The big concern for Navy is getting by without Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada at QB. Navy has won without him, but the offense has struggled to finish with Jarod Bryant at QB. It’s not that he is bad. It’s that Kaipo has been the best QB at Navy to run the triple-option. Ever. The coaches don’t disagree. He makes great reads, is decisive, precise and as Pitt fans know, really good. So anyone that has to take his place afterwards will look bad.

[Navy head coach Ken] Niumatalolo and [offensive coordinator Ivin] Jasper admit that’s a fair assessment and said Bryant needs to get better.

“Jarod isn’t playing bad, but he’s not playing as well as we want him to,” said Jasper, who doubles as the quarterbacks coach. “I’m taking that personally. It’s my job to get him ready.”

Jasper spent a good portion of the bye week addressing the situation. Concerned that perhaps he’s put too much time into being offensive coordinator and not enough as quarterback mentor, Jasper decided to go back to the basics with Bryant.

“Last week, I spent more time on film and the fundamentals just to make sure I’m doing all I can to get that kid ready to play,” Jasper said. “Jarod can be just as good as Kaipo in this offense. It’s my job to make sure he knows what’s coming and has the confidence to trust what he sees.”

So, now we know what the QB and OC did with the bye week. Hopefully Pitt will be ready, because that means just because of what the coaches have seen on tape of Bryant this year, does not mean Pitt will see the same.

“We had a bye week before the Navy game last year, too, and that didn’t help,” McKillop said. “But our mentality is totally different this season. … Any time you have a big victory, that makes it a lot easier.”

The Panthers were on a three-game losing streak when they played Navy last year, but they have won their last four this season. Navy (4-2) has won its last three.

During practice, Wannstedt has emphasized the necessity of remaining disciplined against an opponent that runs on almost every down yet remains difficult to stop. Navy is third among bowl subdivision schools with 1,881 yards rushing and is second at 313.5 yards rushing per game.

“They’re still the same team,” Wannstedt said. “It doesn’t take much for a defense to be out of position a little bit and, all of a sudden, it’s a big play.”

Kaheaku-Enhada has been hurt, but replacement Jarod Bryant ran for 101 yards and a TD and fullback Eric Kettani ran for 75 in a 33-27 win at Air Force on Oct. 4. Navy blocked two punts and returned them for touchdowns.

“They have multiple ways of blocking each play and multiple plays with each offensive formation,” Wannstedt said. “It’s really unique because you follow them during the course of a game, a defense will come out and change their front or slide somebody to take something away, and it’s almost as if they just turn the page and say, “OK, that’s over, let’s go to this.’ There’s nothing that you’re going to do on defense that they haven’t seen before.”

On the flip side, Pitt has a player who is very familiar with the triple-option.

Josh Novotny, a Carmichaels graduate, played for the Midshipmen in the 2005 and ’06 seasons before walking on at Pitt this fall. “He’s an offensive lineman, so he’s talked a little bit about what they do with some of their techniques and schemes and stuff,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “It’s been helpful, just to have somebody who’s been there and been through that. I haven’t had him talk to the team or anything, but he’s talked to our defensive guys enough for them to get a feel.”

Of course, Pitt’s defensive coordinator Phil Bennett has a sense of familiarity to the offense.

Bennett played outside linebacker in the mid-1970s at Texas A&M for Emory Bellard, the man credited with inventing the Wishbone offense. Bennett has vivid memories of avoiding its low blocks and stopping its fullback dives as a player, as well as scheming to simulate the intricacies of the offense as a defensive coordinator.

“It’s a challenge as a coach, a challenge for all of us,” Bennett said. “You’ve almost got to become part of the triple-option cult, to think like they do.”

Bennett has experience doing just that, whether it was facing Oklahoma’s Wishbone or Nebraska’s I-option as defensive coordinator at Texas A&M and Kansas State.

So, Bennett has more than an idea of what to expect.

“I’ve always admired his ability to take away what the opposing offense likes to do. Phil tries to make you play left-handed, and he’s good at that,” CBS College Sports Network analyst Trev Alberts said. “That’s the conundrum with Navy. I will tell you, I don’t care who the defensive coordinator is. If the option is executed well, it’s really hard to stop.

“What Phil is great at, is he knows exactly what Navy wants to do. What he’s trying to do is make them uncomfortable, force them to do what they can do but not the No. 1 option. What Navy wants to do is establish the fullback and get to the outside on the pitch.”

Navy’s Flexbone offense, Bennett said, relies on seven basic formations and one personnel grouping that includes three running backs, two receivers and a quarterback at the skill positions. It’s a variation of the Wishbone, adding wrinkles such as four unbalanced formations that force defenses to determine the eligible receivers at the line of scrimmage and distribute the coverage.

“It’s the same-type plays, what they call triple-option — fullback, quarterback, pitch — but they do it from multiple formations,” said Bennett, who credited former Navy coach Paul Johnson, now at Georgia Tech, with adding pass-game twists while at Georgia Southern. “They came up with the idea of spreading the field, so that if you don’t spread with them, they’ll throw the ball. It’s a running version of the run-and-shoot.”

The run-and-shoot gets negative connotations from its days in the NFL. Credit, as much as anything goes to Buddy Ryan for derisively calling it the chuck-and-duck — it was funny and it stuck, but it , there are a lot of similarities — and  direct lineage — between the run-and-shoot and spread. The difference of course, is that the spread actually incorporates the run and direct snaps, far more than the straight run-and-shoot. Still, even the spread has plenty of variations like at Texas Tech. Sorry, I’ve gone completely off on a tangent.

The issue is not that Pitt doesn’t know what’s coming. It’s whether the defense can stop it.

On the other side, Navy has a freshman starting at defensive end — Jabaree Tuani. The first freshman to start on their d-line in 10 years. And this bit may be familiar to everyone. He’s a slightly undersized defensive end with great speed. He’s “only” 6-1 and 242 pounds. There’s more.

Said Navy defensive line coach Dale Pehrson: “He’s a very smart football player, he came from a really good [high school] program, he catches on very quickly. He’s got a long way to go still, but he’s making tremendous strides for a plebe.”

If the second-half performance against the Tigers gave Tuani the confidence that he could play right away on the college level, it was what he did against the Demon Deacons that solidified his spot on the defensive line.

“I knew that he had that in him, but I had no clue that he’d play that well in his first outing [start],” Pehrson said. “That was a big game and for him to handle the mental part the way he did. He had no missed assignments; he just really did a nice job.”

Tuani had six tackles, second on the team, including two for losses. He continued that the following week at Air Force. Tuani led the team with eight solo tackles, tied senior safety Jeff Deliz with a team-high 10 overall and also forced a fumble, one of two he has caused this season.

Tuani’s 22 total tackles this season are the most among Navy’s defensive linemen, and his 4 1/2 tackles for losses and 1 1/2 sacks lead the Midshipmen.

While Pitt doesn’t want to repeat the performance on defense as last year, they do want to replicate the offensive performance.