Pat Narduzzi didn’t just get a win over a longtime rival on Saturday. He got a little extra satisfaction, then kept the pressure on Penn State afterward.
Pitt’s 35-33 victory over Virginia Tech came after a controversial missed field goal that looked good from several angles, and Narduzzi admitted after the game that even he couldn’t tell whether the kick had actually gone through. That didn’t stop him from leaning into the moment.
The Panthers’ coach also used the postgame spotlight to push for more respect from national voters, and Pitt did land in the AP Top 25. The 5-0 Panthers now turn to a Saturday home game against Bill Belichick and UNC at Acrisure Stadium.
But Narduzzi wasn’t finished taking aim at Penn State.
The shot came Monday, when he questioned why the Nittany Lions were ranked in the preseason to begin with.
“It’s all about the brands,” Narduzzi said Monday. “Everybody looks at the logos and gets all infatuated with the logos and all that stuff.”
The comment landed as another jab in a long-running dynamic between Narduzzi and James Franklin, even though Pitt and Penn State haven’t played since 2019 and Penn State has won three of the last four meetings in the series.
Penn State opened the year No. 18 in the AP Poll and climbed as high as No. 13 after starting 3-0. The Nittany Lions then dropped out of the rankings after a pair of ugly Big Ten losses, sitting at 3-2 after falling to Wisconsin 24-20 and then getting beat 34-13 by Northwestern. Matt Campbell is now leading the team.
Narduzzi’s own track record at Pitt spans 12 seasons and 85-61 overall. He has led the Panthers to two ranked finishes and owns a 2-6 record in bowl games.
In Other News...
Penn States Early Big Ten Slide Suddenly Looks Like A Bigger Problem
Two weeks into Big Ten play, the leagues shape is already starting to tell a familiar story at the top, with the conference heavyweights still looking the part while some of the preseason contenders are scrambling to catch up. Penn State is in that second group after an uneven start that has made the early standings feel less like a snapshot and more like a warning sign, especially with the Big Tens path to multiple College Football Playoff bids depending on its best teams stacking wins and avoiding the kind of stumbles that can linger all fall.
The Nittany Lions are not alone in that bind, but their position carries extra weight because expectations were so high before league play began. Washington is facing its own early trouble, and several coaching situations around the conference are already under a sharper spotlight, yet Penn States slide stands out because it changes the margin for error so quickly. If the league is going to earn the depth it needs at the top, the teams that were supposed to anchor it cannot keep giving ground this early. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Just Lost The Spotlight For A Huge Michigan Trip
Penn States trip to Michigan on October 17 no longer has the feel of a late-night showcase. The Big Ten announced the game at Michigan Stadium will kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET, pulling it out of the prime-time window many had anticipated and shifting some of the national spotlight away from what had shaped up as one of the leagues more intriguing midseason matchups.
It still carries plenty of weight in the Big Ten race, though. Both teams are 0-2 in conference play, which is the first time that has happened to Penn State since it joined the league in 1993, and that makes the meeting even more important for two programs trying to steady themselves. Before that trip, Penn State gets its own marquee stage Saturday night, hosting No. 19 USC in a White Out game at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCs Big Ten Saturday Night. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Faces A Season-Shaping White Out Problem Against USC
White Out week has a way of making Beaver Stadium feel like its own event, but Penn State enters the home showdown with No. 18 USC carrying a lot more than the usual pageantry. The Nittany Lions are trying to steady themselves after a rough opening stretch in Big Ten play, and this one arrives in prime time with the kind of stakes that can turn early-season frustration into a much larger problem if it goes wrong again.
USC brings a dangerous offense led by quarterback Jayden Maiava, and the Trojans have also shown enough recent defensive improvement to make this less of a shootout guarantee than it might have looked a month ago. Penn States own offense has been dealing with injuries, which only raises the pressure on the home team to find answers and avoid an 0-3 start in conference play. [Read more 🡒]