OT: D1

[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.

Let's back up here, review the timeline, and clear things up...

1. Jurkovec never had interest in Pitt at Pine-Richland. He grew up a die hard Notre Dame fan. He dreamed of playing there. He never once visited Pitt. When ND offered and showed interest, he committed and pretty much shut everything down.

2. When that didn't work, he expressed interest in transferring. Narduzzi turned him down. They had Kenny Pickett. So Narduzzi never even attempted to get Jurkovec to Pitt when leaving Notre Dame. It was the other way around.

3. He went to Boston College. He was really good in 2020. He would have been draft eligible the following year. After the 2020 season, draft gurus had him as a projected 1st round pick.

4. He sustained a shoulder injury in 2021 and was never the same throwing the football since.

5. He was really bad in 2022.

6. He transfers to Pitt and is even worse in 2023.

Narduzzi banked on getting Jurkovec from 2020. If that's what he got, he would've hit the lottery. But that's not how it worked out. I've never seen quarterback play that atrocious at any level of football. I agree with your assessment. He looks lost. His body language is terrible. He looks like a middle school kid out there - throwing his hands up at receivers, yelling at the sideline on every play, hanging his head after every play, etc. He's lost his teammates in my opinion.

[IUP24]

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?

He is a Syracuse grad. Most Syracuse people have a manufactured rivalry or disdain towards Pitt (which I never understand). He takes potshots at Pitt every chance he gets. If you pay close attention to how he calls games, you'll start to notice it. And once you do, you'll never unhear it in his work. He found a way to work in a jab at Pitt going into halftime of the Alabama-Notre Dame CFP game 2 years ago. I laughed my ass off immediately.

Todd Blackledge has always been paired with him until this year. And I've always thought Blackledge is one of the best, most knowledgeable, and impartial color guys doing college football. I've always enjoyed him. I like Brock Huard too. But he doesn't get much burn.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Madden is even going after Jurkovec -- and he typically only ever talks about Pitt on very, very slow days (or to hammer Narduzzi about something). Like Big Sexy or not, he has an enormous following in the Yinzerlands. Get the MFers after you and it's a long season. He's always hated Narduzzi (not sure the reason).

When Jurkovec called the Pitt fans booing the team 'pathietic' last week paired with getting hammered in Morgantown ... he's done. So are they if Narduzzi is going to keep this circus going.

These aren't good losses. WVU was picked last in the Big 12 and played most of the game with its backup QB. Duquesne scored more on WVU than Pitt did. Cincinnati just lost to a MAC school.

If I was betting, NC is going to hammer Pitt on Saturday. I'd guess plenty of good seats will be available.

I hope they turn things around. The backup QB (PSU transfer) may be just the spark they need. The Steelers will likely stink all year ... going to be a rough year in the 412.

[IUP24]

Madden is even going after Jurkovec -- and he typically only ever talks about Pitt on very, very slow days (or to hammer Narduzzi about something). Like Big Sexy or not, he has an enormous following in the Yinzerlands. Get the MFers after you and it's a long season. He's always hated Narduzzi (not sure the reason).

When Jurkovec called the Pitt fans booing the team 'pathietic' last week paired with getting hammered in Morgantown ... he's done. So are they if Narduzzi is going to keep this circus going.

These aren't good losses. WVU was picked last in the Big 12 and played most of the game with its backup QB. Duquesne scored more on WVU than Pitt did. Cincinnati just lost to a MAC school.

If I was betting, NC is going to hammer Pitt on Saturday. I'd guess plenty of good seats will be available.

I hope they turn things around. The backup QB (PSU transfer) may be just the spark they need. The Steelers will likely stink all year ... going to be a rough year in the 412.

He hates Narduzzi because he didn’t allow players to speak to the media before the Penn State game, which is ironic because he would’ve never even gone to the game, a press conference, or the locker room for a sound bite regardless.

He hates college football. He hated Penn State and James Franklin until Narduzzi started that. He isn’t fond of Franklin/Penn State still, but he never hated Pitt until then. That was the story. In fact, in 2016, he spent a whole summer talking about how much he wanted to Penn State lose that game.

I like Madden, but he also doesn’t know or follow college football. Best hockey talk in the city, maybe the country (I’m a huge hockey guy). Tells it the way it is pertaining to things like the Steelers. His extreme disdain, and the villain he plays towards Pitt, is simply to move the needle. He couldn’t care less about Pitt, Penn State, or college football for that matter. But he’ll act like he does today.

“3 PM. Listen or don’t.”

[Chuck Norris]

Madden is even going after Jurkovec -- and he typically only ever talks about Pitt on very, very slow days (or to hammer Narduzzi about something). Like Big Sexy or not, he has an enormous following in the Yinzerlands. Get the MFers after you and it's a long season. He's always hated Narduzzi (not sure the reason).

When Jurkovec called the Pitt fans booing the team 'pathietic' last week paired with getting hammered in Morgantown ... he's done. So are they if Narduzzi is going to keep this circus going.

These aren't good losses. WVU was picked last in the Big 12 and played most of the game with its backup QB. Duquesne scored more on WVU than Pitt did. Cincinnati just lost to a MAC school.

If I was betting, NC is going to hammer Pitt on Saturday. I'd guess plenty of good seats will be available.

I hope they turn things around. The backup QB (PSU transfer) may be just the spark they need. The Steelers will likely stink all year ... going to be a rough year in the 412.

I still go all the way back to Narduzzi’s first loss at Pitt. At Iowa, he did that stupid thing a lot of coaches did/do where he called a timeout at the last nanosecond on the GW FG attempt and it totally blew up in his face. In the postgame presser, he took a total “how dare you question me” attitude with anybody who asked him about it. I think he got a reputation that night that he still hasn’t shaken with guys like MM. I’ll be honest. I’m not enamored with him and don’t think I ever will be. I’ll acknowledge he’s achieved more both in winning and stabilizing the program than any Pitt coach in decades (it’s a low bar to clear), but I just don’t care for the guy. He’s going to play Jurkovec until he absolutely has to pull him and then take potshots at him once he’s gone.

[IUP24]

I still go all the way back to Narduzzi’s first loss at Pitt. At Iowa, he did that stupid thing a lot of coaches did/do where he called a timeout at the last nanosecond on the GW FG attempt and it totally blew up in his face. In the postgame presser, he took a total “how dare you question me” attitude with anybody who asked him about it. I think he got a reputation that night that he still hasn’t shaken with guys like MM. I’ll be honest. I’m not enamored with him and don’t think I ever will be. I’ll acknowledge he’s achieved more both in winning and stabilizing the program than any Pitt coach in decades (it’s a low bar to clear), but I just don’t care for the guy. He’s going to play Jurkovec until he absolutely has to pull him and then take potshots at him once he’s gone.

Has nothing to do with it. It was all the Penn State thing. Mark Madden didn’t know who Pat Narduzzi was during his first year in 2015. And he surely didn’t know Pitt played at Iowa. Madden doesn’t follow college football. He just grabs hold of local stories, picks an extreme side, and pushes it to move the needle. I like MM, but that’s his game.

Duzz is who he is. I don’t look at Pitt regarding their past trials and tribulations with coaches that haven’t worked out. Most programs have the same issue. The side bar is that Pitt, in a vacuum, always is going to get compared to Penn State - for everything. And that’s unfair. Pitt is much in line with the rest of college football. There’s success. There’s failures. And there’s a lot of the space right in the middle.

At the end of the day, he’s done much for the program. He’s recruited better than most have. He’s brought a ton of stability. He’s won some big games. He’s one of 9 programs entering this year to have won 9 games and finished in the top 25 for the prior two seasons. It’s not easy just walk on the field and win. Most programs uniquely drop games you think they shouldn’t. I’ll continue to say that 80% of FBS teams have very little separation. The only thing you should be frustrated with Narduzzi about is his refusal to step out of his comfort zone pertaining to how the offense is run. There’s ways to be balanced, run the ball, etc., and incorporate modern concepts into it. But that’s not what he’s comfortable with. When they had an extremely modern offense with Whipple, you saw the results. And flashes of that were seen in 2020 before the Pickett injury. But again, that’s not what Narduzzi is comfortable with, so he deviated from it the first chance he gets. I get frustrated with that stuff.

[EastStroud13]

Oklahoma State losing to South Alabama (Sun Belt) at home 33-7

The Sun Belt has quickly become my favorite FBS conference to follow. It makes geographic sense. Its members are in small college towns that care about college football. And if you don't bring your A-game, most of them will punish you. Wake Forest barely snuck by an Old Dominion team that will probably finish last in the Sun Belt East.

It's such a breath of fresh air compared to the Power Five... I mean Four.

[Fightingscot82]

The Sun Belt has quickly become my favorite FBS conference to follow. It makes geographic sense. Its members are in small college towns that care about college football. And if you don't bring your A-game, most of them will punish you. Wake Forest barely snuck by an Old Dominion team that will probably finish last in the Sun Belt East.

It's such a breath of fresh air compared to the Power Five... I mean Four.

Saw the Pac-12 referred to online as the 2Pac and I love it.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

The Sun Belt has quickly become my favorite FBS conference to follow. It makes geographic sense. Its members are in small college towns that care about college football. And if you don't bring your A-game, most of them will punish you. Wake Forest barely snuck by an Old Dominion team that will probably finish last in the Sun Belt East.

It's such a breath of fresh air compared to the Power Five... I mean Four.

Are you actually not looking forward to the new budding rivalry between Pitt and Cal Berkeley (neither is anybody else).

[EastStroud13]

Are you actually not looking forward to the new budding rivalry between Pitt and Cal Berkeley (neither is anybody else).

Ugh... The worst. Completely insane. It will not get a second of attention from my eyeballs, that's for sure.

[Fightingscot82]

The irony is the PAC 12 looking great this season.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

The irony is the PAC 12 looking great this season.

Tough break for Coach Prime. Sounds like Travis Hunter will be out at least three weeks. Nasty cheap shot.

[jrshooter]

Tough break for Coach Prime. Sounds like Travis Hunter will be out at least three weeks. Nasty cheap shot.

I'm watching after the fact, and that entire situation could have wound up a lot worse than it did. Those were two sides that desperately wanted a piece of the other.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I'm watching after the fact, and that entire situation could have wound up a lot worse than it did. Those were two sides that desperately wanted a piece of the other.

The kid who delivered the cheap shot is from Boulder. His family's home address was posted online and he's receiving death threats. Heavy police involvement.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Steelers offense may be worse than Pitt's.


Edit: next play 71 yard TD