Pitt may have dropped a handful of spots in the AP and Coaches Polls following a loss to No. 13 SMU, but the College Football Playoff Selection Committee clearly views the Panthers favorably.
Pitt checked in at No. 18 in the first College Football Playoff Poll of the season, the third highest-ranked team in the ACC — behind No. 4 Miami and No. 13 SMU. Louisville (22) and Clemson (23) are also ranked.
Pitt is ranked 23rd in both the AP and Coaches Polls.
Despite the loss to SMU, a 48-25 drubbing in Dallas, Texas, Pitt is still a one-loss squad that has largely handled its business. The Panthers need some help in the ACC to reach the conference title game but with games against Clemson and Louisville on the schedule, there’s an opportunity to win and impress.
Virginia is up next for the Panthers.
It’s a bounce-back opportunity for the Panthers, following the first loss of the season — in devastating fashion. A loss is one thing, and the season certainly isn’t over, but SMU beat the brakes off the Panthers. It wasn’t close.
If Pitt is truly rebound this season, with four games remaining on the schedule, it will start against Virginia.
Virginia is 4-4 (2-3 ACC), and the Cavaliers have lost three straight games — 24-20 against Louisville, 48-31 against Clemson and 41-14 against North Carolina. UVA is one of the weaker teams in the conference, but it’s still a game that Pitt needs to win. It’s just the next game for Pat Narduzzi.
“The message is it’s one game,” Narduzzi said Saturday night. “And like I kind of started off at the beginning, it’s hard to win every week. It’s hard to be on every week. And maybe as a team and a staff, we didn’t handle success. I always say the hardest thing is to handle success. Our guys will handle adversity, and this is adversity, and our guys will bounce back.
“You could see it in the locker room, they’re not discouraged. I told them I loved them, and I love them as much or more as game 1 or game 7, and we win as a team and we lose as a team.”
Kickoff against Virginia is set for 8 p.m. at Acrisure Stadium, and there are two ranked matchups left this season against Clemson and Louisville.
