Pitt posted a commanding 73-17 win over Youngstown State on Saturday at Acrisure Stadium. The win vaults the Panthers record to 4-0, marking the best start for the program since the 2000 season.
Obviously, in a game against an FCS opponent, it’s tough to draw too many takeaways, but here are five things that stood out in Pitt’s win over Youngstown State.
The streaks are over
Pitt got it done…finally. Since joining the Big East back in 1991, and then the ACC in 2013, the Panthers had never finished non-conference play unblemished. Not only that, Pitt has not started a season with a 4-0 record since the year 2000, before the team even moved into its current home of Acrisure Stadium.
Pitt took care of both of those dubious streaks on Saturday with a commanding 73-17 win over a very overmatched Youngstown State team. The Panthers scored a touchdown in all six of their first half possessions and never really looked back for their highest point total since dispatching New Hampshire 77-7 back in 2021.
The Pitt team had to recognize what they accomplished in the first three weeks, and also had to see the opportunity ahead. I do not think that meant overlooking Youngstown State.
Quite the opposite, actually.
Pat Narduzzi’s team approached this game like they understood that everything they wish to achieve this season could be ruined with a loss to an FCS team. Is that the reality? Not really. But I think the players took it that way. A loss today, or even playing poorly against Youngstown State, would have put a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. Pitt had business to handle and it did.
Living up to the motto
If you follow Kade Bell on social media, you may have seen the hashtag he likes to use: #PlayFastScoreFaster. It’s a motto Pitt’s first-year offensive coordinator has been using since he was hired, but it’s also just cheesy enough that it almost invoked memories of Todd Graham’s ‘High-octane’ slogan he brought to Pitt many years ago.
The thing is, Bell isn’t kidding about any of it.
In fact, it’s his whole offensive philosophy, and it was certainly on display on Saturday against Youngstown State. In Pitt’s statement first half, where the team scored six touchdowns on six offensive possessions, some of those scoring drives happened at warp speed. The Panthers needed only two plays or less to score on three of those possessions, highlighted by a one-play, 82-yard bomb from Eli Holstein to Censere Lee.
To put Saturday’s performance into perspective, Pitt had over double the yardage of Youngstown State, with 15 minutes less in the time of possession department. But truthfully, Pitt does not really care about time of possession anymore, which is stark change from the first nine years of the current coach’s tenure.
Saturday’s game was only against an FCS opponent, but the Panthers finished with 644 yards of total offense. I am going to assume that won’t be the last time a Bell-coached offense at Pitt goes over 600 yards, either.
Pitt does play fast, and it scores faster, and that’s a problem for opposing defenses.
Another sharp performance from Holstein
Eli Holstein’s streak of 300-yard passing games is over, after only posting 247 yards against Youngstown State. All he did to offset that, was to rush for a career-high 93 yards. Overall, Holstein accounted for five touchdowns, three passing and two on the ground, to still continue his torrid pace to start his freshman season.
For the second consecutive week, Holstein did not throw an interception. The redshirt freshman is up to 12 passing touchdowns, with only two picks on the year. On Saturday, there were less throws that seemed risky on his end, and part off that may have been the opponent, but it also felt like growth as well.
Holstein was a little sluggish coming out of halftime, but it did not last long. He used his legs to sort of get back on track, including a very impressive 49-yard scamper to set up one of his scores.
Holstein is 4-0 as a starter, already over 1,000 passing yards on the season, and has the Pitt offense humming right along. Saturday was kind of what you expected from him, which is a crazy thought on its own. It's four games into Holstein's career, and him totaling five touchdowns seemed totally normal. As the kids say, he's different.
Louis continues to swarm
Kyle Louis is a really good football player. I had a feeling he was going to have a breakout season this year, but I was certainly not alone in making that prediction. There was a buzz about the redshirt sophomore linebacker since spring ball, and now that not-so-well kept secret is doing what a lot of people expected him to do this season.
Louis came down with his second interception in as many games with a nice sideline catch in the second quarter against Youngstown State. The redshirt sophomore later forced his first fumble of the season, giving him three turnovers generated in his past two games.
Louis plays with reckless abandon. He flies to the football. The New Jersey native is like a shark in the water, which of course, is the linebacker unit’s adopted nickname this season. Louis totaled six tackles, 1.5 TFLs, and added a QB hurry, and just missed a sack in Saturday's game. He was everywhere, which is kind of what he does.
I still think Pitt’s defense has some things it needs to clean up before conference play, there is no denying that. The run defense was better Saturday, but the pass rush regressed a little. But even in their struggles, there are a lot of good individual parts on that side of the ball, with Louis being the best of the bunch.
A bye week before the fun begins
Following Saturday’s 73-17 win over Youngstown State, Pitt will get a chance to take a little bit of a break. The Panthers get a September bye week on the calendar this year, meaning the team has a clear separation to its 2024 schedule. There were four non-league games, now a one week break, with eight straight ACC games to close the year.
As we know, the first portion of the schedule went according to plan. Now, there are multiple challenges ahead, and truthfully it starts with the bye week. Pitt needs to find a way to maintain this current momentum through a long layoff.
That is probably easier said than done.
There is no doubt this team is riding high, so to take away the normal routine from them right after they just got going could be a little tricky. It’s part of the game and the schedule, and not much can be changed about it, but it does feel like an earlier bye week than usual for this team.
Although, there should also be some benefits to the bye week. Obviously, Desmond Reid did not play on Saturday. It was clear he was a little dinged up following the West Virginia game, so this gives him an extended time off to gear up for the rigors of playing in the ACC. Reid is Pitt’s most explosive offensive weapon, so being overly cautious with him is probably a benefit in the long run, as well as any other injured players at the moment.
It’s kind of a strange feeling, almost like a day off after Opening Day in baseball. Pitt is off to its best start in over 20 years, and now there is a wait of two weeks to find out what the team does with it.
