After Pat Narduzzi announced Tuesday that starting cornerback Damarri Mathis would be out for the season, the speculation began as to who would be most likely to step into the role.
Mathis was one of three senior of the four projected starters in the secondary, including cornerback Jason Pinnock and safety Damar Hamlin. The group centered around star safety Paris Ford.
But with Mathis gone, Pitt is lacking a cornerback with significant experience to pair with Pinnock, which means they'll be looking for one of their young players to step up from being in a purely special teams role with limited experience playing in the defense.
The two prominent candidates are sophomore A.J. Woods and redshirt sophomore Marquis Williams. Both played several games on special teams in 2019 and have been mentioned by Narduzzi the past couple weeks as young players emerging in practice.
Pitt's first intra-squad scrimmage was last Saturday, where Narduzzi described the defense as a winner by two points in a 123-play series. After the scrimmage, Narduzzi primarily mentioned Woods as a cornerback who stood out.
"A.J Woods played really well at cornerback," Narduzzi recalled. As I wrote before, it was the play of both Woods and Williams at cornerback which gave the coaching staff confidence to move redshirt sophomore Judson Tallandier from cornerback to safety.
Narduzzi also mentioned on Tuesday this week that Brandon Hill stepped up as a backup safety in practices and in the scrimmage.
"Brandon Hill at safety has had a great camp," Narduzzi said. "He's an explosive guy. I always have to tell him to slow down. You kinda love that because he's always hitting somebody or diving over a pile. He's explosive, he's physical, he's had a great camp."
Behind Woods and Williams at cornerback are new players in the program still learning their roles. Anthony Scott-Naji is a redshirt junior who walked on in 2019 after playing two years of club football. Hunter Sellers, Rashad Battle, Buddy Mack III and Jahvante Royal are all freshman defensive backs straight out of high school.
So it's understandable why Woods and Williams would be the focus.
Woods is a faster defensive back who played both ways in high schools, totaling 17 passes defensed, but no interceptions. He was a true freshman last year who played in ten games and averaged 15.6 yards over five kick returns, along with three special teams tackles on kickoffs. His 5-foot-10, 185 lbs. frame fits the more typical build for an outside cornerback.
But Williams' edge is that he does have experience as a reserve cornerback. He played in four games as a true freshman in 2018 at cornerback to preserve his redshirt and recorded his first NCAA tackle against Albany. He would double his amount of games played in 2019 to eight, recording four tackles, three of which came in Pitt's 35-34 upset over No. 15 Central Florida at Heinz Field last September.
Experience like that does count for something, but Mathis' injury only happening Tuesday, Narduzzi, defensive coordinator Randy Bates and secondary coach Archie Collins have had little time to figure out who will solidify who wins the spot.
Woods may be the man at outside cornerback with his longer frame and the fact that Narduzzi has mentioned him more in his press availabilities. But Narduzzi has never been afraid of playing undersized cornerbacks like Avonte Maddox who was drafted to the Eagles in 2018.
Pitt has two weeks from Saturday to figure out who wins the job before they play their newly scheduled home opener against Austin Peay at Heinz Field on September 12th. Even though it will be without fans, it will still be a big day for a new starter cornerback to get their feet wet in their role against Austin Peay, a FCS program.
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