Through five weeks of the Pitt football team’s 2019 season, there are some trends that are developing that might not have been expected from preseason expectations. Could anyone have predicted Pitt would be among the nation’s leaders in passing attempts? Probably not.

The same could be said about Pitt’s return game. In what was perceived to be a strength of this team, the Panthers have yet to get things going in that department. Pitt has only attempted to return six kickoffs all year, as there have been a high number of touchbacks against them. The Panthers are 7th in the ACC with 21.5 yards per return on kickoffs.

The punt return game is a different story.

Pitt is 13th in the ACC with a 5.1 average per return. Despite the low numbers, Pitt was actually credited with a punt return touchdown this year on Wendell Davis scooping up a blocked punt against UCF.

As for the normal return game? Not much has been done there. Maurice Ffrench is Pitt’s most dynamic weapon on offense and has been a key factor there, but he was named as a preseason All-American by some outlets for his prowess in the kick return game, and he has struggled to find room early on this season.

Andre Powell, Pitt’s special teams coordinator, thinks his guys are close to breaking one soon despite the quiet early season production.

“If you were able to see the video, the kickoff return and you would go ‘Oh my gosh I can’t believe it’ we’re so close,” he said. “It’s just a matter of seeing it again, and we’ve had injuries and we’ve had to mix guys around. We’ve done certain things and moved guys around and we’re really close.”

Pitt turned to true freshman AJ Woods last week to field the kickoffs, and he was not able to generate much with his limited opportunities. Despite that switch, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said it was to get Ffrench a break more than anything. The Pitt coach was also quick to credit the caliber of kickers and punters his team has faced as well.

“You know what, we've faced some good punters,” Narduzzi said. "When you look at kickoff, it's hard to get it started when the ball is kicked out of the end zone all the time. We put AJ Woods back there last week, not because Maurice Ffrench wasn't doing a good job, just to give Maurice Ffrench a blow.”

Narduzzi said Woods may be the fastest guy on the team, so there is big play potential there. Powell noted through his years of coaching that he’s had success with freshman returning kicks, including Brandon Tate at North Carolina and Quadree Henderson during his first year at Pitt.

“We’re not panicking,” he said about giving Woods a shot. “We’re not awful, we’re really close - a foot here, an inch there, a little better angle then this conversation is totally different, so we’re going to stay on course and see if we can get it right.”

Both Narduzzi and Powell said they need to clean some things up in the punt return, though.

“The punt return game was going really well and we had a couple of penalties so we went back and factored and take way the penalties, which I knew you can’t do, but if you eliminate the two penalties that we had against Ohio U then we’re probably around 10 yards a return which is pretty respectable,” Powell said.

Added Narduzzi, “Our punt return is one of the ones that you'd like to get going. If you came back and watched the tape like we watched as a team last night and watched some of the blocks we have, really in both phases, both return games, we're one or two blocks or we're a hold away from popping a few, and we're not executing properly.”

And I think it comes down to, everybody thinks the returner has got to be a great one. It's not just the returner, it's the other 10 guys doing what they're supposed to do to get those blocks, and it's also the returner hitting where he needs to go.”

Pitt will look to get the return game going in a positive direction this weekend against the Blue Devils. On the weekly depth chart, Pitt mixed some things up and included Paris Ford and Taysir Mack as co-starters at punt returner with Ffrench, that along with the emergence of using Woods shows Pitt is still searching for answers.

Powell mentioned they need to stay the course, and with a talented guy like Ffrench, that might be all the team needs to do, but at the same time, Pitt may be looking to mix things up and give some different guys a chance on Saturday.