This has been a crazy and unpredictable 2024 college football season.
With the creation of a new 12-team playoff system, it was supposed to be easier for blue bloods to have a chance to win the National Championship year in and year out. Now, with the season winding down, who would’ve predicted that talented programs such as Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, USC, LSU, Michigan, will likely not be in the field.
On the flip side, surprise teams like Indiana, SMU, Arizona State and Iowa State could be competing for the national championship.
And then there’s the Pitt Panthers.
Coming off of a 3-9 season, Pitt entered 2024 with no expectations from anyone outside of their football program.
But then things changed.
The team started 7-0 and found themselves ranked in a good spot in the college football playoff rankings.
With all of this surprise success, the expectations for Pitt completely changed and now things such as the ACC Championship and the College Football Playoffs were being mentioned as possibilities.
But then something happened that no one saw coming. After starting off 7-0, Pitt has now lost four consecutive games, the latest being yesterday’s no-show at Louisville.
Man, you talk about a reversal in team fortunes.
Going from all the excitement around new offensive coordinator Kade Bell and freshman quarterback Eli Holstein… to this.
It’s no doubt a tough pill to swallow, but if you’re being completely objective, is it really a surprise?
Let’s be honest, in many people’s eyes, Pitt was fortunate to even beat West Virginia, Cincinnati and California. If a couple of those games go the other way, many fans wouldn’t be feeling as bad as they do know and wouldn’t have the opinion that this team is underperforming.
However, expectations and hope come with winning and both of those were extremely high heading into the SMU game.
It wasn’t any surprise that the Panthers lost the games to both SMU and Louisville, but the concerning part was the fact that they were never in either game. That was very surprising considering what they were playing for in the SMU game and to follow the Clemson game, in which they played well, with what we saw yesterday was stunning.
The biggest question that needs to be answered by Pat Narduzzi and his coaches is what’s happened to this team since the 7-0 start?
No question, most of the blame will surely fall in the hands of Kade Bell and the offense. After coming out and almost scoring at will, the offense hit a speed bump in the California game and has never really recovered.
While there’s specific areas that can be brought up, the offensive line has hampered this team and has negatively impacted the play calling and the overall performance of its playmakers.
This is not to excuse Bell or the drops by wide receivers, but the reality is that a poor/inconsistent offensive line impacts play calling and the performances of your skill position players.
That is certainly been the case with Pitt.
No one realized how important Branson Taylor was until he left the California game with a season-ending injury. This team has never been the same.
The line wasn’t great to begin with, but Eli Holstein’s mobility covered up some of their problems. However, as the injuries mounted, Holstein continued to take hit after hit, and it eventually caught up with him. That’s continued with Nate Yarnell and the beating that he took last week against Clemson was brutal and forced him to miss practice for the entire week.
I’ve been open in my criticism of Bell’s recent play calling, but when your system is predicated on passing and you can’t protect your quarterback, that impacts what you can call and do. I’d like to see them run more but the reality is that maybe he isn’t doing it because the line isn’t capable of run blocking.
Last offseason, Pitt’s top priority was to find themselves a ‘franchise’ quarterback and regardless of the results the last four weeks, I still believe they have one in Holstein. Instead of being negative, I hope fans can keep in mind that he is still a freshman, and the ineffectiveness is in large part due to what seen from this offensive line.
Give this kid a line that can protect him and the results will likely be more of what we saw at the start of the season as opposed to the last month.
With all of that being said, the offensive priority for Pitt is pretty simple but it won’t be easy.
They need to scour the transfer portal for veteran lineman that will allow this offensive to operate at full capacity. The coaching staff and the NIL team need to be able to bring in an offensive tackle and at least one, possibly two offensive guards.
As I said, it won’t be easy but that is priority No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3.
Not far behind that is to find a way to keep core pieces such as Kyle Louis, Rasheem Biles and Desmond Reid along with adding another playmaker on offense and a dominant defensive lineman. The d-line has talent but it’s young and needs someone that can impact the game.
While the 2024 season isn’t going to end like many people had hoped following the great start, it’s not been a complete loss and that can’t be forgotten.
If the Pitt staff can address some of the obvious needs maybe this team can finish what they started to build this season until a lack of depth took over.
First injury came to Eli when Pitt was up 30 plus points with around 8 minutes or less to play and the play call a QB keeper leading to the head injury.
Why risk the franchise QB at that point and with that play call? Not suggesting a connection, but he was not the same QB after that first injury.
Cannot get one yard for a TD or first down why not use Bart like many other successful teams use Tight Ends in that situation?
Just saying…….
Excellent point. Same thing happened to Slovis two years ago when nard left him in unprotected against Tenn with 18 seconds left and no timeouts. Stupid coaching. Stop blaming Bell, it’s Nard. The loss against a bad Virginia team AT HOME should be enough to put Nardu on the hot seat
Yikes.
So why no mention of the defense and the terrible secondary that cannot play man or simply tackle?
This team is undisciplined and always blown out when unprepared.
Flags are a hallmark of any Narduzzi team.
In no planet or world should Pitt consider itself fortunate to beat WVU, Cal and Cincinnati. They should absolutely beat those teams every year.
Mike One other thing–You always defend Nard but the reality is that it’s 10 years in, what are they doing?? They should have depth at the OL to hold it together
I wasn’t sold on this team at 7-0 and thought Holstein was way over-hyped. Narduzzi’s D is just what it is…always susceptible to big plays and giving up late 4th quarter game winning TDs. I am not buying what you are saying Vuk!
Branson stunk last year and stunk this year. I can’t believe you wrote that he would’ve made a difference. The fact is Pitt has failed to recruit offensive lineman and skilled positions on offense since Narduzzi was hired. There is nothing homegrown that we recruited doing well on offense. That comes down to the poor assistant coach hires and the lack of money to pay players. Starts at the top and Narduzzi and this administration is to blame.
Pitt recruits bottom feeder power 4 level players just look at the offer sheets sad part most of the recruits we get we’re beating group of 5 schools of d1AA schools that’s not how you run a championship program that’s how you run a mediocre program at best. Pitt was really about 4 or 5 win team on talent they lucked out a couple times to steal games they should’ve lost. Fire this bum and let’s find a legit coach that brings excitement back to the program. Enough is enough Flinstone needs to go!
Disagree. The so called 4 star recruits on this team are not even starters. Pitt has a pretty good eye for talent on three star guys. That will always be our chance to compete.
However Marty, if you want to put $10 million into the NIL fund, I am sure they can go get higher ranked recruits.
Florida State is loaded with 4 an 5 star recruits.
He won’t be fired after this meltdown, but he should be officially told he is on the hot seat entering next year. There can be no excuses for a step backward next year. If they do take a step back then he needs to be dismissed.
I agree. The new AD should sit down with Narduzzi and tell him that the same issues that have plagued this team for all of his tenure continue to be issues and must be corrected. Undisciplined play, too many penalties, and in game coaching blunders to name just a few.
Duzz’s financial portfolio that he has amassed while assuming the chief executive officer’s role of PITT football (I’m sure Duzz has a professional, someone who knows what they are doing, managing his fortune) will keep his ass well – insulated from
Feeling any pain. Duzz is in cruise control… truthfully, he needs no plan…
He will keep doing what he has been doing until he is let go and by that time PITT will be in the bottom tier of the ACC
10 seasons and counting for this program to be “on the right path”. I mean, seriously?
Vukovcan lost me at “But then something happened that no one saw coming” – Are you kidding me? Pitting? 3 wins on final possession’s or final series. Any die hard PITT fan feared this situation. The defense is (smh) very bad in all phases (tackling, covering, stupid penalties). I can’t remember that last lineman Narduzzi recruited. The team has no depth. This ALL stems from head coaching and “running” the program. This article places blame in many of the wrong spots. I appreciate Vuk’s opinion, but his opinion is in the 1% group. Nationally Narduzzi is getting wrecked (as he… Read more »
What path were they on when they went 3-9?
I’ll say this again, Narduzzi has taken this program as far as he can. Time for a change.
What has become painfully obvious but more difficult to admit is that there is a major talent gap between Pitt and the programs we aspire to be. Many can disagree about the player rating but you can see the difference between a four star recruit and Pitt’s three stars. The first noticeable spot is our O-line. When we play other mediocre programs and non power five programs Pitt’s O-line holds up well, but should be noted is not dominant. Anytime an opposing D-line contains a few four star players or a star lineman Pitt’s offensive line gets dominated. You will… Read more »