OT: D1

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Keep in mind that West Virginia’s defense isn’t very good. They gave up 17 to Duquesne! The 38 to Penn State is a different matter on the road against a top-tier team, but to give up 17 to Duquesne but only 6 to Pitt is pretty amazing. Maybe they could also play The City Game on the football field?

When the WVU starting QB went down I thought for sure Pitt was in the driver’s seat. Giving up almost two bills on the ground didn’t help. WVU does have one of the best O-lines in the country though and a pretty good back in Donaldson, to be fair. Sadly, the WVU backup outperformed PJ by going 6-9 with 1 TD and ZERO picks. That was the difference.

WVU DB said after the game they knew PJ "wasn't very good at his job"

[EyeoftheHawk]

WVU DB said after the game they knew PJ "wasn't very good at his job"

Ouch!

[Fightingscot82]

What a meteoric fall from grace. Does everyone reminder when PJ went to Norte Dame and everyone (okay, a few radio media personalities) thought he could be the heir apparent to Big Ben?

It seems like he peaked at Boston College, got injured, and has never been the same. It feels like he just hit rock bottom. I know he’s Pitt’s number one guy, but I don’t know how you can keep playing someone who is playing that bad.

Going from the hometown hero to zero has got to be hard to swallow for him.

Came here to say the same thing. Honestly can't think of someone so successful in high school to do just about nothing in college since Mike Vernillo at Fort Cherry.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Question is will Pitt stick with the local boy?

This has the looks of a real ugly season in Oakland.

[EyeoftheHawk]

Question is will Pitt stick with the local boy?

This has the looks of a real ugly season in Oakland.

Surely they won’t/can’t. I can’t say I know a lot about Pitt football but from what I understand he’s lost the confidence of the team and clearly the fan base has had enough. You can’t make decisions based on what the fan base wants but the Pittsburgh market can make a lot of noise and become an even bigger distraction. It’s what everyone was talking about today at every turn, and that’s just here in Indiana.

[Ship69]

Mixed bag for the Big 12 today:

THE GOOD:
Hillbilly High somehow beat Fail to Pitt 17-6 in a win that might have saved Neal Brown's job, unfortunately
BYU somehow came into Fayette-nam and beat Arkansas 38-31

THE BAD:
Kansas State losing on the road to perennial SEC dreg UMo-Columbia 30-27 on a 61 yard field goal on the last play of the game
Texas struggling for three quarters against Wyoming, but somehow pulling away late (it would've been a lot more enjoyable if Wyoming pulled off the upset of the century, but at least Wyoming covered the spread)

THE UGLY:
Oklahoma State losing to South Alabama (Sun Belt) at home 33-7
Iowa State losing on the road to Ohio (not State) University 10-7
Cincinnati forgetting that they're a Power Five program in a home overtime loss to Miami-Ohio 31-24

Not gonna lie, but the Big 12 is going to suck this season.

The transfer portal and power 5 era have not been kind to the MAC, but it wasn't all that rare in the past to see them pull of an upset of a P5 program. Randy Walker's Miami, Ohio, team was the only team to beat Northwestern's 1995 Big 10 champions during the regular season. That Northwestern team beat Notre Dame, Michigan and Penn State that year.

[Chuck Norris]

Question is will Pitt stick with the local boy?

This has the looks of a real ugly season in Oakland.

The Nard-dawg said he’ll start the next game so i seriously doubt he changes his mind between now and then. The leash has to be extremely short though. I don’t know how it’s possible in this day and age of football being geared toward offensive success that a guy, a 6th year senior no less, can go 18 for 52 over a two game stretch.

[IUPNation]

Came here to say the same thing. Honestly can't think of someone so successful in high school to do just about nothing in college since Mike Vernillo at Fort Cherry.

So basically he’s Al Bundy.

I guess he’ll be selling shoes at the Ross Park Mall and married to a red head with big hair.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

So basically he’s Al Bundy.

I guess he’ll be selling shoes at the Ross Park Mall and married to a red head with big hair.

Well, he was a superstar at nearby Pine-Richland (what seems like a decade ago). Pitt recruited him then but had no chance. He went to Notre Dame. That didn't work. He went to Boston College. He was OK. Now he's at Pitt. So, the third time Narduzzi recruited him he actually got him.

He looks lost, old and slow. They are likely to get smacked by North Carolina this week. If that happens (and Pitt drops to 1-3) he'll have to sit him. This better be a 'come to Jesus' moment this Saturday in Oakland.


p.s. WVU playing Sweet Caroline was incredible on the trolling scale.

[IUP24]

Sean McDonough is incredulous over how bad he is and is practically begging Narduzzi to pull him.

Given how much McDonough hates Pitt, I kind of felt like he was reveling in the glory over that performance on Saturday night. Goodness there isn't a bigger weasel in the sports broadcasting world than that guy lol.

[IUP24]

PJ is awful

Thank God he has been to so many schools he can't come to IUP next year.

I've never seen quarterback play that bad at any level. It's probably a good thing that they lost that game to make that decision easier.

[IUP24]

That would be the same Cincinnati who lost to Miami-Ohio 31-24 in overtime at home, correct?

Yes. Absolutely.

If Pitt beat Cincy, those fans would say the exact same thing. 100%. You honestly think if Cincy, who was in the CFP two seasons ago, has performed extremely well over the span of a solid decade, etc., would have lost, their fans wouldn't have said, "Man, if we want to be able to compete in the Big 12, we should be able to beat that team."

Sometimes it's not all about "Pitt." I get this is a D1 thread with mostly posters from PA, so Pitt obviously is the polarized topic. I said weeks ago on this exact thread that the separation between about 80% of schools at the P5 is very, very minimal. Most teams aren't good enough to win 10 games every year and never ever ever ever lose a stinker. Very few are.

Colorado, who some on this message board are in absolute love with and many in the media now believe could make the Playoff nearly lost at home to a team who was 3-11 in their last 14. About 80% of FBS teams have little separation. 10% is atrocious. 10% is really elite.

[IUP24]

Well, he was a superstar at nearby Pine-Richland (what seems like a decade ago). Pitt recruited him then but had no chance. He went to Notre Dame. That didn't work. He went to Boston College. He was OK. Now he's at Pitt. So, the third time Narduzzi recruited him he actually got him.

He looks lost, old and slow. They are likely to get smacked by North Carolina this week. If that happens (and Pitt drops to 1-3) he'll have to sit him. This better be a 'come to Jesus' moment this Saturday in Oakland.


p.s. WVU playing Sweet Caroline was incredible on the trolling scale.

WVU plays Sweet Caroline at nearly every game at Milan Puskar Stadium to deliver their patented chant. Pitt just happened to be the opponent. Nothing different than what they do nearly every Saturday there.

[IUP24]

Surely they won’t/can’t. I can’t say I know a lot about Pitt football but from what I understand he’s lost the confidence of the team and clearly the fan base has had enough. You can’t make decisions based on what the fan base wants but the Pittsburgh market can make a lot of noise and become an even bigger distraction. It’s what everyone was talking about today at every turn, and that’s just here in Indiana.

A lot of people say a lot of incorrect things regarding Narduzzi. He's the punch line of jokes from many fans both in and out of the fanbase. But in totality he's been very good for Pitt. He's won a lot of games, won some big games, and recruited/developed players pretty well. This season will be his biggest test as a coach. His 2nd year he had a pretty bad roster from the transition from the Paul Chryst teams to his, and got them to 5-7 with a season ending win over #2 Miami. Since then, he's done very, very well. This is the first year since that he has a bad team. Fans are fickle. They are all "done" every other week for every team/program, so I don't worry about noise from fans and on social media. But I look at what they've put on tape and what their QB situation looks like... I'm looking at their schedule and I'm trying to find five wins. Tough to really do that, especially considering that they have some ACC teams on their schedule who are off to a great start (FSU, UNC, Duke, plus ND). Wake and Louisville are beatable teams, but you need to score at least 24 points to beat them, and they could muster just 6 against WVU (who likely has the worst defense in P5 football).

I firmly believe this is the first and only time he's been in jeopardy of losing his team. There's no scenario where you can start Jurkovec on Saturday against UNC. I'm sure he will, and if he does, and he doesn't yank him when the offense sputters, he's going to lose his team.

When players are tweeting things at media folks that are essentially subtweeting or throwing shade at their starting QB, that's a bad, bad sign.

[Chuck Norris]

Given how much McDonough hates Pitt, I kind of felt like he was reveling in the glory over that performance on Saturday night. Goodness there isn't a bigger weasel in the sports broadcasting world than that guy lol.

Other than the trauma of his call of Sid Bream limping home to beat the Pirates in the 1992 NLCS, I’ve always enjoyed McDonough’s work. Why would he hate Pitt? Is there a story there?