West Virginia won’t see the same Pittsburgh offense this season that they’ve seen the past two years.
The Panthers spent the off-season undergoing a complete transformation on the offensive side of the ball shifting from the pro-style offense under previous coordinator Frank Cignetti, Jr. to an up-tempo spread attack under the direction of new coordinator Kade Bell.
It was a commitment that head coach Pat Narduzzi made in the off-season and is almost a complete 180-degree shift from what he has done over the course of his head coaching career.
“This is different. This is totally unique for him. For a defensive guy to go to this style, you can tell all the assistants on the offensive side are connected to Coach Bell,” head coach Neal Brown said. “You can tell he’s gone all in and that’s how they’re playing. He’s not dipping his toes in it; he’s gone all in.”
The Panthers will resemble some of the offenses that the Mountaineers have played in the Big 12 Conference such as Texas Tech with how they are using a high tempo with wide splits. And the results have been evident over the first two games as Pittsburgh has averaged 41.5 points and 534 yards of total offense.
And despite struggling in the first half, the Panthers displayed confidence in the scheme and were able to rally from a 27-6 deficit to beat Cincinnati and move to 2-0 on the season largely on a balanced attack that is able to trigger the ball to their playmakers.
Eli Holstein, a redshirt freshman, is the quarterback for the Panthers and has shown the ability to be efficient with the ball completing 67-percent of his passes for 638 yards and 6 touchdowns. He also has displayed the knack for being able to extend plays with his feet in the scheme as well as an understanding of when and where to go with the ball despite limited overall experience.
In the backfield, Desmond Reid has been the key cog averaging 8.9 yards per carry with 293 yards and a touchdown. He also has been an effective receiver with 9 catches for 117 yards and a score.
“Reid is really fast. He’s quick and he’s a tough tackle,” Brown said. “They take wide splits with the receivers a lot and he’s had a lot of space the first two weeks and he’s taken advantage of it.”
Outside of Reid, the Panthers have a deep group of pass catchers with Konata Mumpfield, Kenny Johnson, Censere Lee and pass catching tight end Gavin Bartholomew some of the names in the group.
The key to battling tempo is getting lined up on the defensive side of the ball and that’s as simple as getting your cleats in the ground and playing football. The Panthers run a scheme where they won’t do a ton of shifting or motions like Penn State but are good at what they do.
That means keeping things simple on defense as well.
“You can’t do too much, you can’t try to overdo it with the call sheet and trying to slow your kids down,” defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said. “Alignment is the biggest thing, and you have to work on it.”
Fortunately for West Virginia, while this is the first time they’ll see this style of an offense in a game this season it isn’t the first time they have seen it. That includes even in practice where the Mountaineers unit has used tempo against the defense at times to showcase what that will be like.
“We get a good shot of it during the spring and fall camp they do it quite a bit, so we get to work and see it,” Lesley said.
And like most tempo, the best way to derail things is to avoid letting the offense get first downs and get started as it puts stress on the opposing defense as well.
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