Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS
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Pat hasn't been terrible. In fact, he's largely been pretty good as the coach for Pitt. Consider that he became Pitt's head coach in their 3rd or 4th ACC season. Entering 2023, Pitt had won more ACC games than every other program not named Clemson, Florida State, or Miami (at the time they were tied for 3rd most ACC wins in that time frame with Miami). I would have to run all the numbers since then, but the point is he's been a coach that's won a lot of games for them and has largely been successful within their conference. They've had some extremely challenging non-conference slates over the last decade, and they've admittedly struggled in those games at times, and that's what has impacted the perception of who they are when you evaluate their record in totality. The difference between 10-2 and 7-5, in reality, is playing an FCS school and two MAC programs, and not Notre Dame, Penn State, and UCF in 2018.
The problem with the program now is that they are just spinning their wheels. Since they've won the ACC, they are 21-21. They are 1-7 in their last 8 against P4 competition. The hallmark of Narduzzi during the majority of his tenure is that Pitt didn't "Pitt" in games. They won games they were supposed to win. When they lost, they didn't invent new ways to lose. They didn't get run out of the stadium in games. They were strong mentality in challenging environments and in tough situations. Etc. The issue now is that since 2021, they are going in the opposite direction in an embarrassingly quick fashion. Here's what I can pull just off the top of my head since 2021...
- Lost to GT in 2022 just 3 days after they fired their head coach (GT was the worst team in P5 football that year)
- Demolished 56-7 at Notre Dame in 2023
- Lost in Yankee Stadium in 2023 to Syracuse who used a 4th string tight end to play quarterback
- Continued to trot out Phil Jurkovec in the 2023 Backyard Brawl against an objectively horrific WVU team that never once scored when they didn't start a possession on Pitt's side of the field
- Not remotely ready to play against SMU last year when both teams were 7-0
- Yesterday's mess in Morgantown
They were not losing those games like that previously. They are going in the opposite direction. And Narduzzi is largely to blame for that. He couldn't move on from Mark Whipple fast enough as the OC and brought in Frank Cignetti Jr. immediately after winning an ACC Title and winning 11 games. Despite success, Narduzzi wasn't comfortable playing that type football. Frank called a game that fit Narduzzi's vision. That decision was a colossal mistake that he's still attempting to dig out of, and I don't think he's the guy that's capable of doing it. This entire post is too long already, so I'll avoid discussing scheme and style of play he's deploying, but I think would have a better shot at digging out of the 4 year run of average football with a different head coach.
Regarding your expectations question....
The reality is that the expectations at Pitt are the same as they should be at 70-80% of the schools in P4 conferences. Shock jocks and radio/media types in Pittsburgh will tell you differently due to personal interests, but Pitt isn't any different than most of the schools playing P4 football. Less than 20% of P4 schools play a different game (Ohio State, Georgia, etc.) - everybody else is largely in the same ballpark. WVU isn't a better program than Pitt. And Pitt isn't a better program than WVU. All of these schools are all the same. And all of these conferences are so large and diluted that nearly all schedules are manageable (unless you are Florida). They aren't going to stop expanding the College Football Playoff. And the more that they expand the CFP, the more it becomes reachable for the majority of the country (even though I don't personally agree with that level of expansion).
My point is that all of these schools should have the same expectations: Build your roster and push to win 8 games most years. When the planets line up and things align, you should be in a strong position to win 10+ games, compete to win your conference, and have a shot at the CFP. I think many would scoff at that from a Pitt perspective, but they won 11 games and won the ACC in 2021. That would put them in the CFP today.
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