Nothing was guaranteed as college teams navigated season
As we creep closer to 2021, the Post-Gazette staff will look back at the strangest year in Pittsburgh sports any of us can remember. Join us each day until the calendar turns to remember what we saw and think about what we learned in 2020.
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College football coaches across the country love cliches. But the one they lean on the most — other than having a next-man-up mentality — is taking one game at a time.
That often-used phrase was taken to a different extreme in 2020. Week in and week out, games weren’t guaranteed. In some cases, they were postponed weeks in advance. In other cases, they were canceled three hours before kickoff. In the COVID-affected college sports calendar, nothing has been a sure thing.
But now that 2020 is (thankfully) nearing its end, it’s worth taking a look back at what happened on and off the field that made this a unique year for Pitt, Penn State and area colleges.
How it started: Before COVID19 shut sports down in March, things were looking up.
Though Pitt men’s basketball’s season finished with a loss in the ACC tournament, Pat Narduzzi’s football Panthers were three practices into a promising spring camp. And while James Franklin’s team didn’t get any spring practices in, Penn State men’s basketball was preparing for just its third NCAA tournament appearance in two
decades.
Robert Morris men’s basketball would have joined the Nittany Lions after Andy Toole won his second NEC tournament. Keith Dambrot’s Duquesne team would have made it to March Madness, as well, if it won the Atlantic-10 tournament as the No. 6 seed. Robert Morris’ women’s basketball team was the No. 1 seed in the NEC tournament, too.
Of course, none of those basketball teams had the opportunity to see out their seasons. On March 12, a day after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert became the sports world’s first high-profile positive case, conference tournaments were canceled. Hours later, the NCAA tournament was nixed.
When it got weird: It became clear that 2020 wouldn’t be a normal year for Pitt and Penn State football as the first week of August wound down.
• Aug. 6: Penn State linebacker and projected firstround pick Micah Parsons opts out of the season.
• Aug. 7: Pitt opens training camp with Narduzzi saying that “all of our guys are opting in.”
• Aug. 8: Star defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman opts out, and Pitt loses its season opener, scheduled to be against Miami (Ohio) as the MAC cancels its season.
Biggest challenge: Pitt battled through a four-game losing streak, highlighted by back- to- back one- point losses, the first time that has happened to the Panthers. Penn State, meanwhile, started 0-5 for the first time in its history after being ranked No. 7 in the AP preseason poll.
But many, including members of both football programs, would argue that the biggest challenge Pitt and Penn State faced this year was playing at all.
On the morning of Aug. 11, the Big Ten canceled its fall season with the Pac-12 following in short order. A month before the season, two of the Power Five conferences decided they wouldn’t play fall football in the middle of a pandemic. That, in turn, applied pressure and cast doubt on the ACC, Big 12 and SEC.
Whether or not it was the right call — some would say that it wasn’t considering the number of outbreaks and canceled games — the remaining Power Five conferences pushed on. The Big Ten and Pac-12 ended up playing a shorter season, too, and we’ve now reached a point where the College Football Playoffs will be played.
For Pitt’s and Penn State’s players and coaches, going through that emotional roller coaster of “will they or won’t they” was draining. And being tested three times per week with the possibility of games being canceled at the last minute was difficult.
But Pitt played all 11 games with only one postponement. And Penn State played all nine games without any cancelations.
The Panthers and Nittany Lions went through their own on-field struggles. But they overcame a bigger challenge: Getting on the field in the first place.
What we learned: Players are more than capable of wielding their voice.
In the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minneapolis, college football players across the country raised awareness of social and racial injustice in their communities. Teams organized and marched in Black Lives Matter protests. Mississippi State players urged the state legislature to remove Confederate images from the state’s flag. Change was enacted as college athletes felt empowered to speak out.
Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, Ohio State’s Justin Fields and a swath of players also helped save the college football season. Pitt’s Kenny Pickett, Jimmy Morrissey and Rashad Weaver, and Penn State’s Sean Clifford and Pat Freiermuth, among others, offered a unified, loud declaration on social media that they wanted to play in a time when opt-outs dominated the news cycle.
The players’ # WeAreUnited and # WeWantToPlay movements took centerstage in early August — and they were impossible to ignore.
New year resolution:
Off the field, Pitt and Penn State football handled their business. But on it, both programs left much to be desired.
Penn State needs to cut back on turnovers in 2021, which ought to start with whoever’s playing quarterback. Sean Clifford tossed nine interceptions this past season, tied for the Big Ten lead. As a team, Penn State turned it over 17 times and had a negative-0.89 turnover margin per game — the ninth-worst figure in the Power Five.
Pitt, meanwhile, has to improve its offensive efficiency. Pickett will be back with pass-catchers Jordan Addison, Taysir Mack, Lucas Krull and more, so that’s a start. But coordinator Mark Whipple also will return, much to the chagrin of some Pitt fans. Pickett likes Whipple, but the play caller’s pass-heavy system hasn’t produced consistently enough, averaging
23.5 points per game in ACC play since he was hired in
2019.
If the Panthers and Nittany Lions can clean up their offensive mistakes and finish off drives more frequently, 2021 could be a welcomed year.