Wake Forest rolls over Pitt; road losing streak in ACC reaches 11 games
Pitt coach Jeff Capel is well aware playing good defense is his team’s only hope this season. When he saw Wake Forest ball handlers enjoying open spaces and shooters getting time to gauge their shots, he knew his team was in trouble. So, it was no wonder Wake Forest rolled...
Pat Narduzzi: Notre Dame ‘back channels’ asked Kenny Pickett about transferring before ’21 season
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said Wednesday that tampering with other schools’ players — in this age of uncontested transfers — has become a serious problem in college sports. How serious? During an interview on Sirius XM ACC Radio, he said people with connections to Notre Dame tried to get former...
Home again, Frank Cignetti Jr. eager to get his hands on Pitt’s offense
Frank Cignetti Jr. took big, eager steps Wednesday when he entered Pitt’s team meeting room. There, he hugged an old friend, acknowledged another with a great-seeing-you-again wave and, truly, looked like a guy who had just returned home for the first time in years. Which is, actually, the case. “It’s...
Kenny Pickett gets his 1st taste of the NFL at Senior Bowl
Still months removed from his first NFL paycheck, Kenny Pickett nonethless is getting his first taste of life as pro quarterback this week at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. Four hours of interviews with NFL personnel Monday, followed by full schedule Tuesday that included practice, more interviews and a...
Wake Forest ready for Pitt after deep dive into ‘portal potty’
Let’s see if you can name the ACC basketball coach who said the following: “(We have to) learn from our mistakes and move on, have a short memory. Next play mentality, next game mentality.” If you assumed that was Pitt’s Jeff Capel speaking after one of the Panthers’ 13 losses...
Why Pitt’s Kenny Pickett didn’t want his hands measured at the Senior Bowl and what he’s doing about it
Questions over the size of Kenny Pickett’s hands have long been part of his pre-draft conversation. According to the ProFootballNetwork, the former Pitt Panthers quarterback is reported to have hands that measure only 8¼ inches. The standard by which most quarterbacks are measured is 9 inches. The concern is ball...
Pitt football schedule features 5 home games in 1st 6 weeks
If Pitt needed a favorable launching point for next season, the schedule maker may provide it. The football team will play five of its first six games at Heinz Field, starting with the nationally televised (ESPN) 105th Backyard Brawl between the Panthers and West Virginia. It’s the first of four...
Jeff Capel hopes to reverse Pitt’s post-January losing ways
Jeff Capel began his 10-minute session on the ACC coaches’ conference call Monday with the words, “I’m OK.” Give Capel credit for not complaining about his current situation. It would be so easy to do. He and his brother and assistant coach, Jason, are in covid protocol while players and...
Pitt falls at Boston College in twice-delayed game
The message directed toward Pitt’s team Sunday afternoon was clear: No excuses. Play for each other. There’s no time to feel sorry for yourself. But when a storm that dumped 2 feet of snow on Boston mixes with the relentless effects of the covid-19 pandemic, the situation can be difficult...
Report: Pitt hires former Rutgers assistant Tiquan Underwood to coach wide receivers
Pitt has hired Tiquan Underwood to be its next wide receivers coach, according to ESPN college football reporter Pete Thamel. Underwood, 34, brings to the team eight seasons of experience playing the position in the NFL and CFL and four years coaching. He spent the past two seasons as the...
Gateway grad Olivia Miller helping to lead Pitt gymnastics in final year of competition
Olivia Miller knew Pitt was it during her sophomore year at Gateway High School. The standout gymnast made her mark at the club level for Gymkhana in Plum before joining the Panthers program for her freshman season in 2019. Now in her fourth and final year of competition with Pitt,...
Rams’ Aaron Donald: ‘Only thing I am lacking is being a champion.’
LOS ANGELES — Aaron Donald is firmly in conversations about the top pass rushers in NFL history. The Los Angeles Rams’ superstar defensive tackle knows that he is on another list that he would like to remove himself from — great players who haven’t won a championship. As the Rams...
Snowstorm postpones Pitt game at Boston College
Pitt’s men’s basketball game scheduled for Boston College’s Silvio O. Conte Forum on Saturday has been postponed due to the snowstorm expected to hit the New England area this weekend. The game will tentatively be played at 4 p.m. Sunday at the same venue. This is the second time this...
Pitt Take 5: ACC looks to regain respect in national rankings
If you were paying attention this season, you’ve heard about how far the ACC has fallen. ACC coaches disagree, of course, but the league has had trouble gaining respect across the nation. Only No. 9/7 Duke is mentioned in the Associated Press and USA Today/Coaches Top 25 polls. The Blue...
Pitt guard Nike Sibande says he’ll return for 2022-23 season
For the second consecutive year, Pitt senior guard Nike Sibande has been faced with a major decision — stay or go. A year’s time and a season-ending knee injury didn’t change his mind. Sibande, who was expected to be a starter, said Thursday night on the “Jeff Capel Show” on...
Talk matters for Jeff Capel, Pitt, but sometimes silence is good, too
Jeff Capel spends as much time talking with his players off the court as he does chasing them at practice with a whistle around his neck. Pitt’s fourth-year coach lived in similar sneakers when he was a four-year starter at Duke, and he knows what it’s like to confront the...
Pitt basketball player Ithiel Horton resolves criminal case with disorderly conduct plea, rejoins team
A University of Pittsburgh basketball player accused of punching a city police officer last year pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of disorderly conduct and one count of public intoxication. More serious charges against Ithiel Horton, including aggravated assault and resisting arrest, were withdrawn by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s...
Pitt’s second-half surge leads to victory in rematch with Syracuse
It was midnight Sunday morning when Pitt arrived home from, perhaps, its worst performance of the season. Coach Jeff Capel wasn’t happy about the 27-point loss at Clemson on Saturday night, but he decided the best tact was to give his players an opportunity to get a good night’s sleep,...
34 years later: Pitt’s Jerome Lane’s backboard-shattering dunkVideo
Editor’s note: Tuesday marks the 34th anniversary of Jerome Lane’s monster dunk, one of the most famous plays in Pitt basketball history. Here’s columnist Kevin Gorman’s memories of it on the 25th anniversary. The story was originally posted on Jan. 25, 2013. As inevitable as watching Jerome Lane elevate for...
Pitt looks for cracks in Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim’s zone defense
Two weeks ago, Pitt’s John Hugley received his first taste of Syracuse’s distasteful (to opponents, at least) 2-3 zone defense. In a 77-61 loss inside Syracuse’s Carrier Dome on Jan. 11, Hugley scored eight points, more than seven off his team-leading average of 15.8 per game. It was one of...
Where does Jeff Capel turn after Pitt’s 27-point loss to Clemson?
No need to sift through long lists of seasons and scores to find a game in which Pitt suffered a worse loss than the 75-48 outcome Saturday night at Clemson. It was near the end of the forgettable (though no one does forget) 2017-2018 season, the last of Kevin Stallings’...
No close call for Pitt in blowout loss at Clemson
Jeff Capel spoke with reporters and answered their questions for five minutes Saturday after Pitt’s embarrassing 75-48 loss to Clemson. But he didn’t have much to say. “They were terrific and we were really bad,” he said in a recurring theme of the conference call. He sounded like a coach...
Pitt Take 5: Mouhamadou Gueye shows he can shoot it and swat it
It’s not every day you see a 6-foot-10 forward shooting 3-pointers at a success rate better than one in every three. Mouhamadou Gueye fits that profile — he leads Pitt with 19 3s and is second in percentage at 34.5% — but he knows of another 6-10 guy who is...
Here’s what Frank Cignetti brings to Pitt after 32 years coaching in college, NFL
Pitt made it official Friday, confirming what had been widely reported for the past week that Frank Cignetti Jr. will be the Panthers’ next offensive coordinator. Here are few facts about Cignetti and the hire: • Cignetti will be coach Pat Narduzzi’s fifth offensive coordinator since 2015. Jim Chaney and...
How Pitt offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti turned Bill Stull into an All-Big East quarterback
The most memorable conversation Bill Stull had with Frank Cignetti Jr. during their season together at Pitt was the time the coach barely spoke a word. Oct. 10, 2009: A season that became Pitt’s best this century until 2021. The Panthers were playing UConn at Heinz Field. In the second...
