CBS Sports predicts Pitt to finish 7-5 ... but it sounds a bit pessimistic

Pitt fans looking for good news won’t find it from Chip Patterson, a college football analyst for CBSSports.com.

Patterson predicted every ACC team’s season, game-by-game, and he sees Pitt winning only seven of its 12 and finishing 4-4 in the ACC Coastal (fourth place).

It’s a curious prediction, with Pitt returning the major components of a defense that was 15th in yards allowed in 2019 and a quarterback entering his third full season, with 27 starts on his resume. A 7-5 record is no better than last season.

Pitt returns 16 players who will be seniors, 11 of them in their fifth season, with All-ACC performers Jimmy Morrissey, Jaylen Twyman, Paris Ford and Patrick Jones II. This is a group that has enough talent to win 10 games for only the second time at Pitt since 1981.

But everyone is entitled to an opinion, and Patterson doubles down on his prediction in his analysis.

“I think this is closer to the floor than the ceiling for Pitt in 2020,” he writes. “Games against Miami, Virginia Tech and certainly at Virginia carry opportunities for wins that could see this total increase, though winning all three and the game against North Carolina in Chapel Hill is very unlikely.

“There’s a rugged regularity to what Pitt has become, where it’s far too sturdy of a program to expect anything less than a bowl game but it requires all the right breaks to take down its toughest division foes en route to a second ACC Championship Game appearance in three seasons.”

Patterson predicts the Panthers will open 4-0 — a feat they haven’t achieved since 2000 — followed by losses at Miami, Florida State and Virginia and two others to Notre Dame and Virginia Tech at Heinz Field.

An unsatisfactory outcome, for sure.

The highlight, he says, is another disruptive Pitt victory, this time at North Carolina.

Writes Patterson: “North Carolina might be a seven-point or even 10-point favorite against Pitt at home, but the likelihood of the Panthers disrupting the ACC Coastal Division race exceeds the odds that the Tar Heels will go undefeated in conference play.”

That game is predicted as the only ACC loss for the Tar Heels as they match Virginia Tech’s 7-1 record atop the Coastal.

“Maybe that defeat comes at Miami on Oct. 24,” Patterson writes, “but I’m guessing Pat Narduzzi and the Panthers will be the ministers of Coastal chaos in a year where there appear to be two front-running teams in the division.”

Aside from three nonconference victories against Miami (Ohio), Marshall and Richmond to open the season, Patterson says Pitt will beat ACC bottom feeders Duke, Georgia Tech and Syracuse, plus the upset in Chapel Hill. The Panthers are 0-6 there, all-time.

The Coastal appears to be a bit stronger this season, especially at quarterback, with D’Eriq King transferring from Houston to Miami and North Carolina’s Sam Howell ready to take his place among the game’s best.

Patterson predicts three Coastal teams will win at least nine games (Virginia Tech, North Carolina and Miami), led by the 10-2 Hokies. Last year, only Virginia reached that total.