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 the AP poll because the Big Ten and Pac-12 decided to play, and five of those teams entered the rankings above Pitt. Pitt fans whined about disrespect, and players have played that card on and off since season’s beginning. So has Narduzzi.

Then Pitt lost to 14-point underdog N.C. State at Heinz Field on Saturday. Pitt usually has at least one defeat like that per season.

You know how it goes from here: Pitt wins seven or eight games (maybe six) and plays Schmuck Tech in the Schmuck Bowl at Schmuckville. Pitt is stuck on the hamster wheel of mediocrity.

It won’t get better. Narduzzi is in his sixth season, and he’s never had Pitt in the top 20. Pitt’s typical sloppiness under Narduzzi was on display Saturday: Pitt got to N.C. State’s 1-yard line and got stuffed on four straight plays. The Panthers committed 13 penalties for 125 yards.

Nothing that Narduzzi has done suggests he can get Pitt to the next level. To be honest, no coach can. Pitt is what it is: an average college football program in a mostly disinterested pro sports town. Nothing will change that.

• NFL games are being postponed under the dark cloud of covid. Some demand forfeits. Some predict the season will have to be canceled. Neither will happen. Like MLB, the NFL didn’t go into this endeavor expecting uniformity. This season was never going to be typical.

As long as there are enough games to fill each week’s TV slots — that’s a minimum of seven, by my reckoning — the NFL will do what’s needed to get that TV revenue. The league will reschedule, adding extra weeks and pushing back the playoffs if necessary. If worse comes to worst, some teams will play less than 16 games. The standings will be determined by percentage.

There will be a Super Bowl. The season will be completed. Nothing will stop that. Protocol will be tightened. The problem is dopes who expected normalcy.

Some coaches reportedly want the season to be shortened to 12 games with all teams placed in hotels for the rest of it. How many of those coaches won’t wear a mask on the sideline?

• When the Pittsburgh Penguins signed goalie Tristan Jarry to a three-year contract worth $10.5 million, it confirmed Matt Murray’s ultimate exit. Not that there was any doubt.

Jarry made the NHL’s All-Star event. He will do fine as the starter.

There are two bigger stories regarding the Penguins’ goaltending. One is Murray’s precipitous fall from winning two Stanley Cups to being surplus to requirements three seasons later. General manager Jim Rutherford made the right move choosing Murray over Marc-Andre Fleury in 2017. Any GM would have done the same. But Rutherford surely would like a do-over now.

The other is the backup spot. If the NHL tries to cram a lot of games into a small window, is Casey DeSmith good enough to handle the required workload? A better question: Is DeSmith big enough? He’s listed at 6-foot, but that must be in heels. Ryan Switzer, move over.

• Several of MLB’s wild-card playoff games drew less than a million TV viewers on average. Those watching baseball on television average 57 years of age. None of that is good.

But, when inking an extension to televise MLB games from 2022-28, Turner Broadcasting agreed to pay $535 million per year. That’s up from the previous deal’s figure of $325 million per, a 65% increase.

MLB, of course, has several broadcast partners. Turner is going to get increased games, including more in prime time.

But for MLB to get that payday during a pandemic and during a down period of interest shows how valuable a plentiful, reliable, relatively popular commodity is to TV with so many entertainment options available. MLB also is still very prestigious to old men. Old men run networks.

And now, the big finish. Fast and furious:

• The Pittsburgh Steelers defense showed a different side in the second half of the win over Houston by dropping seven and rushing four. But it only worked because T.J. Watt is a beast in any scheme. Watt is clearly the NFL’s best defensive player so far this season.

• Ben Roethlisberger said he takes precaution against covid by home-schooling his three kids and not having guests at his house. I wonder what Cam Newton’s approach is.

• Whenever an athlete gets covid, the fawning get-well wishes and prayers conveyed over social media are nauseating. A young, fit athlete is inconvenienced by covid, nothing more.

• Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth were compelled by local ordinance to wear masks while broadcasting Sunday Night Football at San Francisco and whined like spoiled grade-schoolers about it throughout. We’ve found the real victims of the ongoing global pandemic.

• In his latest dance video, JuJu Smith-Schuster is carrying a purse. I find that very bold and chic. #LIT

• Defenseman Jack Johnson was placed on waivers for the purpose of a buyout. What if the Penguins don’t do well enough now? Who will Twitter and the analytics crew blame? Not the stars, that’s for sure. They’re off-limits. Compounding the agony for the metrics geeks: Restricted free agent winger Dominik Simon has not been extended a qualifying offer. Simon had great analytics but rarely scored. Problem is, they keep score.

• The NHL Draft begins Tuesday. NHL free agency starts Friday. Local excitement will be minimal, however, because the Penguins’ first draft pick is at No. 77 and they won’t be players in the early days of free agency. It’s up to Trader Jim to create some fun.

• The Penguins’ best strategy next season would be to trap, then counterattack aggressively with four skaters (or even all five) after every turnover. That has zero chance of happening.

• My favorite team in the MLB playoffs is whoever’s playing Houston. Right now, that’s Oakland.

• The Pittsburgh Pirates were horrific this season. But I’m confident they could win the NFC East.

• Baseball Hall-of-Famer Bob Gibson passed. He was 84. Gibson was the best pitcher I ever saw in person. Fast as anyone, fiercely competitive and intimidating, a mound technician and a clutch performer. Gibson was 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA and eight complete games in nine World Series starts. He won two rings and two Game 7s.

• Wrestling legend Chris Jericho is celebrating the 30th year of his career. If that didn’t make me feel old enough, Jerry “The King” Lawler is celebrating his 50th.