Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 30

Pat Narduzzi has a quarterback problem, and this time there is no one left to blame. After at least two swings and misses in the transfer portal, where Pitt’s 10-year head coach found Kedon Slovis and Phil Jurkovec not to his liking, he has waded into this offseason burdened by...

After a five-game stretch against power conference teams, Pitt coach Jeff Capel said he has stockpiled plenty of information about his team. He knows his players like to shoot and are good at it, and he also knows they work hard on defense. He said recent recruiting efforts were intentionally...

Jeff Capel gladly accepts the numbers Blake Hinson adds to Pitt’s score sheet, three at a time. Even when they’re accompanied by Hinson’s fearlessness when shooting the basketball — covered or not, from anywhere on the court. In his second season with the Panthers and after only nine games (6-3),...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va — Many players were catalysts behind Pitt’s 80-63 victory Wednesday night against West Virginia in the 190th version of the basketball Backyard Brawl. • Blake Hinson scored a career-high 29 points, breaking his personal best (27) set only three days ago. He also broke a Pitt record with...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia received some good news for its depleted roster hours before its game against Pitt on Wednesday night when fifth-year forward Akok Akok was cleared for play. Akok, a 6-foot-10 transfer who previously played at UConn and Georgetown, collapsed Oct. 27 during a charity exhibition game...

Pitt lost another senior Wednesday when offensive tackle Matt Goncalves declared for the 2024 NFL Draft. In his announcement over X (formerly Twitter), Goncalves wrote that seeking an NFL career is “a lifelong dream.” He also said that his five years at Pitt have been “the greatest years of my...

Back in ancient times — otherwise known as the 1990s in terms of college athletics — Pitt coach Jeff Capel thought about transferring from Duke. “I thought about it one time,” he said, “but my dad talked some sense into me.” The NCAA transfer portal opened Monday, and more than...

Josh Eilert’s plans to prepare his Mountaineers for Pitt’s intrusion into the West Virginia Coliseum on Wednesday night didn’t start with the first day of basketball practice in October. Go back another month. Eilert, the WVU interim head coach, demanded that every player attend the Pitt football game at Milan...

Senior cornerback M.J. Devonshire, whose ball skills led him to record eight interceptions in the past three seasons, is Pitt’s lone representative on The Associated Press 2023 All-ACC first or second teams. Devonshire, an Aliquippa graduate, transferred from Kentucky before the 2021 season and was named second-team All-ACC as a...

When Jeff Capel was asked where Pitt must improve on defense, he covered every aspect of good defensive play, short of building a wall at the free-throw line. “We have to get back to being really good defensive rebounding,” he said. “Our post defense has to be better. We have...

The number of Pitt football players who have opted to enter the transfer portal increased to 12 Monday when two young players — defensive end Sam Okunlola and running back T.J. Harvison — decided to take their talents elsewhere. Okunlola, a redshirt freshman, is a significant loss after he was...

On the night he was immortalized as a Hall of Fame manager, Jim Leyland had given up hope. The former manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates was told by National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum officials that — if he was voted in by the Contemporary Era Committee — he...

In the moments before Pitt’s 79-70 loss to Clemson went final, most people in the announced crowd of 7,713 at Petersen Events Center were in an uproar. Many were looking for the Panthers to complete what would have been an improbable comeback Sunday afternoon. When a team is down by...

While others were sleeping and the doors to Fitzgerald Field House were locked, they came out and ran up and down the streets of Oakland. Sometimes, they climbed the steps of the Towers — the on-campus dormitory complex whose tallest building rises 224 feet above Fifth Avenue — building endurance...

A day after Pitt tight end Gavin Bartholomew said he will return for his senior season and almost simultaneously as running back Rodney Hammond said he’s coming back, wide receiver Bub Means took the opposite route and announced Saturday his plans to enter the 2024 NFL Draft. Means has been...

When the ACC decided four years ago to boost each team’s conference schedule from 18 to 20, it created some quirks in the calendar. That’s why Pitt plays its ACC opener Sunday at Petersen Events Center against Clemson in the midst of a difficult stretch of nonconference games. In that...

Pitt’s Dan Fisher works diligently in an attempt to recruit elite volleyball players, female athletes who can jump as high as the nation’s best players and dig out balls inches from the floor. But Fisher has been coaching long enough — 11 seasons at Pitt — to understand that athletic...

Pitt lost its second veteran outside linebacker to the transfer portal this week when senior Bangally Kamara on Wednesday announced plans to leave the team. Thank You Pittsburgh I will enter the Portal On Dec.4 pic.twitter.com/RMfKmluZ3y— . (@BangallyKamara) November 29, 2023 Kamara joins middle linebacker Brandon George, also a senior,...

During video review of Pitt’s 71-64 loss to Missouri on Tuesday night in the ACC/SEC Challenge, coach Jeff Capel may look at two stretches of time and want to close his eyes and pretend they didn’t happen. But he’ll resist that temptation because these games are tough, but necessary, lessons...

Robert Morris football is leaving the Big South-OVC and returning to the Northeast Conference where it achieved its greatest success. The school accepted an invitation from the NEC Council of Presidents to rejoin the conference as a football associate member. It will become eligible to secure the league’s automatic bid...

Pitt coach Jeff Capel sees progress from his young team, but he’s smart and savvy enough to understand a lot can happen between November and March. He will continue to learn more Tuesday night in the ACC/SEC Challenge when Missouri (5-2) visits Petersen Events Center. “I think we’re pretty good,”...

Pitt middle linebacker Brandon George has decided to use his final season of eligibility elsewhere after announcing on social media Monday night his intention to enter the transfer portal. Thank you Pitt???????????? pic.twitter.com/10XGakT15F— Brandon George (@B_George06) November 27, 2023 George was among five seniors with eligibility who were honored at...

Lacking the most important element in trying to pinpoint the identity of Pitt’s next offensive coordinator — that being the key to the desk drawer where Pat Narduzzi keeps his list of candidates — we are left to speculate. Coach searches are typically secretive endeavors for obvious, professional reasons. The...

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi wasted no time in an attempt to reverse the team’s fortunes when he fired offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti Jr. on Sunday, less than 24 hours after the end of the season. Cignetti spent the past two seasons with the Panthers — his third stint with...

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi’s nearly two-year-old quest to find a competent successor to Kenny Pickett will continue into the offseason. He should not and will not ignore the transfer portal. But perhaps he won’t have to look so hard for a quarterback from somebody’s else team. That hasn’t worked out...