Football: Defense ready to live up to expectations

While the Pitt football team enters the season with a lot of question marks on offense, the same… While the Pitt football team enters the season with a lot of question marks on offense, the same certainly cannot be said about the defense.

Despite losing All-American linebacker Scott McKillop because of graduation, the Panthers return seven starters from last season and eight total starters, counting sixth-year senior linebacker Adam Gunn, who missed essentially all of last season with a neck injury but started in 2007.

Pitt’s offense enters the year with no clear starting quarterback, even though last year’s starter Bill Stull has returned.

The Panthers’ top two running backs from last season, LeSean McCoy and LaRod Stephens-Howling, are both gone. Of the Panthers top four receivers from last season, only junior Oderick Turner returns this year.

With a mostly unproven offense, the defense will have to play stellar in case the offense stumbles. Yet, despite this weight, the defense feels it’s ready for it.

“We have a lot of people coming back and a lot of experience on defense,” junior safety Dom DeCicco said. “We feel pressure but we feel it’s something we can do game in and game out.”

The returning starters on the defensive line include junior defensive ends Greg Romeus and Jabaal Sheard, as well as senior defensive tackle Mick Williams. The three combined for 17.5 sacks last season. Romeus and Sheard also finished in the top 15 in the Big East in tackles for loss, with 15.5 and 10.5, respectively.

Gunn and sophomore Greg Williams, who turned heads last season with his speed, are the returning starters at linebacker. Joining them at linebacker is Max Gruder, who was named the team’s most improved defensive player during spring practice.

Senior cornerbacks Aaron Berry and Jovani Chappel will once again anchor the secondary, along with DeCicco. The trio combined for nine interceptions last season. Berry and DeCicco both finished in the top six in the Big East in interceptions last year.

While the Panthers defense allowed the third lowest total of yards per game in the conference last season, Pitt fans should anticipate an improvement now that so many of the players saw playing time.

“Given that experience, it’ll become a lot more second nature on the field,” DeCicco said. “It definitely makes you a lot more comfortable, even with things like summer workouts.”

Moreover, last year the defense was still learning the new scheme that defensive coordinator Phil Bennett implemented in his first season with the team. While Bennett’s defense is kind of similar to his predecessor Paul Rhodes, Bennett relies more on creating pressure and it took the defense some time to grow accustomed to it.

“Last year it was a brand new defense for everyone, and it wasn’t until the end of the season that we were actually comfortable with it,” DeCicco said. “But now that we have the knowledge we can do a lot more.”

This sort of growth within the new system was certainly evident at the end of last season, as the defense surrendered a mere 28 points in its last three games of the season, including just three points in the Sun Bowl loss to Oregon State. Even with the defense’s great performance in the Sun Bowl, the Panthers lost 3-0 with a better offensive team than this year’s is supposed to be.

With so many questions surrounding the offense entering this season, if the Panthers hope to compete for the Big East title, as many experts predict they will, the defense will have to be great. And it seems they’re ready for that challenge.