‘Prove It’: New Pitt Mantra Embodies Goal for 2024 Season

The first AP Poll of the 2024-25 college football season was released at noon, and Pitt was not one of the 25 teams included. The Panthers didn’t receive any votes either.

That tends to happen when a team goes 3-9 in the previous season.

Pat Narduzzi knows that there’s a lot to prove in the 2024 season, and that’s a sentiment shared by the entire team. That’s why the team motto this season is “Prove It.”

“There is (something to prove),” Narduzzi said before practice Friday. “I was talking to David Green late last night, just talking about where we were. And when you have a season like we did last year, it’s like you kind of start all over. It’s like, you prove it to all you guys, okay? I’ve gotta prove to all you guys that we’re for real. We were for real, and it was a one-year deal. I mean, I think that’s what it comes down to. And that’s kind of the attitude, and that’s the way it should be.”

How did the team motto, which was “We Not Me” last season, officially come about? Brainstorming. The team came up with the word prove. But Narduzzi said it wasn’t being used in the context of “Prove It” at first. Narduzzi was there to offer his support and kind of guide his team in the right direction. And “Prove It” was born.

Pitt has also used “Lock the Gates,” which came from former Miami (Oh.) and Northwestern head coach Randy Walker.

“Lock the gates is an old, old school,” Narduzzi said. “Randy Walker came up with that back when I was a GA, and I loved that. I always thought locking the gates was cool. I just thought that’s what you do. Go to your stadium, that opponent comes in there, as soon as they come through that door, you lock it real quick. Because you don’t want them to get scared and run out. And then we know what happens after that.”

The first chance to “Lock the Gates” comes on Aug. 31 against Kent State, as the Panthers kick off the season against the MAC foe. Pitt won all three of its games last season at home, but obviously, that isn’t good enough. There’s a collective embarrassment when it comes to last season, and the leaders who returned know it cannot happen again.

Narduzzi, who experienced his worst season as a head coach, returns for his 10th season. And despite the poor result, his love for the game has never been stronger.

“I think what brings coaches back, brings me back, because that’s the only one you asked about, is your love for the game,” Narduzzi said on Pitt Media Day last month. “We talked about it today in our team meeting, just about the team. There’s no greater sport than the game of football.

As coaches, I think we’re in this game because we like to compete. You can’t play anymore, so you get to coach, and to be able to bring this group together every year and produce, try to get them to gel on offense, defense, special teams and try to put the best product on the field, that’s what you do it for. It’s a competition. It’s a challenge. It’s fun. You embrace the new stuff that we have out there, whatever it is for a head coach, whether it’s the House and all the different things that have happened, there’s still a lot of unknowns. It’s fun. This is the best time of the year.”

The “Prove It” slogan is painted on the sidewalk outside the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, so every time a player, coach or staffer steps outside, it’s visible. The goal is to prove that last season doesn’t define the Pitt Panthers.