After a month of training camp, 10 weeks of the season and nine games, Pitt and Duke meet Saturday at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, N.C., still trying to establish an identity.
Duke (6-3, 3-2 ACC) at one time looked like a defensive force, standing 10th in the nation in scoring defense. Then it gave up a school-record 66 points to North Carolina last week.
Pitt (6-3, 4-1) was a contender for the ACC Coastal title, building up the hopes of starving fans. Then the Panthers went on national TV in consecutive weeks and barely were competitive against North Carolina and Notre Dame.
Pitt and Duke have a lot to prove after going through strikingly similar seasons.
• Both started 6-1, losing to now-ranked Big Ten teams in Week 3.
• Each team will take a two-game losing streak into Saturday's game.
• Neither Pitt nor Duke has defeated an FBS team with a winning record. Duke's victims are 15-33; Pitt's are 18-29.
• Pitt's three defeats are to No. 6 Notre Dame, No. 8 Iowa and No. 17 North Carolina (collective record, 25-2).
• Duke lost to No. 17 North Carolina, No. 24 Northwestern and unranked Miami (collective record, 21-6).
• The teams have met twice as ACC rivals, each scoring a total of 106 points and winning once at the other's home field.
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi and Duke's David Cutcliffe never have competed against each other. But Cutcliffe said Narduzzi's reputation precedes him.
“I studied him and watched the defenses at Michigan State before he was ever named the coach at Pitt,” Cutcliffe said, “because I had such great respect for what he was doing there. You're seeing a lot of the same things.”
Narduzzi's defense is designed to stop the run, but recently it has had trouble doing so. Now he must be wary of Duke's hurry-up offense that he said snaps the ball every 8 to 15 seconds.
How fast will it go, however, if quarterback Thomas Sirk (questionable with an upper-body injury) can't play?
“The guy's a beast,” Narduzzi said of the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Sirk. “We expect him to play.”
Dealing with Pitt's defense may be less of a problem for Cutcliffe than helping his team recover from two unique losses.
Miami edged the Blue Devils on a shocking, ultimately illegal eight-lateral kickoff return. North Carolina scored almost at will against Duke.
“I'm not worried about a lingering effect,” Cutcliffe said. “Good, hard work, refocusing people on their challenges has always kind of taken care of that.
“I expect us to respond.”
Jerry DiPaola is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.
Duke (6-3, 3-2 ACC) at one time looked like a defensive force, standing 10th in the nation in scoring defense. Then it gave up a school-record 66 points to North Carolina last week.
Pitt (6-3, 4-1) was a contender for the ACC Coastal title, building up the hopes of starving fans. Then the Panthers went on national TV in consecutive weeks and barely were competitive against North Carolina and Notre Dame.
Pitt and Duke have a lot to prove after going through strikingly similar seasons.
• Both started 6-1, losing to now-ranked Big Ten teams in Week 3.
• Each team will take a two-game losing streak into Saturday's game.
• Neither Pitt nor Duke has defeated an FBS team with a winning record. Duke's victims are 15-33; Pitt's are 18-29.
• Pitt's three defeats are to No. 6 Notre Dame, No. 8 Iowa and No. 17 North Carolina (collective record, 25-2).
• Duke lost to No. 17 North Carolina, No. 24 Northwestern and unranked Miami (collective record, 21-6).
• The teams have met twice as ACC rivals, each scoring a total of 106 points and winning once at the other's home field.
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi and Duke's David Cutcliffe never have competed against each other. But Cutcliffe said Narduzzi's reputation precedes him.
“I studied him and watched the defenses at Michigan State before he was ever named the coach at Pitt,” Cutcliffe said, “because I had such great respect for what he was doing there. You're seeing a lot of the same things.”
Narduzzi's defense is designed to stop the run, but recently it has had trouble doing so. Now he must be wary of Duke's hurry-up offense that he said snaps the ball every 8 to 15 seconds.
How fast will it go, however, if quarterback Thomas Sirk (questionable with an upper-body injury) can't play?
“The guy's a beast,” Narduzzi said of the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Sirk. “We expect him to play.”
Dealing with Pitt's defense may be less of a problem for Cutcliffe than helping his team recover from two unique losses.
Miami edged the Blue Devils on a shocking, ultimately illegal eight-lateral kickoff return. North Carolina scored almost at will against Duke.
“I'm not worried about a lingering effect,” Cutcliffe said. “Good, hard work, refocusing people on their challenges has always kind of taken care of that.
“I expect us to respond.”
Jerry DiPaola is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.
