Pitt’s Phil Jurkovec out for 2nd half against No. 17 North Carolina
Pitt starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec was ruled out for the second half of Saturday evening’s game vs. No. 17 North Carolina with an undisclosed injury, Pitt officials said. With only seconds left in the second quarter and Pitt possessing the ball at its own 31, Jurkovec rolled out of the...
Pitt’s 2023 Hall of Fame class includes 12 athletes from 7 sports
A total of 12 athletes from seven sports, including four of the best players to wear a Pitt football uniform, were inducted Friday night into the Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame in front of a sold-out crowd at Petersen Events Center. The class is the sixth to be recognized since...
Stadium lights shine bright, TV cameras take aim when Pitt’s on the schedule
In a stretch of six regular-season games spanning 2019, 2020 and 2021, Pitt was undefeated in prime time. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but most likely it had more to do with having Kenny Pickett at quarterback than any boost the Panthers received from national exposure. Pickett is gone now, but...
Pitt Take 5: With No. 17 Tar Heels in town, Panthers hope to avoid rare 1-3 start
Pitt has lost three of its first four games only three times this century (2017, 2005 and 2001), but the Panthers will be on the brink of a fourth slow start Saturday night against 17th-ranked North Carolina at Acrisure Stadium. Twice (in ’17 and ’05), Pitt won only four more...
Pitt punter Caleb Junko brings sense of calm to 4th down
One day after soccer practice, Caleb Junko was hanging out near the football field at Hudson High School in Akron, Ohio. It turned out to be a day that changed his life. He watched as several wide receivers and linebackers stepped out of character and tried punting and kicking. “I...
Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi promises Phil Jurkovec at QB, bigger workload for RB Rodney Hammond
The outcome of Pitt’s game against North Carolina hinges at least partially on what results from two declarative statements made Thursday by Pat Narduzzi. One was expected. Asked directly if Phil Jurkovec will start at quarterback Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium, the coach answered with a quick and emphatic, “Yes.”...
Ex-NFL QB Tim Hasselbeck says Phil Jurkovec’s struggles at Pitt create ‘a head-scratching case study’
When former NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck meets with Pat Narduzzi on Friday in advance of the ACC Network’s telecast of the North Carolina/Pitt game, one of his questions will be a query that has many people befuddled. What’s going on with the quarterback position at Pitt? “Part of what you...
North Carolina’s Drake Maye prepares for another dose of Pitt’s ‘bully ball’
When he met with reporters Tuesday in Chapel Hill, N.C., Drake Maye said he knows what to expect from Pitt when he leads North Carolina into Acrisure Stadium on Saturday night. “They try to play that bully ball,” he said. “They have that tough personality of the ACC. They hit...
With ACC opener looming, Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi backs struggling QB Phil Jurkovec
While his team prepares to confront undefeated and 17th-ranked North Carolina on Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium, Pat Narduzzi remains supportive of quarterback Phil Jurkovec. Why, considering Jurkovec has completed less than half of his pass attempts (35 of 75, 46.6%) over Pitt’s first three games? Why, when Narduzzi admitted...
Madden Monday: Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi is ‘as much at fault as anybody’ for Phil Jurkovec’s problems
The Backyard Brawl may have ended up providing the knockout punch for Phil Jurkovec’s benefit of the doubt with the Pitt football fanbase. Even if it has only been three games. It sure did for Mark Madden during this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast. The Pine-Richland alum was just 8 of...
Analysis: West Virginia defense knew Pitt QB Phil Jurkovec ‘wasn’t that good at his job’
When random fans complain about Pitt quarterback Phil Jurkovec or rain boos upon him from high above the playing surface, that’s never good. If Jurkovec continues to struggle next Saturday against North Carolina, you can imagine what Acrisure Stadium will sound like. Yet no matter how hard the fans scream...
West Virginia backup QB Nicco Marchiol displays cool nerves in Backyard Brawl victory
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — About midway through the first quarter of the Backyard Brawl, West Virginia coach Neal Brown suddenly was working with a highly condensed playbook. His starting quarterback, Garrett Greene, had left the game with an apparent leg injury, and in Greene’s place entered Nicco Marchiol, a redshirt freshman...
Phil Jurkovec struggles in Pitt’s Backyard Brawl loss to West Virginia
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Pitt tried to be the bully Saturday night in the 106th renewal of the Backyard Brawl at Milan Puskar Stadium. Instead, the 17-6 loss to West Virginia ended with questions about Pitt quarterback Phil Jurkovec from everyone but coach Pat Narduzzi. Whether he’s ready to acknowledge it...
Before their teams do battle, Pitt and WVU fans keeping things friendly in Morgantown
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Before Pitt and West Virginia took the field Saturday night at Milan Puskar Stadium, an ocean of tailgaters helped create a college gameday atmosphere about as good as it gets. That much was predictable. Saturday’s contest between the Panthers and Mountaineers, the 106th installment of the Backyard...
Backyard Brawl Take 5: Pitt players unconcerned with West Virginia fans’ venom
Bring on the hate. The Backyard Brawl will be contested Saturday night at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, W.Va., and Pitt players M.J. Devonshire and Konata Mumpfield are hoping Mountaineers fans will be loud and annoying. “I take it as a blessing, being able to play in those environments,” said...
Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi: Team ‘locked in’ for WVU after better practices this week
Pat Narduzzi is in a profession where he’s expected to speak his mind. Actually, that’s probably how he got the job as Pitt’s head coach nearly nine years ago. It’s easy to see him going into the interview with university officials in December 2014, sure of himself, full of ideas,...
WVU players, coaches expecting 106th installment of Backyard Brawl to be a dogfight
Last weekend, violent lightning storms in the Morgantown, W.Va., area brought on a delay of nearly two hours that paused play between the Mountaineers and Duquesne. By the time the weather calmed to a light drizzle, only a fraction of the 50,037 fans who originally filed into Milan Puskar Stadium...
Seeking fixes, Pitt offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. looks at everyone, himself included
Frank Cignetti Jr. has many issues specific to Pitt’s offense that need to be addressed before the Panthers venture into hostile West Virginia territory Saturday night, where the Mountaineers and nearly 60,000 fans are ready to pounce. At least one problem may have been of his own making during the...
West Virginia eager for the chance to host a rebooted Backyard Brawl against Pitt
The Backyard Brawl between Pitt (1-1) and West Virginia (1-1) returned a year ago in Pittsburgh. Both teams have already lost a game this season. But enthusiasm for the next chapter of the rivalry, set to be written at Mountaineer Field on Saturday night (7:30 p.m.), hasn’t waned at all....
WVU coach Neal Brown recalls salute from Pitt fans last year at Acrisure Stadium
Neal Brown gets it. He knows all too well — from personal experience — that the passion triggered by the Backyard Brawl is real. It was a year ago at Acrisure Stadium when Brown, the West Virginia coach, walked onto the field before the game against Pitt. His son, Dax,...
Tim Benz: Shifting college sports landscape blurs lines between how ‘amateur’ and pro athletes are treated by fans
Of all the angles to the San Francisco 49ers’ 30-7 beatdown of the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday afternoon, here’s one that didn’t get any play: “Was the crowd out of line for booing the Steelers during their poor performance?” Maybe that’s because the Steelers were so lousy...
First Call: George Pickens denies Instagram shot at Kenny Pickett; Pitt product shines on ‘MNF’
Tuesday’s “First Call” looks at the George Pickens-Kenny Pickett Instagram drama. An ex-Pitt star shines on “Monday Night Football.” Former Pittsburgh Steeler Chase Claypool has yet to find himself in Chicago. And more trouble for Adam “Pacman” Jones. I know. I know. Try to contain your shock. Instant Instagram denial...
Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi spreads blame to everyone, but he emphasizes it starts with him
Win or lose the day before, Sundays are pretty much the same at Pitt’s training facility. Truth be told, they’re probably the same at most schools across the nation at every level of college football. Coaches start early, sometimes mere hours after the end of the game. In some cases,...
Pat Narduzzi on Pitt players being heckled: ‘It doesn’t really matter’
There were people among the nearly 50,000 at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday night who were disappointed with what they were watching. It was Pitt’s second game of the season, and it turned into a 27-21 loss to Cincinnati, an unexpected result for many people. It also was quarterback Phil Jurkovec’s...
After loss to Cincinnati, before facing tough road ahead, Pitt must find answers in a hurry
After Pitt lost a game no one inside or outside the program expected to lose, there is an unmistakable and somewhat misplaced tendency for fans to overreact. • Hire a better coach. • Change quarterbacks. (Coach Pat Narduzzi offered a definitive “no” to that one.) • If Pitt (1-1) can’t...
