The Pitt bowl game will be announced any day now, and it appears there’s a pretty good idea of where the Panthers are going to end up this month.
Pitt has received Pinstripe Bowl, Holiday Bowl and Gasparilla Bowl projections in recent weeks, but the most recent projection from Brett McMurphy of Action Network has placed the Panthers in the Fenway Bowl — with the Panthers set as a 7.5-point favorite.
This year’s matchup is set for a Dec. 28 showdown at Fenway Park in Boston, Mass.
The Fenway Bowl is one of the three bowl games played at an MLB ballpark, and it’s in its second year of being played. Boston College knocked off SMU, 23-14, in last season’s game.
UConn is sitting at 8-4, bouncing back from a 3-9 season of its own last season, and the Huskies have done it scoring just over 32 points per game. Joe Fagnano is efficient at quarterback, and the Huskies have three running backs who rushed for at least 500 yards this season.
It’s not where Pitt wanted to be before the season, and especially during the 7-0 start to the season, but Pat Narduzzi is happy to have a bowl game to play in.
“There’s a lot of teams that would like to be bowl eligible right now, and I know our guys weren’t just satisfied with seven wins and bowl eligible, but it is an accomplishment based on what we did last year compared to where we were this year,” Narduzzi said Saturday.
A bowl win at this point doesn’t do too much for the overall state of the season, considering there’s no way to know who will be playing for Pitt or the eventual opponent, but it’s a good way for the Panthers to still finish the season strong. 8-5 looks a good deal better than 7-6.
And Narduzzi is confident that his team will be ready to go for the bowl game, no matter when it is and who it’s against.
“Hell yeah,” Narduzzi said Monday at his weekly presser. “Better be. I don’t talk about a bowl game. I’m not worried about a bowl game. Four weeks ago we were worried about something more important than that. You’re talking about like a nine-win season, a 10-win season, whatever it may be. So, you’re looking at eight-win seasons, what your goal is, then move on from that.
“Play the cards. Our guys would be excited about a bowl game. But where is it going to be? I’m not worried about that. That’s the last thing on my mind. We want to finish this season, the regular season at least, off with a win.”
