Pat Narduzzi isn’t pretending Pitt’s 2027 finish is going to be a cakewalk, but he does like the way the schedule lays out compared with what the Panthers have dealt with recently.
At the 2026 ACC Football Kickoff on July 16, Narduzzi was asked about what Pitt would do differently to avoid another late-season fade. His answer pointed straight to the calendar.
"We adjusted it already, this year we're not playing Miami and Notre Dame at the end of the year" Narduzzi said. "We had a pretty good run, but we didn't play our best games in those. We'll have our chance again someday."
That line carries some real weight because Pitt has lived through back-to-back seasons where the finish turned ugly. Last year, the Panthers surged to 7-2 after true freshman Mason Heintschel took over as the starting quarterback in the fourth game of the season. The run included a win over ranked Florida State and was strong enough to bring ESPN’s College GameDay to Pittsburgh for the Notre Dame game.
Then the bottom fell out. Pitt was blown out at home by the Fighting Irish, answered with an impressive road win over No.
16 Georgia Tech, and then got crushed again on its own field by Miami with a chance to reach the ACC Championship on the line. Narduzzi also did not mention the bowl loss to Eastern Carolina.
The season before was even harsher in the back half. Pitt opened 7-0 behind a string of comeback wins and road victories, but an ugly loss to SMU and an injury to quarterback Eli Holstein changed everything. The Panthers dropped six straight, ending with a bowl loss to Toledo.
So, does this year’s schedule really look more manageable? Compared with last season’s closing stretch, yes.
Miami shows up on Oct. 24, which is the eighth game of the year, not the final obstacle. Pitt then gets Georgia Tech at home the next week before a bye. That’s still a tricky run, but it’s a far cry from having Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and Miami stacked across the final three weeks.
After the break, Pitt hosts Florida State. The Seminoles could be good, but they are not viewed as one of the toughest second-half teams in the league. The Panthers then finish with two road games, starting at Louisville, a team that has given Pitt plenty of trouble in recent years, before closing at Cal, which has not been especially strong since joining the ACC.
The Panthers’ schedule still has plenty of land mines. It just doesn’t have the kind of brutal late-season gauntlet that helped sink them the past two years.
And in college football, the label next to a team in July doesn’t always match the version you get in November. For now, though, Pitt’s path looks a little kinder down the stretch.
In Other News...
Miamis Quarterback Hunt Just Drew An Uncomfortable New Accusation
Mason Heintschels freshman season gave Pittsburgh a young quarterback worth protecting, and the Panthers appear to have done exactly that. After a notable debut campaign, Heintschel chose to stay in Pittsburgh rather than test the pull of the transfer market, keeping one of the programs most important pieces in place as the offseason carousel around college quarterbacks kept spinning.
The backdrop to that decision has now become part of the story, with Pat Narduzzi saying Miami was among the schools circling before Heintschel recommitted to Pitt. Miami eventually turned elsewhere and landed Duke quarterback Darian Mensah, but the episode underscored how aggressively the Hurricanes were shopping for a quarterback and how close Pittsburgh came to having to fend off another major poaching attempt. [Read more 🡒]