Andy Isabella was one of the quiet stars in college football during the 2018 season starring as a wide receiver for Mark Whipple at UMass. In the offseason, Pitt hired Whipple as it’s offensive coordinator to reignite that side of the ball.

The Pitt players, particularly the wide receivers, took notice right away of what Whipple was able to do with Isabella.

“I watched film on Issy and I was like, ‘Woah I need to play the position he used to,’ because we’re kind of similar as players, but he obviously got the ball way more than I did,” said Pitt senior wide receiver Maurice Ffrench.

Ffrench wasn’t kidding. Isabella led the nation in receiving yards with 1,698 yards on 102 receptions while playing for the 34th ranked offense in the country in 2018. Conversely, Ffrench hauled in 35 passes for 515 yards on one of the bottom ten passing offenses in America.

So pencil in Ffrench as one of Mark Whipple’s biggest fans already. “Watching his offense at UMass I was like, ‘yea that will fit perfect with us’ because we all have a chance to get the ball and make a play and like I said put more points on the board, because we couldn't do it last year, we definitely needed something like this,” Ffrench explained.

Pitt is resetting the offense with a new coordinator, but also a new wide receivers coach. Chris Beatty comes to Pitt from Maryland to replace Kevin Sherman, and the early returns on him from Ffrench are positive.

“It’s definitely a good coaching style, he definitely takes the time to talk to you one-on-one and willing to show you what to do, what to properly do, and how to do it - so that’s a definitely a cool thing for him to do,” Ffrench added.

The combination of the two new coaches will be tasked with opening up the offense. The rebuild for these new coaches will start with some veteran players, however. Quarterback Kenny Pickett will be entering his second year as the starter and he will be throwing to experienced receivers like Taysir Mack, Tre Tipton, Aaron Mathews, and of course Ffrench.

“It’s going good; it’s a whole new reset. We get a chance to learn and an opportunity to play multiple positions and just help each other out in the process, so we all come close together and learn a whole offense,” Ffrench said of the new offensive philosophies.

He added, “I definitely like ideas - more things you can do, more ways for us to score - put points on the board.”

Part of Ffrench’s growth comes from a maturity standpoint. He is entering his senior year, and while he was a big player for Pitt last year, he is really hoping to leave a mark as a senior. If that means staying after practice and running some routes, than that’s what it takes on his end.

“I know my freshman year I was not staying after practice,” he said. “I made sure I was going back to Sutherland to go back to sleep, but as I got older I realized the more work you put in, the more you get out, so you definitely got to put more work in to get the results.”