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Pitt DT Jeremiah Taleni kicked off team for disciplinary reasons

Matt Fortuna
Pitt DT Jeremiah Taleni has been kicked off team for disciplinary reasons. (AP)
Pitt DT Jeremiah Taleni has been kicked off team for disciplinary reasons. (AP)

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi dismissed nose tackle Jeremiah Taleni from the team Friday for disciplinary reasons, leaving the Panthers down a potential senior starter entering the summer.

Taleni was competing for a starting spot this spring after a 2016 campaign that saw him tally three sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss in seven games, three of which he started.

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Taleni tallied eight tackles for loss across his 21-game three-year carerer with the Panthers, whose line has several key ends but few proven bodies on the interior. Taleni had been competing at nose tackle with three redshirt or true freshmen: Keyshon Camp (redshirt), Julian Desire’ (redshirt) and Deslin Alexander (early enrollee).

“We have a younger group. I feel like I need to step up and try and help teach,” Taleni had said in March, after Pitt’s first practice of the spring. “They’ve never been through the transition of getting a new position coach. I’ve been through it once so I just try and guide them through it.”

Taleni had been a two-star recruit out of Kailua (High) in Hawaii in 2013.

For more Pittsburgh news, visit Panther-lair.com.

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Matt Fortuna is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!