Sun Bowl notebook: Could Pitt victory cause Nick Patti to change his future plans?
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EL Paso, Texas — Nick Patti was thinking, perhaps, the Sun Bowl would be the last time he strapped on shoulder pads and a helmet.
It had been a good ride from the time when he was one of New Jersey’s top high school quarterbacks to when he committed to Pitt and backed up and learned from NFL first-round draft choice Kenny Pickett to this year when Kedon Slovis was brought in to be the starter.
Then, Pitt 37, UCLA 35 happened Friday afternoon.
After he had led Pitt to a thrilling victory against the nation’s No. 18 team, Patti was asked about his future.
Return to Pitt?
Transfer?
Follow Chuck Noll’s advice from years ago and go into his life’s work?
“I don’t know,” Patti said.
“Celebrate (Friday night) and then figure it out. It’s so tough. You feel like you’re done, and then a win like this makes it tough. It’s something to think about. I have time to think about it.”
The victory was an emotional one for Patti, who had not played a game from start to finish since 2019 and can count only three starts among his five seasons at Pitt.
At one point near the end of the first half, he left the game after hitting his head on the ground and was replaced by Nate Yarnell.
“I was fine. I kind of hit my head on the ground,” he said. “When I came up, I wasn’t dizzy or anything. But you just see so much (concussion concern) in the NFL and college, I just wanted to make sure I was good. OK, I’ll take a play (off).
“I know I’m fine. I just want to make sure. I told the doctors I’m good the whole time I’m doing the whole concussion thing.”
Patti didn’t come to Pitt to be a backup, but his time coincided with Pickett’s. Except for a few games when Pickett was injured, he didn’t get a lot of playing time.
“Everyone knew that Kenny was the guy. The conversation was he’ll be out in three years, how well he’s playing, and I’ll take over then. Obviously, it didn’t go like that.”
Yet, he said he never considered transferring, unlike so many other college athletes of today.
“The relationships I built here. I never thought about leaving,” he said. “Even when Kenny was gone, we brought Kedon here, I just had all the confidence in the world in myself. Obviously, it didn’t go my way (when Slovis was named the starter this summer). But just stepping up (Friday), big moment. It was great to get a win.”
After the game, offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr mentioned how proud he was of Patti.
“I had so much fun working with him the past few weeks,” he said.
The feeling was mutual.
“Cig put a great gameplan together,” Patti said when asked how he was able to find a comfort level after so much inactivity.
“He was like, ‘Really, is there anything you don’t like?’ I’m cool with everything. I just had so much confidence in our offense, everything we did to prepare for this game. We were all excited to get this opportunity.”
Coach Pat Narduzzi was asked if he had second thoughts about picking Slovis over Patti before the season.
“I’m not going to look backwards,” he said. “I’m going to look forward. Who knows?”
A false start that helped
In a strange way, a false start penalty against Pitt might have helped lead to the victory.
In the fourth quarter, Pitt held a 31-28 lead and was trying to apply the dagger, a touchdown that would have given the Panthers a 10-point lead.
Narduzzi decided to go for the score on fourth-and-goal from the UCLA 4. But a false start penalty cost Pitt 5 yards, and Narduzzi changed his mind and called for Sauls to kick a field goal.
But if the penalty and field goal never happened and the fourth-down play failed, Pitt would have been up only three. In that case, UCLA’s subsequent touchdown that gave the Bruins a one-point lead would have shoved Pitt behind by four. Sauls’ winning field goal with four seconds left would not have been enough.
“Maybe, it was good that we false-started,” Narduzzi said. “We were hoping to score a touchdown there. Nick was mad when we didn’t get to run that play.
“We figured if we didn’t get it, they were going to have to go 95, and we didn’t think they could do it on us. Maybe a blessing. We were lucky.”
He had a good reason
What made Pitt’s game-winning field goal drive even more impressive is the Panthers moved 46 yards in 30 seconds with no timeouts.
Narduzzi had used his last two back-to-back during UCLA’s touchdown drive that produced a 35-34 lead. Pitt’s coach wasn’t being wasteful. He had no choice. Pitt only had 10 men on the field.
“I’d rather call another timeout than play with 10 guys on defense,” he said. “The timeout was a little more valuable.”
UCLA update
UCLA didn’t have All-American running back Zach Charbonnet, who reported an injury in pregame warmups that prevented him from playing.
Also, quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robertson, who threw three interceptions, left the game in the fourth quarter with a back injury, The Los Angeles Daily News reported. Thompson-Robertson threw for 271 yards — 8 after halftime — and finished the game 14 short of breaking Cadde McNown’s school record of 10,708.
Historic day
Pitt’s two victories over ranked opponents Friday — the basketball team defeated No. 25 North Carolina earlier in the day at Petersen Events Center — got author and Pitt historian Sam Sciullo Jr. thinking:
“I can’t think of a same-day, football/basketball win combo to match this since Dec. 7, 1963,” he wrote in a text.
• Pitt defeated Penn State in football, 22-21, to finish 9-1.
• Pitt defeated Duquesne in basketball, 69-67 in overtime, in the Steel Bowl final at Fitzgerald Field House.
“If someone can come up with something better, bring it on,” Sciullo wrote.