Tag: Pittsburgh Panthers

How Pitt-Clemson game could impact Steelers’ Week 11 field conditions

Subpar field conditions may impact the Steelers’ Week 11 matchup against the Ravens, adding uncertainty to this AFC North rivalry.

As if there couldn’t be more uncertainty surrounding the 7-2 Steelers’ matchup against the formidable 7-3 Ravens, subpar field conditions at Acrisure Stadium may add an additional layer of intrigue to the meeting between these AFC North rivals.

Less than 24 hours before the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Baltimore Ravens in Week 11, the Pittsburgh Panthers hosted the Clemson Tigers in an ACC CFB matchup at Acrisure.

While fans of the Steel City are treated to watching their city’s CFB and NFL teams play this weekend, the Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t as fortunate.

When the Pittsburgh Panthers have played at Acrisure just before the Steelers, the field conditions from the game have significantly deteriorated.

One of the most recent examples was in 2022 when the Panthers hosted Georgia Tech on October 1. Weather conditions and the worn-down field made the Steelers’ Week 4 playing conditions against the New York Jets less than ideal, ultimately costing Pittsburgh the game, 24-20.

Could a similar issue present itself in Week 11? Fans would be disappointed if poor field conditions cost the Steelers a chance at furthering their lead in the AFC North divisional race over the Ravens.

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Newest AP Poll includes two ACC teams within the top 10

After a fifth straight Pittsburgh win and a dramatic Miami comeback, the AP Poll included four ACC teams in its Week 7 rankings.

Duke football finally fell from the ranks of undefeated ACC teams on Saturday, falling to Georgia Tech 24-14 on the road, but the two remaining unbeaten teams in the conference now both reside in the AP Poll.

The Associated Press released its Week 7 rankings on Sunday, including four teams from the ACC. The Miami Hurricanes, who overcame a 35-10 deficit against the California Golden Bears on Saturday night, climbed two spots to sixth, and the Clemson Tigers rose to 10th after a 29-13 victory over the Florida State Seminoles.

The Pittsburgh Panthers did Duke football fans a huge favor this weekend, taking down the North Carolina Tar Heels for a 34-24 victory. The game handed UNC its third straight loss, but it also kept the Panthers undefeated as they debuted at 22nd in the rankings.

SMU, who upset a ranked Louisville team, rounded out the ACC representation at 25th.

With the top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide losing to Vanderbilt, the Texas Longhorns returned to the top spot for the second time in three weeks.

Duke football left standing as one of four undefeated ACC teams

Just as everyone expected, through four weeks of the college football season, the Duke Blue Devils are one of four undefeated ACC teams.

Through four weeks of the college football season, only four ACC teams remain undefeated, and one of them plays football in Durham.

The Duke Blue Devils defeated Middle Tennessee on Saturday, a 45-17 triumph that featured four turnovers and a two-touchdown game from tight end Nicky Dalmolin.

The fourth straight win puts Duke alongside the Miami Hurricanes, Louisville Cardinals, and Pittsburgh Panthers as the last of the ACC unbeatens (although Louisville has only played three games due to an early bye week).

The Blue Devils haven’t entirely cruised through lower-level opponents, either. Duke traveled to Northwestern and took down the Wildcats in overtime two weeks ago, one of the few Power Four road wins on the conference resume in 2024.

Under first-year head coach Manny Diaz, the team sits 21st in ESPN’s strength of record calculations, which measures how impressive a team’s win-loss record is given its strength of schedule.

The Hurricanes have blown out all four of their opponents so far this season, averaging 52.3 points per game on offense, and the Cardinals took down Georgia Tech to open their ACC schedule this weekend. Pittsburgh, the other surprise among the four teams listed, overcame a 21-point deficit on the road against Cincinnati before scoring two touchdowns in the final five minutes against West Virginia the following week.

Duke tries to remain a part of the exclusive club when the Blue Devils host the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday.

This scheduling agreement between Penn State, Pitt, and West Virginia would rock

Let’s make this scheduling agreement a possibility for Penn State, Pitt, and West Virginia!

Penn State has taken it upon itself to rekindle some old regional and traditional rivalries in recent years with the non-conference scheduling with a four-game series with Pitt and a recent home-and-home arrangement with West Virginia. But following Penn State’s season-opening victory over West Virginia a few weeks back, there are no scheduling agreements with either historical rival for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, West Virginia and Pitt squared off this weekend and have one more game to be played in 2025 before picking up their Backyard Brawl rivalry again in 2029 with another four-year scheduling agreement.

Watching Penn State go against Pitt and West Virginia in recent years was great for longtime Penn State fans and newer fans that may have grown up without those fond memories of the matchups with the Panthers and Mountaineers. Many newer fans may scoff at the idea of playing future games against either school for a handful of reasons, but having an in-state rivalry to look forward to on a regular basis again would be fun. There is a scheduling solution that could work for all three schools as well.

The bottom line is I would love to see Penn State, Pitt, and West Virginia play every season in non-conference play, and there is an easy way to give each school a slice of the scheduling pie.

The easiest way to make this work would be to have each school host one game and play one road game on an alternating basis between the three schools. Here is how it could work;

YEAR 1 ROTATION

  • Penn State hosts Pitt
  • Pitt hosts West Virginia
  • West Virginia hosts Penn State

YEAR 2 ROTATION

  • Pitt hosts Penn State
  • West Virginia hosts Pitt
  • Penn State hosts West Virginia

No one school gets two home games in the mix in any given year, fans get one traditional and historical rivalry game each season to look forward to, and the travel for all three fanbases is feasible.

I would honestly love to see one of these rivalry matchups take place at the end of the regular season, although it would be more likely to see these games played earlier in the year.

Penn State will stray away from some of their traditional regional opponents on the non-conference schedule the next few seasons. Temple will return to the schedule in 2026 for a home-and-home series, and Syracuse will pop back on for a home-and-home series beginning in 2027.

The rest of the non-conference schedule through 2028 will consist of games against Nevada, FIU, Villanova (FCS opponent), Marshall, Buffalo, Delaware (which will be an FBS school by the time the game is played), Ball State, and UMass.

Would you trade some of those games for matchups with Pitt and West Virginia? I know I would in a second.

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Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi rips officials after thrilling win over West Virginia

Pitt ralled from 10 down to stun West Virginia

Eli Holstein lost his helmet. Nate Yarnell came into the game with the Backyard Brawl on the line and handed off to Derrick Davis Jr., who ran the football into the end zone from a yard out with 32 seconds left Saturday to give Pitt a 38-34 victory.

Holstein was magnificent on the game-winning drive. On a running play he got the ball to the one-yard line before what seemed like the entire West Virginia defense ripped off his helmet.

Pitt called its final timeout. West Virginia called a timeout. Yet, Holstein had to miss a play because his helmet came off.

Enter Yarnell, who did what he had to do and the Panthers had a victory in the rivalry.

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi was fuming afterward, saying his team not only beat the Mountaineers but also the officials.

“I think our DBs did a heck of a job — period,” Narduzzi said. He then shifted his focus to the third team on the field, the officials,” Narduzzi told ESPN’s Dawn Davenport. “I mean, some of the calls we got. Late hit out of bounds. They catch a ball with a hands to the face. I’ve never seen anything like it. You know? Wow. We beat West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl. And we beat the officials, too. In one game.”

The Panthers trailed 34-24 with 4:55 left but rallied behind Holstein, who was 21-of-30 for 301 yards and three TD passes. He also rushed for 59 yards.

Pitt running back Rodney Hammond ruled ineligible for 2024 season

The Pittsburgh Panthers found out their top running back Rodney Hammond Jr would be out for the entire 2024 season

Just as the 2024 season was ready to start, the Pittsburgh Panthers received some devastating news to their squad. Running back Rodney Hammond Jr. was ruled ineligible for the entire 2024 season.

As of this writing, a reason has not been publicized. Hammond still is on the squad and will be allowed to practice. The running back rushed for 564 yards and four touchdowns a season ago, which both led the team. Pittsburgh struggled big time last season, going 3-9 overall and 2-6 in conference play.

Next up for Pittsburgh will be Desmond Reid. The former Western Carolina back will get the first look for the Panthers.

The Panthers will open up the season on Saturday against Kent State. Then, Pittsburgh will head out on the road at the Cincinnati Bearcats in the River City Rivalry. After home games against West Virginia and Youngstown State, the Panthers play their first ACC game on the road at the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Competition continues as Pitt set to play two quarterbacks in season opener

Pat Narduzzi and the Pitt Panthers will play two quarterbacks against Kent State in Week 1 as the competition continues.

Pittsburgh Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi reportedly plans to play two quarterbacks in the season opener against Kent State. Both Nate Yarnell and Eli Holstein have been battling for the past eight months for the job, and it does not appear there is a winner yet.

Yarnell is a redshirt junior, while Holstein is a redshirt freshman who came over from Alabama. Yarnell tossed for nearly 600 yards last season in four games, including four touchdowns. He was who many felt was going to get the job. Holstein has done great work in the off-season, and as Narduzzi told the media Monday:

Eli has made some major, major improvements.It’s like he caught up. To me, they need to be put into a game-like situation and let it go from there. Both those guys are going to play on Saturday, and let the competition begin.

Both players have “OR” next to their name on the depth chart. Following the home game against Kent State, the Panthers’ 2024 season gets much tougher. They will head to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats, and then come back home and welcome West Virginia to town. Pittsburgh starts Atlantic Coast Conference play on October 5th at North Carolina.

Narduzzi has been the head coach at Pittsburgh since the 2015 season, going 65-50 in his career with the Panthers. He is also 2-4 in bowl games.

Before his time with Pittsburgh, he was the defensive coordinator at Cincinnati and then Michigan State.

Pat Narduzzi really wants to lose more games to Penn State

Conference media days means Pat Narduzzi is talking about wanting to play Penn State again.

It is conference media time once again in the Big Ten and the ACC, which can only mean one thing around these parts. The media day quips about when Penn State and Pittsburgh might get back together for some non-conference football again. Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi has once again tried kicking up some dust on the subject by suggesting his Panthers are ready for more games against the Nittany Lions.

The only problem is Penn State has little interest in reviving the in-state rivalry, so it seems. Narduzzi made a quick comment about Penn State not wanting to play Pitt when commenting on the revival of Pitt’s backyard rivalry with West Virginia (Pitt and West Virginia resumed their rivalry last season with the Mountaineers winning 17-6; Penn State also revived its series with West Virginia with a 38-15 victory in State College).

“They won’t play us,” Narduzzi said about Penn State. Narduzzi and Pitt have continued to claim the door is open for a continued series with Penn State, but Penn State has failed to show much interest in doing so.

Penn State and Pitt played a four-game series that ran from 2016 through 2019. After losing the first game in the four-game scheduling agreement, Penn State won the next three.

James Franklin is among the scheduled speakers on Wednesday at Big Ten football media day. You can bet Franklin will be asked about Penn State’s scheduling philosophy moving forward in a changing landscape for the sport, with a slight focus on a possible matchup with the Panthers. But if that question is also posed, do not expect Franklin to take the bait.

As long as Pitt and Penn State fail to play non-conference games against each other, this conversation is going to be recycled time and time again. This is not something that will go away as much as some would prefer it to do so.

Penn State will face West Virginia to open the 2024 season and will play non-conference games against Bowling Green and Kent State this season. The Nittany Lions have a fully booked non-conference schedule in 2025 (Nevada, FIU, and Villanova), 2026 (Marshall, at Temple, and Buffalo), and 2027 (Syracuse, Delaware, and Temple). Penn State currently has one schedule vacancy to fill in 2028 (Ball State, at Syracuse).

Pitt has a schedule vacancy to fill in 2025 and 2026 and at least two vacancies to fill in 2027, 2028, 2030, and beyond.

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LSU men’s basketball to open Greenbriar Tip-Off against Pittsburgh

This will be the fifth all-time matchup between the Tigers and Panthers, as well as the first since 1969.

We already knew that LSU would be heading to the inaugural Greenbriar Tip-Off in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, in November during nonconference play, and now we know who its first opponent will be.

The Tigers will open the event, which will be held at the historic Greenbriar Resort, by taking on Pittsburgh on Nov. 22 at 1:30 p.m. CT as part of the Mountain Division. The winner would advance to play the victor of the game between Wisconsin and UCF on Nov. 24.

This will be a bit of a novel contest for the Tigers, who have played the Panthers four times in program history but not since 1969. That was a game LSU won all the way back when Pete Maravich was on the team, and the all-time series is split at 2-2.

LSU and Wisconsin have also faced four times but not since the Sweet 16 in 2000, and the Tigers have never played the Knights in basketball.

Pitt finished last season 22-11 in Year 6 under coach Jeff Capel, missing out on the NCAA Tournament and ultimately declining a bid to the NIT.

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Joe Lunardi speaks to ACC basketball coaches at spring meetings

Longtime bracket analyst Joe Lunardi reportedly talked to the ACC basketball coaches about how to improve their odds for at-large NCAA Tournament bids.

In the wake of snubs like an undefeated Florida State missing the College Football Playoff and Duke softball just earning the 10th seed in the NCAA Tournament, the ACC spring meetings had some ideas to earn more national favor.

During the conference’s spring meetings on Tuesday, longtime ESPN bracket analyst Joe Lunardi apparently spoke to the men’s basketball coaches for insight on how to earn more at-large bids. The Raleigh News & Observer’s Andrew Carter reported the meeting on social media.

Last year, the ACC earned four at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament. North Carolina, one of the four No. 1 seeds, maintained a steady grip as a top-five team all season, and 4-seed Duke and 6-seed Clemson both made the Elite Eight.

Outside of that, however, only conference tournament champion NC State made the first round. Virginia, who won the national title in 2019, earned a spot in the First Four play-in games.

Pittsburgh and Wake Forest both missed the tournament despite winning 22 and 21 games, respectively, and both sitting inside the top 35 in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency metric. They were the second- and third-highest teams left out.

Lunardi was apparently invited by the conference to speak with the coaches.