Pitt is off to its expected start in the 2024 season, and believe it or not, it’s actually helped the Panthers’ Football Power Index.
ESPN wasn’t very high on Pitt in the preseason, but after a Week 1 win, the Panthers have jumped nine spots in the FPI. It was just Kent State (the 134th and last team in the FPI), but the Panthers handled business.
Pitt has a 4.1 Football Power Index score, which is 44th-best in college football and eighth-best in the ACC. That’s a sizeable jump from preseason ratings.
The index now predicts Pitt will finish 7-5 this season (with a 77.4% chance to hit the 6-win mark, considering the weakness of the Panthers’ schedule), and if that mark isn’t hit, the season will be considered a failure.
Pitt has a 2.2% chance to win the ACC outright, a 0.7% chance to make the College Football Playoff and a 0% chance to make the national championship game.
There are no ACC schools in the top-10 of the FPI, but Miami did jump 12 spots to sit at 11 in the FPI and lead the conference.
Miami (15.5, 11th), Louisville (14.8, 13th), Florida State (12.1, 17th, until the results of Sunday night are processed), Clemson (9.6, 23rd) and SMU (8.4, 32nd) round out the top five. Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pitt, Cal and Virginia Tech are in the top-10.
Pitt is coming off a 55-24 season-opening win against Kent State, and with a strong debut, Eli Holstein has cemented himself as the starting quarterback entering Week 2 against Cincinnati. He ran the new up-tempo offense effectively, leading the Panthers to their most points since 2021. But there’s still work to be done.
The same can be said about a defensive performance that left Narduzzi wanting more — even with two forced turnovers, five sacks and 12 tackles for loss.
“Well, had a good day yesterday just reviewing the tape with the guys and just going over the good, the bad and the ugly, as you do every Sunday,” Narduzzi said Monday at There’s always good and bad and ugly. You have to go back and watch the videotape.
“A lot of self-inflicted wounds. I told our guys that the good thing is you saw adversity out there. After one series in the third quarter, it’s 28-21 and there’s adversity, which is always good to fight through that, but self-inflicted adversity. I talked about a couple of them last night. The momentum changes of games, the Desmond Reid punt return for a touchdown was a big momentum change for us. It’s like, okay, we’re going to knock them out, but then we let them come back in the game because of what we do. …
“But great meeting. A win is a win is a win. We’ll make corrections. They’re very coachable guys, and I like where they are attitude-wise right now, and we’ll move on to a good Cincinnati football team.”
A win against Cincinnati (-0.5, 70th) wouldn’t move the needle too much, but it would move the Panthers to 2-0 for the first time since 2021.
Where do they come up with this stuff?