The Sad State Of Pitt Panther Football
By J.P. Scott
The Pitt Panther football program is mired in a perpetual state of mediocrity.
When I was a kid growing up in the Northeast, your options for college football viewing were limited. You had Syracuse, Penn State, Boston College and Pitt to choose from. The former three were often involved in big games — sometimes championship games. Pitt, however, always just seemed to have the perception of just tagging along with the other three.
Penn State and Pitt used to have a nice little Western Pennsylvania rivalry that many in the region paid attention to. It’s a surprisingly close rivalry in terms of records all-time, with Penn State holding a 48-42-4 lead. The two schools used to meet every year. That all changed shortly after Penn State decided to join the Big Ten in 1989.
Once that rivalry died, the only thing Pitt really ever had to look forward to was being a hurdle in the way of Miami, Virginia Tech or Syracuse winning the Big East. College football just wasn’t a big deal in the Steel City — and still isn’t to this day. It’s as though the Big East and ACC have let Pitt hang around simply because of the city that serves as the home to the university, almost as a way to brag about having a conference member in a metro that size.
It’s sad, really, when you think about some of the legends of the game who have played at Pitt — Mike Ditka, Tony Dorsett, Curtis Martin, Russ Grimm and Rickey Jackson to name a few. The Pitt Panther footprint can be seen in today’s NFL as well, with Larry Fitzgerald, Darrell Revis, LeSean McCoy and Aaron Donald carrying the banner for the school.
You’d think a program who spits out that sort of talent would have a rich championship history, but that’s just not the case.
Since winning its last national title in 1976, the Pitt football program averages less than 6.5 wins a season. In the modern era, the only history Pitt has is one of being average — at best.
Recently, the program has become somewhat of a stepping stone for up-and-coming coaches looking for their next big job. After only one six-win season at Pitt in 2011, Todd Graham bolted for Arizona State. This year, after three seasons at the helm where he finished with a record of 19-19 (par for the course at Pitt recently), former Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst left the program to return home to Madison for his dream job of coaching the Badgers.
It’s not even as if these guys got their jobs because of the success they had in Pittsburgh. It’s more like they needed a little experience to show everyone they could meet the status quo at a school like Pitt, just to prove they are worthy of a head coaching gig at a bigger, better program.
It doesn’t look like that trend is going to change anytime soon.
Yesterday, it was announced that Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi would be the next head coach of the Pitt Panthers. Narduzzi is the architect of one of the most dominant defenses in college football over the past decade and a hot name that pops up every time there is a head coaching vacancy in college football. On the surface, it’s a nice get for Pittsburgh. When you peel back the layers, however, you see that this too is only temporary.
Narduzzi is going to be a big-time coach at a big-time program. Like his predecessors, all he’ll be expected to do is be average at Pitt. Anything better than that will be icing on the cake and a testament to his coaching prowess. He’ll hang around Pittsburgh for two, maybe three seasons, improving the Panther defense and overall culture of the program to the point where they’ll be contenders in the ACC’s Coastal Division. Perhaps they’ll be a formidable hurdle to the Florida State’s and Clemson’s of the Atlantic Division come conference championship game time.
The cold hard fact is that in 2014, that’s the best you can do at Pitt. History and geography have handcuffed this program. You aren’t going to recruit high-profile talent from the south to come to Pitt. As always, you’ll have a hard time talking the Ohio and Pennsylvania kids out of being Buckeyes and Nittany Lions. Realistically, what college kid wants to spend his playing days in a half-empty NFL stadium?
That’s just what the Pitt football program is right now — a half empty program, still just tagging along. The program exists because of the work of legends who came through it years ago. It lives on today as a stepping stone for coaches and a schedule-filler for programs who have their sights set on bigger, better things.
The Pat Narduzzi hire does nothing to change that perception. If anything, it cements it.
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