After walking the walk in NFL, Pitt WR coach Tiquan Underwood talks the talk

During wide receiver drills at Pitt practice, assistant coach Tiquan Underwood keeps up a dialogue.

Good catch, bad catch, slick route or sloppy, Underwood will have something to say about it.

He is among a cluster of Pitt coaches who constantly chatter during practice — whether it’s offering praise or advice or critiquing something a bit off center.

“Nice route, but I need the catch,” he shouted at one receiver who let a pass fall incomplete.

Or, “Nice catch, but I would love for you to drag your feet (inside the sideline).”

And, by the way, he’s not whispering. Everything with Underwood is in the open.

“I try to attack each day,” he said, “because I love what I’m doing.”

Coach Pat Narduzzi is not surprised by Underwood’s attitude.

“He better have enthusiasm,” he said. “The players feed off the coaches.”

Underwood, 36, is the youngest among Narduzzi’s on-field staff. He’s not far removed from a pro career as a wide receiver — five years in the NFL, three in the CFL — that ended in 2016. He’s so young and enthusiastic that he was asked recently about possibly “lacing ’em up” in practice to demonstrate what it takes to succeed when the football’s in the air.

“I joke around about it, but no more playing for me. I’ll leave that to the guys out there,” said Underwood, a All-Big East performer at Rutgers who caught 132 balls for 1,931 yards and 16 touchdowns. Included in that total is one day in 2007 against Buffalo when he amassed nearly 2 1/2 football fields worth of yardage (248).

Underwood spent one year coaching wide receivers at Lafayette and two at Rutgers before Narduzzi hired him prior to last season. He said he still is learning how to treat players.

“What (offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr.) is teaching me, and coach Duzz also, there are times to love ’em up and there are times to be hard on them,” Underwood said. “I’m working on them as a coach. I’m still a young coach, learning on the fly. My guys, they love the positive reinforcement and also when I have to put the hammer down. It’s been good. I try to keep it a good balance.”

Underwood has a difficult job this season, largely because he must replace Jared Wayne’s 1,063 receiving yards while shepherding four freshman wide receivers — Kenny Johnson, Zion Fowler-El, Izzy Polk and Lamar Seymore — through the rigors of camp. The task promises to become even more challenging when the season starts, and Pitt will need depth at wide receiver to traverse the 12-week (at minimum) season.

Part of the teaching involves emphasizing the importance of blocking to his young pass catchers. To that end, he pulls out video of his NFL career that started when he was a seventh-round draft choice of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2009.

“I had to block (Seattle Seahawks safety) Kam Chancellor (6-foot-3, 225),” said Underwood, who was 6-1, 175. “He’s a big, physical guy, but when the run play is called, you have to go in there and make the block.”

Underwood said he’s enjoying coaching the “very talented” freshmen who are making a quick transition from high school to Pitt’s more complicated West Coast offense.

“Still a ways to go, but we’re going to continue to push those guys, throw them in the fire and have them learn because experience is the best teacher,” he said.

Eventually, he said, “Their natural ability and talent will speak for itself.”

Underwood is fortunate to have veteran wide receivers Bub Means, Konata Mumpfield and Daejon Reynolds showing the way, especially because Cignetti plans to extend the borders of his passing game to include more deep throws.

“Reynolds, he and Bub, physically, they’re grown men,” Underwood said. “The guys have done a great job making plays down the field, and they have to continue doing that.”

Means, who was third on the team to Wayne and Mumpfield last season with 27 catches, sets an example for the rest of the group, Underwood said.

“To me, Bub never has a bad day. What I love about him the most is that he loves to compete, no matter what period it is, no matter if it’s the first period, last period, two-minute, run-blocking, he loves to compete. We need that in our room, for sure.”

Underwood was eager for the scheduled scrimmage Saturday so the staff can use it as another gauge on how far the team has progressed. Plus, what happens during the scrimmage will help coaches set up the depth chart.

“Practice is cool,” he said, “but when you’re in a scrimmage — no coaches on the field, just the players — you get to see who really knows their stuff and who can do the job consistently.”