Um...

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Outside of a few years in the Jamie Dixon era when Pitt basketball was really rocking (like the Thabeet down game)…most of the high points of our Pitt fandom of the past 30 years has been marked by just being in the hunt for conference titles.

It is crazy that I just watched #1 nationally ranked Pitt men’s soccer dispatch the #6 ranked U of Denver.

And that the #1 nationally ranked Pitt women’s volleyball team is destroying everyone with players in consideration for the national player of the year award.

Pitt football 5-0 for the first time in 30 years (or whatever it is).

Pitt basketball looking like it’s on the upswing.

I know all of this has been mentioned in a bunch of other threads.

But I really encourage all of us to slow down and enjoy this moment. This is a special time.

Yeah, no more excuses. We hear all the talk about winning and showing up, well, here you are. 5-0 for the first time in 33 years. Ranked. Weather is saying it is going to be about the best day imaginable for football.

There needs to be 55k plus there, and I don’t mean the inflated numbers Pitt often gives. It’s really kind of now or never to put up or shut up because I don’t know how you can justify an on campus stadium if you can’t get close to 60k Saturday

On today's Morning Pitt, we're talking about the latest Pitt players to earn weekly honors from the ACC plus a breakdown of a key stat that just might be the most important thing the Panthers have done this season.

ROOKIE – Eli Holstein, Pitt, QB, Zachary, Louisiana
Holstein helped lead Pitt to its first 5-0 start since the 1991 season with a 34-24 at North Carolina. Holstein compiled 457 yards of total offense, including a Pitt freshman record 381 passing yards, while adding four total touchdowns. He was also Pitt’s leading rusher with 76 yards and a touchdown on 10 carriers. This season, the Zachary, Louisiana, native has four 300-yard passing games, which ties him with Alex Van Pelt (1989) for the most by a Panther freshman.

Click to expand...

He's won it every week this year*

*Except Pitt's bye week and he should've won it then too #let'sbehonest

Has the record for most consecutive, 1 more and he ties the record for most in a season

Rename it the ACC HOLSTY of the Week already thanks

The official attendance was 46,033. Kenan Stadium seats 50,500. Watching the game I saw many empty seats, much more than 4467.


I do understand that the general area suffered greatly from Helene, so maybe that accounts for some, but my guess on actual butts in a seat was about 35,000. The sideline seats were rather full, but endzone seats were half empty and the upper seats less so.

Seems we're not the only team with disinterested fans when things not going good.

Was surprised by NC's decision to go for it on 4th down TWICE inside Pitt's 10 yard line. Can't believe they took sure points off the board. Didn't seem like smart play calling by the OC for UNC. Glad they did it and we stopped them, but really seemed weird to take probably sure points off the board like that. Just didn't seem like smart play calling on their part.

They are 4-0 in a rain-shortened Fall season, with four lopsided wins against Kent State, IUP and Frostburg State (2).

Unlike Hermanek, who basically destroyed the program Holly had built by ignoring recruiting good pitching, our new coach has tried to address the woeful pitching she inherited. She has added 2 freshmen and one JC transfer to the staff, to go with the 3 seniors left from last year’s team. That probably is 2 or 3 short of the optimum number of pitchers needed (in its first year playing softball, Clemson made the NCAA tournament with 9 pitchers on the team, one of whom was ACC freshman of the year), but it’s an improvement. Of course, with all 3 returning pitchers being seniors, she will have to recruit at least 2 or 3 for next year too.

I know nothing about any of the five transfers (including the P) she has signed or the 5 of the 6 freshmen on the squad. One freshman pitcher was Pitcher of the Year in her conference in Ohio for all 4 years of high school. But — and it’s a big but — her high school plays in the smallest school division in Ohio, so she was unlikely to have played against many good players. Two of the others are from Southern California, which is encouraging because Aprile recruited that area so well. Hopefully, as a former pitcher she recognizes pitching talent and recruited pitchers with real potential.

Besides taking advantage of the portal, did we lose anymore players to the portal? After Lyke finally fired Hermanek, we lost a number of our starters to the portal. Lyke had met with the team after she fired Hermanek, talked with them about her background in softball, and reportedly promised them that she would have a top-notch coach signed by a specified date. She urged them not to enter the portal before that date. When she didn’t have a hire in place, a number entered the portal.

I don’t know anything more about the newcomers or how our new coach is regarded as a recruiter. Anyone have any inside info?

i wasn't able to watch it. i know we won but how did we look?

Pat Narduzzi held his weekly press conference on Monday and talked about Pitt's win over North Carolina, this week's matchup with Cal and a lot more. Here's video and a full rundown of everything he said.

I just took a peek of the show for the first time in a long while and I felt like I was watching an old Community Access show on Cable TV.

Packer is talking to the other guy Loogz, but Packer's mic is not working so it sounds like Loog is talking to himself. Plus they're still broadcasting out of Packer's house.

ACC should be able to find studio time or a more professional setting by now. They should just cancel the show if this the best they can do. This is embarrassing. There so many other shows broadcasting on YouTube that is more professional than this.

OK, I'm done ranting now 😏

I love Mondays because the NCAA updates their stat sheet. Pitt is prominent. Here goes....

Individual Rankings....remember this includes all 346 Division 1 schools....rankings include the top 50 athletes in each category

• Aces/set...Babcock #2 in the country....VVG #44....Pitt is the only team with 2 in the top 50
• Assists/set....Fairbanks 16th in the country
• Blocks/set....Kelley 37th in the country
• Hitting %....Stafford 16th in the country
• Kills/set....Stafford 20th in the country....Babcock 28th....Pitt is the only team with 2 in the top 50
• Pts/set....Babcock 3rd in the country....Stafford 22nd....Pitt is the only team with 2 in the top 50

Pitt's Team Ranking Within the Top 50 Schools

• Hitting %....1st
• Opposition Hitting %....1st
• Aces/set....4th
• Kills/set....10th
• Assists/set....11th
• Blocks/set....21st

12. Pittsburgh (4-0)​

Last week's ranking: 18th

SP+ and FPI rankings: 31st and 39th

SP+ strength of schedule to date: 99th

Odds of reaching 12-0, per SP+: 0.3%

What the Panthers did in Week 5: off

Why they're ranked here: It's difficult to recognize Pitt at the moment, and not only because the school finally went back to its glorious "Pitt Script" helmets. In the past seven seasons, Pat Narduzzi's Panthers have ranked better than 50th in defensive SP+ five times and better than 50th in offensive SP+ just once. But here they are, ranking sixth in both points per drive and yards per play one third of the way through the season. One problem: They're also 86th in points allowed per drive. They've scored at least 38 points in three games and allowed at least 24 in three.

Pitt has risen from 91st in SP+ last season to 31st so far this year despite the iffy defense, but five of its next seven opponents are 41st or better. Quarterback Eli Holstein and running back Desmond Reid are going to give the Panthers a chance in virtually any game they play this season, but fielding maybe their worst defense since 2016 is going to make virtually any game losable too.

Next test: Week 6 at North Carolina.

As I'm sure many others have already said or thought, the last Pitt football team that started 5-0 was the 1991 squad. Their final record of 6-5 (or, let's say 7-5 since we have a 12 game regular season now) is certainly not what the 2024 Panther team wants to achieve.

I wish my memory was better and I could recall each and every game from the 1991 season. I can't. I looked up that team's "history" on Wikipedia and did see one very interesting fact from that team (led by HC Paul Hackett): there were three future NFL head coaches on Pitt's staff that year. Two position coaches and a grad assistant. Anyone care to guess before "cheating" and looking it up?

For whatever reason it’s 11 am tomorrow.So take note of that.

The best freshman in the country

I don’t know if people need to mince words anymore about Eli Holstein. The Pitt quarterback is having the best season of any freshman in the country. I don’t know if he is the best freshman with respect to Alabama’s Ryan Williams, but Holstein is having the best season in terms to a team’s success, the position he plays, and how he is playing it.

Holstein is one of two quarterbacks in the entire country averaging 300 yards passing per game with an undefeated record. The only other being Cam Ward of Miami. That’s the bottom line, though. He is not just playing well for a freshman quarterback, Holstein is up there with the best.

Holstein broke Pitt's single game freshman passing total, with 381 yards and three touchdowns against North Carolina, giving him 1,564 yards, 15 touchdown, and three interceptions on the year.

Dual threat?

Eli Holstein’s passing has obviously been the driving force of his success, but his running has to start getting talked about more and more. He is up to 265 yards on the season, and leads Pitt with three rushing touchdowns. It’s the best rushing total for a Pitt quarterback since Nate Peterman posted 286 yards and three touchdowns in 2016.

At the North Carolina postgame press conference, Holstein sat down, looked at the stats, and immediately did a fist bump. He admitted he was checking on his rushing stats.

“I only lost one yard,” Holstein said. “That’s not too bad. I’ll take that.”

After only gaining one rushing yard in the opener, he has rushed for 59 yards or more over Pitt’s last three games. He was Pitt’s leading rusher against North Carolina with 76 yards on only ten carries.

More....

Has a picture of Eli "ACC Freshman of the Week" as the main picture over the power rankings. Heady times.