Analysis: Pitt’s problems extend far beyond its kicker
Walking to the car after a quick, Sunday morning trip to Shop ’n Save, I ran into a Pitt grad I’ve known for years. “How about that game yesterday?” I said. “Should be 5-0,” he responded, offering an accurate indictment of Pitt’s season. Pitt will carry a 3-2 record, if...
Pitt notebook: Replay review doesn’t support Panthers’ fumble recoveries
Pitt’s defense appeared to force three fumbles in its 31-30 overtime loss to Boston College, but only two ended up changing possession of the football. Coach Pat Narduzzi calmly discussed those two potentially game-changing plays, but he clearly didn’t agree with them. “I thought both of them were fumbles,” he...
Pitt loses to Boston College as record-setting kicker Alex Kessman misses OT extra point
Pitt’s Kenny Pickett and Alex Kessman experienced pain on different levels Saturday night, and the hurt ended up radiating through the entire team in a 31-30 overtime loss at Boston College. Pickett played the fourth quarter and overtime in serious pain, hobbling on an ankle injury that kept him on...
’51-6, that’s all I got to say’ – before homecoming, Miles Sanders recalls last game at Heinz FieldVideo
He went to high school about 10 miles from Heinz Field, and he was afforded two opportunities to play at the venue during college. Forty-eight hours before his first game at Heinz as a professional, Miles Sanders recalled the most recent time he played there. “51-6,” Sanders told reporters on...
Masked Pitt Panthers hit the road for Boston and a test of resiliency
The Boston hotel where Pitt will stay Friday night in advance of its game against Boston College is off-limits to outsiders. Coach Pat Narduzzi already has warned his team about the perils of travel during a pandemic. “I told them everybody up there’s got it. So, just stay away from...
Pitt, Boston College are opponents Saturday, but fighting the same battles
On Saturday, the Pitt and Boston College football teams will be opponents. Most of the rest of the year, though, these two teams fight many of the same battles. They are city schools in pro sports towns, trying to reestablish the national pulse they had in the 1980s. Doing the...
Pitt remains confident offensive line, run game will improveVideo
There are three reasons why Pitt needs improved play from its offensive line: • Coach Pat Narduzzi wants a strong running game, simply because he believes a team can’t win consistently without one. • He realizes the passing game’s effectiveness is tied to a good ground attack. • And, perhaps,...
WVU, Pitt won’t meet in basketball version of Backyard Brawl this season
Pitt has played West Virginia 187 times on the basketball court — more than any other opponent — but the game won’t happen this season because of the coronavirus pandemic, WVU coach Bob Huggins said Thursday. “It’s been postponed, moved back, delayed, whatever,” he said. “That’s not going to happen...
U mad, bro? Steelers fans are smoldering. Pitt fans upset. Penguins fans ‘fond farewell’ to Matt Murray.
I’ve gained a whole new respect for Steelers fans. They’ve proven to me that they can get just as uncontrollably agitated about a game the Steelers didn’t even play as they can get about a game that the Steelers didn’t win. I mean, this Tennessee Titans postponement really has Western...
Boston College QB Phil Jurkovec displays confidence from Pine-Richland days
Jeff Hafley could have sent anyone to the airport to pick up the quarterback and his family. Surely, there was other important business on Chestnut Hill that needed the attention of Boston College’s new head coach. But Hafley wanted to greet this visitor himself. This was Phil Jurkovec, one of...
Former Pitt CB Avonte Maddox returns to Heinz Field to play Steelers
Only two of the other 66 players on the Philadelphia Eagles’ active roster or injured lists are shorter than Avonte Maddox. Just three weigh less. But that doesn’t mean the “little” former Pitt standout hasn’t made a big impression on the only NFL team he has known over the past...
After transferring late, D.J. Turner ends up lifting Pitt’s passing game
As late as midway through training camp, D.J. Turner was just a name on somebody else’s roster. If he had walked through the doors of Pitt’s practice facility almost any day in August, he might have been asked to leave. Yet, here he is, shouldering much of the responsibility to...
Good news for Pitt players’ parents: Heinz Field will welcome spectators
Imagine the disappointment Darryl Turner and Deidre Newkirk felt last week after receiving the bad news from their son, Pitt wide receiver D.J. Turner: No spectators allowed inside Heinz Field. Imagine how they feel now. Those virtual days of watching football may be over for the families of Pitt players...
Gov. Wolf eases gathering restrictions with formula tied to capacity limits
Gov. Tom Wolf increased gathering-size limits for events statewide Tuesday, revealing a new formula that’s based on a percentage of a facility’s capacity rather than the 25-person indoor and 250-person outdoor restrictions previously imposed. Indoor events are limited to 10% to 20% of capacity, depending upon the venue’s size, and...
Pat Narduzzi said Pitt loss was like hit ‘in the stomach’ to his players
In his 31 uninterrupted years coaching college football, Pat Narduzzi has seen a variety of reactions to defeat. “I’ve walked into team meetings after you get beat by 20, and the guys are all laughing,” he said of past experiences. “Like, ‘Do you know what happened less than 24 hours...
Pitt notebook: Pat Narduzzi says critics can point the finger of blame ‘at me’
After four games, Pitt’s search for a balanced offense continues mostly unfulfilled, with the Panthers ranked 12th among 15 ACC teams in average rushing yards per game (130.5). That’s a slight improvement over last season when Pitt was 14th in the ACC (118.8). Yet, Pitt has had only two 100-yard...
Pitt women’s soccer coach Randy Waldrum named coach of Nigerian team
Pitt’s Randy Waldrum will mentor soccer players on two continents when he begins his duties as coach of the Nigerian Senior Women’s National Team. Very excited to head up the #NigerianWomensNationalTeam and look forward to working with this amazing team! Gives me a chance to reconnect with some of the...
Mark Madden: Pitt football is stuck on hamster wheel of mediocrity
Refreshing sports notes: Some test positive, some negative. They all wear a mask. But they don’t social distance; that’s not needed on the internet, or on the printed page. Yet. • Pitt football and coach Pat Narduzzi once again have proven themselves all hat and no cattle. They dropped in...
Madden Monday: NFL covid-19 problems. Pat Narduzzi is ‘a blowhard.’ Metro Division fit for Marc-Andre Fleury?
No Steelers content to discuss for our “Madden Monday” podcast this week, as the team is coming off its surprise bye weekend. That’s thanks to the postponement of their scheduled game against the Tennessee Titans. Mark Madden and I start the show talking about how the NFL is handling their...
Boston College’s Jeff Hafley said his time at Pitt ‘changed my life’
Boston College coach Jeff Hafley is a man who knows how to keep his life in proper order. When Hafley was asked Sunday to name the greatest memory from his five years as a Pitt assistant, he quickly said, “That’s where I met my wife. My greatest memory is meeting...
Oklahoma, Pitt fall out of AP Top 25Video
Oklahoma dropped out of The Associated Press college football poll for the first time since September 2016 and No. 24 Iowa State jumped back into the Top 25 after a day of upsets. There largely was stability at the top of the rankings Sunday after No. 1 Clemson, No. 2...
Pitt notebook: Kenny Pickett recovers quickly after big hit takes breath away
Losing to an unranked N.C. State team was painful for Pitt, and not just because it dropped the Panthers from the Top 25 when the Associated Press poll was released Sunday. “Kids are hurt. Kids are hurt bad in the locker room,” coach Pat Narduzzi said. But he was only...
N.C. State rallies late to hand Pitt first loss of season
Jimmy Morrissey called Pitt’s 30-29 loss to N.C. State “heart-breaking,” and that was surely the most obvious takeaway from the Panthers’ sad afternoon at Heinz Field. But there was so much more to Pitt’s first loss of the season, and Pitt’s center hit the target when he also capsulized his...
Pitt Take 5: Defense is good, but Pat Narduzzi sees room for improvementVideo
Pat Narduzzi is not unlike most coaches who insist on living in the present. The only game that matters is the next one and past teams, games and tendencies aren’t relevant in terms of comparisons. So, when he was asked to compare Pitt’s defense — No. 2 in the nation...
Pitt’s Charlie Partridge, N.C. State’s Dave Doeren hit the road, learned to coach
At the Wormy Dog Saloon in Stillwater, Okla., you could listen to top country bands and, according to its Facebook page, have “a rowdy good time.” But that’s not what young Drake football coaches Charlie Partridge, Dave Doeren and Chris Ash were chasing in the late 1990s as they rolled...
