Um, and I thought we had it bad today.

Ten seconds left. Louisville has the ball 4th and 10 around the Stanford 45.

They elect to go for it, but throw what basically amounted to a Hail Mary for some reason. Was plenty of time to get in field goal range.

So Stanford takes over on downs with 4 seconds left. They check again and make it 5 seconds.

Stanford runs a ridiculous pass and the guy gets out of bounds after a 1 yard gain with 1 second left. They call Louisville for a hit out of bounds. I honestly didn't think it should have been called. Stanford now gets a shot at a 57 yard field goal.

Louisville jumps offsides. It's now a 52 yard field goal. It's good. And it probably wouldn't have been from 57.

Talk about giving a game away.

TFL allowed by Pitt

Smu 9
Virginia 8
Clemson 16

Penalties committed by Pitt
Smu 6-66
Virginia 11 for 75
Clemson 13 for 100

I don’t care that he’s 58

He’s had a real boxing career, muscle memory, he’s got the “crazy switch “ that can flip at any time…. This Paul guy has horrible looking form and I know very little about boxing.

What were all the bad calls?

1. Klubnik fumbles, is clearly down, and goes for a first down— no review

2. Fumble, called incomplete pass—- also no review lol

3. Reid gets to the “two” clearly looked like he may have been in for a TD— again no review

4. Reid facemasked- no call

5. Initial no roughing the passer on a clear shot to Yarnell’s head.

Anything I’m missing?

Devries and his son to WVU

North Alabama took down Air Force 73-57 last night, and Wester Illinois defeated San Jose State 59-55.

Everyone else survived an upset, though New Mexico only beat Nicholls State by a touchdown.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/date/20241104/group/44

Some big games on the docket for Wednesday:

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/date/20241106/group/44

And then Friday/Saturday is when they start venturing out to playing some power conference/better competition and the tournament really begins to shape itself, here in very early November. Really keeping an eye on New Mexico at UCLA, Memphis at UNLV, and Washington at Nevada.

You have to be optimistic about Pitt after this. Sure, Clemson isnt Clemson back when Peterman beat them, but this was a good game. I thought our "little" DL would be manhandled by Clemsons 5 star O-linemen. That did not happen. We stopped their run, got what 5-6 sacks, hit their QB all game long. We should have won against Clemson with really our bench team. That is remarkable. Cade Bell looks to be the right guy moving forward, his system even works with sub tier players. Defense... wow... the way our DC and Narduzzi makes adjustments at halftime are always.

Gut wrenching loss. Thought it was a win. I guess I feel slightly better knowing OT might have been a loss too since we were banged up. But, certainly looks good going into next year with this offense if we can keep the team in tact.

Wasn’t able to catch the game last night so just watching it now (needed something to take the sting out of the Clemson loss). Jason Earle has been doing play by play for the ACCNX Pitt bball games. I think he’s done a really nice job (and Nick Rivers has gotten much better as the color commentator since the first game as well).

Jason’s also been the sideline guy at the football games this season which got me wondering if he’s a potential replacement for when Hillgrove decides to hang em up.

I really like Jeff Hathhorn when he’s called various Pitt games, but I kinda like the idea of a young guy getting the gig and being able to develop a long relationship with the fans the way Billy has. Figured I’d see how the board felt about it.

Absolute gut punch of a game:

1. For the first time in weeks you saw the potential of this team. Even with the penalties, and the sacks there were was still some combination of good d and good offense that we have not seen for awhile.

2. Speaking of offense if we don't have the drops AGAIN Yarnell would have had 400 yards of passing. Even while he was getting brutalized in the pocket he made some courageous throws including a 25 yard dart to Konata on in route that of course was dropped. At least two drops would have been first downs. Not sure what's happened to these receivers all of a sudden.

3. There isn't much to say about the D. After getting burned in the first half with deep slants they played lights out in the second half including a stellar stop on a fourth down at midfield that gave us the shot at the FG that put us ahead. Alas it wasn't to be. All game they had made it their duty to stop the run and frankly maybe could have been a less aggressive at the end to force Clemson to be more methodical with no timeouts left however the QB draw was the perfect call. Short side of the field, against an aggressive stunt once the QB got past the initial line of defenders there really was a ton of open space and McMillan didn't have the angle on him. Just the perfect call against that D. Just give Clemson credit.

4. Pat Narduzzi has a habit of rushing to call his Timeouts and he did it again yesterday. Once on that abysmal goal line debacle where he negated a TD and the other curiously on the last drive when he called his second way too early on the drive. Not sure why but left us with only 1 as we were driving. Could have used that additional timeout because at the end we really had no choice but to throw in the end zone with the Clemson defenders defending the goal line.

5. Know how close games are? Maybe an inch separated Reid from touching the ball to the pylon. Also a great ankle tackle prevented another Reid TD on a wheel route over the middle. The LB doesn't make that tackle he's gone. People will point to the missed Sauls FG but come on it was from 59 yards out. I know we are spoiled by Ben but most teams wouldn't even try for a 59 yarder.

6. Bell made some adjustments going into the game and in game. First he was running Carter inside and it was effective until sadly he broke his leg. Secondly he finally gave Brown help by having the tight end chip the Clemson DE. The OL was a sieve and it's a miracle that Yarnell, who played a very good game, was able to make so many plays. Yarnell has two things going for him. Number 1 he is fearless and has a short memory in the pocket and number 2 he rarely stays locked in on his primary receiver. Late in the game he started breaking contain and running a little more which helped.

7. The refs? They were clearly bad as has been documented. Not much to say though I will say I didn't see a game changing call especially late. no I didn't think Reid made the first down so the stop was accurate to me. I didn't think he hit the pylon on his effort down the sideline. During the game there were several horrendous calls, including the bad spot for a Clemson first down, the roughing on Matlack and the hit on Yarnell that they finally re-thought and threw the flag which was nuts. It was obvious. Life in major college football, the refs are bad. It's not just an ACC thing. On one of the Clemson TD's it appeared that Fitz was tripped by the Clemson lineman as well but no call.

8. It will be interesting to see how this team ends up and more importantly what happens next season. In this era of NIL you never know who stays and who goes but clearly if the young players stay this team could be really good. They need some Offensive Lineman and maybe another playmaker but the roster is a good one.

9. There is a segment of fans that don't like Dabo Sweeney. I'm not one of them. Always thought he was classy. He was classy when Carter got hurt when he came out to talk to Narduzzi and pat Carter. He was classy about Pitt in the post game comments. He isn't a douche like a lot of CFB coaches are and I don't think it's an act. He has been outspoken about the transfer portal and has stuck to his guns.

10. You know sometimes you lose and it takes a while to recover. For me that was the UVA game because of the way we played and the way the game unfolded. Yesterday while it hurt bad, a part of me was proud of the team. Down 10, they came back and not only fought they dominated Clemson for a good portion of the second half. Sometimes you lose these types of games but the effort they put out there really isn't much to say.

11. Kade Bell needs to fix the coms problem in and out of the huddle. Either play fast or figure out what play you want. Down at the goal line they were clearly disjointed and I think it comes down to Bell. In golf, there is a saying commit to a shot. Decide on the shot and commit to it. If just feels like there is a lack of commitment to the play and it's reflected with the players tentativeness.


12. Think of what might have been had we pulled out UVA and Clemson? Alas we've said that too often. Onto Louisville.



Pitt82

after 7 wins coaching just isn't good enough I think duzz either needs to go into pros or they need to get rid of him

The non call was outrageous but then after protests the refs gather and call a penalty on Clemson. What are the rules on calling a penalty after a non call?

These West Virginia fans need help.

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Of the under center QB sneak with the tush push?

*Disappointing loss in a winnable game, but a gutsy performance. We’ve pulled out wins at the end of a few games this year, but couldn’t finish it off today.

*This game for some reason reminded me of the Tennessee game in 2022

*A few boneheaded posters mocked Yarnell last week especially one particular poster, but he played really well. Best quarterbacking in weeks. 34/54 350 yards. 1 TD and a last play interception.

*OL is horrible and the reason we lost today. The number position to go after in the portal.

*In addition to the OL, we had too many penalties. A couple of them were bullsh@t calls, but nonetheless contributed to the loss.

*The defense played great, especially in the second half. Louis is an All-American if there is any credibility left.

*Too bad Daniel Carter got hurt. The staff finally decided to give him the ball more, and he gets hurt.

*Reid looked much better than he has in a while. Too bad he got tripped up on the long pass. He would have easily scored a touchdown

*Coaching… Well, it was spotty on the offensive side of the ball. Enough has been said already on other threads. But I will say they need to get the OL on the same page, fast. Giving up 8 sacks and constant pressure will make any offense sputter. Yarnell did great under those conditions.

Looking forward to seeing this....Pitt has to keep pace with Nebraska who beat #16 Minnesota last night. A few interesting things about FS...

• They have lost 6 matches this season and took Louisville to 5 sets before losing
• They have only been swept once....by Virginia...who Pitt destroyed 2 weeks ago
• They have lost 27 sets....30% of the sets they have played
• Their stat sheet is respectable....17.6 points scored/set (Pitt is 18.9). Points given back due to errors is 7.7 (Pitt 6.4)
• Their two stars are MB Khori Louis (hits .413%) and OH Audrey Koenig (3.74 kills/set)
• Pitt has swept 20 opponents this season and only lost 7 sets total all season.

who's got it?

1. Today was a microcosm of the season. Didn't think a close loss to Clemson could feel disappointing. Pitt found a way to make it such. Didn't think 7-3 would feel disappointing. Pitt found a way to make it such.

2. I'm so sick of saying this, but the end of the game is not like the other 58 minutes. It's just not. Offenses often find ways to score when they NEED to score. See: Kenny Pickett. Also, they mostly use 4 downs, not 3. So if you stopped them for 58 minutes, that doesn't mean you'll continue to do so. You can't rely on your defense like that. Should have been more aggressive on 1st and 2nd downs.

3. Conspiracy theory: Nate Yarnell lost the starting job, put on a pout, and didn't bother to educate himself on this offense. What an embarrassing lack of command of this offense. I've seen tighter Spring games. Overall play wasn't bad, but just no command.

4. We needed to ensure Clemson did not get the ball back in the first half. We burned through the clock, were gifted a roughing the passer penalty (not saying the call was wrong; just saying it gave us a mulligan), and then burned through it again. Clemson says thank you for the 3.

5. These safeties suck in coverage.

6. You could get by with these FCS receivers against atrocious secondaries. But wow - they've come back to Earth fast. Does Poppi need contacts? It's like he doesn't even see the ball. Not just talking about the one the defender screened him from seeing.

7. What do you even say about this O line?

8. I'm turning into a nihilist when it comes to college football. Now that the bowl games have become even more meaningless, it feels like you're either part of the show (CFP) or you're not. At least the divisional format gave us a mini marker to strive for in winning the Coastal. Now, 6-6... 7-5... 8-4... I'm starting to cares less about the difference between them, and I see no path where Pitt gets over that hump. Next year's schedule is tough.

What was supposed to be a strength for this defense this year, looks to be a liability. Especially, yesterday. The two pass touchdowns for Clemson yestreday were a breakdown in the coverage scheme by the safeties. Two post patterns down the middle yesterday cost this team, big time.

Earlier today, I sat down to find out about something:

Is Pitt taking the ball when it wins the coin toss more this season than in the past?

Well, there was only one way to find out: go through every one of Pitt's 124 games with Pat Narduzzi as head coach, tally them all up and see what comes out. The result, as you might have guessed, is that yes, Pitt is taking the ball more this year than in previous years. By a lot.

Here are numbers:

- Pitt has won the coin toss 58 times in the Narduzzi era.

- Of those 58 wins, Pitt has taken the ball 8 times.

- That's not that crazy; most teams do opt to defer. For example, Pitt's opponents since 2015 have won the coin toss 66 times and taken the ball 13 times. So Narduzzi is more or less in line with that.

- However, this year is especially notable. Pitt has won the coin toss 6 times this season and taken the ball on 4 of those.

- So 8 total times in almost 10 full seasons, and 4 of those 8 have come this season.

- Incidentally, the four game-opening drives when Pitt took the ball produced 3 punts and 1 touchdown (the touchdown came against Youngstown State).

- Prior to this season, the last time Pitt took the ball after winning the toss was the Georgia Tech game in Week Three of the 2018 season.

- That's 5 full seasons (2019-23) when Pitt deferred every time it won the toss. Until this year.

- So what changed? I asked Narduzzi today. Here's what he said:

"We sit in our staff meeting…and we talk every week, like, ‘What do we want to do?’ It's based on who we're playing. I'm not gonna tell you what we're going to do, but, you know, the vast majority of guys in here say, ‘Let's take the ball, let's go down and score, let's be aggressive.’

“You know, Michigan State, you can count them up there, go back and count and if we win the coin toss, I bet you there's not one time we ever didn't take the ball. You know, we started off young and, defensively, we said, ‘Let's take the offense, going to score some points, we're going fast, let's go get up on people, and it's great.’ I tell you what, it's fun to play defense when it's 7-0, but, you know, I think it's a feel thing, it's a weather thing, it's a wind thing.

“If you think you're getting second half wind, wind and rain, so there's a lot of things that go into it. I do want to get the ball down to the Panther Pitt in the fourth quarter. That's one thing I want. Big plays are made in that Panther Pitt area, so we'd like to be down there, a lot of memorable plays down there.”

- I don't know if that clears anything up, other than to say the offensive staff is encouraging Narduzzi to take the ball.

- On a different note, in 63 games over those 5 seasons from 2019-23, Pitt only won the toss 25 times. Pitt won the toss just 2 times in 11 games in 2020 and 4 times in 14 games in 2021. Pitt lost the coin toss in each of the first 9 games of the 2019 season and the final 9 games of the 2020 season.

- The opening drives of Pitt's 124 games under Narduzzi - for both teams - have produced 60 punts, 34 touchdowns (including 3 kick return touchdowns - 2 by Pitt and 1 by UNC in 2017), 16 field goals, 5 interceptions, 4 fumbles and 3 turnovers on downs, 1 safety (New Hampshire in 2021) and 1 missed field goal. So 50 out of 124 (40.3%) resulted in points for the team that got the ball on the game-opening drive.

- Pitt is equally unlucky at winning the coin toss at home and on the road. At home, Pitt has won the coin toss 31 times and lost 36. On the road, the W-L is 27-30.

- That includes 8 neutral-field games (6 bowls and 2 ACC Championship Games). Pitt has been the road team in 6 of those neutral field games (the 2015 Military Bowl, the 2016 Pinstripe Bowl, the 2019 Quick Lane Bowl, the 2021 ACC Championship Game, the 2021 Peach Bowl and the 2022 Sun Bowl). Pitt was the home team in the 2018 ACC Championship Game and the 2018 Sun Bowl.

- Pitt is 2-4 as the road team in neutral-field coin tosses and 1-1 as the home team in such games. On all 3 of Pitt's neutral-field coin toss wins, the Panthers deferred (2019 Eastern Michigan scored a field goal, 2018 Clemson scored a touchdown and 2016 Northwestern punted).

- Narduzzi has taken the ball after winning the toss on the road 2 times since 2015, and both were at Georgia Tech (2015 and 2017). Both of those drives resulted in touchdowns.

Pitt's final home game of the season will be a big one, as the Panthers host Clemson for a noon kickoff at Acrisure Stadium.

With a big game on tap, the Pitt coaches have a big group of recruits expected to be in attendance. We've confirmed more than 25 targets, commits and prospects who will be at the game tomorrow; here's a rundown of who we've confirmed.

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Hilson is the highest-rated recruit visiting Pitt this weekend as a five-star prospect who ranks as the No. 1 defensive tackle prospect in the nation and the No. 16 overall recruit in the class. He decommitted from Florida State in September; prior to committing to the Seminoles, he took official visits to Florida, Texas and UCF, and it looks like Syracuse is in consideration as well.

Hilson's connection to Pitt is through James Folston, the former Pitt defensive end who is one of his coaches at Cocoa High School in Florida. That's likely how he ended up taking an unofficial visit to Pitt last January (2023) and why he's returning for an official visit this weekend.

That said, I'm not sure I see Hilson ending up at Pitt. I'm not sure where he'll go, but it seems unlikely that he will be a Panther. Still, it's never a bad thing to have a five-star prospect on campus.

Pitt will also be hosting these recruits from the 2026 class; they all have offers from the Panthers.

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A bunch of news, notes and other things from Pitt's 24-20 loss to Clemson:



- Both teams had four scoring drives. The difference was that Clemson had three touchdowns and one field goal; Pitt had two touchdowns and two field goals.

- The Panthers’ first field goal drive saw the offense march to the Clemson 1 before three straight procedure penalties resulted in third-and-goal from the 16.

On the other field goal drive, the offense got into the red zone but a false start on second-and-9 from the 16 led the coaches to lay up for a field goal that only gave the Panthers a three-point lead.

- Ultimately, if Pitt scores from the 1 instead of taking three procedure penalties in a row, the Panthers likely find themselves driving for a field goal in the final minute of the game rather than a touchdown, which would have given them a much higher chance of winning.

- Before scoring on three consecutive drives in the fourth quarter, Pitt’s offense had stalled between the 40’s on of its first 10 drives (not including a one-play drive before halftime). This mostly happened because the Panthers were able to produce one big play on each of those drives - a 30-yard pass to Konata Mumpfield, a 17-yard pass to Daejon Reynolds, a 16-yard pass to Mumpfield and passes of 22 and 34 yards to Desmond Reid - but not much after that.

When Pitt finally broke through the 40’s, it did so by following a 27-yard pass to Kenny Johnson with a 12-yard pass to Reynolds and a 19-yard pass to Reid to set up a field goal and then turned good field position into a couple double-digit gains to set up the game-tying touchdown.

- That touchdown drive started at the Pitt 42 after a Clemson punt. Pitt and Clemson combined to punt 14 times in the game, with the Tigers punting eight times and the Panthers punting six. Six of Clemson’s eight punts pinned Pitt inside the 20 with two at the 10 or closer; three of Pitt’s six punts were at the 12 or closer.

- Pitt’s average starting position in the game was the 27; Clemson’s average starting position was the 26.

- Reid had a game-high 174 all-purpose yards against Clemson, his highest single-game total since he put up 210 yards at North Carolina. Against both the Tigers and the Tar Heels, he eclipsed 100 receiving yards to bolster his total.

- Mumpfield finished with 68 receiving yards; he had that same number in the loss at SMU, but he produced just 66 total receiving yards in the games against Cal, Syracuse and Virginia combined.

- After not scoring a touchdown in Pitt’s first eight games, Gavin Bartholomew has reached the end zone in back-to-back games.

- Nate Yarnell is now 2-2 all-time as a starter, with wins at Western Michigan in 2022 and vs. Boston College last season and a loss at Duke last year In his four starts, Yarnell has completed 65.8% of his passes for 1,001 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions. His 350 passing yards against Clemson were a career high.

- Pitt lost two offensive players for the remainder of the season on Saturday. Pat Narduzzi said after the game that senior running back Daniel Carter and receiver Censere Lee will be done for the year due to injuries they sustained against Clemson.

- Pitt used its fifth different starting offensive line on Saturday, going with Ryan Baer at left tackle, Ryan Jacoby at left guard, Lyndon Cooper at center, B.J. Williams at right guard and Jackson Brown (in his first start) at right tackle.

The line’s issues were further compounded when Jacoby and Cooper both left the game with injuries. Jacoby was replaced at left guard by Jason Collier and Cooper was replaced at center by Terrence Moore.

- Defensively, Pitt was led by Donovan McMillon, Kyle Louis and Rasheem Biles, who each had seven tackles. Louis also had 3.5 tackles for loss and two sacks, while Biles added 1.5 tackles for loss.

Louis has recorded six or more tackles in nine of Pitt’s 10 games this season; he has at least one tackle for loss in seven of 10 games; and he has at least one sack in six of 10 games. Similarly, Biles has recorded at least one tackle for loss in eight of 10 games.

- Pitt also got tackles for loss against Clemson from Braylan Lovelace, Brandon George, Tamon Lynum, Sean FitzSimmons, Nate Matlack, Jimmy Scott, Sincere Edwards and Nick James. The Panthers’ 13 tackles for loss against Clemson were a season high; they had 12 against Kent State and 11 against Cal.

- The 13 tackles for loss were also the most by Pitt’s defense in a single game since 2020. That year, the Panthers topped out at 15 tackles for loss in the loss at Miami, but that defense - led by All-America defensive ends Rashad Weaver and Patrick Jones - was fairly ridiculous at making plays behind the line of scrimmage; Pitt had double-digit tackles for loss in six of 11 games that season and recorded eight in two other games.

Just look at this production:

Hearing Jackson Brown may be getting the nod at RT today. We’ll confirm that during warmups.

If you have extra tickets for a game or you're looking for extras, post here and see what you can work out. We'll pin this thread for the season so it's easily findable.

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