Inside the Dukes: Week One Impressions of Duquesne Football
By: PSN’s Zachary Weiss
The Duquesne Football Team had a fourth-and-3 on its own 49-yard line and lined up to go for it, a move which made sense for multiple reasons.
Even those in the press box agreed, it was aggressive and sent a message but also was in the middle of the field.
This was when coach Jerry Schmitt was faced with a decision whether or not he would pull the trigger ultimately basing his decision to punt on two factors.
Had he liked what he saw the offense would have remained on the field but he not only had a bad feeling, but the team took a delay of game. Additionally, the spot on the field made him uneasy.
Perhaps appropriately, Michael Berarducci’s punt was returned 88 yards for a touchdown by Desmond Reid, the longest such play in Acrisure Stadium history.
“All day you could see that,” Schmitt stated regarding the special teams discrepancies. “If you play games like this, that’s usually where the big differences are. The depth and amount of scholarship players that each team has present some challenges, not that our guys can’t do what they do, but you try to put some starters on there, which is your better athletes, but you can’t play them out there when they are playing a whole game against an ACC team.”
This was a noteworthy play in what became a 61-9 loss to Pitt Saturday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium, but so was some misfires on punts leading to short fields and a 78-yard kick return from Kenny Johnson.
Perhaps this was why Schmitt said there was quite a bit to learn from the defeat.
“Obviously not what we wanted the (result) to be, but I think we saw a lot of things from our guys,” stated the 21st year head coach. “We put ourselves in stressful situations, we handled some things really well and then they’ve got great athletes, and great athletes on both teams makes plays. There were some things we could control and didn’t help ourselves and we’ll be able to work on that coming out of our first game. That’s what we can do is use those things to get better.”
All told some of those positives to take away involved the defense, which presented Pitt with some challenges in the first half, conceding one score with less than 10 minutes remaining in the second quarter.
Pitt was going through some struggles with timing and Duquesne did have some rushes and coverage which stunted the Panthers offensive playmaking.
Schmitt emphasized Pitt’s running back Reid, who had the punt return touchdown and containing him on the ground. Reid had 66 yards and a touchdown, so to a degree that was a successful.
It was these efforts in addition to a second-quarter touchdown which made wide receiver Joey Isabella feel that the game was closer than the score showed heading into halftime, but that mistakes were noticeable yet correctable.
“We have to learn a lot of football,” summarized Schmitt. “We have a new quarterback so he’s learning the new system, a couple of new linebackers. With the whole portal, you can’t just expediate even if guys have been here. You can’t go so fast. There’s that balance. I needed maybe another week or two to get the guys engrained in some of the things we really do well. We’ll take the positives and move forward.”
DOUBLE TROUBLE
For Pitt it knew that Isabella and Tyler Riddell were two players to keep an eye on. Riddell’s experience meant he would be unafraid of the moment and Isabella returned as the leading receiver and had the active consecutive games with a touchdown mark for FCS teams with eight.
Admittedly it was a frustrating start for both. Riddell could not create space or enough time to find enough open looks and Isabella was not able to provide much of a spark in that area either.
Considering the connection both have built, it was little surprise when the pair did record the longest Duquesne play from scrimmage all afternoon, a 59-yard pass stopped at the two-yard line.
Isabella created the space and it was the first chance for Dukes fans to see Riddell’s deep ball.
“I wish I scored that, but it was a fun one to have for sure,” Isabella remarked. “I was happy because I was definitely a little frustrated at the beginning of the game there getting a couple of early three-and-outs. It was a big play to give us some momentum.”
Pitt immediately called a timeout and Logan Kushner was brought in under center. He never did take a snap as one of his linemen jumped and Duquesne went back by five yards.
Riddell would connect with B.J. Alexander to complete the two-play drive and it seemed that down 14-6, the Dukes had a charge in them, though the ensuing Johnson kickoff return led to another short field for Pitt.
That long pass play seemed to free both up. It seemed clear that Riddell will make for a good quarterback in the NEC and Isabella’s 120-yard performance seemed to put some on notice.
This included Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi who specifically came up to Isabella after the game to give him some words of encouragement.
“He came up and talked to me for a little bit, so that was definitely cool to have,” revealed Isabella. “You see him all the time on media and tv and having him come up and compliment me personally was definitely humbling.”
THE EXPERIENCE
Antonio Epps told reporters on Tuesday that he would lay on the field to take a moment. Several other Dukes settled in and did the same, taking pictures of an empty Acrisure Stadium before tens of thousands of fans entered.
It was the calm before the storm of the Panther Pitt vocally making a presence as Duquesne was trying to warm up.
Whether it was nerves or anxiety it was a slow start but during that Taj Butts still put a 17-yard run together on the first play from scrimmage.
Schmitt seemed pleased that Pitt chose for Duquesne start going for the end zone away from the student, which he had hoped would come with winning the coin toss, but instead the Panthers arrived at that conclusion.
Though the outcome got out of hand, Isabella was pleased to have this last experience against a Power Four opponent, in this, his sixth season.
“I feel that’s something they should have every year,” Isabella said of football’s version of the City Game. “That was a fun game playing in the city. I’m not from Pittsburgh but I know a lot of Pittsburgh guys that were so excited to have a game like that. It was a fun game for us and Pitt as well.”
HE SAID IT
“Really good to see that from him because it’s one of the things we saw that was a huge positive when we recruited him. We recruited him out of high school and he went into the transfer portal. He has great ball skills and length, so that will benefit him in the future. To see that was great.” – Schmitt on Dallas Harper’s interception of Eli Holstein
“I think we’re better than we thought we were. We were very much in that first half and we came down and struggled a bit. We could have been in that game for sure.” – Isabella
