Return of Maurice Ffrench — if it happens — would give Pitt a lift

Chris Beatty wants you to know what missing two games with a broken jaw has meant to Pitt senior wide receiver Maurice Ffrench.

He’ll even take you inside a Pitt team meeting to shed some light.

“The general public doesn’t see all the things that happen behind the scenes,” said Beatty, who is Ffrench’s position coach. “When they told him about the injury and weren’t sure what his diagnosis was, we’re sitting in here and he’s bawling.

“That’s hard, as a coach, to take, not knowing if he’s going to be able to come back for Senior Day or a bowl game.”

Coach Pat Narduzzi has taken a cautious approach to Ffrench’s unique injury, protecting him from his competitiveness.

“You don’t want to see his jaw sitting on the right side of his face,” the coach said.

Said Beatty: “Last week, he wanted to play. He got cleared on Friday, and he (said), ‘I think I can go.’ Nah, it doesn’t work that way.”

But Ffrench might return for the final home game of the season Saturday against Boston College. Without giving a guarantee, Beatty indicated Ffrench could play.

“We’re happy to have him back,” he said. “And it’s Senior Day, too. I’m just excited for him to be able to be back.”

If that means Ffrench will line up against Boston College, he will be a welcome sight to quarterback Kenny Pickett. The game offers Pitt an opportunity to rediscover its passing game, which has largely disappeared in three of the past four games. Pickett threw for an average of only 151 yards against Miami, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, winning one, losing two.

But Boston College has, statistically, the worst pass defense in the ACC, giving up an average of 297.5 yards. So Pickett needs to get closer to the 359 he totaled against North Carolina.

There were many contributors to Pitt’s 28-0 loss to Virginia Tech last Saturday — its worst performance of the season, by far — but dropped passes were near the top of the list.

“It was not the Pitt football team that I’m used to seeing,” Narduzzi said. “Offensively, didn’t play up to where we need to. Why? We just never got in rhythm. It’s happened a couple times this year.

“We dropped the first four passes, and nobody can catch fire. It’s hard as a play-caller when it’s three-and-out. You never get into a rhythm.”

Ffrench has been Pitt’s most reliable pass-catcher this season. Even while averaging only 8.1 yards per catch, he leads the team and the ACC with 75 receptions in only nine games (fifth-best total in Pitt history). Only Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals) and Tyler Boyd (Cincinnati Bengals), who lead their NFL teams in receptions, are ahead of Ffrench.

“We’re mixing and matching parts to try and make up for him,” Beatty said.

But there was more to Pitt’s inefficiency in the passing game against Virginia Tech. Pickett shares some of the blame, Narduzzi said.

“Sometimes, it’s accuracy. Sometimes, it’s trust. It’s a lot of things,” the coach said when asked to detail Pickett’s problems. “He got a little bit flustered, which I think anybody in this room would. When you turn the ball over (the Hokies returned a fumble for a touchdown), it’s hard. I don’t think he had a great series, the next series.”

“He missed Taysir (Mack) on a skinny post that could go. We had another route in the red zone that’s a touchdown. He had V’Lique (Carter) wide open over the middle, and he just didn’t see it.

“But it happens in every game. I’m watching a lot of tape now, and there’s a lot people who miss guys. We’re not the only quarterback in the country who’s not perfect, as well as the coaches.”

If passes fall incomplete and the ground game falters (3.5 yards per carry is last in the ACC), it equates to what happened last week. Overall, Pitt is averaging 20.2 points, worse than the 25.6 of last year (a season that got former offensive coordinator Shawn Watson fired).

Nothing works without a good offensive line, and Narduzzi said Pitt is making progress in that area, but he added, “Have we gotten as good as we want to get? I can’t tell you that. I’d be lying to you.”

After examining all the factors, it’s clear Pitt must throw the ball effectively to defeat the better teams — a reality that might surface in a bowl game.

“We’ve thrown it all year,” Narduzzi said. “That’s kind of been our bread and butter. We’ve had success doing it.

“But we certainly wanted to run it more (at Virginia Tech), especially with the weather conditions. You try to get the passing game to open up your run game, and that didn’t happen.”

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