Clemson to visit Heinz in 2021, as will Coastal favorite UNC

It was known for a while whom Pitt would play in the ACC in 2021. But on Thursday morning, Pat Narduzzi and the Panthers found out where and when.

Pitt opens its ACC slate Oct. 2 at Georgia Tech, something Narduzzi might take issue with. It’ll be the third year in a row that Pitt travels to Atlanta after an unexpected one this past season.

Turns out, the ACC schedulemakers treated 2020 as a one-off. Despite the 2020 schedule being flipped around due to the pandemic, last season’s alterations were not accounted for in the 2021 slate.

Pitt also will travel to Duke after missing out on a home game against the Blue Devils last year. Conversely,

though, the Panthers, who were supposed to take trips to North Carolina and Virginia in 2020, will play host to the Tar Heels and Cavaliers in November.

The Panthers’ most difficult stretch is certainly between the trips to Georgia Tech and Duke. Pitt has its off week following the Yellow Jackets game. It then travels to Virginia Tech and welcomes Clemson and Miami in consecutive weeks.

Here is Pitt’s 2021 schedule, including the non-conference opponents, dates and locations, all of which had been previously announced.

• Sept. 4 vs. Massachusetts: This one might be weird for Mark Whipple, Pitt’s offensive coordinator who had two stints as Massachusetts’ head coach. Whipple coached the Minutemen from 1998-2003, winning the Division I-AA national championship in 1998. Whipple left in 2004, but returned for a five-year stint from 2014-18. The Minutemen played only four games in 2020, losing all four by a combined 161-12.

• Sept. 11 at Tennessee: Tennessee has been college football’s model for dysfunction in recent years. But the Volunteers, after firing embattled third-year coach Jeremy Pruitt, are looking for a fresh start. Former Central Florida athletic director Danny White has taken over, and he’s hired a friendly face in Knights head coach Josh Heupel. Pitt should be familiar with Heupel. The Panthers lost to his high-flying offense, 45-14, in 2018 before beating UCF, 35-34, two seasons ago.

• Sept. 18 vs. Western Michigan: Broncos head coach Tim Lester enters his fifth season at the helm without a win over a Power Five opponent. In his tenure, Western Michigan has lost to Michigan State twice, Syracuse twice, Michigan once and USC once.

• Sept. 25 vs. New Hampshire: New Hampshire, the only Football Bowl Championship team on the Panthers’ schedule, is slated to play six games in the Colonial Athletic Conference this spring after the pandemic nixed FCS football in the fall.

• Oct. 2 at Georgia Tech: Pitt has defeated Georgia Tech each of the past two seasons, ending its 2020 campaign with a 34-20 victory at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

• Oct. 16 at Virginia Tech: It’s difficult to say what Tennessee will look like in Heupel’s first year, but there’s a real chance the Panthers are 5-0 at this point. A win in Blacksburg, where Pitt was last shut out in 2019, would go a long way in winning the Coastal division.

• Oct. 23 vs. Clemson: Trevor Lawrence won’t be visiting Heinz Field. Neither will running back Travis Etienne. But the program with six College Football Playoff appearances will be in good hands with quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei. Star receiver Justyn Ross, who missed 2020 with a neck injury, also will be back.

• Oct. 30 vs. Miami: D’Eriq King is returning at quarterback for the Hurricanes, which will test Pitt’s frontfour. But just as Pitt won’t have Rashad Weaver (14.5 tackles for loss) and Patrick Jones (13 TFLs), the Hurricanes will be without edge rushers Jaelan Phillips (15.5 TFLs) and Quincy Roche (14.5 TFLs). Pitt has lost to Miami the last three years.

• Nov. 6 at Duke: The Blue Devils (2-9) were awful last year. And the only real difference makers Duke had — pass-rushers Chris Rumph (12.5 TFLs) and Victor Dimukeje (11.5 TFLs) — declared for the 2021 NFL draft. The Blue Devils, whose 5.03 yards per play ranked secondworst in the ACC and 100th nationally, are expected to finish last in the Coastal.

• Nov. 11 vs. North Carolina: Narduzzi probably won’t be happy with a road game before a Thursday night tilt against North Carolina, the early Coastal favorite. In 2019, Pitt was off before it played host to the Tar Heels on a Thursday night, and it got the better of then-freshman quarterback Sam Howell. But now a more refined and dangerous passer, Howell will be a different challenge this go-around, even with star running backs Javonte Williams and Michael Carter and stud receiver Dyami Brown moving on to the NFL.

• Nov. 20 vs. Virginia: By time Pitt and Virginia square off, it’ll be 812 days since the two Coastal foes met. When the Panthers played host to Bronco Mendenhall’s squad in the 2019 season opener, the Cavaliers had a dynamic quarterback in Bryce Perkins, who led them to a Coastal crown. But last year, Virginia went 4-5 in ACC play and ranked last in the conference in passing yards allowed per game.

Nov. 27 at Syracuse: Syracuse is 6-17 since its 10-win season in 2018, and the root cause is the offense under Dino Babers. Among teams that played at least nine games last year, Syracuse’s scoring offense (17.8 points per game) ranked fifth-worst in college football. The Orange also ranked last in the ACC in both passing and rushing offense.