Bub Means had the best game of his college career yesterday.

His catch on the next to last play from scrimmage hasn't been talked about enough.

And thank god we spiked the ball before the replay guy could stop things for a review.

What made yesterday so satisfying for me was the fact that that victory was a true TEAM and PROGRAM victory. A true testament to the yeoman’s work Narduzzi has done since he got here in 2014. So many players that haven’t quite had their chance to contribute yet, contributed big time.

In todays day and age with bowl season, I admit this year I’ve lost some interest with the opt outs and star players seemingly not caring. And it’s understandable to a point. But what was clear yesterday, these bowl games are about the schools and individual programs, not about a group of individual players. Nick Patti is the poster child for this. Biding his time and waiting for his opportunity, getting it, and putting his ass on the line and fighting to go out a winner. Yesterday was just a feel good, program win.

I couldn’t be prouder to be supporting this program right now. Narduzzi, for all of his stubborn and in game warts, has built a very stable program in todays unstable landscape. If you told me Pitt would be a model of stability 10 years ago, I would’ve asked what drugs you were taking.

Hail to Patti, Hail to Sauls, Hail to Pitt.

Last time Capel had a great team, he had Blake Griffin. He now has Blake Hinson.

I’m just sayin…

Rewatching the game and what TV shows is Patti stepping up and through the middle of the pocket, throwing the ball with nobody near him. Then they show a shot of Patti getting up, then a shot of Narduzzi suddenly changing from elation to pissed, pointing and spitting.

Did anybody see what happened?

Now my son is playing JV I watch a lot of varsity. I am in an are in Michigan where we have some real good talent right now. Two of our best high schools are a 9th grader and 10th grader. His dad is considered by many to be the best high school player in Michigan history. The other 10th grader is a Andre Hutson’s son who was a 6ft 9in center/forward for MSU and one of their best players like 15 years ago. They will easily be top 50 national recruits is my guess.

We also have another freshman and his parent were trying to get him ready for the shoe circuit. And I coached a 6ft 8in stretch 4 last year in AAU.

Why am I saying all this. The freshman who was great in 7th grade only scored 4 points on my son last night. He seems to have lost his passions and never put in the work to develop his skills. One of the talented freshman is 6ft 2in and can windmill dunk and has insane body control. But doesn’t have the mid range and is inconsistent from 3. I watch him train at my sons gym and he plays around and dunks but doesn’t work on his skills. The 10th grader probably has 5 more inches to grow. He can shoot, drive, dribble. He is already good. But not a super athlete. And the kid I coached would not go within 10 feet of the rim. He just wanted to take jump shots.

This very long post is a summary of what I was thinking about when I read about our 2025 recruits that visited. And even makes me think of Dior and Khem Birch. So much of basketball recruiting is guessing when you look at those younger players. But mostly it’s about the work they put in or don’t put in. This also gave me a better perspective to start not valuing rankings and stars especially for basketball. I can’t imagine how these college coaches deal with the pressure of first identifying their recruits and then playing all the games to sign them.

Just some random thoughts I had while watching high school basketball last night.

He does not come out to shake hands at the end of the game. D!CK!!!

Since the Sun Bowl was a CBS telecast is there a full replay available? ESPN has all the other bowl games available "On Demand".

I watched the 1st half However, due to a family commitment I did not see the ending. To make matters worse, I forgot to set the recorder.

Thanks,

H2P

The Panthers Daily Double yesterday has made this a most gratifying bowl season. Since our big W is in the bag, it is just fun to relax, have a couple drinks and root for the lesser evil in all these games.
No matter what happens in any of them, who cares? The Pitt Panthers got it done.
HTP!!

TCU surprising many so far by once again exposing the over ranked big 10. I expect Ohio State to get blasted as well later tonight.

For that matter no more transfer QB's. I'm not looking for to Phil " I am too good for Pitt" to come in for 1 season.

Honestly, would be quite happy with Patti or Yarnell for 2023. Both are capable of leading Pitt to a 8 - 4 or 9 - 3 record which is what Jurkovec will do.

Max Browne and Kedon Slovis were enough. No more USC transfers.

As a New Year's promise, the word "pitting" will now refer to a new era for Pitt athletics. It now means a terrific effort with no fear, ending in an important triumph,
accomplished by good men and women. I have declared it. Enjoy the future.

(Sorry for the pomposity, but I am a Loyal Son of Pittsburgh.)

Pitt lost to Tennessee in overtime and one could argue had the game taken from them by SEC refs, oh and with Tennessee's #1 QB playing.

Your beloved Clemson just got SMOKED by Tennessee with their backup QB.

Just something you may want to mention on your ACC PM show.

UVa, Clemson, @ Duke

Significant underdogs in 2. Slight favorite vs Clemson. We could very very easily lose the next 3. I talk about NC State but I want to say we've been worse against Clemson than any other team. Even Jamie had a hard time beating them and they may be the only ACC team we haven't beaten since he left. Typically, they go 9 for their 1st 11 on 3s in the first 10 minutes and we're down 20 early. It seems like its been the same game vs them for years and it doesn't really make sense.

Need 1 out of these 2 next 3 at a minimum. If we win 2, we have a very very realistic chance of making the NCAAT

At the end of October, things looked bleak for Pitt after a 3-1 start to the season turned into a 4-4 middle. But the Panthers rallied and capped a five-game winning streak on Friday in the Sun Bowl.

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1- fans to accept Cignetti
2-A QB BAttle ?
3-Will the defense fold ?


My order of worry is 3, 2 , and then 1 .
We need playmakers on Offense, Hammond is good enough to be #1 but is he durable enough ?
The defense needs help, pray to the portal gods.
We dont even have a QB ?

To his credit, though it took 5 years and the blessing of a pandemic to get an extra year, he was able to have a Top 3 all-time (at Pitt) QB and WR at the same time. There is a lot of luck involved in that but they were his players and they allowed us to go 11-2. Without that all-time great combo, which was worth 3-4 wins, we are back to 7-5.....probably for another 40 years until we luck into another great season. Narduzzi has developed an above average (but overrated) defense which is good enough but his recruiting on the offensive side of the ball (minus Pickett and Addison) had been abysmal. In 8 years, he has managed to recruit 2 P5 level QBs out of HS (Dinucci the other).

Not really a surprise, but my flight from LAX to El Paso on Southwest Airlines has been cancelled. Southwest had by far the fastest and cheapest flights from LA. My only options now are flights which last more than 10 hours with layovers and cost in excess of $2,400 per person roundtrip. I’ll pass.

So, I have 2 tickets available for free to anyone who wants them. The problem is that Pitt didn’t send out e-tickets. They have to be picked up at the team hotel. The most I can do is send you the confirmation email they sent to me with an email that I authorize them to give the tickets to you. I have the row and seat numbers.

I’m assuming that if anyone wants them, it will be because they are in a better location. Presumably, in the Pitt section. (When they mistakenly initially sent me the information in two couples seats, they all were in this same section too.)

First come, first served.

From David Hale on twitter,

P5 teams with more wins than Pitt

Can someone please post a link to the postgame trophy presentation and award ceremony?

I looked on YouTube and couldn’t find it.

Thanks in advance.

Any updates on whether any of these 3 will return?

From the one comment from commentators yesterday about Patti convincing Wayne to play in bowl game, I kind of figure he’s gone. And I thought he was most likely to return.

I think all 3 could benefit from coming back, especially Williams who is a late rd pick at best.

Not to the players...

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ES BUENO!
IT’S GOOD!

fast forward to 4:26:00 mark

Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl en vivo

How does one guy get away with head butting an opponent? If ever there was intentional use of the helme?

of course, v Miami our own guy used his own helmet….funny times.