Chris Peak covers Pitt for Rivals as the site publisher of Panther-lair.com. He shared with Cardinal Sports Report the top five storylines that defined Pitt's season.
Split seasons
Pitt accomplished something in 2018, going 6-2 in the ACC to win the Coastal Division and earn the program its first-ever appearance in the ACC Championship Game. On the surface, that’s a success. The problem is, the Panthers also got blown out in two of their three “big” non-conference games - 51-6 loss to Penn State, 45-14 loss at UCF - and looked completely overmatched against Clemson in the ACC title game. So there was good in the division title and bad in those games against top competition, leaving the fanbase uncertain of what was really accomplished.
Two-headed monster
While Pitt has a pretty strong history of running backs - Tony Dorsett, Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, Curtis Martin, LeSean McCoy and Dion Lewis are all former Panthers - there was one statistical achievement the team never reached in its history: two 1,000-yard rushers in the same season. That changed in 2018 when seniors Qadree Ollison (1,190 yards, 6.3 ypc, 11 TD) and Darrin Hall (1,021 yards, 7.5 ypc, 9 TD) became the first to do it. Ollison and Hall each spent plenty of time as backups over the last few years, but they finished their careers in style and both will have a chance to play on Sundays next year.
Not a step forward
Plenty of the optimism surrounding Pitt last offseason had to do with Kenny Pickett. The freshman quarterback finished 2017 with an upset of then-No. 2/then-undefeated Miami in the regular-season finale, making his first career start one to remember with three touchdowns against the Hurricanes. But Pickett’s strong performance didn’t carry over to this year, as he threw for just 1,833 passing yards and had 12 touchdowns against six interceptions. There were a number of issues in Pitt’s passing game - the protection wasn’t great - but Pickett fell short of high expectations.
Defensive improvement
Pitt’s defense had a rough go of things early. Not all of Penn State’s 51 points in Week Two were defensive lapses, and the unit actually played well against Georgia Tech’s triple-option attack in Week Three. But then North Carolina quarterback Nathan Elliott threw for 300 yards against the Panthers, UCF called off the dogs after going for 568, Syracuse scored 37 and Duke had 45 on 619 total yards. Pitt’s defense made some big plays to win the Syracuse and Duke games, but overall, the performances left something to be desired. In the final four games, though, the defense stepped up; Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Miami combined to average 18 points per game. Was that a product of improved performance or weaker opponents? Probably a combination of both - Clemson put up 42 points - but the defense has at least a little momentum from the end of the season.
Questions about Narduzzi
The Sun Bowl will represent the end of Year Four for Pat Narduzzi, and while he is coming off a division championship, those other games mentioned above have created questions about the program. Has Pitt improved since Narduzzi took over? From some perspectives, that answer is yes. The Panthers have won 28 games in his four seasons, which is a pretty solid total in the context of recent Pitt history. But the losses to Miami and Clemson - plus UNC and UCF and Notre Dame and Penn State - have dampened the enthusiasm that should have come with a division title, and Narduzzi will likely enter Year Five with considerable question marks, possibly facing a crucial year in his tenure at Pitt.
