Pitt’s defensive tackle rotation is still taking shape in training camp, and Eliyt Nairne is making a clear push to be part of the answer.
Sean FitzSimmons and Nick James remain the projected top-line veterans in the middle of the Panthers’ defense, and between them they’ve started 33 games over the past two seasons. That gives Pitt a familiar base up front. But as always with a position that gets banged up and taxed over the course of a season, the depth chart behind them matters just as much.
That’s where Nairne has started to separate himself. Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi singled out the Tulane transfer on Monday, saying, "He's really pushing to be in that top three category," Narduzzi said of Nairne.
"I mean, Jeremiah (Warren), I would say maybe before the season started, before camp started was kind of there, but you start to see Eliyt creeping up. Now his motor has gotten better.
He's gotten in better shape. He's gotten kind of rid of that, what I call those love handles."
Nairne wasn’t drawing that kind of notice during spring work, but he appears to have changed the conversation after a strong summer. At 6-1 and 295 pounds, the fourth-year lineman says the offseason was built around intentional work, and he credited Pitt’s strength and conditioning program led by Michael Staccchiotti for helping him get into position to compete for more snaps.
"Our summer was not just here and there," Nairne explained of his offseason regiment. "It was definitely intentional work day in and day out. The guys, including me, bought into what he had planned for us."
That effort has carried into camp, where Nairne is battling for playing time with Jeremiah Warren, the Illinois transfer, as well as redshirt freshman Trevor Sommers, who has looked better after an injury slowed him in the spring. Ty Yuhas and true freshman Lincoln Hoke also give Pitt interior depth.
The people around the program are noticing Nairne’s rise, too. Pitt middle linebacker Jeremiah Marcelin pointed to the energy he brings.
"I like his drive," said Pitt middle linebacker Jeremiah Marcelin of his teammate. "You know, effort and drive always stand out. That's the first thing that's always going to stand out, and he's a guy that got it."
Pitt hasn’t had the same tackle-for-loss and sack production from its defensive tackles in recent seasons that it once did from players such as Calijah Kancey and Jaylen Twyman. But that doesn’t mean the position can’t still do its job the way this defense wants it done. If the tackles can control the line of scrimmage and keep runners bottled up, that still fits the Panthers’ formula.
Defensive line coach Tim Daoust said Nairne has the tools to help there.
"He's a physically strong kid," Pitt defensive line coach Tim Daoust said of Nairne. "He's going to be able to hold a gap there in the run game and be a fighter in there."
Nairne said that role fits exactly what Pitt is about. The Panthers ranked 8th nationally against the run last season, allowing just 95 yards per game, and that standard remains central to the defense’s identity.
"I'd say stopping the run, that's the bare minimum," Narine proclaimed. "That's what we do as a defense.
We call it 'We-fense' for a reason. We all fly to the ball."
The transition has come quickly for Nairne, but it’s not unfamiliar territory. He started at Liberty, transferred to Tulane last season and played in all 14 games for the Green Wave, including their College Football Playoff appearance. He said that experience helped him adjust to a new locker room and a new system without much delay.
"Knowing how to buy-in with guys that you just meet," Nairne said of his understanding of how to join a new team on the fly. "The transfer portal is just a little different. It changes the direct path of football, and knowing how to buy in so fast with people, knowing how to complete a family in such short time, that's what I learned how to do."