It would be hard for Pitt to have started the season any worse than it already has, barring a loss to 0-4 Wofford, but a second half meltdown against No. 17 North Carolina has Pitt standing at the bottom of a steep cliff.
It’s a long, difficult climb — one that has already taken a hit by dropping to 0-1 in the ACC early — to the top, but Pat Narduzzi believes in his squad. And it’s good that he does because it won’t come externally.
“There’s no quit in that locker room,” Narduzzi said late Saturday night. “Let me just tell you. They’re upset. We’ll fix stuff, and we’re going to come back. I told them and I think I told maybe the media on Thursday that the team —
“The two teams that will be in the championship game at the end of the year will have one loss, guaranteed. There’s too much parity in this conference, and there’s going to be two teams with one loss I think in the division or in the conference.
“So, everything we’ll do is still ahead of us. That’s a good football team, and we’ll be back and go down to Virginia Tech and get it done.”
Pitt is 1-3, with a loss in the Backyard Brawl, a failed chance to earn some conference respect against a Big 12 foe and now a thorough beating from one of the teams that Narduzzi expects Pitt to compete against in the future.
The road, while there will be matchups against Virginia Tech and Boston College, also features ranked opponents in Notre Dame, Florida State and Duke.
It won’t get any easier, and there are even more questions to be answered now than when Pitt kicked off the season against Wofford earlier this month. It feels like that opener was months ago already.
Phil Jurkovec was knocked out of the UNC game with an undisclosed injury after taking a high, hard hit, but Narduzzi said that Jurkovec is not in concussion protocol. The offensive line remains a revolving door, with Matt Goncalves and Jake Kradel missing the UNC game, and the offensive focus as a whole is still mystifying.
The Pitt defense struggled to find an answer for UNC’s Drake Maye, although it’s hardly the first, as the Heisman hopeful completed 22-of-30 pass attempts for 296 yards and a touchdown — adding two more touchdowns on the ground. If Maye wanted to make a pass, he tended to make it without much resistance.
And maybe worst of all, Pitt was just undisciplined and sloppy. 11 penalties, many of which were unforced and directly helped UNC continue drives, and a number of mental lapses. Narduzzi praised his team’s heart after the game, but as the fourth quarter wore on, it looked more and more like Pitt was just going through the motions. It felt lifeless.
And that isn’t just the players. That’s the coaches, too. Especially Narduzzi.
If there truly was one bright spot Saturday night, amidst the cloud cover and dreary rain, it was the Panther Pitt showing out once again despite the conditions. And Narduzzi praised the student body for its continued support this season.
“I thought the Panther Pitt, that was an electric atmosphere,” Narduzzi said. “Our fans did an unbelievable job again.
“I can’t tell you how much we appreciate all the fans out there, and that Panther Pitt was loud. They’re unbelievable. They do a great job. I wish we would have got this win. I feel bad for them, but we will be back.”
Pitt will not be back in action in Pittsburgh until an Oct. 14 showdown against Louisville. And if Narduzzi wants to show out in front of the Panther Pitt this season, and make any kind of noise in the ACC, every phase will need to be much, much better.
With Cignetti at OC, we can put Mahomes or Josh Allen in at qb and we would still look terrible.
He’s terrible and not well liked
Unliked by whom?
The whole team
When. will pitt be back is the question. Certainly not this year, and with the QB and depth situation next will be bad also, especially with other ACC teams on the up. Sometimes coaches need to go just for a new perspective. Players have tuned out Duzz and his word salad. You could see it last night. Not sure what else needs to be seen by Lyke, but when the decommits start coming it will be really ugly
downvote all you want but mark down the decommits. Dugger will get a ton of offers, and some others will be looking
5 sacks and Maye’s still picking apart our secondary. Who can stop this kid? Mack was plain stupid to leave him in so long.
We went down fighting. We just have to stop throwing the other team’s secondary open.
Loved Johnson’s return.
Sure, we are playing Virginia Tech next – c’mon, coach!
“We’ll fix stuff”
When?
Your team looks lost and you have no leadership.
Your QBs and WRs are a disaster and your leading tackler continues to be a DB.
This guy is a loudmouth that can’t back it up.
This is the worst Pitt team since the last time we had Cignetti as OC.
Exactly right!
All the hype about the recruiting is B.S. shame on the coaching staff and this site for pushing propaganda instead of honesty
Exactly. They must play really good against each other in practice.🤣
Our Players are better than any team we faced this year except at qb position.
Our issue is 90% offensive coaching.
the goodwill with Tiquan should be over. Can he recruit? Maybe, but he certainly can’t coach. WR are awful, they drop too many passes and don’t get open or fight for contested 50/50 balls.
The players are not playing as a team as a brotherhood there all for them selfs clowning around handshakes and talking trash on first down plays by the opposing team. It’s terrible, it’s a very disciplined team and it starts with the coach’s. A bunch of clowns acting and not playing the game. I think there where 2 to 3 penalties just for acting like clowns. And I say it again it starts with coaching guaranteed this will not be tolerated at UNC
True. The sloppy mistakes are mostly on offense and on punt coverage.
Solve the biggest problem first by hiring Cignetti now. Then split special teams coaching and assign punt coverage to another coach.
It’s not just the record…..no qb’s, oline is a sieve…wr room is garbage….no studs on defense….and Narduzzi’s clock management is a joke
It hit me last week when they showed Cignetti walking around WVU stadium taking pics before the game that This is the second time Pitt is paying this loser clown to sabotage us. He’s a weirdo WVU lover at heart and really relishes Pitts struggles.
I just feel we shouldn’t get too excited at this point..But frank is a poor OC in this world of college football today he’s out of touch… but don’t glorify your players whenever they’re really not that good you bring your fan base down! they’re expecting more than what is really there
Cig is terrible, we all agree but the blame is on Duzz. What made him bring this dinosaur back? Duzz just plays with the defense and the offense is left alone to a bunch of buffoons.
I feel much better about Phil Jurkovec’s play after this game. He really put it all on the line fighting for first downs and his passing was better too. That UNC thug put him out of the game against his will. You could see that. He would have continued playing if allowed
Phil tries. But he is slow and can’t throw a spiral.
This Team will beat FSU or Notre Dame and finish 5-7. They have a good bit of fight in them. Hopefully they keep fighting on and understand keep with the grind.
It seems every time we get that head referee we get hosed.
You can’t be serious we be lucky to get 3 win this year.
They’ll get to 5
You want to bet on that lol
He promised …
I’ll take the over on 5 1/2.
Well I feel much better now since you promised
I bet you will be back with VT coming up lets see if you be back against Louisville. These dudes are so corny just like how the players act. I don’t know how you guys continue to fall for the okey-doke. Bottom line, you have Kenny to save you now you got to coach and they are showing us in plain sight what type of coach’s they are. they are sorry.