Pat Freiermuth certainly knows how to entertain an audience. Recently mic’d up during OTAs, the Steelers‘ second-year tight end offered plenty of material, some of it coming at his teammates’ expense.
Rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett was the subject of some of Freiermuth’s good-natured ribbing. Freiermuth specifically took note of Pickett’s hairstyle as well as the former Pitt quarterback’s record against his alma mater.
“Kenny, get a haircut,” Freiermuth joked, via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. “Have you ever beat Penn State? I’m serious, it’s a serious question.”
“We get it, you’re mic’d up, bro,” Pickett responded.
“Did you beat Penn State before, Kenny? No,” Freiermuth replied. “I had to, Kenny, I had to.”
After practice, Freiermuth was asked about his trolling of Pickett, who lost both of his starts against Penn State as Pitt’s starting quarterback.
“Kenny’s a great guy, but I’m always going to give him crap that he’s never beaten Penn State before,” Freiermuth said, via WXPI’s Jenna Harner.
The Pitt-Penn State rivalry was renewed in 2016 following a 16-year hiatus. The Panthers won the first game, a 42-39 thriller at Heinz Field, when Pickett and Freiermuth were still in high school. With Pickett under center two years later, the Panthers suffered a 51-6 loss at the hands of Penn State. The two schools played a much more competitive game the following season, with the Nittany Lions walking away with a 17-10 win. The Panthers lost despite Pickett throwing for 372 yards on 35 of 51 passing. Freiermuth, a sophomore at the time, caught one pass in last game played between the two schools.
Rivals in college, Pickett and Freiermuth will try to complement each other while sharing a huddle in Pittsburgh. Freiermuth will look to build off of his highly-successful rookie season that saw him catch 60 of 79 targets for 497 yards and seven touchdowns. Pickett, who broke several of Dan Marino’s long-standing records at Pitt, will compete with Mason Rudolph and Mitchell Trubisky this summer to be the Steelers’ new starting quarterback.
