When it came time for Maurice Ffrench to make the No. 1 selection for the Gold team in this year’s Pitt spring game draft, he took a very logical approach to his top overall pick.
Ffrench intends to make plays all over the place Saturday at Heinz Field — the perimeter, in the middle, deep balls, anywhere — and would rather not have to see senior safety Jazzee Stocker patrolling the secondary.
“I know who I’m going up against,” Ffrench explained Thursday, “and I know what I can do.”
So, with Ffrench and senior defensive tackle Amir Watts building their defense around Stocker, perhaps that’s a challenge to the Blue team safeties who will be charged with keeping Ffrench in check. Those will be Paris Ford, the second safety off the board, and Therran Coleman.
One possible flaw in Ffrench’s plan, though? He’ll need a quarterback to get the ball to him and his fellow Gold wideouts, including senior Aaron Mathews and sophomore Shocky Jacques-Louis. Blue picked Pitt’s incumbent starter, Kenny Pickett, to open the sixth round of draft positions, while Gold countered with redshirt freshman Nick Patti and filled out the spot with early enrollee Davis Beville.
Coach Pat Narduzzi called the relatively late quarterback drafting — Pickett was the No. 1 overall pick last year — “interesting to see.” As a player in the crowd put it, “Damn. Sixth round?”
“They feel like there’s some competition there, they feel like there’s a guy they can win with [behind Pickett], and they weren't worried about getting Kenny early,” is how Narduzzi broke it down. “I thought maybe Kenny might be the first pick.”
Instead, Blue — whose head coach is new offensive coordinator Mark Whipple — opted to make V'Lique Carter the cornerstone of their offense. That drew some surprised reactions from the Panthers in the crowd when senior captains Saleem Brightwell and Tre Tipton chose Carter with their first selection.
Brightwell’s reasoning for using the early pick on Carter was similar to Ffrench’s strategy: He doesn’t want to have to be the one trying to tackle him.
“Oh my goodness, that boy, I can't wait to see him get on the field,” Brightwell said of the sophomore tailback. “All the stuff I’ve seen him do since scout team last year, we’ve been seeing V'Lique do amazing things on the field. That’s why I got him. I know what he can do and what he’s capable of.”
With Carter and Todd Sibley in the Blue backfield, junior A.J. Davis should get plenty of touches for Gold. An intrasquad scrimmage, though, could come down to line play as much as anything else, and Gold might have struck it by getting Watts, Keyshon Camp and Rashad Weaver all on the defensive line for head coach Cory Sanders (whose day job is safeties coach).
At one point, Whipple stuck his head in to see how his Blue front office was making out, and Watts spotted him.
“Whipple, we coming for you!” Watts yelled with a smile, and got a kick out of Whipple’s response: “You got a problem if you’re worried about me.”
The biggest concerns, on both sides of the matchup, are likely at offensive line. Will Pitt have enough depth there to form two units capable of moving the ball, especially with center Jimmy Morrissey sidelined after his season-ending ankle surgery?
Gold likely will line up Carter Warren, Brandon Ford, Jake Kradel, Chase Brown and Carson Van Lynn, from left to right, with Blue going Gabe Houy, Bryce Hargrove, Owen Drexel, Rashad Wheeler and Jerry Drake. With that much youth, will they have a better chance of protecting the pocket or opening holes?
“I’m not sure they’re prepared to do either well,” Narduzzi said of a split-up offensive line. “I think the O-line is the toughest spot to play.”
Fans should hope Narduzzi is proven wrong on that front, lest there be another performance similar to last April’s 10-3 slug fest in which the Blue team scored the only touchdown on a pick-six. Cornerback Dane Jackson won’t be there to save the day again, as he and fellow senior safety Damar Hamlin will be held out for precautionary reasons.
For Narduzzi’s part, he doesn’t particularly care whether this spring game is an extension of 2018, when the winning team completed one pass for 46 yards and ended up with negative rushing yards.
“Well, maybe we could call up a high school team in the area and just score points on them,” Narduzzi said, tongue-in-cheek. “I don’t think the score of the game is going to matter. … If it was 58-52, I’ll be happy, and if it’s 7-3, I’ll be happy.”
Pitt alumni and current NFL stars Aaron Donald and LeSean McCoy will be Saturday’s honorary coaches, four years after Donald and Larry Fitzgerald did the honors.
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
Full rosters for the Pitt blue-gold game. Blue on left, gold on right pic.twitter.com/P6SLUQYrIe
— Brian Batko (@BrianBatko) April 11, 2019
FULL DRAFT SUMMARY
ROUND 1 (Safeties)
Jazzee Stocker, senior (Gold)
Paris Ford, redshirt sophomore (Blue)
Bricen Garner, redshirt junior (Gold)
Therran Coleman, redshirt junior (Blue)
ROUND 2 (Tailbacks)
V'Lique Carter, sophomore (Blue)
A.J. Davis, junior (Gold)
Todd Sibley, redshirt sophomore (Blue)
Kyle Vreen, redshirt junior (Gold)*
ROUND 3 (Offensive tackles)
Carter Warren, redshirt sophomore (Gold)
Gabe Houy, redshirt sophomore (Blue)
Carson Van Lynn, redshirt sophomore (Gold)
Jerry Drake, redshirt sophomore (Blue)
Blake Zubovic, redshirt freshman (Gold)
Liam Dick, freshman (Blue)
ROUND 4 (Defensive Ends)
Patrick Jones, redshirt junior (Blue)
Rashad Weaver, redshirt junior (Gold)
John Morgan, redshirt freshman (Blue)
Chris Maloney, redshirt freshman (Gold)*
Deslin Alexandre, redshirt sophomore (Blue)
ROUND 5 (Outside Linebackers)
Phil Campbell, redshirt junior (Gold)
Chase Pine, redshirt junior (Blue)
Cam Bright, redshirt sophomore (Gold)
Kyle Nunn, redshirt sophomore (Blue)
Jack Hansberry, redshirt freshman (Gold)*
Jake Zilinskas, redshirt junior (Blue)*
ROUND 6 (Quarterbacks)
Kenny Pickett, junior (Blue)
Nick Patti, redshirt freshman (Gold)
Jeff George, redshirt senior (Blue)*
Davis Beville, freshman (Gold)
Justin Sliwoski, redshirt freshman (Blue)*
ROUND 7 (Middle Linebackers)
Elias Reynolds, redshirt junior (Gold)
Wendell Davis, redshirt freshman (Blue)
Jackson Henry, redshirt freshman (Gold)*
ROUND 8 (Offensive Guards)
Bryce Hargrove, redshirt junior (Blue)
Chase Brown, redshirt senior (Gold)
Rashad Wheeler, redshirt junior (Blue)
Brandon Ford, redshirt junior (Gold)
Brian Burgess, redshirt sophomore (Blue)*
ROUND 9 (X Wide Receivers)
Aaron Mathews, senior (Gold)
Taysir Mack, redshirt junior (Blue)
Shocky Jacques-Louis, sophomore (Gold)
Michael Smith, redshirt sophomore (Blue)
ROUND 10 (Z Wide Receivers)
Dontavius Butler-Jenkins, redshirt sophomore (Blue)
Cameron O’Neil, redshirt freshman (Gold)
Garrett Bickhart, redshirt sophomore (Blue)*
ROUND 11 (Tight Ends/Fullbacks)
Grey Brancifort, redshirt freshman (Gold)*
Jim Medure, redshirt senior (Blue)
Will Gragg, redshirt senior (Gold)
Grant Carrigan, redshirt sophomore (Blue)
Kaymar Mimes, redshirt freshman (Gold)
Peyton Deri, redshirt junior (Blue)*
Jake Cortes, redshirt freshman (Gold)*
Ryan Sliwoski, redshirt senior (Blue)*
Drake Toto, redshirt junior (Gold)*
ROUND 12 (Defensive Tackles)
Jaylen Twyman, redshirt sophomore (Blue)
Keyshon Camp, redshirt junior (Gold)
Devin Danielson, redshirt freshman (Blue)
Tyler Bentley, redshirt freshman (Gold)
David Green, redshirt freshman (Blue)
Noah Palmer, redshirt freshman (Gold)
ROUND 13 (Cornerbacks)
Jason Pinnock, junior (Gold)
Damarri Mathis, junior (Blue)
Marquis Williams, redshirt freshman (Gold)
Erick Hallett, redshirt freshman (Blue)
Judson Tallandier, redshirt freshman (Gold)
ROUND 14 (Centers)
Owen Drexel, redshirt sophomore (Blue)
Jake Kradel, redshirt freshman (Gold)
Kenny Rainey, redshirt sophomore (Blue)*
ROUND 15 (Kickers)
Alex Kessman, redshirt junior (Gold)
Jake Scarton, redshirt sophomore (Blue)*
Will Connelly, redshirt freshman (Gold)*
ROUND 16 (Punters)
Kirk Christodoulou, redshirt sophomore (Blue)
Ethan Van Buskirk, redshirt freshman (Gold)*
*-denotes walk-on
First Published: April 11, 2019, 6:57 p.m.
