Previewing the Pitt Offense

Wake Forest hosts Pitt on Saturday on Senior Day at BB&T Field. Pitt has a chance to clinch the ACC Coastal Division (yes this is reality). Pitt is 6-4 overall and 5-1 in the ACC.

All stats are courtesy of ESPN and pittsburghpanthers.com.

The Pitt offense is led by sophomore quarterback Kenny Pickett. Pickett is 128-213 (60.1%) passing on the season for 1379 yards 9 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. He averages 6.47 yards per attempt and has a QB rating of 123.7. Pickett is somewhat of a threat to run as he has 77 rushing attempts for 214 yards and 3 touchdowns. He averages 2.8 yards per carry.

The running game is led by senior Qadree Ollison who has 149 rushing attempts for 1054 yards and 10 touchdowns and an average of 7.1 yards per carry. Senior Darrin Hall has 96 attempts for 844 yards and 8 touchdowns and an average of 8.8 yards per carry. V’Lique Carter, Maurice Ffrench, and George Aston also have rushing touchdowns.

Ffrench is also the leading receiver with 21 catches for 377 yards and 5 touchdowns and averages 18 yards per catch. Taysir Mack has 16 receptions for 354 yards and averages 22.1 yards per reception. Rafael Araujo-Lopes has 22 catches for 217 yards and 3 touchdowns and averages 9.9 yards per catch. George Aston has the other receiving touchdown.

Sophomore kicker Alex Kessman is 34-36 on extra points on the year, and 9-12 on field goals. He is 4-4 from 50+ yards, and his season and career long is from 55 yards.

Pitt has wins over Albany (33-7), Georgia Tech (24-19), Syracuse (44-37 in overtime), Duke (54-45), Virginia (23-13), and Virginia Tech (52-22). They have lost to Penn State (51-6), North Carolina (38-35 in the Tar Heels’ lone win of the season), UCF (45-14), and Notre Dame (19-14).

The Panthers average 29.9 points per game, 31:15 of possession time per game, 396.3 offensive yards per game, 6.5 yards per play, 256.9 rushing yards per game, 6.5 rushing yards per attempt, 6.42 yards per passing attempt, 139.4 passing yards per game, 67.1 penalty yards per game, are 40.52% on 3rd down conversions, and 50% on 4th down conversions.

The Pitt rushing attack will be a handful for the Deacon defense.