Pitt confronts trappings of success while preparing for Syracuse

Coaches hate outside distractions and will do almost anything to lessen their influence.

That said, Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi might need to do his best coaching job away from the X’s and O’s this week while preparing his team for the regular-season finale Saturday night at Syracuse.

After nailing down the ACC Coastal championship (and even before that), some extraneous items emerged that have nothing to do with Syracuse. They include:

• Postseason all-star invitations for five players who have an eye toward an NFL career. Kenny Pickett, Cal Adomitis, Damarri Mathis and Carter Warren are going to the Senior Bowl, and Taysir Mack has been named to the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl.

• Pickett and Jordan Addison moving up the pecking order for Heisman Trophy and Biletnikoff Award consideration. If they aren’t the favorites, they’re deeply embedded in the conversations.

• Narduzzi and his players fielding questions about the ACC championship game Dec. 4 against an undetermined opponent. All Narduzzi wants to do is give Syracuse the proper respect. “I’m worried about Dino Babers (Syracuse coach). I’m worried about their No. 7 rushing offense in the country.”

• All that talk about winning 10 games before a bowl for the first time in 40 years. That one Narduzzi will discuss freely.

During the Pitt coach’s weekly chat with reporters Monday, someone mentioned former interim athletic director Randy Juhl’s remark that “If Jonas Salk can cure polio, we sure as hell can win 10 football games in a season.”

Guess what? Pitt (9-2, 6-1) gets that chance to win a 10th game when the Panthers confront the Orange (5-6, 2-5) at the Carrier Dome. Pitt won 10 games in 2009 but needed a bowl victory to do it. The most recent occurrence in the regular season was 1981, when Pitt finished 11-1 with Dan Marino at quarterback and Jackie Sherrill on the sideline.

“I think I was a freshman in high school,” Narduzzi said. “It’s been a long time. To me, that means something. There’s something to prove when we go up there this weekend.”

Narduzzi said winning No. 10 — or failing in the attempt — doesn’t automatically wipe out what came before it or what comes later. If Pitt loses to Syracuse and wins the ACC championship a week later, the loss won’t matter.

“You can have a good season and win less. You can have a bad season and maybe win more,” he said.

The game Saturday night will be a lesson in humans battling human nature. Pitt celebrated long and hard on the Heinz Field turf last Saturday after defeating Virginia, but they were back to work 24 hours later preparing for the next challenge.

Three years ago, Pitt clinched the ACC Coastal championship by beating Wake Forest. With their title-game berth solidified, Pitt went to Miami the following week and lost 24-3.

“That was a long time ago,” Narduzzi said. “Again, against a good Miami football team down there. I remember that one. I’m not sure that had anything to do with we felt really good after that game, I don’t think.”

It’s worth noting that Pitt lost center Jimmy Morrissey in that Wake Forest game and was forced to juggle the offensive line for the final three games (all losses).

“That was maybe one of the biggest areas of issues,” he said. “I don’t know if that had anything to do with handling success. We’ll find out this weekend, for sure, up in Syracuse.”

There are more recent examples of failing to handle success: the loss to Western Michigan at home this season a week after defeating Tennessee on the road and losing to Miami a week after beating Clemson,

“Our guys didn’t play well that day, period,” he said of the Western Michigan game. “We didn’t execute. We turned the ball over. Again, that’s coming from success at Tennessee, and then all of a sudden you think you’re pretty good and you’re not. You’re only as good as you are that last outing, and you’ve got to go out and execute to beat anybody, or anybody can beat you.

“Coastal championship, we’ve done that already. It mattered, I think, a couple years ago. It doesn’t matter anymore. You have to win an ACC championship to be anything.”

Pitt is ranked No. 20 in the Associated Press poll for the second consecutive week, higher than any ACC team at the moment.

Narduzzi said he doesn’t mention such trivia to his team.

“It could cause you to get beat on Saturday, too, no doubt about it,” he said. “We, just as coaches as a whole, have to do a great job of grounding them and making sure, you know, we’re going to go win number 10. We want to be 1-0 this week, and then we’ll worry about the next one.”

He said some people might assume that players who would otherwise play might get the day off in Syracuse.

“That would be a natural question,” the coach said. “ ‘Let’s go up there and keep them all healthy and play our backups and get ready for the championship game.’

“I would love to do that, but I don’t see us doing that.”