The Pitt football team did not end the regular season on a high note. They lost pair of conference games to Virginia Tech and Boston College to finish the season at 7-5. Heading into the Virginia Tech game on November 23rd, the team still had hopes of winning the ACC Coastal Division and perhaps earning a berth to the Orange Bowl.

Obviously the season did not play out as the team had hoped and the postseason destination is the Quick Lane Bowl held on December 26th in Detroit set for an 8:00 p.m. kickoff on ESPN. A trip to Southeast Michigan the day after Christmas isn't as glamorous a destination as a trip to Miami would be, but it does provide the same opportunity for a certain group of the Pitt football program.

Earning a bowl, no matter the destination, still gives young guys the opportunity to get more practice time, spend more time with the coaches, and gives those particular players a head start on the 2020 season.

Pitt has 34 scholarship players with freshman eligibility, including 19 true freshman on the 2019 roster. While some have earned snaps throughout the season, these extra bowl practices have been a big opportunity for the others to make a name for themselves ahead of spring practice.

"The emphasis is winning the bowl game, that’s what we do, but were also at the same time going to get those younger guys the opportunity to get the reps and have fun,” Pat Narduzzi said of what the bowl practices mean for some younger guys.

At different points of the year, Pitt has ‘showtime’ periods to allow the freshmen to scrimmage at the end of practice against one another for playing time. Those segments of practice have returned for bowl preparation. The Pitt head coach has said those segments have extended into normal practice time to give some younger guys an even more extended look.

“There’s times where we went our first practice two weeks ago, it was three plays with the one’s on offense, then three plays with the two’s, and the rest of the period was just the young guys,” he said. “So we’ve gotten a lot of work at it.”

Pitt wide receiver Maurice Ffrench is a senior and will be playing in his last game next Thursday at Ford Field. He remembers back to 2016 as a freshman when he got to go through some of these extra reps during bowl practice.

“For sure, you always can get better, so extra practices for the bowl game that’s another place for you to get better and an opportunity,” Ffrench explained. “For example, my freshman year I was playing both sides of the ball, so the bowl practices I was able to learn more and able to get more reps because the older guys were taking less reps so they can be fresh for the game. So for sure, you definitely can get better for the young guys and they can learn a lot and get more reps to actually see what it feels like.”

These periods also allow the upperclassmen to see how their younger teammates are performing, and while the focus is on Eastern Michigan, it does have a few guys thinking ahead.

“I’ve seen a progression for a couple of the offensive linemen,” Pitt junior center Jimmy Morrissey said. “I’ll say this about all of them, but they play tough. I’m excited for spring ball to see how they play then.”

While these opportunities appear to be helping guys in the long term, could some of these extra showcases for the freshmen lead to some playing time this week? Narduzzi had at least one guy in mind that it might.

“Calijah Kancey has done a nice job all year at D-Tackle, and we may just sprinkle him in there,” he said.

Kancey has yet to play a game all season, mainly because Pitt has some solid depth on the interior of the line, but his play has even caught the attention of his teammates in addition to his coach.

“On the D-Line somebody that really caught my eye was Calijah, he’s going to be a monster, he’s going to get in the weight room he’s going to be a monster,” Pitt senior linebacker Saleem Brightwell said.

Brightwell also noticed some of the guys in his position room, the three true freshmen linebackers: Sir’Vocea Dennis, Brandon George, and Leslie Smith.

“They’re performing great,” Brightwell said of the freshmen linebackers. “Like you can see that they’re hungry, they just want to play. Anytime they can get a chance to get on the field, on the practice field, we do like little ‘showtime’ games when all the freshmen get in and play. It’s good to see them out there, because they just look hungry. They might not know all the plays and everything. But they just want to get out there and play, so it’s good to see them finally get in there in practice and stuff.”

The bowl destination might not ideal for the team, but the extra practices are useful and the Pitt coaches and freshmen appear to be taking advantage of the additional reps to get a leg up on the 2020 season.