When Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi spoke to media members Monday afternoon, he was asked about preparing for UVa and mentioned that it seems every year that the Cavaliers always have a guy wearing No. 4 who is all over the field.

“Who is the speed guy, the new feature guy?” Narduzzi asked. “I don’t see a No. 4, going back to Taquan Mizzell a couple years ago, who is in the league, I believe. They’ve always had a No. 4 who is their dude. I think they’re disguising him, No. 4 on the roster. We don’t know.”

For this year at least, the Panthers, who host the Wahoos Saturday night at Heinz Field (7:30 p.m., ACCN), won’t have to worry about UVa’s No. 4 being on the offensive of the ball.

Senior inside linebacker Jordan Mack chose that number this preseason in part because it’s what he wore in high school.

“Just something different,” he said Monday. “A new season, new opportunities, new number. That’s the main reason behind it.”

After the career he’s had in Charlottesville, he’s allowed to do whatever he wants in his final season as a Cavalier. The 6-foot-2, 230 pounder Lithonia (GA) racked up 76 tackles as a sophomore in 2017 as the safety-turned-backer found a home. He started all nine games he appeared in last fall but a collar bone injury forced him to miss several games. It wasn’t the kind of year he had hoped for, obviously, but the offseason was a different story.

“He is a presence,” Bronco Mendenhall said of Mack. “He doesn’t say much to anyone. He doesn’t need to when you’re the strongest player on your team, when you’re one of the fastest players, one of the hardest workers on our team, and you have the capability to make the number of plays, he doesn’t need to say much.”

It was Mack, after all, who was chosen to break the rock following UVa’s final workout of the summer. In typical fashion, he didn’t wait long once he was handed the sledgehammer.

“It was an honor that my teammates had chosen me to do that,” Mack said. “Just being a very small part of the representation of my team, it definitely meant a lot to me.”

Chosen along with Bryce Perkins and Bryce Hall to be UVa’s captains this fall, Mack sees his role as being very similar to what it’s been in the past.

“Just team-oriented,” he said. “Just whatever the team needs me to do, that’s what I’m going to do. Whatever I can do to help the team, that’s what I’m going to do. Just being the type of teammate that can help the team in any way possible.

“It’s more just speaking up when you need to speak up,” Mack added. “More importantly, whatever the team needs you to serve at at that time, that’s what I see myself doing.”

“We have been studying what the best captains look like,” Mendenhall explained, “and what they do over all sports through different countries. Not many of the best captains crave the chance to speak to the media. They do speak to their team but many are kind of the water carriers and the shed sweepers, behind the scenes are doing what needs to be done, but then playing with this fierce intensity.

“I would say Jordan falls into that category of what some of the other bests have already demonstrated have the most effect,” he added.

It’s no secret that Mack is among the team’s hardest hitters and on Saturday night, Narduzzi’s Pitt team figures to present a physical challenge much the way the Panthers have the last three years.

“There is a physicality but also an intensity,” Mendenhall said when asked about Pitt. “Yeah, I don’t back off the statement. Pitt has been the more physical team in the previous three years, especially in the trenches on both sides. Pitt’s offense and defensive front have controlled the game in each of the past three matchups, so there is a physical component but then certainly an intensity that has to be played with from the beginning to end. Can’t be bits and pieces and can’t be streaks here or there or series here or there.

“I think Pitt has done a nice job in that area in our first three matchups,” he added, “so my message has been consistent.”

Mack and the Hoos have certainly heard it.

“We’re just preparing diligently,” he said. “As a team, we’re just going out to the practice field every single day and mentally and physically just trying to prepare for the upcoming week.

“You know what you have to do to prepare,” Mack added. “As a team, we know what we have to do to get right for the game and come in and play at the level we know we need to play at to win.”

As was probably to be expected, Mack wasn’t going to wax poetic about the preseason expectations. Whether UVa is picked to finish first or last or somewhere in the middle, he believes his task is simple: Do you job.

“A lot of hard work,” Mack said when asked about the program’s progress. “As a team, we’re looking at the next week so right now we’re just looking at Pittsburgh. We’re not paying any attention to any of that.”

That hard work that got him to where he is, though, is really because of the S&C coaches he’s worked with during his time on Grounds.

“I credit the strength coaches I’ve had here,” Mack said. “They put forth the plan. All I really had to do was wake up and follow it.”

All told, he heads into his senior season with a clear head and his mind squarely on the task at hand.

“It’s definitely wild,” he said. “Time definitely flies but it’s been an honor playing here and I’m looking forward to finishing out the year strong.”

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