Fourth and One from their own 34. A little over two minutes to go. Georgia Tech was barely contained on the ground all day long, but most of the big gains were pitches to the outside. The Yellow Jackets opted to just go for the yard and run inside. Tyrique Jarrett said NOPE. I myself thought Georgia Tech was going to score after the long touchdown to Orndoff. The defense has blown it or come close to doing so five games in a row. Leave it to the senior nose tackle, all 335 pounds of him, to put the offense in position to win.
Nate Peterman is really blossoming the past two games. The coaches have given him a lot more freedom to throw and the rewards are obvious. Peterman was 14/20 and at least two of those incompletions were drops. If Pitt is going to make a push for the Coastal division (go Hokies today!) he’ll need to continue to make defenses respect the pass. The coaches are also letting WRs make mistakes and still trusting them. Opportunities are there even if they aren’t always capitalized on. Just keep giving the young corps chances and it’ll work out more often than not.
One thing no one saw headed into this season was the emergence of Chawntez Moss. It was well-known that the coaches liked him a lot and planned on using him even as a true freshman. But he’s arguably the 1B to Conner at 1A right now and bare minimum he’s ahead of Ollison and Hall. Conner hasn’t looked 100% lately and Moss has taken advantage of the additional responsibility. Moss has 20 carries for 142 yards the last two games and looks to have the speed, agility, and power to be the next great Pitt back.
The defense…eh. Overall it was their best game against a P5 foe but it’s still nowhere near good enough. I wonder if a redshirt or two will be burnt soon, especially if Avonte Maddox misses any time with his wrist/arm injury. Georgia Tech also doesn’t pass a lot, which takes away Pitt’s best asset on defense, the pass rush. There were plenty of tackles for a loss, mainly by Shakir Soto, but too many big plays followed to let the Yellow Jackets move the chains.
With a trip to Charlottesville next week, Pitt is still looking for its first road win. 4-0 at home, 0-2 on the road. A win will enable Pitt to keep hopes alive of a trip to the ACC Championship game. UVA is still figuring things out under Bronco Mendenhall, but a win over Duke last week shows they can’t be taken lightly.
What say you? Happy for another ugly win or wondering if another road game will spell disaster for the season?
The stop by Jarrett and company on 4th and 1 was a statement and gives the D something to build on.
We win at uva next week.
HTP!
Big win over GT even if we needed a couple of big bounces our way to pull it off. Tech has kind of turned into the coastal game I want to win the most every year. Cool to pull it off two straight.
Coastal is still very much in play even if it’s uphill, but hitting a bowl game still needs to be considered a pretty solid season, even sitting at 4-2. Hail!
Virginia Tech just opened the Coastal race back up. Although I think they opened it to themselves and Miami. Son of a bitch Pitt should have beat UNC. Had the lead for 59:58. Coaching upgrades in the Coastal being felt immediately. Let’s hope Duzz is up to the challenge?
Speaking of coaching upgrades I believe UVA made one also. But to answer Justin’s question I think Pitt wins Saturday. Six years of Mike London will take some time for Mendenhall to fix.
Pitt better win Saturday if they want to continue #The Pursuit…
A win against The Hoo’s in Charlottesville makes for a very important Thursday night clash with V Tech. I know we have had their number but it’s not Beamer Ball anymore. Foster’s D still there and now the very sharp offensive mind of Justin Fuente. Going to be an extremely tough game. But shit, this is Pitt they could easily lay an egg in Charlotesville and essentially kill any chance at a Coastal championship.
Screw it. Gonna keep my buzz going, enjoy some more college football, some MLB playoffs( sadly no Buctober), and most importantly enjoy this Pitt W!
Hail to Pitt!!
The Pat Signal from waaay back on Sept 10th following the Pedo St win was New Jersey OL Carter Warren. Considered the 7th best prospectin Jersey. Of the four major recruiting sites two had him as a 4 star and the other two had him a 3 star.
Narduzzi is an old school football coach who no doubt loves him some lineman. Offensive or on D. He inherited a very good OL from Chryst, keep it going. The game is won in the trenches.
Narduzzi seems to have a better grasp of recruiting and building depth across the board than Paulie did. Roughly 10 more scholarships to give. I think 4 star TE Charles Reeves will be next to sign on…
Great to follow a nice win with some good recruiting news…
Narduzzi is going to have to do something as Madddox replacement was being picked on a lot!
There’s no way some of you are even watching these games. Did you see UNC get smashed? How about Marshall getting killed by North Texas (Joe Greene doesn’t play there anymore.) Who have we actually beaten?
I’m a former student, future Pitt Dad and current (long-time) season ticket holder and I’m less than impressed.
I’m sure they’re great kids and the staff are great guys but this is a mediocre football team, at best.
Why would Pitt wear any other uniform?
Whitehead is a linebacker playing out of position at safety.
He is a very average safety.
The student section filled up right as the game started. They even had a good psu chant going mid-game that brought smiles to our sections faces.
Next opponent is 1-0 in the ACC Coastal – uva.
Clobber the Cavs!
4-2! Can’t help thinking about the lose to UNC. My number
is 8-4 at year end. The program is improving and OC Canda
has been a great add. Duz is the man to lead us to higher
ground.
Lots to complain about this game like:
1 – Terrible kickoff coverage by Ibrahim/Blewitt
2 – Pitt LBs are slow and generally struggle in the fundamentals of tackling
3 – Pitt’s secondary, very very weak every game
However, lets also give this team the credit it deserves for perseverance. The 4th down stop was an amazing team effort, with Tyrique making the initial stop but Galambos making sure the RB didn’t fall forward for the extra inch needed
I disagree with the pass to Orndorff, it was a good pass that GT was lucky to get a finger tip on, and thankfully Orndorff was ready and able to adjust to catch the tip. Against Miami/Clemson if they don’t let Peterman throw more often, the games could get very ugly.
On the bright side, Moss is Pitt’s next great RB and likely won’t be here after his junior year. His running style is similar to Leveon Bell, he’s patient but then hits the hole with speed and balance. Then great cuts in the open field.
Weah is a great surprise, and Matthews made a real nice catch on a short hard toss by Peterman. I think he’s going to be very good. Q Hederson has been the best player on offense this year.
The player of this game in my mind was Soto, he ran down QB and RB from the backside 5-6 times that made a huge difference. Probably the best game of his career and hopefully only the beginning for him because it is needed. Also Tyrique did a great job clogging up the middle which was the big difference from the Navy debacle
We need Lamont Wade desperately and he’ll be playing on day 1 if he picks the Panthers. Hopefully Hamlin/Coleman are as good as advertised because poor Ryan Lewis is hopeless. I’m still hopeful that Dane Jackson will be better than Maddox with some increased playing time. He’s taller and stronger so the tangibles are in his favor.
I have come to agree, that Whitehead is not a safety as he is so slow to react to the ball and despite his marvelous speed he is seldom around the ball on long passes to help his CBs. I wonder if his future is a LB, as he’s not afraid of hitting and his speed off the edge would make him a great rush specialist, if taught the correct technique. T Webb, UGH!!!
Let’s keep it going and beat Va getting to 5-2. If they do, I’m predicting a 7-5 season which wouldn’t be bad given the tougher schedule. God is the NC loss heart breaking now.
1. Chawntez Moss has to get more carries.
2. The passing game is getting better. The Panthers need to be able to throw when opponents pack the box.
3. The defensive secondary has to get better. Particularly against the deep ball.
Kudos to all offense and to O’Canada though they lost it for a while once they got a bigger lead. I have always preferred fast, lean DEs. Soto has been great where he has speed to penetrate. I have given TJ grief for a belly bigger than mine and lack of stamina. His stamina is much better this year and that stop was awesome – thought he was going to squeeze the GT RB to death. See us getting our first road win.
Hail to Pitt. Full speed ahead.
But, does anybody know how many years the University of Washington coach has been on the job?
Chris Petersen is coaching his third year at the University of Washington. I’m not sure PITT will be rated in the top ten next year as Washington is so far this year.
In all fairness Chris Petersen inherited a better team and recruits than did Narduzzi and staff and it is tougher to recruit at PITT.
Petersen was a QB coach at PITT for a year when Van Pellet was our QB.
Boy! does a good recruiting coach and staff make a difference.
Great job getting a Carter Warren to commit to PITT. It’s getting great press in the North Jersey papers. This is a kid everybody wanted.
Who knows Carter Warren may be another Jabrill Peppers coming out of North Jersey.
He is 6’7″ and 315 lbs. and is playing both offensive and defensive line.
We had blue helmets, navy shirts, and old gold pants when I was at PITT. They looked good then and still look good today.
The new blue helmets are a nice touch too. There is something timeless about dark blue shirts and the old gold helmets combo.
They are not Annapolis or Notre Dame colors. They are PITT colors. We had them first!
majors brought in the script and mustard, so if pitt was wearing blue helmets and navy shirts, it had to have been between 70-72?
Pitt won in 37 of the 50 states. Beating the throwbacks of the U (when they were in the NC game), Oregon, king of the trendy uniform. Utah and NC State.
People around the country love them and indeed around the World. As Pitt won in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, France, Germany, Finland, Poland, Urkaine, Greece, Hungary, Serbia, Tanzania, Iran, Pakistan (who knew), Thailand (pitt students always enjoyed Thai Stick), Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, and all the GI’s in South Korea.
Locally Pitt got 83% of the vote in Penna. and even the Hoopies like the uni’s with 52%. Pitt even won in Deep South states like Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and South Carolina.
Where Pitt didn’t finish 1st, they finished 2nd in just about every remaining state.
Overall Pitt got 37% of the vote. Next closet.
Miami with 26%.
Hope the dolts in the AD office take notice.
Pitt wore Gold Helmets, blue with gold pants in those years. From 1966 to Majors as well.
I think a few years back in the early ’60’s when Ditka was on the team they might have wore blue helmets.
Those things are horrid.
Moss will be here four years
Weah is a very marginal receiver who will be neutralized against better DBs
Ga tech is not that good
It’s a 7\5 team that is agonizingly slowly moving in the right direction
But good lord….. some of you refuse to see the flaws.
Unis- As everyone, even non-Pitt people have commented, those unis are a huge upgrade. In fact, so much so, that not wearing them will now look a little foolish.
OL – For as much accolades as our OL receives, I think we sometimes overlook the fact that their passing blocking is very marginal. Maybe the new scheme takes some time to adjust to?
DL – We now have 3 seniors playing well, kudos to the coaching staff on this transition. Hopefully, given the senior emphasis, we get some younger players experience now so there won’t be too huge of a dropoff next year. Good to see Herndon get in and make a nice play.
DBs – Disappointing to lose Maddox, especially for his sake personally, but this is a good job for someone else to step in and earn some pt. I can’t imagine there would be much of a drop-off subbing for either corner. Honestly, nothing personal against either guy, but every long pass is either complete or interference.
And finally, would like to know how macV is doing in practice…
Did you know that the first use of numbers on the uniforms of football players was by Pitt in 1908?
H2P!!!
opg,
we were trend setters way back then. also wasn’t pitt the first to do a radio broadcast of a college game as well. that was certainly before my time.
First live radio broadcast of a college football game in the United States when Harold W. Arlin announced the 21–13 Pitt victory in the Backyard Brawl over West Virginia at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh on KDKA on October 8, 1921.
First nationwide television broadcast of a live sporting event, a football game against Duke at Pitt Stadium, was televised coast-to-coast by NBC on September 29, 1951.
First live regular-season broadcast by ESPN of a college football game when eventual national champion BYU defeated Pitt, 20–14, at Pitt Stadium on September 1, 1984
H2P!!!
Disappointed that the defense appears to have made no progress between last season and now. Every team says they “have things to fix” or “get better at” at this point in the season…..Guess what, that is all coach speak. This team is as good as it is going to be for the rest of this season. So settle in and drink plenty of your beverage of choice before and during the rest of the games because you are going to need it!
But the All-Time BEST Kicker in Pitt History.
Recruited by Paul Chryst.
But it was a BETTER Crowd than I expected given the weather and everything else.
HTP!
But they got to tweak ’em. Make them MORE like the Unis from ’76 when Pitt won the National Championship.
BETTER Colors… BIGGER Numbers and Pant Stripes.
It’ll take some time. But they’ll get there.
But how about we go back to the Dark Mustard when Pitt was Winning BIG and fill up those seats?
No longer an issue.
I do like the new flat color blue helmets. Changing from week to week is a newer trend in football. It’s a fun thing as long as we win. Something to talk and disagree about.
Defense recruiting will have to be the target. How do you improve the defensive backs? Rush the QB’s on all plays?
While they aren’t the Mustard, we did wear Yellow later in the 80’s under Mike Gottfried.
Ironhead Heyward
The blue then wasn’t as Royal as the current throwbacks. It was on the 70’s uni’s.
Really digging the offense play calling, Moss is a stud.
Blewitt makes me nervous, what was all that nonsense from Orndorf his roommate, I bet Chris likes to party.
I think we will take care of Virginia, if VT holds against UNC that Thursday night game is going to be a thriller.
I’all definitely head to Pittsburgh for that game.
Hail Pitt
Notre Dame sucks, I love it, let’s flip recruits our way!