It mattered, I think, a couple years ago. “Coastal championship, we’ve done that already. You’re only as good as you are that last outing, and you’ve got to go out and execute to beat anybody, or anybody can beat you. Again, that’s coming from success at Tennessee, and then all of a sudden you think you’re pretty good and you’re not. “Our guys didn’t play well that day, period,” he said of the Western Michigan game. There are more recent examples of failing to handle success: the loss to Western Michigan at home this season a week after defeating Tennessee on the road and losing to Miami a week after beating Clemson, We’ll find out this weekend, for sure, up in Syracuse.” “I don’t know if that had anything to do with handling success. “That was maybe one of the biggest areas of issues,” he said. It’s worth noting that Pitt lost center Jimmy Morrissey in that Wake Forest game and was forced to juggle the offensive line for the final three games (all losses). I’m not sure that had anything to do with we felt really good after that game, I don’t think.” “Again, against a good Miami football team down there.
“That was a long time ago,” Narduzzi said. With their title-game berth solidified, Pitt went to Miami the following week and lost 24-3. Three years ago, Pitt clinched the ACC Coastal championship by beating Wake Forest. Pitt celebrated long and hard on the Heinz Field turf last Saturday after defeating Virginia, but they were back to work 24 hours later preparing for the next challenge. The game Saturday night will be a lesson in humans battling human nature.
You can have a bad season and maybe win more,” he said. “You can have a good season and win less. If Pitt loses to Syracuse and wins the ACC championship a week later, the loss won’t matter. 10 - or failing in the attempt - doesn’t automatically wipe out what came before it or what comes later. There’s something to prove when we go up there this weekend.” “I think I was a freshman in high school,” Narduzzi said. The most recent occurrence in the regular season was 1981, when Pitt finished 11-1 with Dan Marino at quarterback and Jackie Sherrill on the sideline. Pitt won 10 games in 2009 but needed a bowl victory to do it. Guess what? Pitt (9-2, 6-1) gets that chance to win a 10th game when the Panthers confront the Orange (5-6, 2-5) at the Carrier Dome. That one Narduzzi will discuss freely.ĭuring the Pitt coach’s weekly chat with reporters Monday, someone mentioned former interim athletic director Randy Juhl’s remark that “If Jonas Salk can cure polio, we sure as hell can win 10 football games in a season.”