A defensive day at Heinz

Pitt held its first “jersey scrimmage” of spring camp at Heinz Field on Saturday, and while Pat Narduzzi said that the defense won the scrimmage - and thus the right to keep wearing blue jerseys at practice - the head coach said it was close.

“The defense ultimately won the scrimmage and it came down to a failed two-point conversion pass at the end,” Narduzzi said in a statement released by Pitt.

Pitt also released stats from the scrimmage, which was closed to the media. According to those numbers, the defense certainly made a living behind the line of scrimmage, recording 18.5 tackles for loss - including 10 sacks - on 83 plays.

Not surprisingly, the name at the top of the list for playmakers in Saturday’s scrimmage was Dewayne Hendrix, the redshirt sophomore defensive end who transferred from Tennessee prior to last season. According to Pitt’s numbers, Hendrix recorded 4.5 sacks in the scrimmage. His likely partner in the starting lineup, redshirt senior Ejuan Price, also chipped in two tackles for loss.

Another defensive end, early-enrolled freshman Patrick Jones, also had a sack, as did senior linebacker Matt Galambos, redshirt sophomore safety/nickel-back Dennis Briggs and redshirt freshman linebacker Brian Popp.

Galambos had one sack but made two other tackles behind the line of scrimmage; Popp also finished with three TFL’s. Additional tackles for loss came from linebackers Elijah Zeise and Oluwaseun Idowu and defensive tackles Justin Moody and Shane Roy.

Briggs and Popp led the defense with six tackles each, while Price, Hendrix, redshirt freshman cornerback Dane Jackson and redshirt sophomore linebacker Nico Lodovico each had five stops.

On the turnover front, Jones and James Folston each recovered a fumble, while redshirt freshman safety Jay Stocker had an interception.

On offense, quarterback Nate Peterman had a productive day, completing 11-of-19 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown, but he was the only quarterback to attempt more than four passes or complete more than two, as his backups didn’t much work throwing the ball. Redshirt senior Manny Stocker did make the throw on a 68-yard catch-and-run touchdown by Rachid Ibrahim, but that was Stocker’s only completion.

Including the 10 sacks, Pitt recorded 50 rushing attempts in the scrimmage, and freshman Chawntez Moss took nearly a quarter of those, rushing 12 times for 81 yards. Qadree Ollison put up a similarly-impressive per-carry average with 41 yards on six attempts.

On the receiving end, fullback George Aston pulled in a scrimmage-high three catches, but Ibrahim’s 68 yards - all on one reception - stood as the high-water mark for yardage. Redshirt junior Jester Weah also topped 60 yards, catching two passes for 62.