Pitt Take 5: Panthers’ final 2 games could be most revealing of the season
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On some teams in Pitt’s situation — a three-game losing streak, only two games to go, both away from home — there might be a tendency to treat the end of the season as an afterthought.
By all accounts from remarks made by players and coaches, that’s not the case at Pitt (7-3, 3-3 ACC).
There is plenty left to achieve, starting with the difference between finishing 7-5 and 9-3. Pitt has only five seasons of nine or more victories this century — two in coach Pat Narduzzi’s previous nine seasons. The Panthers have won seven or fewer 13 times since 2000.
“How do you want to finish the season?” offensive tackle Ryan Baer said. “Do you want to be known as the team that just ran off the tracks, or do you want to be remembered as the team that picked it up at the end and built some confidence going into bowl prep and into the next season?”
Coming so close the past two weeks might indicate a big effort is coming Saturday against Louisville.
“It’s a shame when you play as physical as we did, play as hard as we did, not to come out with a victory,” Narduzzi said. “That’s where I feel bad for our guys because, as coaches, we’ve got to do a better job of getting them into position to make better plays.”
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The upcoming games represent an opportunity for players to prove what they’ve been saying all season — that there is a special attitude on the 2024 Panthers.
While we await the verdict, here are some thoughts before the game kicks off at 4 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2.
1. Louisville’s heartbreak
Pitt and Louisville suffered tough losses last week, and both teams can point to penalties as a cause.
What happened to Louisville against Stanford is hard to believe.
In a 35-35 game, Louisville tried to convert fourth-and-10 from Stanford’s 45-yard line with 10 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The incomplete pass left only 5 seconds for Stanford to get in field-goal range, and Louisville obliged with unsportsmanlike and offside penalties. That allowed Emmet Kenney to kick a 52-yard field goal.
Stanford won for the first time since Sept. 20, stopping a six-game losing streak. Louisville (6-4, 4-3), which was No. 19 in the College Football Playoff rankings before the loss, has played No. 6 Notre Dame, No. 8 Miami, No. 13 SMU and No. 17 Clemson, and it defeated only Clemson from that group.
2. Don’t forget about me
Ryland Gandy, a first-year starter, is still looking for his first career interception. He is Pitt’s best cover cornerback, so quarterbacks tend to stay away from his side of the field. He only has two pass breakups, and cornerback Tamon Lynum on the other side has six.
“It was like that for me in high school, as well,” Gandy said. “I didn’t get a lot of targets in high school. I just have to make sure I don’t fall asleep on my opponent, making sure I stay locked in every play. You never know when the ball will come your way.”
3. Load management concerns
Safeties coach Cory Sanders pointed out that some defenders took bad angles on Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik during his game-winning 50-yard touchdown run.
“We had some angles approaching the ball carrier we misjudged,” Sanders said.
Safety Donovan McMillon dived at Klubnik’s feet and missed by inches, but Sanders has said that McMillon is one of the best open-field tacklers on the team. Sanders shouldered some of the blame for that touchdown run.
“You take ownership as a coach, too,” Sanders said. “That was play 74 for (McMillon). He’s been playing a lot of plays these past few games, and I have to do a better job of player management and player load of making sure I’m giving him series off, making sure he gets proper rest so he can be full-tilt ready to roll in those critical situations at the end of the football game.”
Pitt’s defense hasn’t been bad in recent weeks, and it played one of its best games of the season against Clemson — with the exception of the last play.
Clemson averaged 509 yards per game in the eight games immediately before visiting Acrisure Stadium. But Pitt’s defense stepped up and held Clemson to 346, its fewest since Clemson managed 188 against Georgia in the opener.
4. Playing through pain
Baer had some interesting comments about quarterback Nate Yarnell, who played the entire Clemson game.
“He’s a warrior,” Baer said. “To go through the beating that, honestly, (his blockers) put him through and the hits he took and he still battled through, we owe him. He gained a lot of respect in this building for that. I wish we could have pulled it through for him.”
Baer said he feels the same way about Eli Holstein.
“Eli is really tough,” he said. “I’ve seen him battle through when our protection wasn’t great, especially in that West Virginia game. He kind of put us on his back in that fourth quarter. They both have tremendous respect in this program.”
Likewise, running back Desmond Reid, who is Pitt’s leading rusher with 738 yards, limps repeatedly during games, but he said he can handle the pain.
“I’m feeling good,” he said. “I’m ready to go Saturday, just sore.”
He said his ankle was hurting when he launched himself toward the pylon while trying to score late in the Clemson game.
“I wasn’t even worried about it,” Reid said. “It (ankle) was bothering me a little bit, but I wanted to score. I’ve dealt with pain my whole life. I’m used to it.
“I want to go out there and win whether I’m hurt or not. I know even though I’m hurt I can still go out there and do a lot of things. I still feel I have a lot of stuff to prove to people.”
5. New face at running back?
Reid leads Pitt with 132 carries, 43 receptions and 11 punt returns (186 total touches), so excuse him if he occasionally needs a break.
With top backup Daniel Carter out for the season with a broken leg, Pitt could turn to Derrick Davis, Rodney Hammond or a player whose name most fans won’t recognize — Juelz Goff, a 5-foot-9, 190-pound freshman.
A Pennsylvania kid from York, he is Central York’s leading rusher with 3,761 yards after he shattered a school record that had stood since 1975. He enrolled at Pitt in January but hasn’t played because of a hand injury suffered in training camp.
The injury has healed, and Narduzzi appears eager to see what Goff can do.
“He’s had a great week (of practice) again,” the coach said. “That guy’s going to be a talented football player. I hope he gets five to 10 snaps, as well. We’d like to get him going.”