PITTSBURGH — There’s a professorial aspect to new Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Randy Bates. Maybe it’s the glasses. Maybe it’s the tidy haircut. Maybe it’s the long resume that includes stops at Northwestern and the Naval Academy.

Don’t let the package fool you, though. There’s an edge to Bates that head coach Pat Narduzzi believes will translate to a defense that needs to take a significant step forward if the Panthers want to be considered a legitimate contender in the ACC’s wide open Coastal Division.

Asked Monday if he expects the unit that runs onto the field Saturday for the season opener against Albany to take on a bit of Bates’ energetic personality, Narduzzi — a former defensive coordinator himself — nodded.

“Any time your coordinator is passionate and has energy, it’s going to play a part,” Narduzzi said. “Your kids are going to play like your coordinator, I think. So I think that will be something you’ll see Saturday whether they play with a little different swag and energy. You know, you’re hoping the lights turn on and at 3:30 (Saturday) that’s what you see. They’ve got to be ready to go.”

Though Narduzzi arrived at Pitt with a reputation as one of the top defensive minds in the country, the results on the side of the ball where he made his name have been mixed. The Panthers have bounced from solid (37th overall in 2015) to septic (101st in 2016) to so-so (69th in 2017).

Narduzzi, however, is optimistic the roller coaster is about to stop. So are his players, buoyed both by Bates’ aggressive approach and the lessons learned during a 5-7 season that saw Pitt miss a bowl game for the first time in a decade. This year’s group is older, deeper and — the Panthers insist — more talented.

“I think anyone can make a cake,” senior linebacker Seun Idowu said. “But it’s really the ingredients that you put in that make the difference at the end of the day to what you taste.”

The mixture this time around includes Bates.