Even while working at a Power Five conference football school, Scott Woodward never forgot about his hometown of Orange.
During his first season as a quarterbacks coach and offensive assistant at the University of Pittsburgh, the Mahar Regional graduate found the time to tune into his old high school’s playoff game on the radio.
Woodward listened intently as his father, coach Jim Woodward, and the Senators played in their first playoff game since 2011. Mahar fell to Ware in the Western Mass. Division 8 semifinals.
“We talk all the time about it,” Scott Woodward said. “Would like to have that last one back. Proud of them. They had a very good season with only 22 guys on the team.”
While enjoying the success of his former team, Woodward enjoyed success in his new environment with the Panthers.
Pittsburgh won its first bowl game since 2013, with a 34-30 win over Eastern Michigan in the Quick Lane Bowl.
“The guys got a taste of what it can be,” Woodward said. “Hopefully we can go back and get to a better bowl next year. Maybe an ACC championship. We’ll see what happens.”
Woodward watched from the booth as quarterback Kenny Pickett threw a 25-yard touchdown to Taysir Mack with 47 seconds left to give Pittsburgh the eventual victory.
Pickett went 27-for-39 for 361 yards and three touchdowns in the MVP performance under Woodward’s tutelage as quarterbacks coach.
“Kenny played well,” Woodward said. “Finally put it all together at the end. He’s everything you want in a quarterback. Tough kid who puts his body on the line even though as a coach you want him to slide sometimes.”
The Panthers (8-5) had a huge 35-34 win over the University of Central Florida at Heinz Field on Sept. 21.
At the time, UCF ranked No. 15 nationally and hadn’t lost in the regular season since 2016.
“It was the nation’s longest winning streak,” Woodward said. “We knew it would be a tough task. We had a good game plan. We hit them in the mouth a little bit and they didn’t really know what was happening. They came back but we were able to get the ball in Kenny’s hands in the final drive.”
The Panthers used the “Pitt Special” to tie the game with around a minute left before the extra point gave them the lead.
The play mirrored what the Philadelphia Eagles did against the Patriots in Super Bowl LII when quarterback Nick Foles caught a touchdown.
“We practiced that play for a few weeks leading up to them,” Woodward said. “Just didn’t have a chance to use it. It came up at the end of the game and we had a chance to use it. We decided to run it and it happened to work out.”
In 12 games, Pickett had a quarterback rating of 122.42 with 3,098 yards and a 61-percent completion rate.
Pickett had 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions during his junior season.
Then there is the moment where Woodward met a NFL legend.
While walking the hallways before a home game, Woodward ran into a familiar alumni of the Panthers in Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino.
“I was the leaving the coaches’ locker room to head up to the box for the game,” Woodward said. “He was walking down the hallway. The tight ends coach asked if I wanted to meet him.”
The greeting was a quick one as the game was about to start for the Panthers. After a quick exchange of pleasantries with Marino, Woodward got to work.
“I had to get up the booth,” Woodward said. “It was awesome.”
Woodward started at quarterback for three seasons at Mahar Regional, leading the Senators to back-to-back Division 3 Super Bowl titles. He was a three-time All-Western Mass. selection and made All-State as a senior.
Woodwar d was a four-year letterm an for the Minutemen from 2005-08. He was backup quarterback to the school’s all-time passing leader, Liam Coen, who was on the losing end of last year’s Super Bowl as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Rams.
After graduating from UMass in 2009, Woodward served as an assistant coach at Westfield State from 2010-13 and at Fairleigh Dickinson from 2013-15. He had been with the Minutemen since 2015 before joining Mark Whipple on Pat Narduzzi’s staff for Pitt.
