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Pitt has used four freshmen so far in 2016, and if Pat Narduzzi has his way, that number will stay right there.

Of course, that’s not easy for those outside the team to accept, not when a strong class of defensive back recruits casts a shadow over a secondary that has Pitt ranked No. 126 - out of 128 - in passing yards allowed.

For fans and media, the thinking goes like this: even if the freshmen aren’t totally ready, they couldn’t make the defense that much worse since there’s not much further to fall. So why not take a chance and see if a young player like Damar Hamlin or Therran Coleman can help the defense and make a few plays?

Pitt’s head coach doesn’t see things that way.

“We’re not going to just play a guy to play a guy, just to see what happens,” he said Monday. “That’s bad coaching if we just want to see what happens. Because you only find out in games; if it doesn’t go good, then what do you do? Are you going to sit him for the rest of the year and go, ‘Sorry about that’? So we’ve got some other good players that we have in our pockets that are going to be fun to watch in the future, I think.”

Count Hamlin and Coleman among the players on the sidelines with bright futures. Coleman has been close to playing; he traveled to both of Pitt’s road games this season - as did freshman safety Bricen Garner - and has gotten work on the second-team defense leading up to the last few games. But the coaches have held off on using him through five games.

That decision-making process has been a bit easier with Hamlin, who was limited throughout training camp and only recently returned to full participation in practice. He was in uniform for the first time this season on Saturday night when Pitt hosted Marshall, but with the season nearing the halfway point, Narduzzi seems to be leaning toward a redshirt.

“We want everybody to dress. But he’s a guy that - you know, I’m not going to talk about what it was, but he was not ready to go and he’ll be…like I said last week, he’s getting better. He’s getting better on the field and you can see some good things that he’s doing. And he’s always got a smile on his face. That’s the best thing.

“He’s back full-time, but is he where he needs to be football-wise? Probably not. But he can get there, but then is it too late?”

That’s a disappointing turn of events for a four-star recruit who came to Pitt with the expectation of winning the open starting job. But the lingering injury that kept him sidelined for much of camp threw a wrench in those plans and delayed his on-field arrival.

Some coaches - and a lot of fans - might take the short-term view that Hamlin should play as soon as he is ready, even if that means playing just half the season or less.

“Some people have the philosophy that, hey, use them and don’t worry about it because, who knows? They might leave you in three years anyway. I hate to look at it that way,” Narduzzi said. “They spent a lot of time getting to where they are, and being on scholarship or not, we don’t want to, you know, I want to use them the right way.”

As an example, Narduzzi pointed to freshman defensive tackle Amir Watts, the only freshman to play on defense so far this season. Watts has appeared in all five games but has played minimal snaps. Narduzzi said the staff used Watts with the expectation that he would continue to progress and earn “25 snaps” per game.

But Watts hasn’t developed as the coaches thought he might, and his snaps have been few and far between to the point where Narduzzi expressed some regret on Monday about using the Chicago native at all.

“I don’t want to do that to someone else either,” Narduzzi said. “They have to be flat-out better than the guys we’re playing with, right now, guaranteed, before we put a guy out there and all of a sudden go, ‘Ooh, that’s not what we wanted.’”

And that was the thought process that guided the decision to use Maurice Ffrench. The most recent freshman to get on the field - he followed Watts, receiver Aaron Mathews and running back Chawntez Moss - Ffrench made his debut with two carries at North Carolina but really broke out with an impressive touchdown run against Marshall.

“We were very careful with Maurice Ffrench, and I wasn’t happy with the reps he got - I think four snaps in his first game two weeks ago; I wanted him to have 10 or 12,” Narduzzi said. “If we’re going to put him in there, we have to use him. If we get major injuries, there’s no question. But our philosophy is to protect our kids and make sure that - I want them to be playing a lot.

“It’s tough when you’re not playing a lot and we’re using your redshirt. It’s not fun. And it’s not fair.”

Of the four freshmen who have played, Moss has been the star so far. He ran for a game-high 97 yards on 12 carries in the win over Marshall and is currently the team’s third-leading rusher with 152 yards and a touchdown on 21 attempts - 7.2 yards per attempt. He appears to have earned the backup role behind James Conner and was tabbed by the coaches to take the field for Pitt’s game-sealing touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter against Marshall.

Ffrench has three carries for 20 yards and one touchdown and Mathews has one reception for two yards, but both players have natural skills - Ffrench has speed and Mathews has size - that should translate into more playmaking opportunities down the road.

Despite playing in all five games, Watts does not have any statistics to his name.

“I’d like to get more out of Amir Watts…I’d like to get more out of him,” Narduzzi said. “But it’s hard for freshmen to come in and be that mature to play at this level. Different positions are different, you know, learning curve there that you have to go through. So we just have to keep progressing with those guys, but I’m happy with what we’re getting so far.

“And we’ve got some guys that aren’t playing right now that are going to be really good that we’d like to save if we can. If they’re young guys and they’re just as good as those guys we have in there, they’re going to be much better in another year.”