Pitt matched up with Stanford (8-4) in Sun Bowl
Pitt’s reward for running through the ACC Coastal Division, as coach Pat Narduzzi put it Saturday night? A trip to West Texas for a bowl game that holds foul memories for the Panthers.
Sunday afternoon, Pitt accepted an invitation to play in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, where it will face unranked Stanford at 2 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.
It’s a relatively historic landing spot as far as bowls go, and a “Tier 1” option for ACC teams. The 85th edition of the game has a prime television spot on CBS, too, in between the semifinals and championship of the College Football Playoff. But if you’re a die-hard Pitt fan, you surely remember the day you died slow Dec. 31, 2008, a 3-0 loss to Oregon State that will be 10 years to the day of this year’s game.
The Panthers (7-6) can only hope that maybe new life awaits them in El Paso, compared to the way they finished that season and, so far, this one. After capturing the Coastal for the first time, Pitt now has lost two in a row with a couple of lousy offensive efforts.
“What we’re going through right now is the emotions of losing,” senior safety Dennis Briggs said Saturday night in Charlotte, N.C. “We have to get over that, because we have another game to go. We still have to learn from it. We have to finish this journey that we started going into this bowl game.”
Stanford (8-4, 6-3 Pac-12 Conference) received votes in the latest Associated Press poll and was ranked at times this year, but lost four of five games before finishing the season on a three-game winning streak against Oregon State, UCLA and California. The Cardinal, averaging 29.6 and allowing 23.8 points per game, does have some marquee names and likely NFL draft picks in star tailback Bryce Love, 6-foot-3 wide receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside and junior quarterback K.J. Costello, who has thrown for 3,435 yards, 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions under eighth-year coach David Shaw.
As selections were announced Sunday, it seemed that Pitt’s two most likely destinations were the Sun or the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium in New York, where the Panthers played their most recent bowl game in 2016 after missing out on the postseason a year ago with a 5-7 record.
After losing to Miami and Clemson by 21 and 32 points in its final two games, Pitt’s resume took a major hit and likely removed them from consideration for higher-profile matchups and more exotic locales. For instance, 17th-ranked Syracuse (9-3) was chosen as the ACC team to square off with No. 15 West Virginia in the Camping World Bowl in Orlando, Fla.
“We are honored to represent the ACC in the 2018 Hyundai Sun Bowl,” Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke said in a statement. “The Sun Bowl Association has a welldeserved reputation for providing outstanding hospitality and a first-class bowl experience. I know our studentathletes and fans will be treated to an exceptional time in El Paso. We are greatly looking forward to making the trip to Texas.”
There aren’t many Western Pennsylvania connections to Stanford football, but former Pitt verbal commitment Jay Symonds is a freshman fullback, Hermitage High School graduate Andrew Pryts is a junior linebacker and offensive graduate assistant John Sikora played and coached at Waynesburg University.
Pat Narduzzi has yet to win a bowl game as Pitt’s coach, but did top Stanford in the 2014 Rose Bowl, 24-20, as Michigan State’s defensive coordinator. The Cardinal is part of the postseason for a 10th consecutive year, and is 4-3 under Shaw in bowl games. Stanford played in the Sun Bowl two years ago and held off North Carolina, 25-23.
Elsewhere around the ACC, Miami (7-5) grabbed the spot in the Pinstripe Bowl and N.C. State (9-3) is in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. Among teams Pitt beat, Duke (7-5) is off to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., Georgia Tech (7-5) will go to the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit, Virginia (7-5) accepted the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, Virginia Tech (6-6) will play in the Military Bowl in Annapolis, Md., and Wake Forest (6-6) is bound for old Pitt outpost Birmingham, Ala.
Pitt also played its bowl game in El Paso in 1989 and 1975, beating Kansas, 33-19, in its Sun Bowl debut, then edging Texas A&M, 31-28, in what was called the John Hancock Bowl at the time. The Panthers and Stanford have met three times, most recently a 70 triumph for Pitt in 1932 to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
“We want to approach every game the same: Give it all we have when we go out there on the field,” Briggs said postgame after the loss to Clemeson. “The bowl game is an exciting time for our whole team. Just like every other game, you have to respect the game, prepare for it; whoever we play, we’re going to give them our best shot.”