Best / Worst Case Record for :
Louisville | Virginia | Miami | Duke | Georgia Tech | SMU | Boston College | Florida State | Virginia Tech | Cal | NC State | Clemson | Syracuse | North Carolina | Stanford| Wake Forest
Pittsburgh
In 2021 and 2022, Pittsburgh arguably was the ACC’s best program. They won the ACC Title in 2021 in an 11-win season, and then another 9 in 2022. They produced a number of NFL picks including a league-leading 6 with Clemson in the 2023 draft. Then the bottom fell out in 2023 with a disastrous 3-9 season where the Panthers might have been the worst team in the ACC. Pat Narduzzi started to get things humming, before last season. So now the question is where the Pittsburgh program is headed. Did it peak a couple of years ago, and is now in trouble, or was last year just a momentary blip in time?
Will Go 9-3 (5-3) if:
The offense can come back to life. Last season the Pitt offense was ranked 114th in the nation and 114th scoring. In the last 6 games of 2023, Pittsburgh didn’t score more than 24 points. That’s not going to get it done. Narduzzi made a change at OC to Kade Bell, and if that offense gets going Pitt could race to a 4-0 start on the season with Kent State, at Cincinnati, West Virginia, and Youngstown State. Could they even get 6-1 or 7-0 with a game at UNC, then Cal and Syracuse at home? The defense was decent last season but has a lot of turnover. It needs to stay decent, but have the offense really move forward for the Panthers to surprise folks. Last year feels like an outlier, and it wouldn’t take much to turn it around.
Will Go 5-7 (3-5) if:
QB Nate Yarnell doesn’t take to the offense. Yarnell showed some nice flashes at the end of last season and is the start going into next season. He’ll be the on-field general tasked with getting the offense going. If that offense struggles, it could be big trouble for Pittsburgh. An opening kick to the season with games at Cincinnati, at home to West Virginia, and at North Carolina could lead to a 2-3 start, and Pitt would have real difficulty recovering from that. The second of the schedule has games at SMU, at home against Clemson, and at Louisville. This team has potential question marks, that might lead to another missed bowl.
Make you follow the All Sports Discussion Twitter account at @AllSportsDACC and please like our Facebook Page
Leave a Reply