OT: D1

[IUP24]

I'm not a Pitt fan. I'm not a Pitt hater, either.

You have to ask if it's time to move on from Pat.

Not saying he's been terrible but things get stale. Coaches have a shelf life.

Question is what are the actual expectations at Pitt?

I've been a strong defender of Pat Narduzzi. In fairness, he's exactly the type of coach that most P4 schools should want to hire. He never had any intentions of using the Pitt job as a spring board to something bigger. He ultimately wants to be where he's at, and there is A LOT to be said for that in that industry.

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.

[IUP24]

We didn’t really know much about Pitt going into yesterday. Their first two opponents were very weak. What we did know is that Desmond Reid is the engine that drives the offense as a runner and receiver. He’s also a dynamic returner. He missed most of the game.

The Backyard Brawl almost always delivers compelling games, but I don’t think there’s any question it means more to WVU. And the game was in Morgantown. Those things matter in rivalry games.

But Pitt still should’ve won. It was an awful loss considering how it unfolded.

If I was to compare the Backyard Brawl to any type of football rivalry at the D2 level, I would easily pick the Coal Bowl between Cal and IUP. The similarities there are so striking. The Backyard Brawl, much like the Coal Bowl, is so regularly a "home team wins" type of series. I get there was an 11 year hiatus in the game prior to 2022 which throws numbers off some, but in my lifetime (I am 32), Pitt has won in Morgantown just two times...2001 and 2007. That's it. And it's not really like WVU has dominated Pitt in Pittsburgh either. Outside of a few years with Rich Rod in his hey day when there were a couple bad Pitt teams, Pitt traditionally sends all the Mountaineer fans back home to their Pittsburgh suburbs losers.

What's so similar between the Brawl and the Coal Bowl is that much like in Adamson Stadium for IUP, really weird stuff tends to happen when Pitt plays in Milan Puskar Stadium and they just normally don't play very well there. I get it's a rivalry game, but the environment there is not any more unique or daunting than other places that they have walked into and won.

I do agree with you that the game seems to really mean much more to West Virginia. I think I always knew that, but it's striking how much stock you can tell they put into yesterday. They didn't really spoil anything for Pitt and it's not like that was a team they beat which had CFP aspirations. Pitt's probably going to win 6-7 games and they flashed to people in the stands crying, Rich Rod breaking down on the field, etc. Ultimately, the series finished 2-2, with both teams winning their home games. I get that it's emotional, but I always have found the WVU angle in that rivalry to be very interesting. Neal Brown was a great example... He came to Pittsburgh for every major country music concert. He would come to Pittsburgh to go to Pirate games and Penguin games. He would always post to his Instagram when he and his family were in the big city. They all hate Pitt with such ferocity and vulgarity, but they all wish they lived in Pittsburgh. It's a unique dynamic.

The triad rivalry between Pitt, Penn State, and WVU should truly be studied. I don't honestly think there's anything like it anywhere else in college sports. You have 3 programs separated by a short distance. Each of the 3 fanbases have a different perspective of the other. Significant portions of each of the 3 fanbases all live in same medium sized metropolitan area. 2 of the 3 fanbases love everything about their "city" and sports teams, but they hate the flagship university in said city. It's unlike anything anywhere else in college sports.

It's so clear that Pitt is to WVU what Penn State is to Pitt. It's extremely evident that Pitt fans hate Penn State far more than they hate WVU, but they do not get the opportunity to play them. For Pitt, it's the inferiority complex towards Penn State. For WVU, it's the same exact thing towards Pitt. When the game isn't played, WVU will say Pitt is responsible for not renewing the series. I do think it's good for both Pitt and WVU that it appears as though they both have found a way to mostly make the Backyard Brawl an annual event, and I think deep down that actually upsets Penn State fans. Penn State's "Unrivaled" moniker started shortly after they announced the renewal of the 4-game Pitt/Penn State series. Maybe indirect correlation, but PSU wanted to make clear that non-conference slate wasn't a "rivalry game" being renewed, and that they were focused on Ohio State and Michigan. But neither of those two schools identify them as their biggest game. At the end of the day, the "Unrivaled" idea is largely because they aren't anyone's biggest game on the schedule from a rivalry perspective and their "brand" is unmatched in college football, but I do think not being anyone's biggest game upsets them to a degree.

[IUP24]

Man, poor Pitt. I was so sure they would win big yesterday I broke my own rules and bet on a rivalry gameI…and lost of course.

My cousin is a die hard Pitt fan. The poor guy gets his heart broken on the regular, and to make matters worse, yesterday was his birthday. I’m not going to pretend to know a ton about Pitt, but it seems like they should have run away with that game yesterday. WVU isn’t good to begin with, and they’re missing key players.

I took the under early in the week when it was 58.5 and that hit. Nearly didn't hit cause of OT.

You could tell from the first series of the game how the whole day was going to go for them. First play of the game they fumbled on a sack and nearly lost possession. Had Rich Rod not been playing QB tryouts in the 2nd half, Pitt probably loses that game in regulation. They only got the lead when they picked off the true freshman QB twice. The amount of trips they made deep into WVU territory to not find a way to deliver multiple kill shots in that game is mind boggling.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

We didn’t really know much about Pitt going into yesterday. Their first two opponents were very weak. What we did know is that Desmond Reid is the engine that drives the offense as a runner and receiver. He’s also a dynamic returner. He missed most of the game.

The Backyard Brawl almost always delivers compelling games, but I don’t think there’s any question it means more to WVU. And the game was in Morgantown. Those things matter in rivalry games.

But Pitt still should’ve won. It was an awful loss considering how it unfolded.

I'm not a Pitt fan. I'm not a Pitt hater, either.

You have to ask if it's time to move on from Pat.

Not saying he's been terrible but things get stale. Coaches have a shelf life.

Question is what are the actual expectations at Pitt?

[Chuck Norris]

Man, poor Pitt. I was so sure they would win big yesterday I broke my own rules and bet on a rivalry gameI…and lost of course.

My cousin is a die hard Pitt fan. The poor guy gets his heart broken on the regular, and to make matters worse, yesterday was his birthday. I’m not going to pretend to know a ton about Pitt, but it seems like they should have run away with that game yesterday. WVU isn’t good to begin with, and they’re missing key players.

We didn’t really know much about Pitt going into yesterday. Their first two opponents were very weak. What we did know is that Desmond Reid is the engine that drives the offense as a runner and receiver. He’s also a dynamic returner. He missed most of the game.

The Backyard Brawl almost always delivers compelling games, but I don’t think there’s any question it means more to WVU. And the game was in Morgantown. Those things matter in rivalry games.

But Pitt still should’ve won. It was an awful loss considering how it unfolded.

[EyeoftheHawk]

Hopefully Pitt has a new head coach at that point in time. Woof.

Man, poor Pitt. I was so sure they would win big yesterday I broke my own rules and bet on a rivalry gameI…and lost of course.

My cousin is a die hard Pitt fan. The poor guy gets his heart broken on the regular, and to make matters worse, yesterday was his birthday. I’m not going to pretend to know a ton about Pitt, but it seems like they should have run away with that game yesterday. WVU isn’t good to begin with, and they’re missing key players.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

New Mexico got $1.2m to play at UCLA today.


New Mexico won, 35-10, in the Rose Bowl.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Vandy is smacking No. 11 South Carolina

[IUP24]

The Backyard Brawl is back 2029-2036. Yippee.

Hopefully Pitt has a new head coach at that point in time. Woof.

[Fightingscot82]

The Backyard Brawl is back 2029-2036. Yippee.

[cwfenn]

Mercyhurst's roster has 56 new players. Yep, D1 is going great for them.

They looked like world-beaters against my school (New Haven) last week. But New Haven's program got blown up as soon as they announced the D1 move. Going to be a sleepy next 3 years for the Chargers.

[Fightingscot82]

Pitt's collective, Alliance 412, is ending its operations on September 30th. This is following numerous other schools, WVU being one locally, that have done the exact same thing in the last few months. Like those schools, the fundraising component of Alliance 412 will be migrated into the university/athletic department and under their direction.

As I've repeatedly discussed here, everyone needs to eliminate the phrase "NIL money" from your vocabulary. Collectives are meaningless now. They are just fundraising arms. Understand that all of these "payments" that you think are "NIL money," are actually direct payments to student athletes from the allowable fund of up to 20.5 million dollars of revenue sharing money. If a student athlete is receiving NIL money, it's a cleared deal that is audited and approved through NIL GO at a determined market rate for a legitimate exchange of services.

Arch Manning's commercial with Vuori may pay him $100,000 or so in approved payments. A player's face on a billboard for a car dealership in Columbus, Ohio won't be a business valuation of 2 million dollars. Agree or don't, but that's the way it works now.

Huge detail that keeps things closer to honest.

[TheROCK]

Mike Solomon from the Rock is playing @ Youngstown State. 5 Catches for 53 yds in two games. .

[CUlater]

two former PSAC WR's are seeing significant playing time at FBS UTEP. Eric Willis (CAL) is currently 2nd on the team in catches with 8 through 2 games and Trevon Tate (Clarion) is tied for 4th in receptions. They play at Texas this weekend, quite the difference in atmosphere for those guys. Also noteworthy is Clarions all conference punter last year Hunter Robertson is currently on the two deep at Michigan as the backup punter as a Soph.

[IUPNation]

I think they do that on rare occasions, mostly if the FBS slate of games is exceptionally subpar a particular week. I know they’ve done a North Dakota State game and at least one Ivy League game. I seem to remember fairly recently they did go to a big rivalry, I want to say it was D3, but I can’t recall the teams.

I’d love to see them at Miller for an IUP-Rock game. THAT would be an exciting day.

But still not as exciting as last fall….Everyone enjoying the higher prices?