Pitt players, coaches see added benefits of opening against Duquesne

The countdown clock in the Pitt practice facility hit exactly four days, zero minutes, zero seconds, just a few moments before linebacker Kyle Louis walked in for his interview session with local reporters on Tuesday.

That’s all that remained before the Panthers’ long offseason ended and they would face Duquesne in the 2025 season opener at noon Saturday.

“Six days left. Five days left. Until it goes zero days left, and it’s gameday,” Louis said. “Just keep staying focused. Just treat this like it is practice. You are only going to rise to your preparation, not the occasion.”

It could be any Football Championship Subdivision opponent on the schedule to open the season. The Panthers have certainly had a few random schools drift into Acrisure Stadium as early-season tune-up material from the FCS ranks.

Youngstown State lost at Acrisure Stadium 73-17 last year in Week 4 after losing at home to Duquesne. Wofford in 2023 was a 45-7 Pitt win. Rhode Island ended up being a 45-24 Pitt victory in September of 2022. UMass fell 51-7 to open 2021.

Let’s be honest, Duquesne is going to have to be at its absolute best, and Pitt is going to have to be extremely disjointed to make the results much closer than that.

But the Dukes could be a decent test for the Panthers. They are coming off a good season in which they claimed a regular-season share of the NEC title. Plus, the local rivalry aspect should add significantly more juice in the stands as well as on the sideline.

“We belong,” Dukes defensive back Antonio Epps said on Tuesday. “Us being FCS playing against bigger teams, it’s always going to come with that chip on our shoulder. Everyone is looking at it like it is going to be a blowout or that we are not going to compete. As a team, we come in with the mindset that we do everything the way they do. We put our 11 out there; they put their 11 out there. Let’s just go play football.”

There should be at least a few players who were WPIAL opponents or teammates on opposite sidelines this Saturday on the North Shore. Not to mention the interest this game has generated within Duquesne’s sizable Western Pennsylvania alumni base, who might not otherwise be inclined to take in an FCS-level game.

Now, though, the Dukes will be on the home field of the Panthers and the Steelers. That’s a reason enough to coax a much larger-than-average “visiting” fan segment of the total attendance than what we might see in a conventional FBS-FCS late-August soft open for an ACC school such as Pitt.

“A lot of people (at Duquesne) go to Pitt games as well. Being the FCS team in Pittsburgh to play against them, it’s going to bring a bunch of people to fill that stadium,” Epps said. “It’s going to be really exciting.”

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For those reasons, Pitt players will have little reason to seek energy and enthusiasm for an opponent that in different circumstances may be viewed as beneath them.

“It’s going to be a great day. It’s going to be a fun day,” Louis said. “We are definitely focused on beating Duquesne and having fun out there.”

Many of the local Duquesne players may have grown up rooting for the Panthers and perhaps felt passed over when an FBS team didn’t think they were good enough to offer a scholarship.

“Some of our guys who came here as freshmen had a goal to play FBS football and did not get that opportunity. They compare themselves (to FBS players), I’m sure. It’s human nature,” Duquesne coach Jerry Schmitt said. “Every little boy has dreams of playing in the NFL. And this is an opportunity to go play against the high level in college football.”

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi is acutely aware that feeling will be pervasive throughout the Duquesne roster.

“Heck, yeah. There’s no doubt about it. They will play their best game. They will be cranked up. They get to go play in that stadium, whether they played there in high school in the championship or they’re getting their (first) chance,” Narduzzi said Monday. “This is their championship game. This is their opportunity to come out and show who they are — prove some people wrong.”

Extra motivation like that for the opponent, and just the very nature of excitement for the season opener, means Pitt’s players should have no concerns about coming out flat.

“There is excitement. The crosstown rivalry being so close, that’s definitely there,” Pitt offensive lineman Jeff Persi said. “Fans always help. A good atmosphere helps. The more people that show up to the game, the better.”

The idea of Pitt versus Duquesne in an early-season football game doesn’t seem to be the kind of thing that needed to be 86 years in the making. By FBS versus FCS standards, it’s likely to be a much better draw and atmosphere than would normally exist for a Labor Day weekend opener.

Maybe Pitt could even schedule Duquesne in basketball, too? What an interesting concept that would be!