Last week was a rollercoaster of emotions for Pitt football.
Leading up to the game, the fanbase and coaching staff had two very different approaches to their top-25 clash with Notre Dame. Narduzzi infamously detailed how unimportant the Irish game was in comparison to Pitt’s final two matchups, ACC contests against Georgia Tech and Miami.
Though he was factually correct, those comments did not jive with a fan base who was eager to win their sixth straight and keep the legend of their upstart team alive.
By Saturday, Narduzzi had struck a much different, fan-approved tone.
One could argue it was Pitt’s biggest home game in years, with two ranked teams battling for prime position in the College Football Playoff. ESPN’s College GameDay was in town for their first Saturday show from Pittsburgh in 20 years, and Acrisure Stadium had a blue and yellow buzz that fans aren’t accustomed to.
And then, it all came tumbling down. A touchdown on the second drive and a subsequent pick six saw Notre Dame go up 14-0 halfway through the first quarter. From there, Pitt had no chance. You could feel it.
No matter what quotes you took to heart, that 37-15 thrashing at the hands of the Irish stung. It was a chance for Pitt to make a statement to the college football world, and instead, Notre Dame made an example out of them.
Well, talk about a complete role reversal this week.
This time, it was Pitt playing the visitor, walking into a hostile barn whose team had one simple mission. Unlike the Notre Dame game, which carried a far amount of nuance regarding conference impact — or lack thereof — Pitt’s opponent in Georgia Tech had one mission.
On their seniors night, all the Yellow Jackets had to do was win, and a ticket to the ACC Championship was theirs. Pitt, the team with a much more complicated path to Charlotte, played like the team that just needed the win. They wanted it more, plain and simple.
This game was about as much of a veteran vs protégé matchup as college football can provide. Pitt rode into Bobby Dodd Stadium with 18-year-old true first-year Mason Heintschel at quarterback. Opposite the Panthers was 24-year-old redshirt senior quarterback Haynes King.
The rookie outplayed the veteran, with Heintschel going an efficient 20-of-27 for 226 yards and three total touchdowns. They imposed their will against the Yellow Jacket defense again and again in the first half, whether it came by air or by ground.
Heintschel and the gang hung 28 on them in the first half, and the quarterback found a consistent target in junior wide receiver Kenny Johnson. Pitt’s receiving yards leader tacked on another six catches, 91 yards, and touchdown.
True first-year running back Ja’Kyrian Turner put in another stellar day as well. The starting rusher set a new career-high with 201 rushing yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. In a year where senior running back Desmond Reid has missed a lot of time with injury, Turner’s presence has made for an almost seamless transition in the offense.
The explosiveness in the passing game isn’t quite there yet, but he’s averaging 4.4 yards per carry and has already tallied six rushing touchdowns on the season, despite not playing as the featured back.
The offense cooled off rapidly in the second half, but when they needed to awaken to deliver the knockout punch, they did.
The defense, meanwhile, held one of the nation’s best college offenses scoreless for almost the first 30 minutes. And even when the Yellow Jackets finally got to their game, Pitt’s defense bent but never broke. Junior linebacker Braylan Lovelace’s 100-yard pick six derailed Georgia Tech’s momentum just enough to alter the outcome of the game.
Narduzzi deserves some credit as well. Although some of his in-game work was questionable — something I’ll discuss in a second — he had his team fired up and ready to go from kickoff. They were hungry to stay alive in the ACC race and more than eager to set the record straight after that Notre Dame loss. They took all that flack about supposedly not taking the game seriously and channeled that into action on Saturday night.
I thought both head coaches made questionable choices in the fourth quarter. Right after the Yellow Jackets scored to make it 35-21, Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key decided to try an onside kick with a little under nine minutes to go. Given the way the two sides were trending, it’s just not the decision I would have made.
Pitt’s offense had not scored all half. The only Panthers score came on that aforementioned 100-yard pick six, but the Yellow Jackets had racked up 21 points in about the last half hour of game play. The offensive momentum was on Georgia Tech’s side, and considering that the Yellow Jackets had all three of their timeouts left, it just wasn’t necessary, and Pitt recovered it.
But I gotta tell you, Narduzzi is so lucky that his fake punt idea didn’t come back to haunt him.
On a 4th-and-9 play from their own 41-yard line, Narduzzi decides to try and execute a fake punt. The ball is snapped to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Cataurus “Blue” Hicks, who goes nowhere and is taken down behind the line of scrimmage.
It was just a terrible decision. Their formation was bad — Hicks was in too obvious of a position — and the execution was far worse. Hicks tripping behind the line of scrimmage wasn’t a good look, but go back and re-watch that play and how it broke down. Even if he stays on his feet, there’s just no way that Hicks makes it to a first down.
After taking over on downs, Georgia Tech needed just five plays to score, making it a one-score game and reigniting the home crowd with just under five minutes to go. Heading into this game, ACC teams were 0-340 when trailing by at least 28 points at any point. Now, after falling behind 28-0 early in the second, the Yellow Jackets were scarily close to history.
To Narduzzi’s credit, he took full responsibility for that decision, which I thought was admirable.
“I’m a dumbass — just a coach trying to make a play. We hadn’t run a fake punt all year,” Narduzzi said bluntly. “You can chalk those 7 points up to Coach Narduzzi.”
Here’s where — if you’re a Pitt fan — you’re really encouraged by what you saw on the field today. After Georgia Tech brought it within one, the mission of the Pitt offense was two-fold. Score by any means necessary, but if you can’t, kill as much time as possible.
With the lights shining bright and the crowd roaring, Heintschel didn’t blink. He connected with Hicks for a six-yard gain to open the drive, and two plays later, he connected with Hicks again for 13-yards and the first down.
It was a chance for the receiver to make up for his stumble on the botched fake punt, and Heintschel a good avenue for completions. Then on a handoff, true first-year running back Turner ripped off a 56-yard to the endzone for a touchdown to ice it.
Even if it got dicey at the end — and let’s be honest, that game got closer than it needed to — this program deserves a lot of credit for the win. Both sides of the ball were crucial in this win.
The season finale next week has a lot of moving pieces. To punch a ticket to the ACC Championship, Pitt needs to beat No. 13 Miami in their final ACC game of the season, and either Virginia or SMU needs to lose. But what this game did was keep Pitt alive.
Right now, that’s all they could do, and that wasn’t an easy task.
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