PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was a game, a few plays in, that had Pitt fans excited about an early 7-0 lead. Much of what happened from there on was a struggle Saturday at Syracuse. Panthers committed over a dozen penalties. There wasn’t any fluidity offensively, yet Pitt found a way to win a third consecutive game.
“I think probably the greatest takeaway from the game was the adversity we went through in the entire game, our guys fought back,” said Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi. “They didn't go -- there was no blinking on the sideline as far as what's going to happen.”
Even when Syracuse scored and got the onsides kick to bring the final result into question again in the fourth quarter.
“But our guys didn't blink,” Narduzzi repeated. “We went four-and-out, stopped them on 4th down.”
The Pitt head coach qualified that adding in the number of defensive injuries, including Saturday playing without its leading tackler Rasheem Biles and then All-American Kyle Louis was injured in-game, made it more impressive.
“The way our guys responded, to me that tells you your guys believe,” Narduzzi said. “The way they finished is critical.”
“It tells you we find different ways to win, and I think that's huge. That's kind of the adversity. You put yourself in those positions, you don't want to be in it, and again, we beat them pretty handily when you look at the scoreboard, but it was a lot tighter as a coach as you're sitting on the sideline.”
“But our guys didn't look at the scoreboard. They didn't blink, as I said, and that's the impressive thing is our guys didn't panic.”
“To me, I like to win when we don't play good. Think about that. I would rather have that than a BC game where you're up 48-0 or whatever. What do you find out about your team? We found out a lot about what kind of character we have in that room.”
Conference talk
The ACC had the second-ranked team in the nation coming into the weekend, but Miami was beaten at home Friday by Louisville. That might cause you to look down at the ACC to have its top-ranked team lose.
“If you're asking a football coach (it’s good),” Narduzzi said. “If you ask all the analysts, it's bad. It's like nobody is good. It's like, Miami is still really good, Georgia Tech is good, Miami is good, Louisville is good.”
“To me, it makes it fun in the conference that everybody has got a chance. It's not Ohio State and everybody else. So I think it's a good thing. It's not just top heavy.”
“From top to bottom, the ACC, I've said this for 10 years now, is probably top to bottom the best conference in the country, and that's why, because there's good athletes, there's good depth, and anybody can win on any given day.”
“It's a great conference.”
What is interesting about the standings is Georgia Tech is unbeaten, but only this week got into the AP Top 10. 16th ranked Virginia started unranked in the AP preseason college football poll, while Clemson (4th) and Florida State (14th in the Week 2 poll) were both ranked and the Tigers and Seminoles are a combined 2-7 in the ACC.
Current ACC standings (BOLD indicates future Pitt opponent)
· Georgia Tech (4-0, 7-0)
· Virginia (3-0, 6-1)
· SMU (3-0, 5-2)
· Pitt (3-1, 5-2)
· Duke (3-1, 4-3)
· Louisville (2-1, 5-1)
· California (2-1, 5-2)
· Miami (1-1, 5-1)
· Stanford (2-2, 3-4)
· Clemson (2-3, 3-4)
· NC State (1-2, 4-3)
· Wake Forest (1-2, 4-2)
· Virginia Tech (1-2, 2-5)
· Syracuse (1-3, 3-4)
· North Carolina (0-2, 2-4)
· Florida State (0-4, 3-4)
· Boston College (0-4, 1-6)
Pitt hosts the Wolfpack Saturday with Panthers pregame starting at 12:30p and kickoff at 3:30p on 93.7 The Fan.