The talk of the Pitt football 2024 season being over is very much premature as we found out last night that they’re much alive and kicking.
Much of the talk following their disappointing 48-25 loss to SMU was that the pollsters would bury them in the rankings and recovering would be too difficult.
Tuesday night, Pat Narduzzi and his program received some surprising yet encouraging news when the College Football Playoff Selection Committee released their first rankings of the season.
Despite dropping to No. 23 in both the AP and Coaches Poll, the playoff committee saw things differently and placed Pitt at No. 18.
I’ll be honest, that completely surprised me as Pitt rarely gets the benefit of the doubt with the national media, but they did with this No. 18 ranking. With this initial ranking, the Panthers find themselves as the third highest-ranked team in the ACC — behind No. 4 Miami and No. 13 SMU and ahead of No. 22 Louisville and No. 23 Clemson.
I’m not saying that it isn’t deserved just that this committee actually did their job and looked at Pitt’s solid resume and ignored certain conferences and helmets.
What’s this all mean?
Most importantly, it means that everything that Pitt wants to accomplish is clearly ahead of them and it’s all within their reach. As the saying goes, they control their own destiny. Is it an easy path? No, but trying to achieve something special never is but Pitt has a chance.
Currently sitting with a 7-1 record and ranked No. 18, the mission is clear- finish the season on a four-game winning streak by beating Virginia, Clemson, Louisville and Boston College. If Pitt is able to do that, they’ll finish the regular season with a record of 11-1 and ranked No. 12 or better.
Barring some sort of craziness, an 11-1 record would get Pitt in the first 12-team College Football Playoff.
To be honest, at the start of this season who realistically thought that we’d be even bringing up the topic of Pitt possibly being in the CFP?
My guess would be no one but that’s why they play the games and that’s where we currently stand on Nov. 6.
Regardless of whether that materializes, don’t underestimate the value of Pitt being placed in these rankings and their program being discussed by the national media. Wanna know an easy way to help out long-term recruiting, that’s it.
The value of playing games on television where high school recruits will see No. 18 Pitt or hear guys on ESPN or elsewhere, discussing Pitt’s possible path to make the playoffs is priceless.
If Pitt is able to beat Virginia this Saturday, guess what? That’ll be another week of the Pitt football program being ranked nationally and in the playoff discussion.
I’m going to sound like a coach now but it’s true. The mission for now is to have tunnel vision, block out the outside noise, stay off social media, forget about next week’s huge matchup against Clemson, don’t think about the playoffs and find a way to finish the Virginia game with a win.
Sounds easy but it won’t be and that’s where the coaches and leaders on this team will be big.
It also wouldn’t hurt Pitt’s cause to come out onto the field on Saturday to a nice crowd at Acrisure Stadium. As we all know, Pittsburgh loves a winner and to everyone’s surprise, the Steelers aren’t the only team having a special season.
Barring an end-of-the-season collapse, this will be a great season for Pitt, bouncing back from a 3-win 2023 season. The question now is how great? We’ll start to find out the answer to that this Saturday.
Yes—-“I’m going to sound like a coach now but it’s true. The mission for now is to have tunnel vision, block out the outside noise, stay off social media, forget about next week’s huge matchup against Clemson, don’t think about the playoffs and find a way to finish the Virginia game with a win.”