Henderson: "I'm just a playmaker who's out there making plays"

Pat Narduzzi is too much of a critic, too much of a perfectionist, to feel very positive after a “game” like Saturday’s Blue-Gold Game. A team-vs-team contest is a losing proposition for a head coach like Narduzzi, who can’t stand to lose but will inevitably feel like half the team did, in fact, lose.

But even Narduzzi, through all of his postgame grousing, couldn’t find much to complain about when it came to the performance of junior receiver Quadree Henderson.

In fact, Narduzzi mentioned Henderson as one of the few things he did like that afternoon. Linebackers coach Rob Harley, who served as the head coach of the Blue Team that was tasked with slowing down Henderson and the Gold Team, didn’t like what he saw, but he was glad he won’t have to see it again.

“I’ll tell you what: from a defensive standpoint, I’m really glad that we’ve got No. 10 on our team and I don’t have to see him during the season. I can tell you that,” Harley said after Henderson led the Gold Team to a 23-14 win.

And Henderson truly did lead the victory. He scored the game’s first touchdown on a 30-yard sweep and then set up another score with a 54-yard run early in the third quarter, finishing with 84 rushing yards on two attempts, five catches for 53 yards and 52 kick return yards.

“I’m just a playmaker who’s out there making plays,” Henderson said after the game. “That’s what the fans wanted to see: they wanted to see Pitt football back in full effect.”

Henderson’s 189-yard performance on Saturday was a continuation of what he did last season. He put up 2,083 all-purpose yards in 2016, marking just the second 2,000-yard season in Pitt history (Tony Dorsett had the other one). He ranked second in the ACC and No. 11 nationally in all-purpose yards per game, topping 150 in nine out of 13 games and going over 200 four times.

The junior from Delaware was a triple threat last year, rushing for 631 yards, pulling in 26 receptions for 286 yards and putting up 1,166 return yards (914 on kick returns, 252 on punts). Plus, he scored 10 touchdowns - five rushing, four on returns and one receiving.

And while Henderson was arguably the top playmaker on a team with a few candidates for that title, there was an imbalance in his statistics: almost all of his production came via the rush or return. So this year he’s looking for production that falls more in line with his position title.

“It’s definitely a big focus for me,” Henderson said, and he’s not the only one who sees it as the next step in his development.

Quarterback Max Browne has been on campus for four months, and he knows what Henderson needs to do.

“He’s explosive; just get the ball in his hands,” Browne said Saturday. “It will be fun for him to take that next step at receiver, because as far as I understand, it was a lot of jet sweeps and returns last year, but he definitely has the skill set to break out wide in the slot game. So that will be fun for him and fun for us moving forward.”

And running backs coach Andre Powell - who was the Gold Team’s head coach on Saturday - knows all about Henderson, since Henderson’s four return touchdowns made Powell’s special teams one of the most prolific units in the nation last season.

“He’s always, in my eyes, been an explosive guy, and when he gets the ball in his hands, he’s hard to hem up,” Powell said Saturday. “I think the thing for Quadree, to make him a more complete player, is to get him to have a breakthrough on the offensive side of the ball in terms of a pass-catcher and a route-runner. But anytime he’s got the ball, he can make a play. He’s a good player.”

And earlier this spring, receivers coach Kevin Sherman talked about Henderson’s next step.

“I challenged him before spring ball started: What are your goals? What do you want to do? What do you want to be? What do you want to be identified as?” Sherman said. “I think he understands what he has to do and he’s a work-in-progress as well, and I’m pushing and challenging him every day to be a complete receiver, not only running the ball - running routes, catching balls and blocking on the perimeter. All of those things that go into being a good football player.”

Part of that development could come as Henderson works into a new role this season. He mostly played as a flanker in 2016, but this year he’ll be operating more out of the slot. That’s a role he played in high school, and he’s anxious to return to it this fall.

“A lot of defenses are going to try to key me, but just me being in the slot now, playing more inside, I’m going to have to perfect my craft now even more and not just be a run guy with ‘Caspers’ and reverses around the field,” Henderson said. “So I’m just going to have to perfect my craft in all areas of the game so they have to game plan for everybody.”

The Gold Team’s starting quarterback redshirt sophomore Ben DiNucci, certainly thinks opponents are going to have to keep track of Henderson, regardless of where he’s lining up.

“Any time you have Quadree on your team, you have a chance to score on every play,” DiNucci said Saturday.