Young players provide big roles for Panthers
The most public and statistically accomplished faces of Pitt’s offense are defined by their age and experience, from the 21-year-old star running back who survived cancer to its married 22-year-old quarterback.
As the Panthers held on for a 43-27 victory Saturday night against Marshall, though, some of their most prolific contributors were their most inexperienced and, perhaps most important, their youngest.
After a breakthrough performance the previous week in a loss to North Carolina, freshman Chawntez Moss continued that momentum with a team-high 97 rushing yards. Though their production was limited to a handful of eye-opening spurts, freshmen Maurice Ffrench and Tre Tipton scored their first career touchdowns. Overall, freshmen and sophomores accounted for 200 of the team’s 252 rushing yards
For Pitt’s coaches, it provided an alluring glimpse at what their offense can become in future years.
“It’s really encouraging,” Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said. “You want guys to step up and make plays. Quadree has been a horse. With Ffrench, we decided to take his redshirt off two weeks ago because we felt like we needed him. We were trying to save him, but we felt like we were wearing Quadree [Henderson] out a little bit with kick returns and punt returns and all the work he’s getting. Tre had some nice sweeps and a couple of nice catches. It’s good to see [Aaron] Mathews get some catches. We’ve got some young guys playing on offense and making some plays. The best thing was we made plays when we needed to.”
Moss’ showing was impressive not simply because of its production, but its efficiency, as he gained his 97 yards on just 12 carries, averaging 8.1 yards. Do-everything wide receiver Henderson, a known and increasingly prolific commodity at this point in the season, added to what is developing into a stellar sophomore campaign, with 89 total yards.
Tipton, an Apollo-Ridge graduate, had 26 rushing yards on three carries and a 15-yard touchdown pass. Ffrench had an 11-yard touchdown run that gave Pitt a 20-0 lead in the first quarter. And though he had just a single 2-yard catch, freshman wideout Mathews got his first career start.
While it came against a porous defense that entered the day giving up 41.3 points and 478.7 yards per game, it was hard for the Panthers to leave Heinz Field Saturday without an overriding sense of optimism about their strong young core on offense.
“Our freshman class, the sophomores … we’re going to be good,” Moss said. “That’s all I can say.” yards and 118 rushing yards.
“As far as the change from the first half to the second half I felt like we kind of came out the same. But they started having success,” defensive end Ejuan Price said. “You don’t know where the hole is at, you don’t know where we’re leaking at … It feels good to win there, but something went wrong and we’ve got to fix it.”
Marshall used an 11-yard rushing touchdown from Anthony Anderson to open the third quarter, then recovered an onside kick to march another 47 yards for another score. That cut the Panthers’ lead to 27-14 with the extra point.
Place-kicker Chris Blewitt kicked a 20-yard field goal at the 4:50 mark of the third before the Pitt defense got burned on another big play.
Marshall quarterback Chase Litton (20 of 32 for 240 yards, one interception) connected with Michael Clark for touchdown on an 83-yard catch and run to open the fourth quarter, as the Herd cut the once-formidable Pitt lead to 30-20.
They weren’t done. Keion Davis punched it in on from the 1 with 4:01 to play and the extra point made it 30-27.
“We like to make it tight,” Narduzzi said.
Pitt, now 3-2, entered the game off consecutive losses to Oklahoma State and North Carolina.
Pitt spent much of the week working on its troubled pass defense, and learning how to close games out after dropping the ACC opener to the Tar Heels on a late touchdown with :02 left last week.
Personnel-wise there was one major unexplained change in the secondary.
Safety Jordan Whitehead was dressed and on the sideline but never got into the lineup as Terrish Webb and Reggie Mitchell got the starts at the two safety positions.
Whitehead, the ACC’s defensive rookie of the year in 2015, entered the game with a team-leading 31 tackles this season.
“It’s nice to get a ‘W’ when one of your best players doesn’t get on the field,” Narduzzi said. “I’m not going to talk about personnel, injures, and all that so we’ll just kind of leave it that. They expect him hopefully be ready to go this week. We’ll play that by ear.”
The Panthers marched down the field to score on its first three possessions of the game. George Aston scored a 5-yard rushing touchdown to cap a drive that included two long pass completions from Peterman to Weah (35 yards) and Quadree Henderson (17).
James Conner scored from the 1 at 5:03 and freshman Maurice Ffrench scored an 11-yard rushing touchdown with 50 seconds left in the quarter.
Marshall stopped Pitt at the 1 in the second quarter, stuffing Peterman on a rush attempt with 9:10 to play in the half. Freshman Tre Tipton then caught the first touchdown of his career, a 15-yarder from Peterman on second-andlong to make it 27-0.