Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 106
Touchdowns, field goals: Pitt gets plenty of both while booting Virginia Tech
Pat Narduzzi likes field goals. Really. Pitt’s coach is pleased, of course, when Alex Kessman boots the football through the uprights, and Kessman has given him plenty of reason to smile over the past four seasons. He holds the school record with 64 field goals, including 18 of 24 attempts...
Pitt’s depleted roster steps up, pounds Virginia Tech
Pitt’s 47-14 victory against Virginia Tech wasn’t official until the clock showed triple zeros at 7:20 p.m. Saturday. But Pat Narduzzi saw it coming four days earlier, and maybe that says something about how Pitt’s senior class hasn’t allowed this grim season to unravel. Quarterback Kenny Pickett stood up in...
Pitt football changes course, won’t require players to wear masks during Saturday’s game
In a reversal of a previous announcement, Pitt and Virginia Tech players won’t need to pull up their masks to cover the nose and mouth during Saturday’s game at Heinz Field. Pitt’s athletic department, which initially announced Friday that all players would wear face coverings while engaged in competition, clarified...
VPI (better known as Virginia Tech) stands in the way of Pitt’s recovery efforts
Before we get started, let’s make something perfectly clear: The team scheduled to play Pitt on Saturday at Heinz Field (and we say “scheduled” because these days you never know) is not technically Virginia Tech. To explain, here’s a bit of history that’s been passed down through the years: In...
Pitt’s Jeff Capel knows he must confront challenges on, off the court
Like every coach on every level in every sport, Jeff Capel doesn’t know what to expect. He just knows it won’t be easy navigating through more than 20 basketball games — walking in and out of gyms and on and off airplanes and buses — in the midst of a...
Pitt seniors contemplate stretching their careers into 2021
After chatting with reporters on his usual Thursday conference call, Pat Narduzzi arose from his chair and uttered these hopeful words, “Say your prayers. Hope to see you on Saturday.” For so many reasons, Pitt’s encounter with Virginia Tech, scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday at Heinz Field, is one of...
Robert Morris postpones men’s basketball opener, team on hold after positive covid test
The Robert Morris men’s basketball season won’t start on time. The school has paused team activities after receiving positive covid-19 test results among team personnel, including players, coaches and staff. In addition, the 2020-21 season opener against Point Park at the UPMC Events Center, scheduled for Wednesday, has been postponed....
Pitt men’s soccer makes history, beats Notre Dame to earn first berth in ACC championship game
Ranked No. 1 in the nation, Pitt’s men’s soccer team reached another milestone Wednesday night, earning its first berth in the ACC Championship Final with a 3-1 semifinal victory against Notre Dame. The Panthers will meet Clemson for the championship at noon Sunday at WakeMed Park in Cary, N.C. The...
Pitt discovers anything’s possible when ‘silent, little killer’ strikes
Perhaps Pitt wide receiver D.J. Turner captured best what it means to play, coach and follow college football this season. “This is the year you have to be flexible because you never know what the next day is going to bring,” he said. By early Wednesday, there were 65 games...
Duquesne will play 3 games in 5 days in Louisville event
Duquesne’s men’s basketball schedule hasn’t been finalized, but the Dukes will play three games in five days in the Wade Houston Tipoff Classic at the University of Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center. The games will be at 4 p.m. Nov. 30 against Little Rock, 1 p.m. Dec. 2 against UNC Greensboro...
Running backs coach Andre Powell seeks standouts for Pitt’s ground game
In this complicated time when people are fearful of something as simple as a handshake, Andre Powell has learned not to sweat too much. “I control what I can control. The rest I let go,” Pitt’s running backs/special teams coach said Tuesday, minutes after the first practice since covid-19 concerns...
Pat Narduzzi urges Pitt players ‘to keep your guard up’ amid covid-19 surge
For Pat Narduzzi, the most maddening aspect of shepherding Pitt through the covid-19 pandemic is not knowing what’s next. Football coaches are consumed with knowing everything, from the bus schedule to what the opponent’s coach is thinking on fourth-and-3. But Narduzzi doesn’t know something that, in 2020, matters more than...
Ohio forward signs letter of intent, joins Duquesne’s 2021-22 recruiting class
Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot received the first official commitment to his 2021-22 recruiting class Monday when Andy Barba, a 6-foot-6 forward from the International Sports (Ohio) Academy, signed his national letter of intent. Barba verbally committed to the Dukes last month. He attended Cleveland Benedictine High School before enrolling at...
Pitt men’s soccer prepares for 2nd consecutive trip to ACC semifinals
Jay Vidovich called Pitt’s 2-1 victory against Duke in the ACC Championship tournament “a big step for the program.” The chance to make another even bigger step awaits as the Panthers, the nation’s top-ranked men’s soccer team, advances into the tournament semifinals Wednesday against Notre Dame in Raleigh, N.C. The...
Pitt basketball will open Nov. 25 against St. Francis (Pa.) at The Pete
Pitt’s men’s basketball team will open its season Nov. 25 against St. Francis (Pa.) in the first of at least three nonconference games at Petersen Events Center. Tip-off for the opener is 7 p.m. The Panthers also will play Drexel on Nov. 28 and Gardner-Webb on Dec. 12, and are...
Pitt’s good fortune runs out in abnormal season
Pat Narduzzi prayed. But he now knows the awful truth: The opponent, inevitably, was too strong. Pitt played eight games over two months before Saturday’s game at Georgia Tech was postponed out of respect for covid-19 concerns. Considering what has happened across college football all season — 59 games have...
Pitt-Georgia Tech game postponed because of covid protocols
After playing most of this season uninterrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, Pitt postponed its game Saturday at Georgia Tech because of covid-related issues on both teams. Football injuries at Georgia Tech also were cited by its athletic director, Todd Stansbury. The ACC said in a statement the game was postponed...
Paris Ford explains decision to leave Pitt
Ten days after he opted out of the final four games of Pitt’s season, All-ACC safety Paris Ford explained his decision and declared for the NFL Draft on Thursday in a message on Twitter. Forever, Thankful. ??#H2P— 12OUT. pic.twitter.com/XpRCud4NHb— Pᴀʀɪs Fᴏʀᴅ (@DiddyBop12_) November 12, 2020 Ford was one of the...
Duquesne thinking big on the cusp of Keith Dambrot’s 4th season
When Duquesne’s Keith Dambrot found out his team was picked to finish fifth in the Atlantic 10, he didn’t know if he should be proud or angry. But it did make him think of his dad. “I’m honored to be picked fifth. I’m also disappointed to be picked fifth,” said...
Pitt’s Australian-born punter Kirk Christodoulou enjoys life in ‘his second home’
If Kirk Christodoulou thought it was traumatic to have Notre Dame’s 257-pound Isaiah Foskey bear down upon him to block a punt, imagine how he felt the day he walked into his first class in Pitt’s Katz Graduate School of Business. Yes, two different levels of trauma, but Christodoulou handled...
Atlantic 10 basketball schedule gives Duquesne national TV exposure
Duquesne’s national profile may receive a boost this season, with six scheduled appearances on national television as part of the 2020-21 Atlantic 10 schedule released Wednesday. Four of those games will be at home, starting Jan. 5 against Davidson (CBSSN), followed by Fordham on Jan. 9 (NBCSN), Dayton on Feb....
Pitt picked to finish 13th in ACC preseason basketball poll
Pitt will enter the 2020-21 basketball season with something to prove after the Panthers were picked in the ACC preseason media poll to finish 13th in the 15-team league. Since Jamie Dixon left after the 2015-16 season, the Panthers have a 13-61 ACC record. They have finished tied for 13th...
Pitt elder statesmen Rashad Weaver, Jimmy Morrissey focus on final stretch
When Rashad Weaver was asked how he’s changed after five football seasons and more than four years at Pitt, he laughed. How could he not change? “I was fresh out of high school (in 2016 from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.),” Weaver said, “not doing any type of technique (as a pass-rushing...
Duquesne picked to finish 5th in Atlantic 10 preseason poll
When the basketball season opens Nov. 25, Duquesne will begin a quest to prove that Atlantic 10 coaches and media members underestimated its basketball team for the fourth consecutive year. The Dukes were picked to finish fifth in a poll of men’s basketball coaches and media, but Duquesne has exceeded...
Pitt will allow 1,250 inside the Pete for basketball games
Employing an abundance of caution and in accordance with state and local covid restrictions, Pitt will allow 1,250 people in the Petersen Events Center for each of its 14 home basketball games this season, 10% of capacity (12,508). School officials released the details Tuesday morning. The capacity number is subject...
