Pickett, Ffrench lead Pitt to hot summer win, 33-7 over Albany

It was a warm-up game that so was so warm, well it was a scorcher on the field. Some say over 90 degrees at times.

It didn’t effect the machine-like, first-half precision of Pitt’s sophomore QB Kenny Pickett, though, who threw for 154 yards on 16 for 22 passing, 2 TDs and 1 INT. Yet, it yielded the desired result. Pitt dismantled under-manned Albany 33-7 in front of an announced crowd of 34,486 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.

It all started when Albany kicked off. That’s when Pitt’s junior WR from New Brunswick, NJ Maurice Ffrench decided to return the rock 91 yards to paydirt on the opening kick. Pitt led 7-0.

Albany countered with Sr QB Vincent Testaverde, son of NJ Jets QB Vinny Testaverde, finding a wide-open Jerah Reeves for 37 yards to the Pitt 43. Testaverde then found true freshman WR from Troy, NY Dev Holmes for 17 yards to the Pitt 31. Pitt’s safeties once again appeared out of position mainly because Pitt was playing in a base defense against a spread offense.

Newark, NJ’s RB Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks ran for 6 yards and the Great Danes eventually got down to the Pitt 19. This led to Testaverde throwing a ball up for grabs that was eventually plucked out of the air by free safety junior Damar Hamlin who returned it 79 yds to the Albany 19 yard line.

Pitt would take back over on offense and senior tailback Qadree Ollison took 2 successive handoffs for 8 and 6 yards to the Albany 5 yard line. Pickett then decided to take a QB keeper for 5 yards. Pitt redshirt sophomore PK Alex Kessman missed the PAT. Pitt led 13-0. Ollison, by the way, would finish the day with 7 carries for 73 yards and led the Panthers rushing attack.

Albany then went 3 and out on its next series and turned the ball back over to Pickett and the Panthers.

First, he rolled out on a beautiful spin move to avoid a Great Danes blitzer to find newly acquired, Indiana-transfer and redshirt sophomore WR Taysir Mack for 6 yards.

Pitt Sr tailback Darrin Hall got some work in and pounded the rock 4 yards for the Pitt first down at the Pitt 35.

Pickett then finally connected with Tre Tipton for 8 yards to the Pitt 43. Tipton hadn’t appeared in a game since 2016 after sitting out last year with a knee injury. Perhaps the game’s alternate star, Maurice Ffrench then ran it for 8 yards to the Albany 49.

Pickett found Mack again for 12 yards to the Albany 37 before he connected with Pitt redshirt Sr WR Rafael Araujo-Lopes for 5 yards to the Albany 32.

After Pickett completed a small curl route to sophomore TE Tyler Sear for 3 yards, RB Qadree Ollison burst for 20 yards to the Albany 9 yard line. Ffrench then salted the drive with a jet-sweep 9 yard TD run. The two-point conversion failed. Pitt 19 Albany 0.

Albany wasn’t done however. They used the ensuing drive to get back in the game.

Testaverde scorched the misaligned Pitt secondary once again with yet another strike to Holmes for 40 yards to the Pitt 35. After a small 2 yard gain, Testaverde then threw a small screen to Ibitokun-Hanks who ran it basically untouched for 28 yards to the Pitt 5.

After a number of stops, Testaverde capped the TD drive by finding Holmes for 9 yards in the endzone, with Hamlin covering closely. Holmes would finish the day with 9 grabs for 148 yards and 1 TD. Not bad for a true freshman out of Troy, NY playing his first college game ever. Pitt 19 Albany 7.

Pickett, though, went right back to work for Pitt on the next possession.

First, Hall had runs for 4 and 2 yards before Pickett completed a nice 3rd down pass to Mack for 26 yards to the Albany. He then found Pickett true freshman WR from Ft. Lauderdale, FL Shocky Jacques-Louis for 3 yards to the Albany 41.

Then, Pickett tossed it to Ffrench for 4 yards and Sr fullback George Aston, playing his first game since 2016, for 6 yards to the Albany 31. Aston sat out last season with an ankle injury.

This led Pitt to getting the ball to its third most lethal tailback, sophomore A.J. Davis. He would pound the rock for 14 and 6 yards to the Albany 11. Ollison tacked on runs of 7 and 4 yards which was sandwiched by a Pickett QB keeper of 2 yards.

Finally, from the Albany 3 yard line on 3rd and goal, Pickett tossed a corner fade to Araujo-Lopes for the TD score. It looked as though Araujo-Lopes may have bobbled the ball out of bounds but since Albany Head Coach and former Pitt DL Coach Greg Gattuso couldn’t replay the call because he had already burned all 3 of his timeouts. Pitt 26 Albany 7.

After forcing Albany to punt, Pitt went right back to its running game.

Davis ran it for 2 and 3 yards before Pickett found seldom used Sr WR Aaron Mathews for 9 yards to the Pitt 19. Araujo-Lopes then ran it 12 yards on the jet sweep to the Pitt 31 before Pickett tossed a small screen Aston for 2 yards.

This would set up Davis for runs of 9 and 8 yards to the 50 yard line.

Pickett would cap the drive by running it for 8 yards to the Albany 42 before tossing a badly beaten Albany secondary to Araujo-Lopes for the 42 yard curl route TD. It would end the game and first-half scoring. Pitt 33 Albany 7.

Neither team would score in the second half and although Pitt Head Coach Pat Narduzzi kept Pickett in the game, which was nearly disastrous as came up limping in mop-up duty in the 3rd quarter. It turned out to only be a cramp.

Next up: Penn State at Pitt, 8pm Sat 9/8 on ABC National TV.

Penn State leads the all-time series with Pitt, 51-43 with 4 ties.