Pat Narduzzi seeing improvement at cornerback in spring practices

It's spring. There's plenty of optimism surrounding the football program. So yes, I take most of these types of statements with a grain of salt.

"I've been impressed with our corner play so far. We are playing against Jester Weah and Tre Tipton and good receivers. I can't sit there and say, `Man, we are playing against average receivers, I don't know what's going to happen on gameday.' Our corners are playing better right now. We are doing a better job at coaching them and they are doing a better job making plays. I don't see many deep balls being thrown or caught. The ones that we are dropping we have to catch, but we are at least getting pass breakups right now."

Combined with the safety spot, the cornerbacks helped make up one awful secondary last season. By far, it was Pitt's greatest weakness and even competent play there could have resulted in the team winning ten games. As it stood, the Panthers still won eight and that was despite having one of the worst pass defenses in the nation.

The stuff about playing against above average receivers was kind of amusing. No offense at all to a guy like Tre Tipton, of course, but he has 12 career catches. Even Jester Weah, who had a breakout season, and was one of the top deep threats in the ACC last year had mostly modest production (36 catches for 870 yards). Both guys could be pretty good and it can be argued that Weah already is. But I don't know that I'm citing them as a reason why the secondary could struggle in practices.

Pitt, of course, doesn't have their full complement of secondary guys, either. Several players will be arriving in the fall and that will hopefully get more guys in the mix at cornerback.

Like I said, I take statements like this with a grain of salt. But I'm hoping that between getting a little older and playing a little better that the secondary improves. It almost  has to, right?

Be sure to join Cardiac Hill's Facebook page and follow us on Twitter@PittPantherBlog for our regular updates on Pitt athletics. Follow the author and founder/editor @AnsonWhaley.