Grew up in Virginia and is an ACC football fan. I wonder what team? Possible conflict of interest?https://www.therecorderonline.com/articles/nate-black-named-football-official-in-acc/

Biggest change....and it's no surprise....Penn State falls to #4 with Creighton staying at #5 but coming closer to pushing Penn State out of the top 4. Louisville is now 3rd. Nebraska picked up another 1st place vote.....no big deal.

Daughter has 2, section 148, for Clemson. $75 each. Call 724-944-9735 if interested.

The answer provided by the ACC wasn't enough. They basically said that situation results in a do-over. No penalty. How can that possibly be true? I posted on here a few months ago that Texas Tech players were taking forever to get off the field on Cincy's potential game-winning drive. Are they saying in a situation like that, Cincy can just snap it to stop the clock and get a free timeout? There's no penalty for snapping a ball before the ready to play? That makes no sense.

Another way this can be used to get a free timeout is lets say there are 30 seconds left, no timeouts. You compete a pass for a first down. Clock stops momentarily. You sub out some players so the defense subs. You rush to the line and snap the ball. Clock stops. Free timeout. Replay the down. No need to spike the ball as this saves a down.

This is an all-time rule glitch if this is true and teams need to exploit this. Even when the situation isnt so dire. 3 or 4 minutes left and you just subbed so they are taking 10 seconds to get off the field. Just snap to stop the clock and get the do-over.

All this being said, Pitt's players were set. Subs had been in the game for 10 or more seconds. I dont understand what the ref was waiting for and even if he was correct with the mulligan call, the crew should have huddled and reversed that call because the ref standing near the UVa backfield had no effect on the play.

Disclaimer: I do NOT think we are going 11-1. But just for fun:

If we did go 11-1, we are in really good shape:

Need to move up 6 spots:

Bama/LSU is an elimination game. A 9-3 loser of that game isnt going over 11-1 Pitt.

If Texas loses another before Thanksgiving then their game vs Texas A&M is an elimination game as both would go in at 9-2. Even if Texas is 10-1 by then, a win over A&M knocks them out.

Ole Miss is knocked out if they lose to Georgia on Saturday or another game.

Very likely Iowa State loses 1 of its last 4. But of course, a team like that could beat 12-0 BYU in the B12CG and steal a bid.

Need 2 of these:

Need IU to lose 2 (OSU/Mich)

ND to lose 1 (at USC or Army?)

PSU to lose to a girls team

Miami to lose 2

Ten to lose 2 (@ UGa, @ Vandy)

BYU to lose 2

LSU/Bama winner to lose another game

Comcast finally added FS2 after its launch with FS1 5 years ago or so. There's still not much on it. Bundesliga soccer, UFC, Big East basketball pretty much.

- Merrimack moving up from D2 to join the NEC next year giving the league its first school from Massachusetts (which surprised me). Pre-emptive move in case RMU takes their new arena to the MAAC, CAA, Horizon, or OVC?

- Liberty and North Alabama joined the A-Sun this year, replacing USC-Upstate. The Big South kicked Liberty out with their move to D1 football.

- These I found the most interesting: Savannah State moving back to D2 next year and Indiana-Purdue-Fort Waybe (aka known as IUPUFW, IPFW, or Fort Wayne) is now Purdue-Fort Wayne as IU and Purdue have divorced. There's now and IU-Fort Wayne and a Purdue-Fort Wayne with Purdue-Fort Wayne inheriting the athletics program.

We've got some hoops to talk on today's Morning Pitt as we consider the question of what to do with Guillermo Diaz Graham and look at potential lineup moves and more with the Backyard Brawl coming on Friday.

Veterans Day. No games before Veterans Day or whatever the federal holiday observance of it is if it falls on Saturday or Sunday. A good portion of America is off work or school that day so you can do some day games and work in home games for Army, Navy, and Air Force. I'd also bring back the 24 Hours of College Hoops for this.

Midnight: Pac 12 game
2AM: Big West or WCC game
4AM: Hawaii home game
6AM: NEC, MAAC, AE, etc
8AM: basically the same
10AM: maybe like CAA or SoCon

Then at noon, you start with big games and run them to midnight. I feel like college basketball needs a jolt in November. It probably has the least anticipated start of any major American sport.

As we know, MLB starts on a weekday afternoon and ESPN has done a nice job with the NHL opening with a weekday afternoon game. This year Seattle hosted a game at 1:30 PM on a Tuesday (4:30 eastern). We need more of a grand opening for college hoops.

Someone close to the athletic department described ti me our AD as a "return on investment" administrator....which makes sense if you look at the Victory Heights money toilet.

No doubt he will question the ROI of keeping Narduzzi.

I don't think he's the second coming of Jonathan Ogden or Joe Thomas or anything, but I don't the line was this bad before he got hurt.

@JimHammett
@Chris Peak

I think this is Desmond Reid’s little brother…shows a 10.7 100m dash as a freshman. Any idea if Pitt is or will be recruiting him? Yes it’s early but you know…

Pitt safeties coach Cory Sanders met the media on Tuesday and talked about the Panthers' defensive performances in recent games, this Saturday's game against Clemson and a lot more. Here's video of what he said.

** Not often a few games into any sports season do you get to experience the debut of a player who you believe will be a difference maker for your team.

** OK, sure I suppose one can offer Russell Wilson as a better example, but I digress.

** Us Panther Hoops faithful were all looking forward to the debut tonight of the 6-8 Bosnian Bomber. I was all ready to write all kinds of attempts at clever entries describing his sensational shooting and prime play on day one.

** But instead, we got to watch the player we probably should have expected – that is, more or less, he looked like a player who hasn’t played in seven weeks.

** So let’s just offer a pass for now and give him some time to get up to speed.

** But it’s a little tougher to give a pass to the rest of the Panther squad who often looked like a team that hasn’t seen a zone defense in seven years.

** Early on, the Panthers looked like they were really ready to play against the Running Bulldogs, extending to an early 20 point lead. But once the Bulldogs stopped running, and instead took to standing in their 2-3, the Panthers at times looked flummoxed.

** Far too often, the Panthers made the pass against the zone to the foul line, but couldn’t get much more than a jump shot one pass out of it. In other words, when Gardner-Webb was standing in their zone, a bit too often the Panthers were standing in their efforts to attack it.

** For a while, I was uncomfortably reminded about how much trouble Capel’s teams had attacking zones in his first couple years.

** Zones have been a little less of a problem in the last few because of perimeter ball movement and bombs away from Blake and others.

** This night, the same bombs weren’t falling to the standard we hope this team can hold.

** We were able to get some open ones, but not enough went in to make the Bulldogs slide back to man. And with our guys lined on the perimeter, second chances were hard to come by.

** Eventually, however, we found our way to a better attack by screening on the wing instead of trying to play from the foul line. This allowed the Panthers to keep the lead at a very comfortable distance, even if it never quite felt like we were putting away a Big South Conference opponent the way we probably should.

** When assessing this game, once again I’ll offer the confession that I’m judging this team against what I think they can be instead of where they are.

** And wIth that, 19 point wins (which could have been 30 had not Jeff cleared the bench in the final minutes) aren’t problematic.

** But the Panthers were able to score many more points on the break off turnovers than they will get against your ordinary ACC foes.

** In the other direction, Jaland’s shot was just off today. His floater, which is more often money, was misfiring. It’s fair to assume he’ll be back with a vengeance against the Mounties. In most games he’ll be closer to 50% instead of the 27% he offered tonight.

** I do wonder however, if it’s a good thing that GDiaz tied with Jaland leading the Panthers with 11 field goal attempts. It’s understandable why he took 8 threes against the GWebb zone. But it’s also possible there is something of a diminishing returns principle with G’s offense.

** Along the same lines, I might also offer that 29 minutes is about 9 too many for GDG. But if Cam Corhen can’t figure out how to stay out of foul trouble, this is Capel’s reality.

** Cam had plenty of good moments this night too. He ran the court well on the break, and does bring much needed offense. But he needs to develop a stronger base on defense as he’s still letting his man back him down, and slip around him and this is leading to many of his fouls.

** None of the Panthers can be too proud of their second half defensive work. After allowing GW to only shoot 32% in the first half, the Panthers allowed 46% in the second half. From my eye, these numbers are entirely reflective of our effort in the second half as opposed to the first.

** In fact, it didn’t really appear that the Panthers brought much energy at all to start the second half. But that’s why it’s nice to be able to bring Zach Austin off the bench and his entry brought a spark on both ends. It’s only too bad that his heat check ended on his second three attempt of the final 20 minutes.

** Ish Leggett brought the heat all game long. In fact, he was near perfect for 40 minutes. Additionally, Ish didn’t force a shot all game long allowing him to be extremely efficient. Damian was efficient too, but maybe the Panthers would have been a little better served from either trying to assert their offense a little more than they did tonight.

** This might seem a little strange to say for a team who has scored 80 or more points in their first three games, but I think we need to find a bit more half court firepower. At the moment, we really just have a 6 man rotation. And maybe only three high level scorers. I'm not ready to put Cam there yet, especially when he's on the bench in foul trouble.

** Beebah may find his spots as the season goes on, but at the moment, he simply looks like a freshman. And the aforementioned Amsal hopefully only needs time to get up to speed. But it’s too soon to know where he settles in. Because of this, it’s not a surprise that GDG led the Panthers in shots. In the long run, this doesn’t seem to be a high level winning equation.

** Maybe our depth isn't quite the strength we though it could be.

** But that’s what these early games are for, and despite this notably critical review, I still believe this can be a very good Panther team. We just aren’t there yet.

** Hopefully, we can put together better all around effort and execution on Friday. I’m not suggesting that the Panthers we watched tonight would lose to the Hoopies in our upcoming contest. But it would certainly indeed be a contest.

** But if we are to project ourselves as a top 6 ACC team, I’d like to think we should be able to readily dispatch a team predicted to finish 13th in the Big 12 on our home court.

** This team has adopted a motto of “leave no doubt!” I’d rather walk out of the Pete on Friday with a little less doubt than I have at the moment.

If he is available he could help with QB fundamentals also give Bell a sounding board. I don’t want Bell replaced but maybe another offensive mind to talk to could help.

Its great to great three wins against cupcakes but I consider those preseason games. Now Pitt has a tough stretch which takes them right into a conference matchup:

WVU 11/15
VMI 11/18 (ok another cupcake)
LSU 11/22 (Neutral)
Wisconsin/UCF (Neutral)
@ ohio st 11/29
@ miss st 12/4
@ Va tech 12/7

then a breather

What's everyone's thoughts on this stretch? Im thinking 4-3. Losing one of the Greenbriar games and 2 of 3 road games. 3-4 is quite possible too, losing all three road games

Looking at the ticket map, there’s probably at least 2000-2500 empty seats as of Tuesday afternoon.

To me, it would be deeply disappointing if Pitt couldn’t sell out a Friday night rivalry game with a few thousand students in the building as well. You know WVU fans will bring some as well.

18.5 point favorites

Did their coach look at the 2025 schedule before he took the job 😊
They open the season against Tennessee in Atlanta. Which means 80,000 of the 85,000 in Mercedes Benz Stadium will be Tennessee fans. Their other non-conference away game is at Notre Dame. The in-conference road games are Clemson, Miami, SMU, and Georgia Tech.
Yikes, that’s probably 5 guaranteed losses right there. They’ll be challenged to get to 6-6, even if they are better next year.
If we had a schedule like that, there would be multiple people on the lair who’s heads would explode 🤣

1) Teams after a bye week make adjustments and welcome back their healthier players. Virginia wasn't a great team but they weren't as bad as they showed vs UNC
2) Without beating a dead horse, Pitt's current OL has to clean up a number of things, notwithstanding the false start penalties ... our inexperience at this position is being exploited. We can't start a game "first and fifteen". And while holding calls can sometimes be subjective, most of them were pretty obvious
3) Without knowing exactly what happened to Eli in the Syracuse game makes it difficult (as a fan) to wonder if it had an effect in his last two outings? (which were pedestrian at best) If it WERE a concussion, and he for certain looks like he suffered one on Saturday, any future games for him will be questionable
4) Coach Narduzzi "accepting the blame" for the team's bad performance(s) is much akin to how Mike Tomlin assesses a Steeler's loss. He isn't going to throw his players under the bus. But my guess is that Duzz and the other position coaches are tearing some of our players a new a$$hole in the locker room
5) Our new AD has been pretty quiet - at least nothing visible or audible to this out-of-state fan and alumni - since his introduction a few weeks ago. Do you think he can convince enough deep pocket donors to provide the $$ we need to attract and keep high-talent players? Is Chancelor Gable really on board with "investing" in both the FB (and BB) programs?
5) With that said, it all begins "up front"; the OL and DL need to be upgraded and returned to the level at which they performed on the better Pitt teams. Our new RPO offense can't work if our QB doesn't have time to make multiple reads, and our cover 0 defense doesn't work if our 4-3 DL/LB's can't do a consistent job of containing opposing team's mobile QB's. If Pitt is going to improve, they'll need to invest (NIL) in OL and DL players
6) The 7-0 start reminded me of what Syracuse did (either last year or the year before) - get off to a ferocious start but then begin petering out in the back half of the schedule. As many others have commented here, Pitt could as easily be 4-5 as they are 7-2
7) What the 7-0 start DID guarantee Pitt is being bowl eligible - but with the new CF Playoff format, the bowls that Pitt will likely be resigned to (with a 9-3 or 8-4 record) are probably the Military/Fenway/Pinstripe. A 10-2 record would be a miracle, and that might get us a trip to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl

If I were to "guess" now, we play Navy @ the Military Bowl despite its being essentially a "home game" for the Midshipmen

ps: I hope that's the last we will see from The ACC Huddle this year. We are 0-2 with their presence. Same with Lugenbill and Durham as announcers on ACCN

H2P!

And that hasn't been done since Big Ben in December 2021 at Minnesota.

I nearly fell over when I read that. Think about that, almost 3 years since a Steelers QB threw 3 or more TD passes in a game? That's shocking.

So glad Tomlin switched from Fields to Wilson.

Single in 138 $40, Gold 1B parking pass $150, OBO.

Will be getting the ball a lot vs Pitt
A heavy dose of Mafah Saturday will be interesting if Pitt can stop him

Let's Go Pitt!!!

** Not often a few games into any sports season do you get to experience the debut of a player who you believe will be a difference maker for your team.

** OK, sure I suppose one can offer Russell Wilson as a better example, but I digress.

** Us Panther Hoops faithful were all looking forward to the debut tonight of the 6-8 Bosnian Bomber. I was all ready to write all kinds of attempts at clever entries describing his sensational shooting and prime play on day one.

** But instead, we got to watch the player we probably should have expected – that is, more or less, he looked like a player who hasn’t played in seven weeks.

** So let’s just offer a pass for now and give him some time to get up to speed.

** But it’s a little tougher to give a pass to the rest of the Panther squad who often looked like a team that hasn’t seen a zone defense in seven years.

** Early on, the Panthers looked like they were really ready to play against the Running Bulldogs, extending to an early 20 point lead. But once the Bulldogs stopped running, and instead took to standing in their 2-3, the Panthers at times looked flummoxed.

** Far too often, the Panthers made the pass against the zone to the foul line, but couldn’t get much more than a jump shot one pass out of it. In other words, when Gardner-Webb was standing in their zone, a bit too often the Panthers were standing in their efforts to attack it.

** For a while, I was uncomfortably reminded about how much trouble Capel’s teams had attacking zones in his first couple years.

** Zones have been a little less of a problem in the last few because of perimeter ball movement and bombs away from Blake and others.

** This night, the same bombs weren’t falling to the standard we hope this team can hold.

** We were able to get some open ones, but not enough went in to make the Bulldogs slide back to man. And with our guys lined on the perimeter, second chances were hard to come by.

** Eventually, however, we found our way to a better attack by screening on the wing instead of trying to play from the foul line. This allowed the Panthers to keep the lead at a very comfortable distance, even if it never quite felt like we were putting away a Big South Conference opponent the way we probably should.

** When assessing this game, once again I’ll offer the confession that I’m judging this team against what I think they can be instead of where they are.

** And wIth that, 19 point wins (which could have been 30 had not Jeff cleared the bench in the final minutes) aren’t problematic.

** But the Panthers were able to score many more points on the break off turnovers than they will get against your ordinary ACC foes.

** In the other direction, Jaland’s shot was just off today. His floater, which is more often money, was misfiring. It’s fair to assume he’ll be back with a vengeance against the Mounties. In most games he’ll be closer to 50% instead of the 27% he offered tonight.

** I do wonder however, if it’s a good thing that GDiaz tied with Jaland leading the Panthers with 11 field goal attempts. It’s understandable why he took 8 threes against the GWebb zone. But it’s also possible there is something of a diminishing returns principle with G’s offense.

** Along the same lines, I might also offer that 29 minutes is about 9 too many for GDG. But if Cam Corhen can’t figure out how to stay out of foul trouble, this is Capel’s reality.

** Cam had plenty of good moments this night too. He ran the court well on the break, and does bring much needed offense. But he needs to develop a stronger base on defense as he’s still letting his man back him down, and slip around him and this is leading to many of his fouls.

** None of the Panthers can be too proud of their second half defensive work. After allowing GW to only shoot 32% in the first half, the Panthers allowed 46% in the second half. From my eye, these numbers are entirely reflective of our effort in the second half as opposed to the first.

** In fact, it didn’t really appear that the Panthers brought much energy at all to start the second half. But that’s why it’s nice to be able to bring Zach Austin off the bench and his entry brought a spark on both ends. It’s only too bad that his heat check ended on his second three attempt of the final 20 minutes.

** Ish Leggett brought the heat all game long. In fact, he was near perfect for 40 minutes. Additionally, Ish didn’t force a shot all game long allowing him to be extremely efficient. Damian was efficient too, but maybe the Panthers would have been a little better served from either trying to assert their offense a little more than they did tonight.

** This might seem a little strange to say for a team who has scored 80 or more points in their first three games, but I think we need to find a bit more half court firepower. At the moment, we really just have a 6 man rotation. And maybe only three high level scorers. I'm not ready to put Cam there yet, especially when he's on the bench in foul trouble.

** Beebah may find his spots as the season goes on, but at the moment, he simply looks like a freshman. And the aforementioned Amsal hopefully only needs time to get up to speed. But it’s too soon to know where he settles in. Because of this, it’s not a surprise that GDG led the Panthers in shots. In the long run, this doesn’t seem to be a high level winning equation.

** Maybe our depth isn't quite the strength we though it could be.

** But that’s what these early games are for, and despite this notably critical review, I still believe this can be a very good Panther team. We just aren’t there yet.

** Hopefully, we can put together better all around effort and execution on Friday. I’m not suggesting that the Panthers we watched tonight would lose to the Hoopies in our upcoming contest. But it would certainly indeed be a contest.

** But if we are to project ourselves as a top 6 ACC team, I’d like to think we should be able to readily dispatch a team predicted to finish 13th in the Big 12 on our home court.

** This team has adopted a motto of “leave no doubt!” I’d rather walk out of the Pete on Friday with a little less doubt than I have at the moment.