Players seldom become tabbed as "irreplaceable," but that is exactly what Calijah Kancey was for Pat Narduzzi's defense.
Stacking on top of that is the replacing of a green dot-caliber player and a defensive captain in SirVocea Dennis, who provided the voice and the wit to make that complex and layered defense come together in cohesion.
With Pitt set to kick off its 2023 season at 3:30 p.m. Saturday against Wofford, those options of filling in are becoming clearer, though production from those options is yet to be determined. A defense losing six starters to the NFL has much to make up for.