The offensive line, in preparing for Utah knows it will not be the same as going against the defense in camp and practices.
The philosophy for Pitt’s defensive line is to get off the ball and whip the offensive line straight up. Wannstedt’s defenses rarely blitz and, when they do, the blitzes are reserved for certain situations.
Utah, however, will bring extra guys from all different directions, and Wannstedt said he expects to see a steady flow of run blitzes, blitzes off the edge and stunts from the Utes. That is why he said he is glad the Panthers’ offensive line has had extra time to prepare for the game.
“They are similar to a lot of teams we will face in that they do a lot of fire-zone pressure and whatnot,” right tackle Lucas Nix said. “The whole thing is they will have eight [players] in the box the whole time, or at least we’re expecting that, and then it becomes a matter of picking up tendencies.
“They are pretty much an edge rush team. We will see a little bit of pressure from the middle, but, for the most part, they are going to bring strong pressure from the tight end side and try to get in the way of our bread-and-butter plays.”
Karabin added, “Since it is the first game of the year, they will come out with some different things, some things which aren’t expected, but we’re going to try and prepare for anything they can really throw at us.”
I would say the best comparison to how Utah likes to attack on defense is Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights are a blitz-happy team that attacks and brings pressure as much as possible. Corner-blitzes, safeties, overloading a side. That has been the style of Schiano’s defenses and it seems much like what Pitt will see from Utah.
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