Pitt will return to Sun Bowl, meet UCLA on Dec. 30
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Pat Narduzzi’s past is following him this season, and now it will meet him 9 miles from the Mexican border.
In a season when Narduzzi led Pitt against his alma mater, Rhode Island, he now will face coach Chip Kelly and the No. 18-ranked (according to the College Football Playoffs committee) UCLA Bruins in the Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.
The game will kick off at 2 p.m. Dec. 30 at Sun Bowl Stadium and will be televised by CBS.
Bowl Bound ☀️ @TonyTheTigerSB
Pitt Panthers ???? UCLA Bruins
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???? @CBSSports ???? El Paso, Texas#H2P » #WeNotMe pic.twitter.com/dEX906vaon
— Pitt Football (@Pitt_FB) December 4, 2022
Narduzzi and Kelly have a past. Turning back the calendar nearly a quarter-century, they confronted each other when both were assistants in the Yankee Conference. Pitt’s coach was defensive coordinator at Rhode Island; Kelly guided the offense at New Hampshire.
Did anyone get the better of the other?
“I think Chip did,” Narduzzi said Sunday on a Sun Bowl teleconference. “But you’d have to go back and check the stats.”
For the record, New Hampshire won both games when Narduzzi was leading the Rhode Island defense: 9-7 in 1998 and 37-24 in 1999. Kelly was New Hampshire’s OC in 1999.
“They had NFL guys, and we didn’t,” Narduzzi said, referencing former New Hampshire and Steelers fullback Dan Kreider.
Since then, both men have come a long way.
Kelly was head coach at Oregon and at two stops in the NFL — the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers — before taking over at UCLA in 2018.
“Chip Kelly is an outstanding coach, very creative, going to do a bunch of different things offensively,” Narduzzi said.
He said Kelly has always produced “explosive offense.”
“From all his days, wherever he’s been, from his Oregon days, to his New Hampshire days, to his NFL days. You’re facing a true guru of college football and pro football, for that matter.”
The current edition of the Bruins (9-3) started this season with a six-game winning streak before losing three of their past six. But they defeated then-No. 11 Utah, 42-32, and the Utes went on to become Pac-12 champion and earn a spot in the Rose Bowl. UCLA also beat then-No. 15 Washington, 40-32. The Bruins didn’t score fewer than 28 points in any game and hit 40 or more seven times.
UCLA lost two of its past three games — 34-28 to Arizona and 48-45 to USC — but Kelly said they were “a play away in two games” from finishing the regular season 11-1. The offense is electric, averaging the third-most yards per game in the nation (503.8).
UCLA is led by two of the most dynamic players in the Pac-12: quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and running back Zach Charbonnet.
Thompson-Robinson, a redshirt senior, has thrown for 10,424 career yards and 86 touchdowns while rushing for 1,813 yards and 27 more scores.
“This guy can run. He can throw it. He can do a little bit of everything,” Narduzzi said. “Chip Kelly will do a lot of different things to keep the ball in his hands.”
Charbonnet, a senior transfer from Michigan, led the Pac-12 and was 15th in the nation with 1,359 yards on the ground.
“Our team has a great challenge,” Narduzzi said.
But Narduzzi said Pitt (8-4) is playing its best football after ending the regular season on a four-game winning streak.
“I do feel like we’re playing great football,” he said. “The time off (more than a month between games) doesn’t erase that. We have a few weeks to get a little bit healthier. The fact that (the Bruins) are ranked is something our guys are excited about.”
Pitt is seeking its 20th victory over two consecutive seasons for the first time in 40 years, having finished 11-3 in 2021.
All parties seem pleased with Pitt visiting El Paso, Texas, for the second time in five seasons and fifth overall.
The Panthers lost their two most recent Sun Bowl appearances: 14-13 to Stanford in 2018 and 3-0 to Oregon State in 2008. Those games were nothing like the 1975 Sun Bowl and the 1989 Sun Bowl, when Pitt defeated Kansas, 33-19, and Texas A&M, 31-28.
In the ’75 game, Tony Dorsett and Elliott Walker each surpassed 100 yards rushing while quarterback Robert Haygood ran the veer. In 1989, when the Sun Bowl was known as the John Hancock Bowl, Pitt quarterback Alex Van Pelt threw for 354 yards and led his team to 530 yards of total offense. The game was Paul Hackett’s first as Pitt’s head coach after he replaced Mike Gottfried.
Pitt is 14-22 all-time in bowl games. Narduzzi has lost four of his five as the Panthers’ coach.
The game will be the first between Pitt and UCLA in 50 years. The schools played 14 times, starting in 1958 until the most recent game Sept. 16, 1972, at Pitt Stadium. UCLA won, 38-28, with future actor Mark Harmon, son of 1940 Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon, at quarterback. Future Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt lined up at offensive left tackle for the Panthers.
This year, Pitt will be without ACC Defensive Player of the Year Calijah Kancey, who had “a little (shoulder) surgery,” according to Narduzzi. Kancey was injured in the Duke game Nov. 19.
“He would have played in the game if he had the opportunity,” Narduzzi said. “He’s going to be fine.”
Asked about any possible opt-outs among the rest of the team, he said, “They’ve all been at workouts (last week). That’s something as we get closer, guys are waiting to find out what their grades are with the college advisory committee, find out where they stand. It’s a yearly thing that all coaches around the country have to worry about and think about.
“Pittsburgh will show up. The plane will be full and the boys will be ready, I guarantee you that.”