PITT TAKES AIM AT CANES By Matt Porter Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Panthers look to ruin Miami’s perfect season, keep turnover chain in box.
CORAL GABLES — Last year, Pittsburgh was most likely the best 8-5 team in the country. The Panthers beat rival Penn State, which finished 11-2 and played in the Rose Bowl, and handed eventual national champion Clemson its only loss.
You’d bet Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi is preparing to get his players fired up to pull off another upset Friday against No. 2 Miami, right?
“We’re 4-7,” he’ll tell them,“and we’re not making a bowl, but we can send those Canes home crying.”
Or he might call back to the 2007 Panthers, who shocked second-ranked West Virginia, spoiling their “Backyard Brawl” rival’s BCS championship hopes.
“You know, we may, you could, maybe I’ll bring you in,” Narduzzi said to a reporter who wondered if he was readying a let’s-play-spoiler speech. “But really we can focus on what happened back in whatever year that was that ruined your New Year’s, or we can focus on the now.
“Kids like history lessons every
once in a while, but it’s really right here, right now, what’s going on now, and the point is we’ve got a great Miami team walking into Pittsburgh on Friday; they’re going to spend their Thanksgiving evening right here in the beautiful city of Pittsburgh, and then we’re going to go out and give it everything we’ve got.”
Pitt (4-7, 2-5 ACC) is a 14-point home underdog against the Hurricanes (100, 7-0).
The Hurricanes vaulted past Clemson to No. 2 in the College Football Playoff rankings, which were released Tuesday night. Alabama remains No. 1,
followed by UM, Clemson and Oklahoma remains at No. 4.
Many of the players on this year’s Pittsburgh roster — save for standouts like running back James Conner, defensive end Ejuan Price and quarterback Nathan Peterman — were part of the team that shocked second-ranked Clemson on Nov. 12 last year.
Pitt is coming off a heartbreaking 20-14 loss at Virginia Tech. The Panthers — needing to win their final two to become bowl-eligible — were stopped on four plays at the Hokies’ 1-yard line. They got there on a 74-yard reception by Jester Weah, who appeared to have scored on the play but was ruled out at the 1 on review. Pitt had a timeout in its pocket, too. But Darrin
Hall was stopped twice for no gain, quarterback Kenny Pickett couldn’t find Weah in the end zone, and Hall was driven backward 3 yards. Game over.
Friday will be senior day for Pitt, and Narduzzi called it “a really sad deal when you’re playing your last football game.” He said the program will “use Miami as a measuring stick to find out where we are as a football team, how far we’ve grown and learned through the entire year.”
The Hurricanes don’t have Deshaun Watson at quarterback, but Malik Rosier has been plenty productive, and the defense looks a lot like Clemson’s of 2016.
“Speed,” Narduzzi said, when asked for his impression of Miami. “They’ve got
athletes all over the field. Rosier, obviously, at quarterback, I think he’s faster than the ( Josh) Jackson kid last week, very similar type guy, throws a nice ball, tight spiral. He can run. And then they’ve got skill everywhere. They’re going to line up in three wideouts just about every snap. They’ll get in a little bit of two tight end sets, but it’s going to be a tempo game, not a fast tempo like Syracuse, but it’s the speed that they have, and (Braxton) Berrios at the slot receiver is not only an electric returner but heck of a receiver, too.”
On defense, Narduzzi erroneously said UM has “11 returning starters” — the Canes replaced both safeties and a corner, plus another NFL-bound corner who rotated — but correctly stated Miami is “fast.”
“They’ve got that (turnover) chain going and the ‘U’ and the whole deal,” he said. “They’ve got confidence that they’re going to get turnovers every time they walk out on the field, so that’s going to certainly be a key to victory is don’t get them started. They want to pass that chain around and have 10 or 12 guys have that chain around their neck, so we’ve got to make sure that thing stays wherever they keep it when they walk out on the field; we’ve got to try to keep it in that box.”