Things got feisty Thursday night in Atlanta with no love lost between conference rivals Pitt and Georgia Tech. After a chippy game that featured 14 penalties including several of the unsportsmanlike conduct variety, Georgia Tech coach Geoff Collins held a brief encounter with Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi at midfield. From the looks of it, Collins wanted no part of any post-game pleasantries, barely acknowledging his Pitt counterpart while forcefully breaking free of Narduzzi’s obligatory handshake. Narduzzi, whose Panthers defeated GT by a decisive 34-20 margin, was predictably put off by Collins’ snub.
“I told him, ‘Hey, you’ve got a great team,” said Narduzzi in comments to the Associated Press. “He said, ‘Baloney,’ or some other nice words and walked off.”
Thursday’s triumph gave the Panthers their sixth win of 2020, making Pitt bowl eligible for the second time in as many seasons. Meanwhile, the loss dropped the slumping Yellow Jackets to a dismal 3-7 for the year, marking Tech’s fifth defeat in its last six games.
“I was just focused on getting our guys over to the band to celebrate,” said Collins, doing his best to downplay what appeared to be a testy exchange with Narduzzi. “I don’t even remember what I said, to be honest with you.”
Tensions are always relatively high in the pressure-packed world of Division I sports, but this year has taken that narrative to its logical extreme with on-field scrums and prickly behavior from end-of-their-rope coaches becoming the new norm across college football. Between Cincinnati running up the score on East Carolina with a late onside kick (a ruthless troll worthy of podium status at the Petty Olympics), Iowa twisting the knife against Minnesota and Collins giving the proverbial cold shoulder to Narduzzi Thursday night, it doesn’t look like cooler heads will prevail any time soon.
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