Playing the guessing game, Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi, Hokies’ Brent Pry tight-lipped on quarterbacks
Pat Narduzzi said revealing who will start at quarterback when there’s some question about it hands the opposing coach no specific advantage. “I don’t think it really matters,” he said, noting that each of Pitt’s top three quarterbacks is capable of running the offense. Nonetheless, when he was asked Thursday...
Peter Neft, who played quarterback for Pitt in the historic 1956 Sugar Bowl, dies at age 89
Peter Paul Neft, one of three Pitt quarterbacks who shared the backfield with Bobby Grier when he became the first Black player to play in the Sugar Bowl, died Tuesday. Neft, a native of Sharon, was 89. Neft helped make history Jan. 2, 1956, when he joined Grier and their...
Jeff Capel started reshaping Pitt basketball during overseas trip to Canary Islands
Perhaps the first step toward building the same togetherness that helped carry Pitt into the 2023 NCAA Tournament came last month when the team’s plane landed in the Canary Islands. Natives Guillermo and Jorge Diaz Graham were given the rare opportunity to show off their homeland to teammates, who are...
Will injuries across offensive line slow Pitt’s recovery efforts?
If you made a list of every complication that could further derail a struggling team’s season, injuries to the two most experienced — and probably two best — offensive linemen would be at the top. But that’s the dilemma facing Pitt (1-3, 0-1 ACC) this week as it prepares to...
Pitt’s Jeff Capel hopes ‘positive things’ happen for dismissed guard Dior Johnson
Freshman guard Dior Johnson never played for Pitt, but he practiced with the team last season and even accompanied teammates on their trip to Spain in August. He was expected to be a significant part of coach Jeff Capel’s young guard rotation this season. But after being charged with misdemeanor...
Pitt basketball opens ACC competition in December against Clemson, Syracuse
The ACC revealed its men’s basketball schedule Tuesday night, and it includes Pitt meeting two conference opponents before the calendar turns to 2024. With coach Jeff Capel in his sixth season, Pitt will play seven nonconference games before opening its ACC schedule Dec. 3 against Clemson with a 2 p.m....
Perhaps he can’t shoot free throws, but Pitt’s Kenny Johnson creates another type of ‘adventure’ on the football field
Levi Murphy laughed while remembering the rare moments when Kenny Johnson struggled with a ball in his hands. It was Johnson’s junior season at his new school, Dallastown in York County, and he wanted to play basketball after two seasons as a wrestler at York Suburban High School. “He had...
Phil Jurkovec’s health a concern; Pitt loses injured tackle Matt Goncalves for the season
There’s nothing like a good, juicy quarterback controversy to add spice to a drab 1-3 start to the season. Except, none exists at Pitt, only a question about the health of Phil Jurkovec, who missed the second half of the loss to North Carolina on Saturday night with an unspecified...
First Call: Steelers’ next opponent pulls off a road upset; James Conner, Josh Dobbs shine as Cardinals stun Cowboys
Monday’s “First Call” takes a look at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ next opponent. We also examine how a pair of former Steelers led the Arizona Cardinals to a big upset. A wrestling superstar almost won big on a Steelers bet. A former Pirate had a nice afternoon. And the Pitt Panthers...
Analysis: With injuries surfacing, Pitt must play a cleaner, mistake-free game to end losing streak
Losing is as much a part of college football as the coin toss. Every game has a loser. The distinction is the good teams don’t help the opponent’s cause with mental errors and penalties. That is, at least, part of Pitt’s problem as it deals with a three-game losing streak,...
Busted punt return coverage a source of frustration for Pitt in loss to No. 17 UNCVideo
Generating explosive special teams plays such as blocking a punt or returning a kick for a touchdown can be a major difference-maker on any given night. Pitt did both of those things Saturday against No. 17 North Carolina but still lost to the Tar Heels at Acrisure Stadium, 41-24. UNC...
North Carolina hands Pitt 3rd consecutive defeat
So many questions arose after Pitt’s 41-24 loss to North Carolina that just making a list may take most of Sunday morning before coaches and players can even think about how to fix them. Around midnight Saturday night, Pat Narduzzi spent 7½ minutes answering questions in the aftermath of Pitt’s...
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...
