PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – What are the Panthers facing against UMass Saturday at 4p on 93.7 The Fan?
They are FCS, the old 1-A classification. Let's be real, UMass was just horrible last year. Playing four games scoring a touchdown, a field goal and a safety while being outscored 161-12.
"I know you guys will look, go, oh, they only played four games last year, 0-4," said Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi.
"They have 10 new transfers on the football team from all over the place, two from North Carolina. So it's a totally different football team. It's not like you're going to see the same team we saw last year."
"You can get filled up pretty good in the portal, not just recruit a bunch of high school kids, especially with where they were last year."
The 10 are just those from Power 5 schools. The total number is astonishingly 31 transfers. Many will start including QB Tyler Lytle. A California native who played four games at the University of Colorado.
The tailback is a transfer from Rutgers. They have receivers from NC State and Charlotte.
"I think any first game creates a challenge," said Pitt defensive line coach Charlie Partridge. "You start to defend ghosts when you look at a team too long. Two offensive tackles transferred in, quarterback from Colorado. We've seen film on all these guys. One of the tackles, started at LSU."
Quarterback Kenny Pickett said what they need to do is treat this has every other game, even though last year's stats and the point spread near 40 points tells you differently.
"Schematically, I'm going to prepare the way I always do," Pickett said. "If they throw something different at us. We will adjust on the fly. Usually teams do have a different type of game plan against us."
While Pitt has been combing over film, so too has UMass. What Partridge is warning his team is their coaches will capitalize on what Pitt did wrong in 2020.
"Any play that was explosive to us last year," Partridge said. "We are exposing them to that in practice knowing they may try and copy-cat those plays from last season."
Pitt offensive coordinator Mark Whipple was head coach at UMass before taking the Pitt job in 2019. He has, with all of the changes, only a couple of players remaining from his time there.
"It's a great place," Whipple said. "Great school. My son graduated from there. Spent 11 years there, had a lot of good times. A lot of really, really good people."
Not much of a scouting report as Whipple will just focus on what his offense can do. Getting his run game going on Saturday.
Narduzzi, maybe in a cliché for all football coaches, says he expects a good football team to face them in their opener. He expects UMass to play their best game of the year. He believes he's convinced his team to be ready as well.
"I think they are focused," Narduzzi said. "I see a locked in team like they were last year for Austin Peay (Pitt won the 2020 opener 55-0). I sense the same maturity right now out of our guys."
"They will be ready to go. So will UMass. Not knowing what you are getting, I think that's a good thing for our team, not knowing. It will be adjustments from the first snap to the last."
"It will be a great game. We will have to be locked in."
