Here is Pitt HC Pat Narduzzi’s mid-week press conference for our game against VT this weekend in Blacksburg, VA, tarted up a bit for your reading pleasure..  It is a noon start on Saturday and looks to be a rainy day.

Official Virginia Tech Week Game Notes issued by the Pitt Media Dept.

PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO: Narduzzi Virginia Tech Preview

PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT (HTML LINK): Narduzzi Text Transcript

 Opening Statement:

“We had a couple practices last week to focus on ourselves and become a better football team. We’re cranked up. It’s always rough on a Saturday to watch all of those games and not being able to go out and play. I think our kids are anxious to get back on the field. We’re getting ready for a great football team down at Virginia Tech.

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Here are the Pitt Media Game Notes for the visiting Panthers and the Virginia Tech Hokies.

LINK (PDF): Where to Watch Pitt-VT (RSN stations)

LINK (PDF): Pitt Game Notes (VT) – These are the multi-page, in-depth notes on the game.

GAME STORYLINES

Pitt opens Atlantic Coast Conference play this Saturday when it travels to Virginia Tech. The 2-1 Panthers are coming off an open week. The Hokies played at East Carolina and dropped a 35-28 decision to fall to 2-2.

Pitt and Virginia Tech meet annually as members of the Coastal Division. The series, however, dates back to 1993 when both schools were in the Big East. The Hokies lead the series, 8-6, but Pitt has won five of the last six encounters, including 21-16 at Heinz Field last year.

There has been a distinct home field advantage in the series. Pitt is 4-0 against Virginia Tech at Heinz Field but just 1-5 in games played in Blacksburg.

The Panthers’ lone win at Virginia Tech occurred in 2002, a 28-21 victory sparked by Larry Fitzgerald’s three touchdown catches. In its last visit to Lane Stadium, Pitt dropped a 19-9 decision in 2013.

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Well, it has been nine months since Paul Chryst left for northern pastures and Pitt hired Pat Narduzzi in his place and this may be a good time to review what has happened since then.

We’ve seen some big changes surrounding the Pitt football program as Narduzzi hired a new staff and Pitt hired a new Athletic Director who came with a fatter checkbook.  We’ve gone back to the ‘Script on the helmets and our season ticket sales and fundraising numbers have both gone up.  You have to attribute those last items to Narduzzi and the energy he’s brought to the program so far.

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Here are some links and such.

The Trib’s article on Peterman:

At the outset of his Pitt career, Nathan Peterman faced the daunting task of wrestling the starting job from an incumbent quarterback who has the support of his teammates.It took him no longer than one training camp and the first two weeks of the season to get it done.

Then, in his first start, he encountered a large, hostile crowd in Iowa and was asked to save the game by driving the offense 75 yards to a game-tying touchdown. With 52 seconds to spare — too much time, as it turned out — he did it.

“He definitely shows poise in the moment,” tight end J.P. Holtz said. “He doesn’t get scared.”

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We had a close loss yesterday to a Big Ten Iowa team in their hometown Kinnick Field.  The final score was 27-24 and was determined by a last second 57 yard field goal Iowa’s placekicker.

To keep all the game links in one place here they are… then we’ll move on to background issues later in the article:

Fittipaldo’s report Post-Gazette 9/20; and  DiPaloa’s Trib after game article.

There were missed opportunities to win this game, or at the very least actions could have been taken that would have given us a better shot at a win.

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I’m sorry to be so late with this piece.

Here is where your log your official Pitt vs Iowa game predictions… winner, score and if you feel like it why.

Here’s mine….

I think this is the game Peterman cements the starting role going into the ACC season. He throws for two TD and our run game kicks in for two more.

Pitt 27 – Iowa 24

Have relatives in town and off to DC for touristy stuff, will check in later.

Reed

(This is a long look at the current QB situation so far this season)

Pitt is in the midst of something we haven’t had in a very long time and that is a genuine quarterback competition being played out in real time and for the world to see.  We have been told there were competitions in the past but those were lip service to the media. This season however we are being treated to something this new staff feels is of uppermost priority, finding the QB which is the best overall for the team.  Here is background on the issue and some Q & As that may help to enlighten our fans as to what is and has been transpiring in this interesting development.

How did Pitt get the two principal QBs, Chad Voytik and Nate Peterman, on the roster?

For that we have to go back to 2011 when both Voytik and Peterman were in their senior years in high school.  Both players were star high school QBs and one left his hometown state of Tennessee to go to Pitt and the other kid left Florida to go to play his college ball in Tennessee.

In high school Chad Voytik was a 6’0” 192 lb running QB and played for the Cleveland Blue Raiders, located in Cleveland, TN, a small town of 42,000 located 30 miles northeast of Chattanooga and in the western foothill of the southern Great Smokey Mountains.

Voytik had a very good career there being named both an All-State player and a high school All-American.  He was a dual threat QB at Cleveland, passing for over 5,000 yards in his three years starting and was also a prolific runner.

Voytik was a Rivals.com four star (4*) player who was also ranked 4^th nationally among senior QBs and the #1 player at any position in TN. Twelve other D1 schools wanted Voytik as a recruit including PSU, Clemson, Virginia, Syracuse and Louisville.  Those are all good football schools and play in competitive Power Five conferences.

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September 14, 2015

Iowa Week

 PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO: Narduzzi Iowa Preview

PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT (HTML LINK): Narduzzi Web Transcript

Opening Remarks:

“We had a great win. Anytime you get a win, it’s a great one. It’s always good to win on the road. Akron was a good football team and I thought they were exceptional on the front seven—and that turned out to be true. There was some nasty weather, it was sloppy. Our kids had a great attitude they were [positive] going into it and played with it.

“I really thought our kids were locked in on the trip. It was a great job by both teams holding onto the ball, but we ended up being plus-one there which we needed. We always have to win the turnover ratio and we won the time possession as well. We had four drives of eight plays or more for our offense. Eight being the lowest, I believe we had a couple 10 or 13-play drives and that’s huge. That’s how you win the time possession and that’s what we lacked the week before. We kept making these explosive gains but we didn’t have that time possession. We would like to have both.

Here is the Akron game Play-by-Play so you can see those drives he’s talking about.

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PITT vs. IOWA

September 19, 2015 • 8 p.m., ET

Kinnick Stadium (70,585/FieldTurf) • Iowa City, Iowa

Big Ten Network • Pitt IMG Sports Radio Network

PittsburghPanthers.com • @GoPittFootball • #PITTvsIOWA

LINK (PDF): Pitt Game Notes (Iowa) – Fans, these are the in-depth game notes (Pitt two-deep, bios, etc…) and if you are watching the game they are a great thing to have in your hand for quick reference.  Here are some notable things going into the game. Note the shake up in the starters listed (CAPS is the 1st string):

Quarterback:  4 NATE PETERMAN JR*, 6’2”, 225 or 16 CHAD VOYTIK (JR*, 6-1, 215)

Tailback:  37 QADREE OLLISON FR*, 6’2”, 230; 5 Chris James (SO, 5-11, 210) or 22 Darrin Hall (FR, 5-11, 215)

Right Tackle:  70 BRIAN O’NEILL (FR*, 6-6, 290) OR 78 ALEX BOOKSER (FR*, 6-6, 310);  72 Carson Baker (SO*, 6-5, 325)

Strong Safety:  9 JORDAN WHITEHEAD FR, 5’11, 185 OR 25 PAT AMARA JR. SO, 6’2”;  195 26 Jevonte Pitts (JR*, 5-11, 200)

Defensive End: 92 RORI BLAIR SO, 6’4”, 240;  52 Shakir Soto (JR, 6-3, 265);  48 Zach Poker (SO*, 6-4, 235)

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(Here is something to get the blood flowing a bit; The highlights from ESPN3’s coverage of Pitt win against Akron )

On Saturday night in the cold and rainy rubber capital of the world, Akron, Ohio our Pitt Panthers won a non-conference  game against the Mid-America Conference Akron Zips. The final score was 24-7 and helped to erase the lingering bad taste in fans’ mouths from the loss we suffered last season when the Zips handily beat us in our home stadium 21-10.

We played this game much better than that one.

Aside from the win itself, which brings new Head Coach Pat Narduzzi’s team to a 2-0 record, a dramatic story line developed that may be more important in the long run than the actual victory.  That would be the blooming competition between Chad Voytik and Nate Peterman to determine who is going to be the starting QB after we finish the Iowa game (next Saturday in Iowa at 8:00 pm broadcast on the Big Ten Network) and move on to our ACC conference opponents.

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The day before the game is a good time to sit back in your chair and take a long look at all your scribbled notes you have been jotting down, when you should have been working, about what you have read, seen and heard about the upcoming Pitt vs. Akron game.   It’s time to look at what you know and feel and start thinking hard about what you believe we’ll see come out of Zips hometown of Akron, Ohio on Saturday night.

To recap: Justin did a great piece on Thursday with his “Know Your Enemy: Akron Zips” article.  It succinctly covered Zips offense and their defense and then he adds his thoughts about the game in closing.  Justin’s prediction is this

“Pitt wins an ugly one 24-13 thanks to a few turnovers from the defense and a smart yet boring day from the offense which avoids any big mistakes. Tyler Boyd turns something into nothing once or twice to open it up for the running game to be just good enough to control the game.”

Here is a little something to help you in recapping the YSU win but remember that this shows only Pitt’s highlight and none of the lowlights as they say.

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Here is the Pitt media release info doctored up with some additional graphics and information…

First off here is HC Pat Narduzzi’s Monday afternoon press conference.

PITT vs. AKRON

“You lookin’ at me?”

September 12, 2015 • 6 p.m., ET

InfoCision Stadium (30,000/ProGrass) • Akron, Ohio
ESPN3 • Pitt IMG Sports Radio Network
PittsburghPanthers.com • @GoPittFootball • #PITTvsAkron

PDF LINK: Complete Pitt Game Notes (Akron)

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Alright, alright, alright… the time is now for us to put down our thoughts and predictions about our opening game against the Youngstown State University Penguins.  A lot of newcomers have joined this blog since the end of last season so thanks to you guys for coming onboard and please don’t hesitate to join in.

Onto the main stage event.  As I write this it’s 30 hours to game time and maybe 27 hours or so to meet up with old friends and make new ones while we talk about the present, past and future of the football program and in particular this 2015 team.

We all know about the rather dramatic changes the program and the athletic department have gone through since Dec 17^th when Paul Chryst left for Wisconsin and when our new Beloved Leader, Chancellor Mark Gallagher, dropped the ax on the neck of AD Steve Pederson’s tenure at Pitt.

That has discussed over and over and now it’s time to move on to real football.  With that, here is your chance to give the sporting world your Pitt vs. YSU game predictions.  Please add on your thoughts on why you feel your prediction will come true and, if you feel like it, throw in some individual player’s work that you think will help make it happen.

I’m asking for your thoughts so I’ll start off with mine…

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The Pitt Media Dept. has been sending out some press information that most Pitt fans don’t get to see firsthand, so here are some interesting links, info and videos that you might enjoy.

First off, The ACC media guys made public a booklet you may want to keep handy when we are discussing Pitt, our ACC opponents and our chances of a conference championship this season.

It is the 2015 ACC Football Media Guide and is available as linked.  Pitt’s information is on pages 77 – 80 and all the teams are covered very extensively. It is an excellent piece of work from the ACC and covers everything imaginable.

Here are some other important and interesting links sent out by Mike Finn, who is the Associate Commissioner for ACC Football Communications.

Here are the Week One tailored press releases:

Total (Press)Release:  http://theacc.co/FB15release

Full Release:  http://theacc.co/FB15release-pdf

Standings & Schedules, Notes:  http://theacc.co/FB15release-schedules

Game Previews:  http://theacc.co/FB15release-previews

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PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO: Narduzzi YSU Preview

Opening Statement:

“It’s game week finally. It feels like it, I can tell you that. Had to go out and see Rob [Blanc, Pitt’s athletic trainer] yesterday and get some Tums. That’s normal game week for a football coach, get Tums to make yourself feel good. We obviously have a great team coming to Pittsburgh to play us, Youngstown State. We have a lot of history with them, as you guys know. Not only a great football team, but a great coach in Bo Pelini who’s been around and coached great football teams, been to the last eight bowl games with nine-win seasons for a bunch. He’s probably one of the top coaches in the country with a great staff. From the top down, just like us with Chancellor Gallagher. A great football team, with great talent.

“When you look at it, you’re going to have some Division One transfers [at YSU], some pop-ups, some guys on the rosters that we didn’t have on the two-deep, some [Power Five] transfers. You’re going to play a good football team that’s going to be amped up, ready to go without question. You get twelve [game] opportunities. They don’t give those back. We have to be prepared—great on offense, great on defense. We need to be special on special teams to come out with a victory.

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