On Saturday at noon, Pitt and Penn State will meet on the same football field for the first time in 16 years. The Keystone Classic was played for exactly 100 years straight at one point, from the start of the 20th century to the turn of the new millennium, and became one of the most bitter in-state rivalries in the country over the course of its run. Between them, the two programs claim 11 national championships, two Heisman Trophy winners, 90 consensus All-Americans, and two of the proudest traditions in college football.
The recent history of these two schools has grown apart from those glamorous and storied traditions and hasn’t approached the championship heights that fans and boosters had come to expect. Penn State was rocked by the horrific Jerry Sandusky scandal and the administrative failures that played a role in it, while Pitt suffered stretches of mediocrity and stagnation that weren’t seen in the days of Dan Marino and Tony Dorsett.
Penn State was saved by the on-the-field success they found under head coach Joe Paterno from the 1980s onward, and while the recent scandal and ensuing NCAA fallout tarnished the university as a whole, the brand they had built under Paterno survived the sanctions. Their prolific recruiting along the country’s east coast and throughout the state of Pennsylvania allowed the Nittany Lions to string together top 25 classes on Rivals.com from 2014 through 2016. They’re on track to do it again in 2017.
Pitt, conversely, has suffered in part from a diminishing talent pool in western Pennsylvania. While the region has still produced top-level talent year in and year out, the depth of Division I prospects in the Pittsburgh area appears to be diminishing to a certain extent. In the same span as Penn State’s three consecutive top 25 finishes, Pitt has posted classes ranked 45th, 70th, and 31st on Rivals.com with the 2017 class sitting at 51st. That ranking will surely improve if Pitt finishes strong down the stretch like they did last year, but the point still stands that Pitt has been recruiting at a deficit over these last few years.
Pat Narduzzi has allowed the Panthers to punch above their weight class relative to their recruiting ranking, winning eight games in his first year with a likelihood of exceeding that total in his second season. James Franklin’s Penn State squads have likewise underachieved relative to their recruiting finishes, but there’s not a guarantee that it’s a trend that will continue. The greatest guarantee of success in college football is to recruit better than your opponent and assemble more talent.
With its game on Saturday, Pitt will have the opportunity to reverse the trend that has seen them out-recruited outside of western Pennsylvania by Penn State. The Panthers have a robust list of visitors coming to campus from throughout the country in both the 2017 and 2018 classes. That group will feature a full 10 prospects rated as four-star prospects or better by Rivals.com, including local blue chips five-star Lamont Wade and four-star Donovan Jeter.
All told, it’s expected that as many as a dozen prospects with offers from Penn State could find their way to Pitt’s campus on Saturday, a number that will grow as the underclassmen in Pennsylvania and beyond continue to add offers throughout their junior season.
For prospects like Jeter and Wade who have already been recruited by both schools, it’s unlikely that the game will have an overwhelming impact on their recruitments. Yes, any visit to campus is a chance to make a positive impression on a recruit and yes, any chance that a school has to gain the upper hand on a recruiting pitch is good for that program; but Jeter and Wade have both been recruited by Pitt and Penn State for years now and have long-running relationships with both programs. This game will not make or break their decision or be the deciding factor in the commitment of either prospect.
It does, however, represent an opportunity for Pitt to take the upper hand from Penn State in recruiting the state of Pennsylvania and the entire northeast. The eyes of the college football world will be turned towards Pittsburgh on Saturday at noon as the rivalry is renewed. While Virginia Tech-Tennessee will receive attention as well, Heinz Field is shaping up to be the home of the country’s most impressive visitor list.
Pat Narduzzi’s program is poised to take a huge leap forward if they can win this game. Penn State starts a three-game stretch for Pitt that also features road games against Oklahoma State and North Carolina. Nobody expects the Panthers to beat Clemson and Heisman favorite Deshaun Watson in November, but starting off the beginning of their Power Five slate with a victory will give Pitt a major leg up in finishing the season in the top 25 and contending in the ACC Coastal.
More than that, it represents a chance to change the perception of Pitt football for an entire class worth of recruits. Pitt has excelled at keeping top local talent in the city of Pittsburgh at home – Damar Hamlin, Jordan Whitehead, and Tyler Boyd to name a few – but they can expand beyond that. Out-of-state four-star prospects like TyJuan Garbutt from Virginia, Ambry Thomas and Donovan Johnson from Michigan, and Dallas Gant and Trenton Gillison from Oho will be in Heinz Field. Pitt has the chance to set the tone by earning a victory over Penn State and hosting one of the most important sporting events in Pittsburgh’s recent history.
Even if they don’t win, even if this star-studded recruiting weekend doesn’t yield a single new commitment, it’s a victory for Pitt to be in this position. When was the last time, truthfully, that Pitt football was a national event? That’s not meant to demean the school, because it’s had plenty of good seasons, but it feels like an awakening. Pitt football is the center of the college football world this week, Bristol Speedway be damned. If the Panthers can couple that with a win to kickstart the return of their rivalry with Penn State, it’s a huge victory. It allows them to definitively rebuke the “Dominate the State” claim of their neighbors to the north and convincingly fight off national powers like Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Michigan when they come to western Pennsylvania to try and pilfer talent.
We’ve seen Pat Narduzzi play a critical role in reversing a “big brother/little brother” in-state rivalry before. He was the defensive coordinator for years under Mark Dantonio at Michigan State when the Spartans put an end to any notion of being little brother.
When Dantonio and Narduzzi arrived in 2007, Michigan had commanded the series for a century, winning two-thirds of the games overall and nine of the last 11 contests. Since losing the first one he coached at home in for that inaugural 2007 season, Dantonio is 7-1 against the Wolverines and has yet to lose in East Lansing again. He has made Michigan State a national brand, appearing in the College Football Playoff and having the ability to fight and win recruiting battles against Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio State anywhere in the Midwest.
The difference between Pitt and Penn State is not nearly as drastic as the gap that Michigan State faced to catch up to Michigan. Hell, Pitt is favored by as much as a touchdown by some services for this game. The Panthers are expected to have the upper hand on the field against the Nittany Lions. Now they’ll have the chance to assert the fact that they intend to keep that upper hand without relinquishing it any time soon. Pitt can claim a huge victory on the field and set a critically important tone in recruiting if they win on Saturday. Little brothers across the country seem to be pretty damn tired of being called little brother and Pat Narduzzi has the chance to play a hand in changing that role twice.
Saturday’s potential and excitement is palpable in the city of Pittsburgh and throughout the state of Pennsylvania. As the old adage goes, opportunities multiply as they are seized. Seizing the opportunity to defeat Penn State on the field in his first chance to do so gives Pat Narduzzi and the Pitt program a claim to be not just the best college football team in the state, but the best program, with the brightest future. There’s a real chance to change years of history that saw Joe Paterno dominate Pitt and turn the tables on the “big brother” in State College. Saturday is Narduzzi’s chance to seize that opportunity.
The recent history of these two schools has grown apart from those glamorous and storied traditions and hasn’t approached the championship heights that fans and boosters had come to expect. Penn State was rocked by the horrific Jerry Sandusky scandal and the administrative failures that played a role in it, while Pitt suffered stretches of mediocrity and stagnation that weren’t seen in the days of Dan Marino and Tony Dorsett.
Penn State was saved by the on-the-field success they found under head coach Joe Paterno from the 1980s onward, and while the recent scandal and ensuing NCAA fallout tarnished the university as a whole, the brand they had built under Paterno survived the sanctions. Their prolific recruiting along the country’s east coast and throughout the state of Pennsylvania allowed the Nittany Lions to string together top 25 classes on Rivals.com from 2014 through 2016. They’re on track to do it again in 2017.
Pitt, conversely, has suffered in part from a diminishing talent pool in western Pennsylvania. While the region has still produced top-level talent year in and year out, the depth of Division I prospects in the Pittsburgh area appears to be diminishing to a certain extent. In the same span as Penn State’s three consecutive top 25 finishes, Pitt has posted classes ranked 45th, 70th, and 31st on Rivals.com with the 2017 class sitting at 51st. That ranking will surely improve if Pitt finishes strong down the stretch like they did last year, but the point still stands that Pitt has been recruiting at a deficit over these last few years.
Pat Narduzzi has allowed the Panthers to punch above their weight class relative to their recruiting ranking, winning eight games in his first year with a likelihood of exceeding that total in his second season. James Franklin’s Penn State squads have likewise underachieved relative to their recruiting finishes, but there’s not a guarantee that it’s a trend that will continue. The greatest guarantee of success in college football is to recruit better than your opponent and assemble more talent.
With its game on Saturday, Pitt will have the opportunity to reverse the trend that has seen them out-recruited outside of western Pennsylvania by Penn State. The Panthers have a robust list of visitors coming to campus from throughout the country in both the 2017 and 2018 classes. That group will feature a full 10 prospects rated as four-star prospects or better by Rivals.com, including local blue chips five-star Lamont Wade and four-star Donovan Jeter.
All told, it’s expected that as many as a dozen prospects with offers from Penn State could find their way to Pitt’s campus on Saturday, a number that will grow as the underclassmen in Pennsylvania and beyond continue to add offers throughout their junior season.
For prospects like Jeter and Wade who have already been recruited by both schools, it’s unlikely that the game will have an overwhelming impact on their recruitments. Yes, any visit to campus is a chance to make a positive impression on a recruit and yes, any chance that a school has to gain the upper hand on a recruiting pitch is good for that program; but Jeter and Wade have both been recruited by Pitt and Penn State for years now and have long-running relationships with both programs. This game will not make or break their decision or be the deciding factor in the commitment of either prospect.
It does, however, represent an opportunity for Pitt to take the upper hand from Penn State in recruiting the state of Pennsylvania and the entire northeast. The eyes of the college football world will be turned towards Pittsburgh on Saturday at noon as the rivalry is renewed. While Virginia Tech-Tennessee will receive attention as well, Heinz Field is shaping up to be the home of the country’s most impressive visitor list.
Pat Narduzzi’s program is poised to take a huge leap forward if they can win this game. Penn State starts a three-game stretch for Pitt that also features road games against Oklahoma State and North Carolina. Nobody expects the Panthers to beat Clemson and Heisman favorite Deshaun Watson in November, but starting off the beginning of their Power Five slate with a victory will give Pitt a major leg up in finishing the season in the top 25 and contending in the ACC Coastal.
More than that, it represents a chance to change the perception of Pitt football for an entire class worth of recruits. Pitt has excelled at keeping top local talent in the city of Pittsburgh at home – Damar Hamlin, Jordan Whitehead, and Tyler Boyd to name a few – but they can expand beyond that. Out-of-state four-star prospects like TyJuan Garbutt from Virginia, Ambry Thomas and Donovan Johnson from Michigan, and Dallas Gant and Trenton Gillison from Oho will be in Heinz Field. Pitt has the chance to set the tone by earning a victory over Penn State and hosting one of the most important sporting events in Pittsburgh’s recent history.
Even if they don’t win, even if this star-studded recruiting weekend doesn’t yield a single new commitment, it’s a victory for Pitt to be in this position. When was the last time, truthfully, that Pitt football was a national event? That’s not meant to demean the school, because it’s had plenty of good seasons, but it feels like an awakening. Pitt football is the center of the college football world this week, Bristol Speedway be damned. If the Panthers can couple that with a win to kickstart the return of their rivalry with Penn State, it’s a huge victory. It allows them to definitively rebuke the “Dominate the State” claim of their neighbors to the north and convincingly fight off national powers like Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Michigan when they come to western Pennsylvania to try and pilfer talent.
We’ve seen Pat Narduzzi play a critical role in reversing a “big brother/little brother” in-state rivalry before. He was the defensive coordinator for years under Mark Dantonio at Michigan State when the Spartans put an end to any notion of being little brother.
When Dantonio and Narduzzi arrived in 2007, Michigan had commanded the series for a century, winning two-thirds of the games overall and nine of the last 11 contests. Since losing the first one he coached at home in for that inaugural 2007 season, Dantonio is 7-1 against the Wolverines and has yet to lose in East Lansing again. He has made Michigan State a national brand, appearing in the College Football Playoff and having the ability to fight and win recruiting battles against Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio State anywhere in the Midwest.
The difference between Pitt and Penn State is not nearly as drastic as the gap that Michigan State faced to catch up to Michigan. Hell, Pitt is favored by as much as a touchdown by some services for this game. The Panthers are expected to have the upper hand on the field against the Nittany Lions. Now they’ll have the chance to assert the fact that they intend to keep that upper hand without relinquishing it any time soon. Pitt can claim a huge victory on the field and set a critically important tone in recruiting if they win on Saturday. Little brothers across the country seem to be pretty damn tired of being called little brother and Pat Narduzzi has the chance to play a hand in changing that role twice.
Saturday’s potential and excitement is palpable in the city of Pittsburgh and throughout the state of Pennsylvania. As the old adage goes, opportunities multiply as they are seized. Seizing the opportunity to defeat Penn State on the field in his first chance to do so gives Pat Narduzzi and the Pitt program a claim to be not just the best college football team in the state, but the best program, with the brightest future. There’s a real chance to change years of history that saw Joe Paterno dominate Pitt and turn the tables on the “big brother” in State College. Saturday is Narduzzi’s chance to seize that opportunity.
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