Pitt Football Spring Practice: For now, Dontez Ford is Pitt's No. 2 receiver

With Tyler Boyd firmly entrenched as Pitt's go to guy at receiver, focus has remained on the receiver that will start opposite him. That's intensified ever since former four-star recruit Adonis Jennings and Ronald Jones left in the offseason, leaving Pitt with even less experience than the small amount they already had.

Dontez Ford is the name we've heard the most as a candidate to start with Boyd - that's despite the fact that he enters this season with three total catches in his Pitt career. On Wednesday, head coach Pat Narduzzi says that he's likely the guy ... for now. "[Dontez] Ford and Elijiah [Zeise] have done a great job," Narduzzi said. "Dontez is probably the number two guy at this point but there is still a lot of ball to play."

Seeing Zeise's name mentioned in the same breath is interesting, too. Zach Challingsworth and Chris Wuestner don't have a ton of game experience, but they are guys you might have expected to hear mentioned ahead of him. Zeise being indirectly mentioned as a contender there must mean he's really impressing.

But getting back to Ford, Narduzzi was clear that there's plenty of time to unseat him. There is, but Pitt simply doesn't have many other options. With the Jennings and Jones departures and graduations of Manasseh Garner and Kevin Weatherspoon, Ford's three catches actually top the list in terms of production from returning wide receivers behind only Boyd. Right now, he's kind of it by default. And, of course, the speculation of how much Pitt will utilize the tight ends because of the questions at wide receiver will be a topic all summer long.

It's not that there's not talent behind Boyd. It's just that there's not experienced talent right now and until the team figures out what it has with some of these guys, Ford is looking more and more like the choice.

And because of the lack of experience behind him, while it's a long way off, it's quite possible that he hangs on to that job until the season opener.

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