There’s no beating around the bush here. The 2023 Pitt football season was a complete disaster. That’s not an exaggeration. It’s something that every player and coach in the Pitt facility will own up to.
When the final seconds ticked off the clock against Duke, everyone associated with Pitt football immediately flipped the page on the 2023 season, put it in the rear-view mirror and turned 100% of focus to the 2024 season and making sure that sort of season doesn’t happen again anytime soon.
No games have been played yet, obviously, but it’s difficult not to be excited about how the offseason has unfolded so far. Pat Narduzzi was heavily criticized for many things this season and rightly so, but to his credit, in just a few weeks, the Pitt roster looks remarkably better than the one fielded last year.
Many, including myself, thought this Pitt program was heading for tough times this offseason. First of all, I anticipated that the roster would be adversely impacted by the Transfer Portal and the class of 2024 could be gutted after a poor 3-9 record this past season.
Boy, was I wrong? Pitt is having one of their best offseasons in some time.
Let’s start with the Transfer Portal. Credit Narduzzi and his entire coaching staff for keeping things together and not letting negative vibes creep into the program. Not to discredit any of the other transfers but in reality, the only major loss that Pitt suffered was Samuel Okunlola, whose loss has been negated by the portal additions over the last week.
Alliance 412 deserves its flowers so far this offseason. It’s crucial to have a strong, active NIL collective these days, in order to protect the current roster and add from the portal, and Alliance 412 has done both. Players like Gavin Bartholomew, Kenny Johnson, Ryan Baer, Branson Taylor, Jordan Bass, Dayon Hayes, Solomon DeShields and Rodney Hammond Jr. will remain Panthers for the 2024 season despite outside interest. That’s a lot of talent Pitt was able to keep in their South Side facility.
Great job by John Pelusi, Rich Maniskas, Michael Neuman, Scott Hanawalt, Chris Valasek and the entirety of Alliance 412. Those men are vital to Pitt’s future. This isn’t to say that there won’t be another situation like Jordan Addison’s, though. It’s going to happen to Pitt and every team in the country. But for at least this offseason, Alliance 412 was able to keep things together.
Pitt was not only just able to keep things together, the coaches made this roster a whole lot better with the additions of former four-star Clemson DE transfer David Ojiegbe, former four-star Indiana DT transfer Nick James, productive Kansas State DE transfer Nate Matlack, along with WR C.J. Lee, RB Desmond Reid, CB Taynum Lynum, TE Jake Overman, all who are expected to have a role in 2024.
And the working in keeping the class of 2024 together was just as impressive by the coaching staff.
In today’s climate of NIL opportunities and transfer portal madness, it’s never been harder for all teams to recruit. Although they had to fight their butt off, Pitt was able to keep just about its entire class of 2024. The lone defection coming from New Jersey four-star running back Yasin Willis.
The two biggest wins were fighting off major Power Five programs throughout the year — especially over the last couple of days to keep both four-star defensive tackles Jahsear Whittington and Francis Brewu.
Whittington committed to Pitt back in April of 2022 and was the first member of Pitt’s class of 2024. The Philadelphia native joined Pitt during his junior season, and I remember hearing all the takes. ‘Why would Pitt take a commitment that early?’ You know, because there was no way that he would remain committed until December of 2023.
Well, not only did Whittington remain loyal to Pitt, but he was the backbone of the recruiting class.
Brewu took an official visit to Michigan State over the weekend, and many penciled him in as a de-commit, but thanks to the relationships he created at Pitt, particularly with Charlie Partridge, Brewu rewarded Pitt with a commitment.
Despite losing Okunlola, the offseason additions of Whittington, Brewu, Ojiegbe, James, Matlack and Sincere Edwards, when combined with holdovers like Hayes, Nakhi Johnson, Isaiah Neal, Sean FitzSimmons and Jimmy Scott, give Pitt a high-upside defensive line unit in 2024.
While it wasn’t nearly as publicized, Narduzzi and the Pitt coaching staff no doubt had to work to keep top recruits such as Cam Lindsey, Caleb Holmes, Sincere Edwards and Jeremiah Marcelin in this class — with Marcelin coming down to the wire on Signing Day.
To me, it’s amazing how the perception of this Pitt team has changed over the last month. Following the Duke game, everyone wanted Narduzzi fired and felt as though the program was a dumpster fire. Now, thanks to a lot of hard work by a lot of people, Pitt is trending upward and thanks to these additions and what appears to be a friendly schedule, 2024 is truly looking like a chance to rebound.
If I’m grading Pitt’s offseason in terms of portal additions, the class of 2024 and the hiring of offensive coordinator Kade Bell, I’d have to give Narduzzi and Pitt a B+. And it’s certainly not over yet either.
Thanks, Mike for your very fine overview of the Pitt offseason to date. There is a lot to be optimistic about, and if Coach Bell et al can get the Pitt offense rolling, 2024 could be a fun and successful year. Best wishes to all of the young men who have transferred in and to today’s 2024 signees!! Hail to Pitt!
I think the people who wanted Narduzzi gone were being reactionary. He’s earned the chance to right the ship after one (very) bad season, and with the length of his contract, it would have been prohibitively expensive to fire him at this point, anyway.
As far as this offseason goes, they still need a punter and maybe a linebacker or two, so the portal work isn’t done yet.
We definitely need a punter. Linebacker looks good.
The staff did do an excellent job in attaining a very good recruiting class. The article didn’t mention the loss of DeAndre Jules, who went to South Carolina. Hopefully, at least one of our guys can dominate the middle of the D- line, and blow up the backfield. Hopefully we will have a linebacker that will stuff runs in the A and B gaps. Basically, we need two players that can maintain the standards set by Sirvosea and Kalijah.
Not so fast my friend . . . I’ll give out praise once we see if Bell is allowed to have his own offensive assistants to coach his modern offense.
On paper this signing class looks good, but still incomplete. I would have hoped for a higher-profile QB (yes, I know KP arrived under little fanfare) and they should have (unless I missed it somewhere) gotten a punter from the portal.
Not displeased, but let’s wait till they hit the practice field to see how it plays out.
H2P.
Yes, in order to make this all matter, Pitt must land a top-notch QB — or perhaps Yarnell is the answer. I wouldn’t doubt it after watching him play under mostly very tough conditions and with a horrible OC at the helm.