Just to get this out of the way. The resignation of Tim “Ox” Enright as the football Equipment Manager of 31 years; barely more then a week before training camp starts is not a good thing. The rumors as to the reason for the resignation cast football head coach Pat Narduzzi in a poor, petty asshole-ish light.

It’s not a crisis, but the loss of a popular figure within the football program is the sort of thing that can lead to a more critical eye to be cast towards Narduzzi and how he operates. From within the athletic department, the school administration, by past players who adored Ox, and fans to some degree.

It is by all appearances a minor, self-inflicted wound by Narduzzi. Something that will be quickly forgotten. Especially if the season goes a lot better then predicted.

Yes, Pitt has what may be the most difficult non-con schedule. Especially since it is four games, not three like in the Big 12, Pac-12 and Big 10.

Interestingly, while Pitt’s non-con is considered the toughest among all P5 programs, Stewart Mandel notes that the ACC — for whatever reason — has a year with many programs facing tough non-cons.

1. Pittsburgh. The Panthers have long histories with Penn State and Notre Dame, but this year marks the first time since 1999 they’ve played both in the same season. As if that’s not enough, they’re also heading to Orlando to face defending “national champion” UCF. That’s just brutal.

2. Florida State. The Seminoles open the season against a tough ACC foe, Virginia Tech, but in exchange they visit reigning Citrus Bowl champ Notre Dame in November, two weeks before hosting rival Florida. There’s also a September game against ever-tricky mid-major Northern Illinois. And Samford.

3. Miami. The Hurricanes open the season against LSU on a Sunday night at Jerry World. Not content with just one long-distance date, they also spend Week 3 at Toledo, which went 11-3 last season. And a home game the next week against FIU isn’t necessarily a gimme. (But Savannah State is.)

4. UCLA. The Chip Kelly era begins with a winnable game against Cincinnati, which has seen better days. But next up comes a trip to Oklahoma for a close-up scouting report on future A’s outfielder Kyler Murray, followed by a visit from Fresno State, a 10-win team last year.

5. Louisville. Opening against Alabama (in Orlando) is always going to get you on the short list. Ask Florida State what that’s like. As always, the Cardinals also face in-state rival Kentucky, as well as Mike Sanford’s Western Kentucky team, with one breather against Indiana State.

Mind you, in researching this, the options got to be slim pickings pretty quickly.

Oh, Miami. Beware the Glass Bowl. Bad things happen there. Bad, bad things. Especially in September.

Maybe I’m being an irrational optimist, but I like Pitt to go at least 2-2 in their non-con. With enough rationalizing (and perhaps beverages to go with it) — 3-1.

What it really comes down to, though, is what Pitt does in the conference schedule. Most of the conference slate is going to be toss-up games.

GT — who knows for either side.

UNC — they were bad last year, but Pitt still found a way to lose and has yet to beat them as part of the ACC, so until that happens I just can’t assume anything.

Syracuse — again, I like to think Pitt has this one, but Dino Babers coaches offense to 11. And last year was some kind of crazy slog just to keep everyone off-balance.

Duke — Other than one blowout Pitt win, the games have all finished at 7-points or less to decide it.

Virginia — In Charlottesville, so technically the Cavs have a better chance.

VT — 0-2 against Fuentes. I’d like Pitt’s chances a lot better if this game was in September or early October. Guessing this one comes down to the final minutes.

Wake Forest — Dave Clawson has been steady and strong on making the Demon Deacons a stable and quietly good team. It’s down in Winston-Salem, so definitely a toss-up.

Miami — Welp. Not that irrational about Pitt right now.

Legitimately, Pitt could be anywhere from 7-1 to 3-5 in the conference slate.

That, “who really knows with Pitt,” is echoed in the SBNation preview.

They went from playing like a bottom-40 team to a top-40 team. The offense was still sporadic, but the defense turned good. The win over Miami was a nice signpost of the improvement, but even if they’d fallen short in that game, the Panthers were already far ahead of where they’d been a couple of months prior.

And now that improved defense returns its top six linemen, top five linebackers, and six of eight defensive backs.

The offense is still in flux. Two of the three QBs who saw the field last year are gone, and while returning sophomore Ke

nny Pickett was at the helm for the Miami game, he’s still only seen real action in three games (and went 5-for-13 in one of them). Receiver Jester Weah, the only real big-play threat, is gone, and there are another couple of all-league linemen to replace as well.

Depth-wise, it feels Pitt is getting somewhere. This team is mostly made of Narduzzi recruits now, so perhaps his aggressive defensive scheme will stop feeling quite as risky.

Plus, hey, we don’t have to worry about inconsistent performances against lesser competition, because there’s almost no lesser competition on the schedule. After a week-one visit from FCS’ Albany, each of the remaining 11 opponents is projected 73rd or better in S&P+, and five are in the top 25. That tamps down the expected win total for what should be a top-50 Pitt, even if Pitt doesn’t really do “expected.”

…

I’m finding it pretty easy to talk myself into Pitt as a top-40 team again. The Panthers were close to that late in the year, and if Pickett goes from small-sample all-star to all-star, then the Panthers should be efficient offensively, even if there aren’t a ton of big plays. And since the defense returns most of the reasons for its late-year improvement, there’s reason for hope there, too.

This is an unforgiving schedule, though. S&P+ projects Pitt 45th, which seems safe, but the Panthers are still only projected favorites in five games, and three are relative tossups. Meanwhile, they are a 12-point underdog or worse against Penn State and in road trips to UCF, Notre Dame, and Miami.

This being Pitt, they’ll probably win at least one of those games, but they’ll have to win a majority of their tossups, without any slips in the easier games, to get back to bowl eligibility. S&P+ projects an average of 5.3 wins even with the top-50 ranking. Pickett might not only have to be good; he might have to be excellent.

Notwithstanding the terrible attempts to bring back the X-Files, “I want to believe.”

Really, it keeps coming back to Kenny Pickett for these previews. Which is scary. Not necessarily because I doubt Pickett. My doubts remain with the receivers. This isn’t Marino throwing to whatever stiffs the Dolphins used to trot out, but the receiving corps outside of Araujo-Lopes is a giant, flaming question mark.

But everyone still puts it on Pickett.

This is a promising roster that, for better or worse, has weathered tough times together already. So much of this team’s potential success likely comes down to the play of Pickett, although the depth of the quarterbacks room has to be comforting for Pitt. The Coastal seems fairly open this year aside from Miami, so Pitt has a chance to play its way into meaningful November football, provided it survives that brutal nonconference schedule in one piece.

Still remains the question of who is catching the damn ball.