled away and I knew he was one on one he he can run so he outran the dude and I was just able to out there just Loft it up there let him go get it and he made a play when did the coach have tell you that you were going to be the starter today uh Thursday um they told me uh Thursday uh right before practice we went out there and everything what was that moment like for you it was a surreal moment uh just a childhood dream to you know play college football you know be a starter in college football um so you just when I got that news you know like coach D said I did shed a tear you know just thinking about all the people that helped me out there uh along the way you know parents grandparents teachers coaches um just people that have helped me and always believed in me since day one you know just finally feel like I made them proud and everything so was it was just a real moment it was awesome coach said coach said that you've really come on here over the last couple of weeks what's really improved or what what is that light that's come on or so for you just getting those reps um you know in Spring I had that hamstring injury so I wasn't I was getting those reps but I wasn't fully into those reps you know I wouldn't full speed you know and just you know that that time you know I was here since January you know January spring fall Camp you know just getting those reps and you know the more reps that I got you know the more comfortable I was out there and you know these past couple weeks you know it's been the most comfortable for me and that showed today talk about first drive you guys marched 90 90 yards down the field kind of what was that feeling like was it kind of like weight off the shoulders in a way or kind of it was it was kind of like a moment like hey I'm in college football and I can play you know it was kind of a moment telling me hey you can do this uh which was a lot of fun being able to just get the ball to those guys and let them go make some plays uh was a lot of fun just seeing those guys out there you know running great routes you know being in the right spot you know knowing exactly what to do you know just having the trust I feel like we we trusted a lot each other a lot that drive you know trusting the o line tight end running back you know everybody doing their job and it was a lot of fun and putting a drive together like that it's pretty big you've credited your Playmakers a lot and uh was that just like a normal day for Desmond Reed is that what he does all the time yeah that's that's that's definitely a normal day for Desmond Reed um honestly he's he's had some better days in practice honestly you know just being able to make plays like that um he's one of the most explosive players I've ever seen um practice with it's it's unreal what he can do you know I handed that ball off on the 45 yard line and as soon as I handed it off I was like oh he's scoring like me and Branson like hugged each other and like we waved by by to desk because we knew he was going to score it was it was it was awesome you got that opportunity to watch the rest of the game after you guys kind of put it away what was that like again I guess The Surreal moment for you to like say hey my debut I did what I needed to do and you kind of got it was awesome you know it's a a day you dream about since you were a little kid you know that first start you know and having the performance I did for my first start was you know even a bigger dream you know I was able to go out there and do what I needed to do and make sure the team won you know that was that was the goal um first goal was to get that first first down you know then I just wanted to go out there score some touchdowns and just make sure my team won what coach say to you afterwards it a great game keep doing what I'm doing you know and just make sure this momentum and this mindset and everything goes into next week you I break down what happened on the interception for it seemed like there was an there and the ball just kind of like went went in a different direction um you know we were trying to get them to bite down on the run you know they they called it great coverage uh they were playing man and what we wanted we don't we didn't want that vers man um and I saw pop and I was thought I had a little bit of pressure but I didn't I should have just stepped up in the pocket you know deliver the ball um next time you know when I see that I'm just going to dirt the ball throw it away it's probably what I should have done and just make sure we go on the next play and just stay down there outside of that play though it's like you guys were very smooth especially in the Red Zone using spacing having reads how comfortable did you guys feel operating in short spaces and throwing as much as you did we felt great you know we've been working on that a lot this week um you know it's pretty much every day we have a period of Red Zone you know and Coach uh Bell you know he takes the Red Zone pretty personal you know he's he's in there you know because some teams want to go in there and just throw the ball uh you know but we're out there to just score touchdowns because we know that's what we can do you know we're going to go out there run the ball here and there but you know we're also going to throw we're not afraid to do that you know the schemes that he put together uh really put everybody in a great position uh to to succeed you know made my job easy I was able to say hey I know where I'm going they do this I'm going here but if they do that I'm going here so it's made my job really easy with Coach B we'll do we'll do two more right here and then Jerry you've already mentioned this offense is full of Playmakers um what did you see from Gavin bartholomy in the day and just kind of how big will he be for this offense he he's going to be huge you know just being able to get him the ball in a variety of ways you know out the back field screens you know down the field um anything like that and he's able to catch it run through somebody you know he's for sure going to catch it he's got some great hands uh you're going to make some plays after the fact after he has the ball in his hands and you know just kind of a safety blanket for me you know especially in some protections you know when I'm hot you know they drop I can always find Gavin and he's going to he's going to be open he's going to catch and he's going to get me at least 10 15 yards which is awesome thank y'all what's up how your first start today Le team with tackles what did you think about your own performance today still left a lot on the table you know I think the whole defense we start off slow so I told the defense like you know next week start today you know do what you do tonight but make sure you definitely put in some hours today cuz since he's definitely on the clock remember what happened last year especially in terms of the Run game and you know around like second quarter third quarter they started driving down with the Run game so you know our first goal was to stop the run so we definitely going to emphasize that next week and we're going to get better off that what do you think let's some of those problems that allowed them to move the ball and you guys cuz it seemed like early on pressure was coming you get the intensity was there maybe just few things were like a step off um first thing first with Run games you know the most important thing is just doing your job maintaining your Gap you know for coming for me you know they got a uh like a seven yard run it was it was a bunch set um the tight end was down on me and do you wouldn't have got that much yards if I game my Gap and I main taint it instead he washed me down it gave him a bigger Gap and made it a harder job for the next man so you definitely want to make it easier for the next man and definitely the main thing that I definitely got to focus on this week and probably other people too is just finding pressure what's the feeling like when you land a sack the first one of your career ain't feel real I thought he threw the ball I'm not going to lie like it just felt like I was running slowmo towards him I'm like ah he going to throw he going to throw it and then he actually didn't throw it so I got my first sack you know I'm telling my young in Jeremiah like I'm a you know I'm a e face that's our little celebration for the room and I'mma throw up my Shark for my boys and I felt great right after that I could had another sack quarterback step up in the pocket but those are things you're just going to work on next week speaking of the Sharks I think the five leading tacklers today were linebackers how would you assess your performance as a group um we got a lot to still work on like our goal for this season like this is nothing we we made like we prioritizing on being the best in the nation so we know what we messed up on we had some Mas we had some physical errors you know so we still definitely got a long way to go but I'm definitely proud of my boys shout out to he he got his first sack too I'm proud of him shout out to Bray he was balling out there he made a couple tackles he hit me a couple times you know shout out to B George he got a strip sack I heard he could have scooped and scored but you know he still got the ball too so Shout Out b George and Shout out my youngans too you know you got well not my youngest but the new people you know you got key you got JB finally coming in the circle too so we definitely going to keep stepping up moving forward because we got a young room five sacks is is a pace of 60 for the season is that enough say it again well you got five sacks today oh five sacks you're on Pace to get for this season uh my goal I could have had two sacks today so for the rest of the season my goal is to get two sacks every game that's 24 that's not bad yeah I thought I I thought I didn't see it happen but did you guys do a turnover hoop for either the turnover the for the for for for Donovan today yeah we always going to have the turnover hoop uh coach base emphasize like don't celebrate in front of the man don't celebrate on the field celebrate off the silent with your team so he don't get penalized so you know we open the whole Lane for him he go dunk it uh we had key had to turnover hoop too but they called it back but you're going to see the turnover hoop a lot we our goal is to get a lot of turnovers this year a lot could you feel that you know the past couple years the defense has had a lot of pressure because there were a lot of low scoring games I mean could you feel like a new wave on offense this year or today yes definitely uh we definitely feed off the offense like it's real like offense do something great the defense gonna do something great if offense go three and out it's definitely gonna put some pressure on us but you know we used to that because of you know the some of the points from last year so I definitely think our defense is ready for any condition and even it's great to have a great offense like that I definitely believe they going to be a great offense but we got to step up more on defense we allow too many yards at some point to the game so we definitely going to improve that next year I mean next week BAS those big plays that you guys L up today is that something that you guys kind of want to work on is that something you identifi from today yeah you know we worked on those plays during practice um for my position for starting with me you know they did Max protect you know they did a it's either RPO or play action he dragging out with the running back trying to uh fake the run so you know I got to uh add in Faster as coach like to say you know get another sack you know it's going to help the DBS out more and I just got to read faster if i r FAS I can get uh the reroute and I can help PJ out more so it's definitely things that the linebackers got to work on more and we just going to be good for that thank you appreciate yall