Pitt has a big opportunity waiting at Nippert Stadium this afternoon, and it comes against a familiar opponent.
Pitt will be back on ESPN in Week 2, moving to national television this time with ESPN2 carrying the Pitt-Cincinnati matchup — unless you have DirecTV. Roy Philpott will handle play-by-play duties, former NFL linebacker Sam Acho will serve as his analyst and Taylor Davis will report from the sideline.
Bill Hillgrove — in his 51st season as the voice of the Pitt Panthers — will handle play-by-play duties on 93.7 the Fan and the Pitt Radio Network, with Pat Bostick serving as his analyst and Larry Richert and Dorin Dickerson reporting from the field at Nippert Stadium.
“Scott Satterfield has been there for his second year,” Pat Narduzzi said Monday at his weekly presser. “We’ve faced him when he was at Louisville, and he’s a heck of a coach. He’s probably the play caller on offense. I think he does an outstanding job, as good as anybody is going to do, of mixing up personnel in different formations and motions. Heavy, heavy motion team, as well, so we’ll work again a lot on motions and what we’re going to see there.”
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.”
Cincinnati is coming off a 38-20 season-opening win against Towson, and like Pitt, the Bearcats are looking to bounceback from a 3-9 season in 2023.
Television — ESPN2
Roy Philpott (play-by-play)
Sam Acho (analyst)
Taylor Davis (reporter)
Radio — 93.7 The Fan, Pitt Panthers Radio Network
Bill Hillgrove (play-by-play)
Pat Bostick (analyst)
Larry Richert and Dorin Dickerson (reporters)
SiriusXM Satellite Radio
Channels 162 or 194 or on the SiriusXM app
WPTS Radio (Pitt Student Station) — 92.1 FM
IF YOU GET YOUR ESPN2 ON DIRECT TV You won’t be watching the game. Disney and Direct are in a contract dispute.
it’s almost laughable. wasn’t there an issue last season with comcast not carrying ACCN?