The new sensations
MORE HEADLINES - Top guard target likes Pitt visit | Is Pitt shifting its focus in OL recruiting? | 2018 athlete picks up an offer at the game | Pitt's offense finally finishes | Photos from Pitt's 43-27 win over Marshall | Post-game video: Chawntez Moss
There’s a youth movement afoot with Pitt’s offense.
Sure, the Panthers are led by a redshirt senior quarterback, a redshirt junior running back, two senior tight ends and two seniors and a junior on the offensive line. But in Saturday night’s 43-27 over Marshall, there were more than a few first and second-year players making big plays.
Of Pitt’s 252 rushing yards in that game, 191 came from freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophomores. And more than a third of the team’s completed passes went to players in those classes - six of the 17 receptions.
On the season, first and second-year players have accounted for six of the team’s 22 touchdowns, and the team’s leading receiver as well as the second and third-leading rushers come from that group of players.
“It’s really encouraging,” Pat Narduzzi said after Saturday’s game. “You want guys to step up and make plays.”
The breakout star of the season for Pitt - and one of the breakout stars in the ACC - is sophomore receiver Quadree Henderson, whose stat line is a Matt Canada special: he’s the Panthers’ leading receiver and the team’s second-leading rusher. He has caught 15 passes through five games and was expected to contribute in the passing game, but his real explosion has come in the run game, where he has gained 317 yards on 27 attempts - an average of 11.7 yards per carry, all coming on jet sweeps.
If the last two games are any indication, though, Henderson will have some company in the “breakout star” department, as freshman running back Chawntez Moss was arguably - or not - the team’s best running back Saturday night. Against Marshall, he ran the ball 12 times and gained 97 yards - both team highs that marked the first time all season a running back other than James Conner logged the most attempts and yards.
With the Marshall game adding to the 47 yards and a touchdown he recorded in the loss at North Carolina, Moss is Pitt’s third-leading rusher despite not playing in the first two games and only recording two carries in the third game of the season. He’s also averaging more than seven yards per carry.
“He’s got a little different gear that you see out there,” Narduzzi said. “James was hunkering up in there and Chawntez had a little bit of juice in there. So it was good to see him.”
And Moss wasn’t the only freshman Narduzzi saw on Saturday night. Maurice Ffrench followed his two-carry debut at North Carolina with an impressive 11-yard run-with-a-spin touchdown in the first quarter against Marshall. And Aaron Mathews got his first reception; it was only a two-yard catch, but it signals a likely growth in his role in the offense.
Plus, redshirt freshman Tre Tipton has seen his role grow in recent weeks. After not recording a reception or a rushing attempt in the first two games, the former Apollo-Ridge standout has put up 90 yards on 11 touches in the last three contests, including a 15-yard touchdown catch and a 21-yard near-touchdown run Saturday night.
With Henderson, Tipton, Moss, Ffrench and Mathews, Pitt seems to have some playmaking potential in the younger classes.
“Our freshman class - our freshman class and sophomores, I mean, we’re going to be good,” Moss said. “That’s all I can really say about it.”