Ludwig: Reasons to be Grateful for Pitt Football This Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving, a holiday that is traditionally for celebrating the harvest and blessings of the past year, but for most people, it’s a holiday for giving thanks to all the people who make life better.

It hasn’t been a season in which Pitt football has given anyone a reason to be especially thankful for it, not as it stares down the worst season of the Pat Narduzzi era, but Narduzzi himself could not be more thankful for the opportunity that he finds himself in.

“Being that it’s Thanksgiving week — Happy Thanksgiving to everybody out here,” Narduzzi said Monday his weekly news conference. “I can say this: I’m grateful and thankful for the guys in this room with the attitude that they have every day when they come to work, whether it’s after a win or after a loss.

“I feel blessed to get to coach these guys every day. The attitude, the persistence, going through adversity and these guys keep coming back for more. They try to get it right. The same thing with the coaches—they try to get it right, so I appreciate them.”

It’s Thanksgiving, there’s turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes to eat and family and friends to spend time with, so don’t spend too long here. But here are a couple of reasons to be thankful about Pitt football.

Pittsburgh Panthers quarterback Nate Yarnell (19) November 16, 2023 David Hague/PSN

One More Game

Don’t take it for granted. Maybe I’m just a sicko, but I’ve actually looked forward to every Saturday (and even the solitary Thursday) this season.

Obviously, it’s been a hard season. It hasn’t gone the way that anyone expected — or any fans wanted — when reflecting back to preseason expectations in August. But when July rolls around, and it’s been well over seven months since the last game and over two months until the next, the desire for Pitt football will be stronger than ever.

With just one more game this season, a noon kickoff against Duke in Durham, N.C. Saturday, Pitt isn’t playing for another but pride at this point.

Pitt will not play again until Aug. 31 of next year against Kent State, the first game of the 2024 season, and there’s no doubt that a lot will change between Thanksgiving 2023 and Aug. 31, 2024. But still, Duke is on the schedule to conclude the 2023 season.

It’s not the matchup that many expected it could be when the schedule was announced in January, a matchup between ACC dark horses that could’ve determined an ACC championship contender, but it is the final Pitt game of the year.

Nate Yarnell will get one last chance to show that he’s the starting quarterback of the future. Rodney Hammond Jr. will have one more chance to run wild in 2023, and that’s something that all Pitt fans should be excited for, and of course, the defense has one more chance to put in a strong performance.

It’s a forgettable season that, if it goes well this offseason, will be remembered for the changes it forced. But the final game of the 2023 season shouldn’t be forgotten. It’s the last chance for Pitt football for quite some time.

Pittsburgh Panthers defensive lineman Dayon Hayes (50) November 16, 2023 David Hague/PSN

Resurgence on the Outside of the Line

Dayon Hayes stood at the podium deep within the bowels of Acrisure Stadium with a grin on his face, happy with how his performance — one that earned ACC Defensive Lineman of the Week honors — led to a win.

And it almost seemed like his grin grew even deeper when he was asked if he had unfinished business at Pitt. “Yeah, I do,” he said. “I ain’t leaving yet.” Well… that seems to have settled that important question.

Hayes’ return is ideal. That’s the first step toward a resurgent season for the Pitt defensive ends in 2024. Hayes, no matter what anyone says, has been good in 2023. He doesn’t have the massive sack totals or the splash plays that stand out on film, but he’s always there. He’s always in the backfield.

His 39 pressures are tied for 24th, his 26 hurries are tied for 22nd and his nine quarterback hits are tied for ninth, and that’s in all of FBS football this season. His PRP — a formula used to combine sacks, hits and hurries relative to how many times a player rushes the passer — is tied for 12th. The underlying numbers are there.

For reference, when compared to Florida State superstar Jared Verse, Hayes has two fewer pressures, one more hurry and two less quarterback hits.

And that’s with games in which opposing quarterbacks have thrown 11 and nine passes. There hasn’t really been a game in which Pitt has been able to tee off on opposing quarterbacks this season as teams have run heavily against the Panthers.

Hayes is good, and he’ll be even better — as both Narduzzi and Charlie Partridge will attest — with another season in the system. And he’s not alone either.

Samuel Okunlola, who made his first career start opposite Hayes against Boston College, has made an impact with the snaps he’s received this season. He is tied for the team lead in sacks with five, adding one more against BC, and he’s added 17 tackles (nine solo), 5.5 tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a recovery.

And if there’s ever been a player who is just focused on playing football, it’s Okunlola. He’s business. And he’s very, very good. It’s rare that a true freshman sees the field on the Pitt defensive line — let alone makes a legitimate impact.

Jimmy Scott hasn’t made quite the same impact (seven tackles and a tackle for loss), but he’s seen his snap count rise in each of the last four weeks — from nine against Notre Dame to 12 against Florida State to 17 against Syracuse to 21 against Boston College. And he looks good. He looks like he belongs.

Okunlola (242 defensive snaps) and Scott (91 snaps) are the future of the defensive ends, and while Nahki Johnson (58 snaps) hasn’t made the impact many expected this season, his time should be coming. I mean, he was the most improved defender of the spring — talked about in sparkling tones.

Hayes, Okunlola, Scott and Johnson form a very, very promising trio, regardless of what Nate Temple and Bam Brima decide to do, and with an addition through the transfer portal, there’s no reason why the Pitt defensive ends shouldn’t return to massive numbers in 2024.

Don’t Worry About Portal Activity 

Alliance 412, the preferred NIL collective of Pitt athletics, as it calls itself, set a goal to raise $1,000,000 for Pitt athletics. And it likely is not a coincidence that the final day of the Million Dollar Mission aligns with the day that the transfer portal opens.

Pitt will need to be active in the transfer portal this season, likely far more than it was when it added seven players last offseason. The additions, looking back now, were up-and-down — additions that included Phil Jurkovec, Christian Veilleux, DaeDae Reynolds, Derrick Davis Jr., Malcolm Epps, Jackson Brown and Donovan McMillon.

But it’s clear that Alliance 412, and Pitt with Heather Lyke and Narduzzi working together, will do all that it can to bolster Pitt football in a way that gets the Panthers back to prominence.

It’s not as if this is a Pitt squad without talent, but that talent will certainly need to be retained with inner-squad recruiting to go along with high school and transfer portal recruiting. Pitt has talented players returning next season regardless of what the seniors with eligibility decide to do over the next dew weeks and months.

Pitt is sitting on a very solid 2024 recruiting class, one that should feature difference-makers offensively and defensively, but the priority this offseason will be to add from the transfer portal — players who are able to contribute immediately in 2024.

And with the efforts of Alliance 412, which has already brought NIL deals to every single scholarship player at Pitt, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Pitt’s transfer portal efforts are completely renewed this time around. And there are certainly a number of areas that would benefit from the addition of an impact transfer or two.