Pitt football is NEVER going to be taken seriously if they keep doing this..
Pat Narduzzi spent the last week complaining about the lack of respect for Pitt and the ACC. After beating Virginia Tech to start 5-0, he told AP voters to โwake their ass upโ and recognize how good his football team was.
Well, they listened! Pitt finally cracked the AP Top 25 at No. 25.. and IMMEDIATELY lost 21-17 at home to a 2-2 North Carolina team.
You genuinely cannot make this stuff up.
Pitt even led 10-0 and took the lead back in the fourth quarter, only to give up a 75-yard touchdown pass that put UNC ahead for good. Bill Belichick just walked into Pittsburgh and picked up his first ranked win as a college coach.
And yes, losing Mason Heintschel for the season is a MASSIVE blow. Nobody is pretending otherwise. But this is becoming an awfully familiar experience for Pitt fans.
Remember 2024? Pitt started 7-0, climbed into the rankings, and proceeded to lose SIX STRAIGHT games to finish 7-6. Two years later, they’re undefeated again, finally getting national attention, and they can’t even survive their first Saturday as a ranked team.
I actually think Narduzzi has a point about the ACC not getting enough respect nationally. But you’re making it awfully difficult to defend that argument when your own team keeps doing stuff like this.
You can’t spend the entire week demanding that people take your football program seriously, then turn around and give them the PERFECT reason not to.
At some point, Pitt has to stop asking for respect and start holding onto it.
