Pat Narduzzi gets a shot at his former team after Pitt earns berth in Peach Bowl vs. Michigan State

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi will be back on a football field with Michigan State, but this time, he will be on the opposite sideline.

After Pitt (11-2) won its first ACC championship Saturday night and vaulted to No. 12 in the College Football Playoff rankings, the Panthers earned a berth opposite No. 10 Michigan State (10-2) in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 30 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Kickoff is 7 p.m.

Narduzzi spent eight seasons as Michigan State’s defensive coordinator from 2007-14, and the work he did with the Spartans was one of the main reasons Pitt hired him as its coach.

Narduzzi acknowledged his ties to Michigan State, but when he met reporters and Spartans coach Mel Tucker on a conference call Sunday, he downplayed the significance of his past to this game.

“It doesn’t matter that I coached there for a few years. That will not play into any role at all,” he said. “Coach Tucker has got a brand new roster there, and I don’t think there’s any guys on that roster I know or ever coached. A few guys on the staff, but besides that, there will be no emotions. It’s just another football game.”

Yet, he said his knowledge of Big Ten football might be helpful.

“I kind of know Big Ten football a little bit. But football is football,” he said. “Different players, different colored jerseys, different logos.”

Narduzzi said there will be elements of Pitt’s defense that Michigan State fans will recognize.

“Same aggressive style of defense that we had up in East Lansing,” he said.

Another intriguing aspect of the game will be Pitt’s No. 6 passing offense that is averaging 350.2 yards per game against Michigan State’s pass defense, which is 130th and last in the nation, allowing 337.7 aerial yards.

“We’ve got to tighten up some areas,” Tucker said. “We’ve got to get some guys back healthy in order to be able to have a chance to contain (quarterback Kenny Pickett) and slow him down.”

On the other hand, Michigan State, which won 10 games for only the ninth time in school history, will present Pitt’s run defense with its most difficult test of the season. Running back Kenneth Walker III is second in the nation with 1,636 yards rushing, including 197 and five touchdowns in the Spartans’ 37-33 victory against No. 2 Michigan.

The game will not be the first time Pitt faced one of the nation’s top backs. Syracuse’s Sean Tucker finished the season with 1,496 yards, but managed only 29 on 13 carries against Pitt.

“It’ll be a big challenge, and just because you stop one at Syracuse doesn’t mean you can stop one at Michigan State,” Narduzzi said. “It’ll take a lot of work, and it’ll be a challenge.”

Aware of Michigan State’s top-10 ranking, Narduzzi said, “Maybe should be even higher than that.”

Both teams will be making their first trip to the Peach Bowl.

“We are thrilled to have both Pitt and Michigan State in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl for the first time in their storied histories,” said Gary Stokan, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl CEO and president said in a statement. “It’s truly an honor to be able to host two programs who have combined for 15 National Championships, more than 1,400 all-time wins and 205 First Team All-Americans.”

It will be the Panthers’ first appearance in a current New Year’s Six Bowl since the Fiesta Bowl after the 2004 season. The Spartans are in a New Year’s Six Bowl for the first time since 2015 when they faced Alabama in the CFP semifinal at the Cotton Bowl.

Michigan State (10-2) leads the all-time series with Pitt, 6-0-1, but this will be their first matchup since 2007 when the Spartans defeated the Panthers, 17-13, in East Lansing, Mich. The teams met only twice since a 7-7 tie at Pitt Stadium in 1960.

This year’s matchup represents the first appearance by a Big Ten team in the bowl since 2018 (Michigan) and the first from the ACC since 2015 (Florida State). It also marks the first Big Ten vs. ACC matchup in the Peach Bowl since 1988 when N.C. State and Iowa faced off.

“Both the Panthers and the Spartans have had outstanding seasons, and we welcome them both to Atlanta, the Capital of College Football,” said Bob Somers, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl chairman. “It should be a fantastic matchup in prime time as we kick off this season’s New Year’s Six Bowl games.”