Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 78

Three years ago at the ACC championship game, Pitt linebacker Phil Campbell III was a reserve safety who got on the field long enough to record one assisted tackle. He was in another world back then, like many of his future teammates. • Defensive tackle Calijah Kancey was still in...

In the midst of preparations for the ACC championship game, Pitt received a welcome distraction Tuesday morning. The Panthers placed a conference-high 12 players on the All-ACC first, second and third teams, plus nine who received honorable mention. Leading the way are three first-team selections: quarterback Kenny Pickett, wide receiver...

With Heisman and Biletnikoff candidates leading Pitt to its best season in four decades, the situation couldn’t have been much sweeter this season. Actually, if the goal is perfection, there’s always room for improvement. Pitt lost only two games during the regular season by a total of seven points. One...

Dave Clawson rattled off the names of some of the greatest players in Pitt football history as if he grew up rooting for them. Which he did. “I grew up being a huge Pitt Panther fan,” Wake Forest’s coach said. “I would listen to games on the radio. That was...

To Pat Narduzzi, who won’t be satisfied unless and until he’s holding that ACC Championship trophy around midnight Dec. 4, what happened Saturday night in the Carrier Dome was more worthy of a pat on the back than excessive praise. Winning 10 games by defeating Syracuse, 31-14, was nice. “Monumental,”...

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi often talks about grabbing an early advantage in games to make managing the second half easier. It’s even more important Saturday at the Carrier Dome. If Pitt (9-2, 6-1) can build a sizable lead against Syracuse (5-6, 2-5), it will give Narduzzi confidence to put some...

Stuffed with his mom’s stuffing, Jordan Addison and his Pitt teammates, some of whom took advantage of his open invitation to Thanksgiving dinner, will report back to work Friday. The holiday emerged while Pitt (9-2, 6-1 ACC) was getting ready for its game Saturday against Syracuse (5-6, 2-5) at the...

After Pitt’s 68-52 loss to Vanderbilt on Wednesday night, Jeff Capel revealed the concepts he believes could help brighten what appears to be the start of a dark season. “We tried to talk about simple, smart and strong,” he said. For Capel, those three words translate into: Take good shots,...

When one of his players is honored by an outside group or a scholarship is given to a deserving walk-on, Pat Narduzzi likes to inject drama into his team meetings. But when he gathered the Pitt team around him Wednesday to announce the most recent piece of good news, his...

No matter how much work needs done to mold Pitt basketball into a form Jeff Capel prefers, there isn’t a lot of time to do it. Starting Wednesday at Petersen Events Center, the opponents get tougher and start showing up without much of a break in between them. Pitt (2-2)...

When someone poked his head into Brennan Marion’s office with good news for Jordan Addison — risking a rebuke for interrupting focused video study — there was no reaction. “We kept watching the film,” Pitt wide receivers coach Brennan Marion said. “It’s tunnel vision time.” The news Tuesday morning was...

Born three months apart and growing up in North Carolina hometowns separated by 83 miles, Jeff Capel and Jerry Stackhouse were friends, rivals and teammates on the basketball court. As high school freshmen, they had no intentions of coaching. Playing was their thing as Capel went to Duke and Stackhouse...

Coaches hate outside distractions and will do almost anything to lessen their influence. That said, Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi might need to do his best coaching job away from the X’s and O’s this week while preparing his team for the regular-season finale Saturday night at Syracuse. After nailing down the...

At one point in their lives, the NFL seemed far into the future for Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett and some of his teammates. But it came into focus for four players Monday when they received invitations to the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., Feb. 5, 2022. The Senior Bowl is...

During his postgame gathering with media members, Pat Narduzzi was asked in two different ways by two different reporters how the 2021 ACC Coastal championship differs from Pitt’s first in 2018. Without amplification, he allowed that this season’s team is an “older group.” No doubt, the group’s maturity and loyalty...

With the lights high above Heinz Field bouncing off the ACC Coastal championship trophy Saturday night, Pat Narduzzi couldn’t help thinking about an even greater prize. After all, winning half a title was never a goal. “Winning the division is nice, but I’ve been part of division championships,” Pitt’s seven-year...

William Jeffress hit a big shot late in the game that kept heat on Towson and, eventually, led to Pitt’s 63-59 victory Friday night at Petersen Events Center. That was on the court. Off the court, while discussing Pitt’s second consecutive victory with reporters, he was a bit defiant. But...

The focus inside Heinz Field on Saturday will be on the ACC Coastal championship, but perhaps we should pay a little more attention to what’s happening on the other side. Anyone have a taste for a Pitt/Clemson rematch? It’s possible. First of all, Pitt (8-2, 5-1) needs to win the...

When a team loses its top five scorers from the previous season, some unfamiliar faces might surface as leaders on and off the court. That’s what happening to Pitt (1-2) early in the season while it tries to create an identity and win games at the same time. The Panthers...

When Pat Narduzzi was a 28-year-old defensive line coach at Rhode Island in 1994, he knew a headache awaited him when he saw Brown on the schedule. All Narduzzi had to know was Mark Whipple was Brown’s head coach. “The passing game just blew us up,” he said. Same deal...

You’d never know it by watching the first 10 games of Pitt’s season, but there was a time when Kenny Pickett couldn’t stand up straight while holding a ball in his hands. “My wife used to hold him standing up to shoot basketball,” Ken Pickett Sr. said in an interview...

Jeff Capel didn’t say he has a bad team. He didn’t say he has a good one, either. “Our team is interesting,” Pitt’s coach said. Pitt also is no longer winless after the Panthers (1-2) blew most of a 17-point lead in the second half before surviving a UNC Wilmington...

They were exhausted and sweaty, soaked and chilled from the steady rain that pelted Heinz Field. But Pitt seniors Kirk Christodoulou and Cal Adomitis didn’t care. When they finally reached the locker room just before midnight Thursday after Pitt’s 30-23 overtime victory against North Carolina, the two close friends —...

Five months before the 2022 NFL Draft, there is no consensus No. 1 overall choice. But Kenny Pickett remains No. 1 among quarterbacks on the ranking boards of ESPN draft analysts Todd McShay and Mel Kiper. Pickett climbed to No. 14 from No. 27 on McShay’s list of overall prospects....

When Femi Odukale scored in the first half of Pitt’s game at West Virginia on Friday night, he blew a kiss to the crowd as he ran back on defense. That was all the large group of students at WVU Coliseum needed to see. He became a target all night,...