Boston College QB Phil Jurkovec displays confidence from Pine-Richland days
Jeff Hafley could have sent anyone to the airport to pick up the quarterback and his family. Surely, there was other important business on Chestnut Hill that needed the attention of Boston College’s new head coach. But Hafley wanted to greet this visitor himself. This was Phil Jurkovec, one of...
Former Pitt CB Avonte Maddox returns to Heinz Field to play Steelers
Only two of the other 66 players on the Philadelphia Eagles’ active roster or injured lists are shorter than Avonte Maddox. Just three weigh less. But that doesn’t mean the “little” former Pitt standout hasn’t made a big impression on the only NFL team he has known over the past...
After transferring late, D.J. Turner ends up lifting Pitt’s passing game
As late as midway through training camp, D.J. Turner was just a name on somebody else’s roster. If he had walked through the doors of Pitt’s practice facility almost any day in August, he might have been asked to leave. Yet, here he is, shouldering much of the responsibility to...
Good news for Pitt players’ parents: Heinz Field will welcome spectators
Imagine the disappointment Darryl Turner and Deidre Newkirk felt last week after receiving the bad news from their son, Pitt wide receiver D.J. Turner: No spectators allowed inside Heinz Field. Imagine how they feel now. Those virtual days of watching football may be over for the families of Pitt players...
Gov. Wolf eases gathering restrictions with formula tied to capacity limits
Gov. Tom Wolf increased gathering-size limits for events statewide Tuesday, revealing a new formula that’s based on a percentage of a facility’s capacity rather than the 25-person indoor and 250-person outdoor restrictions previously imposed. Indoor events are limited to 10% to 20% of capacity, depending upon the venue’s size, and...
Pat Narduzzi said Pitt loss was like hit ‘in the stomach’ to his players
In his 31 uninterrupted years coaching college football, Pat Narduzzi has seen a variety of reactions to defeat. “I’ve walked into team meetings after you get beat by 20, and the guys are all laughing,” he said of past experiences. “Like, ‘Do you know what happened less than 24 hours...
Pitt notebook: Pat Narduzzi says critics can point the finger of blame ‘at me’
After four games, Pitt’s search for a balanced offense continues mostly unfulfilled, with the Panthers ranked 12th among 15 ACC teams in average rushing yards per game (130.5). That’s a slight improvement over last season when Pitt was 14th in the ACC (118.8). Yet, Pitt has had only two 100-yard...
Pitt women’s soccer coach Randy Waldrum named coach of Nigerian team
Pitt’s Randy Waldrum will mentor soccer players on two continents when he begins his duties as coach of the Nigerian Senior Women’s National Team. Very excited to head up the #NigerianWomensNationalTeam and look forward to working with this amazing team! Gives me a chance to reconnect with some of the...
Mark Madden: Pitt football is stuck on hamster wheel of mediocrity
Refreshing sports notes: Some test positive, some negative. They all wear a mask. But they don’t social distance; that’s not needed on the internet, or on the printed page. Yet. • Pitt football and coach Pat Narduzzi once again have proven themselves all hat and no cattle. They dropped in...
Madden Monday: NFL covid-19 problems. Pat Narduzzi is ‘a blowhard.’ Metro Division fit for Marc-Andre Fleury?
No Steelers content to discuss for our “Madden Monday” podcast this week, as the team is coming off its surprise bye weekend. That’s thanks to the postponement of their scheduled game against the Tennessee Titans. Mark Madden and I start the show talking about how the NFL is handling their...
Boston College’s Jeff Hafley said his time at Pitt ‘changed my life’
Boston College coach Jeff Hafley is a man who knows how to keep his life in proper order. When Hafley was asked Sunday to name the greatest memory from his five years as a Pitt assistant, he quickly said, “That’s where I met my wife. My greatest memory is meeting...
Oklahoma, Pitt fall out of AP Top 25Video
Oklahoma dropped out of The Associated Press college football poll for the first time since September 2016 and No. 24 Iowa State jumped back into the Top 25 after a day of upsets. There largely was stability at the top of the rankings Sunday after No. 1 Clemson, No. 2...
Pitt notebook: Kenny Pickett recovers quickly after big hit takes breath away
Losing to an unranked N.C. State team was painful for Pitt, and not just because it dropped the Panthers from the Top 25 when the Associated Press poll was released Sunday. “Kids are hurt. Kids are hurt bad in the locker room,” coach Pat Narduzzi said. But he was only...
N.C. State rallies late to hand Pitt first loss of season
Jimmy Morrissey called Pitt’s 30-29 loss to N.C. State “heart-breaking,” and that was surely the most obvious takeaway from the Panthers’ sad afternoon at Heinz Field. But there was so much more to Pitt’s first loss of the season, and Pitt’s center hit the target when he also capsulized his...
Pitt Take 5: Defense is good, but Pat Narduzzi sees room for improvementVideo
Pat Narduzzi is not unlike most coaches who insist on living in the present. The only game that matters is the next one and past teams, games and tendencies aren’t relevant in terms of comparisons. So, when he was asked to compare Pitt’s defense — No. 2 in the nation...
Pitt’s Charlie Partridge, N.C. State’s Dave Doeren hit the road, learned to coach
At the Wormy Dog Saloon in Stillwater, Okla., you could listen to top country bands and, according to its Facebook page, have “a rowdy good time.” But that’s not what young Drake football coaches Charlie Partridge, Dave Doeren and Chris Ash were chasing in the late 1990s as they rolled...
3 Pittsburgh-area football players named semifinalists for Campbell Trophy
Three players with local ties have been named semifinalists for the 2020 William V. Campbell Trophy, emblematic of the nation’s top football scholar-athlete, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame announced Thursday. They are Pitt center Jimmy Morrissey, Notre Dame right tackle Robert Hainsey, formerly of Gateway High...
Tim Benz: Steelers, Pitt starting successful seasons on similar tracks
There are many parallels with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pitt Panthers to start their 2020 seasons. • Both are 3-0. • Both have a tremendous pass rush. • Both managed to win a tight game at halftime at Heinz Field last weekend. And both are chasing the perception that...
Pitt, linebacker Phil Campbell prepare for strong N.C. State ground game
Phil Campbell III is a senior communications major who has moved from safety to two distinctly different outside linebacker positions in his five seasons at Pitt. He has adapted well. Now, he has other important tasks to complete, such as minimizing the complications inherent to playing in a pandemic, getting...
Pitt women’s soccer team off to best start in program historyVideo
As the coronavirus pandemic continued to alter the status quo, athletes spent much of their spring and summer wondering what would become of their seasons. Members of the Pitt women’s soccer team were no different. Sophomore forward Amanda West called the wait “anxiety-inducing” — mostly because the Panthers were so...
Pitt’s Charlie Partridge sees defensive linemen develop in moments of accountability
The moments that make Charlie Partridge love coaching keep popping up, but funny thing about that: They have more to do with how he’s developing Pitt’s defensive linemen than minutiae such as the Panthers’ ACC-leading 17 sacks or the fact they lead the conference in total defense. Partridge will say...
Pitt senior long snapper Cal Adomitis ponders using NCAA’s extra year of eligibility
Cal Adomitis likes long snapping for Pitt so much that he might not want to leave at the end of the season, even though he is a senior. The NCAA will give back a year of eligibility to all fall student-athletes as a way to lessen the uncertainty caused by...
Heather Lyke: Pitt ‘ready to go’ when they get OK to welcome fans
Bolstering what coach Pat Narduzzi said a day earlier, Pitt director of athletics Heather Lyke said the Pitt community is ready to welcome spectators into Heinz Field as soon as the next game Saturday against N.C. State. Lyke, speaking on KDKA-FM on Tuesday morning, said, “We have been ready to...
Pine-Richland’s Grant Carrigan hopes to fill Pitt’s void at tight end
Pitt tight ends Lucas Krull and Kyi Wright were out with undisclosed injuries against Louisville, which opened opportunities for junior Grant Carrigan of Pine-Richland and others. Coach Pat Narduzzi wasn’t impressed by everyone, but he was encouraged by what Carrigan, a former offensive lineman, showed him. “We just had mental...
Pitt’s defense remains strong in face of ‘yeah, buts,’ and ‘what-ifs’
A fair and balanced discussion of Pitt’s defense through the first three games must be prefaced by these dreaded words: Yeah, but … What if … Pitt has settled into the top 10 nationally in four yards- and points-allowed categories: • Total, 177, second. • Rushing, 56, second. • Passing,...
