5-0.... unreal. I admittedly picked UNC to win the game 34-30 yesterday and truly didn't think Pitt could do enough on Defense to stop UNC. They proved me wrong, and while they didn't play great - they seemingly are doing just enough to mask their weaknesses and make big plays when they need to step up. Here are my Top 5 thoughts from the game:

1.) Offensively Kade Bell 100% was dialing up play after play to get guys open and put his players in position in to succeed. I believe Holstein is obviously doing his part and is playing really well, but at the same time Bell's ability to get the WR's open and putting Reid in position to succeed is highly impressive for a first year OC. It can't be overstated what kind of turnaround this unit has made from the debacle we all had to witness last year...

2.) Des Reid. Absolute stud, who refuses to be tackled and is as explosive as they come in college football. I've seen the Deuce Vaughn comparison from K-State a few years back and his game is spot on to that player comp. He is so good at catching the ball out of the backfield and I love that Bell is always looking for creative ways to get him the football. I'd make a strong argument that to this point in the season Reid is currently Pitt's most irreplaceable player.

3.) I did not love the gameplan from Randy Bates yesterday at all.... Did Pitt's Defense do enough to make big plays when needed? Yes. But IMO it was very clearly evident that Pitt rushing 4 simply was not working and I didn't think he did enough to free up his linebackers to make more plays. I thought he needed to go with much more Cover 0 - Cover 1 type of defense rather than straight zone and Cover 2. Crisswell was never going to do enough to beat them with his arm and the throws he made were because of the time he had in the pocket.

4.) I am starting to come around on the D-Line's ability to constantly get better as the season gets on. It's clear that the young guys are simply not developed enough at this stage to get off of blocks well enough and simply do not provide much of any pass rush. However I love the flashes that the young guys like Fitzsimmons, Brewu and Edwards show throughout the game. They are going to be very, very good in a few years, but unfortunately that isn't helping much now. Nate Matlack, and Elliot Donald have been massive disappointments in my eyes. Two older players that haven't shown me anything.

5.) Narduzzi / Bell's 5 min offense in that 4th quarter was an absolute abomination, and had that ball been Picked off from Holstein in the final 2 min of the game, Narduzzi should've been crucified in the post game press conference. They mismanaged that clock to unbelievable degrees on offense. In NO situation do you need to go for a "kill shot" when you have the kind of kicking game Pitt has with Sauls. As soon as that football was inside the 30 yard line there was ZERO reason to put the ball in the air from that point on. Can't convince me otherwise on that point.... that was not good.


Cal Preview: Pitt is 5-0 and in the Top 25 again and the team needs PGH to show up next Saturday. Cal losing a 25 point lead to Miami and coming across the country to lick their wounds should result in Pitt being prepared to make a statement. I do think Cal is a solid team and of course it's not a team to take lightly, but if Pitt can jump on them early with the crowd at it's back I love the chances for us to go 6-0 and into a primetime showdown with the Cuse on the 24th.

H2P!!

...super happy about the win! What a blessing it is to have a quarterback - and this team should continue to get better. I am looking forward to Fitz hitting his stride and James coming back. Nothing is ever guaranteed, but what fun!

NM

I'm in the South Side for Pat Narduzzi's weekly press conference. I'll post news and notes from what Narduzzi says here in this thread.

There was a lot of discussion about whether Pitt should have taken more time off the clock on its final drive yesterday. I initially said that I thought it was fine, since they marched 73 yards and took more than 7 minutes to do it.

Now...I kind of agree with the criticism.

Pitt ran 18 plays; 7 of those were snapped on stopped clock due to four incomplete passes, a UNC timeout and the first play of the drive. On the other 11 plays, here's the amount of time left on the play clock when Pitt snapped the ball:

:02
:16
:16
:31
:08
:27
:18
:24
:06
:08
:02

(They also had the play clock down to :16 when UNC called its timeout, so they might have been running the clock there.)

Obviously, there were some considerably early snaps in there, like those at :31, :27 and :24. Incidentally, those were all first down plays, so I wonder if some of the "rules" of the offense - going tempo after getting a first down - caused the players to get up and snap it quickly.

But even the snaps at :16 (twice) and :18 were too soon. My only thought on those plays is that Pitt's offense saw UNC's defense aligned a certain way and didn't want to give them time to adjust pre-snap.

I won't haggle too much over the :06 and :08 snaps; that's just a matter of seconds. But if all of the :16+ were run down to :10, you're looking at an additional 1:12, give or take. UNC got the ball back with 1:54 on the clock, so if we allow for the two-minute stoppage to take at least a few seconds off Pitt's possession time, you're probably looking at shaving a minute or so off the time that UNC had the ball. If you really milk it to :02 or :01 every time, perhaps you get the Tar Heels down under :30 or so.

Ultimately, it worked out: a 73-yard drive that took 7+ minutes and resulted in points was exactly what Pitt needed at that stage of the game. And I thought it was encouraging to see that they could build a drive like that. But next time, they could probably be a little more intentional with the clock.

Gasparilla and Fenway. A little disappointing but hey at least they’re slowly starting to buy in

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HAIL TO PITT!

It always seemed like every other damn program had a year they started 5-0 or better….and I vocally crucified Pat for it, especially the WMU year.

Now we are here. A win away from being undefeated in late October and two wins away from making it to November undefeated.

Even if we finish 8-4 this is way better to
Me than the 2022 team that made the season feel pretty irrelevant and lost after early October

Anybody know this guy?

96 year old Pitt fan keeping fit

Pretty amazing.

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Jaland Lowe and Ishmael Leggett will be joining Jeff Capel for the ACC Basketball Tip-Off in Charlotte next week.

Seems like the two obvious options.

It was after the Reid TD where he stretched the ball into the end zone, then they reviewed it. For a split second they showed Bell yelling at Holsty. Holsty had a little shocked look on his face… Then the camera switched away….

Pitt RBs with 20 catches, 300 receiving yards in a season since 1980:

2024 Desmond Reid 24-322-4
2016 James Conner 21-302-4
2012 Ray Graham 36-340-2
2008 LeSean McCoy 32-305-0
1992 Curtis Martin 33-317-1
1986 Craig Heyward 29-361-1
1982 Bryan Thomas 49-366-1
1981 Bryan Thomas 39-406-0

Pitt's defense gave up more than 400 yards but only 17 points in Saturday's 34-24 win at North Carolina. Here's a closer look at which defensive players saw the field, how much they played and what they contributed.

Down goes Alabama. Vandy rules.

They haven’t been huge names so far. 2 of them haven’t played much. 1 not at all until today. The other one has been (mostly deservedly) much maligned.

Sean Fitzsimmons. Had an OUTSTANDING game. The 4th down play to slow Hampton in the 4Q. Then George finished him off.

DaeDae Reynolds. HUGE 1st down catch. Comes in cold and makes a play that a winner makes.

Caleb Junko. 3 punts. 50.3 avg. 59 yd long. Nice job.

Just came out. AP poll will be close I think.

Overjoyed to be 5-0, but if we’re going to talk about the problems (which we are anyway), we have to talk about clock management at the end of the game.

Up by seven points with less than three minutes to go, and inside the 30 yard line, there is absolutely no reason to throw a pass. No reason at all. Run three times, make North Carolina burn all their timeouts, and kick the automatic field goal with a minute and change left to play, making it a two score game.

It was a miracle that horrendous and ill advised pass by Eli wasn’t intercepted. We were up by seven, not down by seven. Just run the clock out, let $auls do his job and spare us the drama.

Great to get the Chapel Hill monkey off our back. We will definitely be ranked, especially with some top 25 losses ahead of us. H2P!

Not great tackling so far.

On the Monday after Pitt's first win in Chapel Hill ever, we've got a lot to say about how the Panthers finally beat North Carolina and what it means for the team going forward.

👀