Pitt has had two full bye weeks following a 73-17 win against Youngstown State on Sept. 21.
Pitt had a bye after the win, returned to beat North Carolina on the road on Oct. 5 and Cal at home on Oct. 12 and then entered another bye. And with a win against Syracuse on Oct. 24, a Thursday night, the Panthers had a mini-bye before flying to Dallas, Texas for the biggest game of the season against then-No. 20 SMU.
So, that’s just a handful of games of the last month and a half with plenty of time to game plan, which was successful against Syracuse. But the mini-bye didn’t help much against SMU.
Pitt didn’t show up against SMU, falling behind 7-0 early in the first quarter and failing to recover. The Panthers were sloppy, on the field and the sideline. SMU took advantage of some poor play from the Panthers. Despite the extra time to prepare for a matchup with conference and national implications, the Panthers failed to improve. It was a step back.
“It starts with me,” Pat Narduzzi said after the game. “I obviously didn’t have our football team ready to go today. We didn’t execute like we have, lot of missed tackles on defense, we gave up too many explosives. And again, it starts with me and ends with me. I’ll take full responsibility for the loss.
“Apologize to our fans out there, I know we all expected to get it done, it’s hard to win every week. It’s harder on the road, and when you don’t play great, and you don’t coach great, this is what happens.”
Pitt started slow, was outmatched (players and coaches) and lost. It’s pretty simple. SMU was the better football team. And now it’s on the Panthers to clean up the mistakes offensively, defensively and on special teams, starting this week in practice, and get back to the play that led to a 7-0 start for the first time since 1982.
“We just have to prepare better throughout the week, have better practice habits,” Brandon George said after the game. “They just executed better than us tonight.”
The execution, or lack thereof, is one thing. There isn’t a perfect team and mistakes will happen. But it was a surprise that Pitt looked thoroughly unprepared for such an important opportunity. The Panthers had a chance to take a big step toward a berth in the ACC championship game and failed miserably.
The season isn’t over, far from it, but Pitt will need help in that pursuit. And the Panthers will need to get back to the drawing board, as George said. Four games are left, and there Panthers cannot afford to be unprepared again if they want to achieve their goals.
“I need to go into practice with a better mindset, I need to make sure the guys are on the same page, guys are executing well,” George said. “That goes for everybody with a C on their chest, and we need to make sure everything is in tip-top shape. I think we allowed too much stuff to slip. God has a funny way of humbling everybody, so now we know what’s going on.”
George, and his fellow captains Gavin Bartholomew and Konata Mumpfield, know what’s at stake.
There aren’t any more bye weeks this season. It’s four games in four weeks, and if those games go well, possibly another before bowl season. Pitt might be exceeding expectations, but the players themselves won’t be happy with just making it to a bowl game. There are expectations, that began in offseason practices, to achieve more.
Preparation is key, and Narduzzi said it starts with the coaching staff. He knows the coaches need to give the players the right looks in practice. But it’s on the team as a whole to prepare the right way the next four weeks and execute on the field.
“A loss like this is never fun, but one loss does not define us,” Gavin Bartholomew said after the game. “I know the team, I know the team is going to bounce back and we’re excited for next week.”
Pitt is back in action against Virginia this weekend at Acrisure Stadium, with an 8 p.m. kickoff. Week 1 of a new four week season.
