DURHAM, N.C. — Pitt dropped its regular season finale by a score of 30-19 to Duke on Saturday. The Panthers finished the 2023 season with a 3-9 record, the worst record produced by Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi and the worst season for the program since 1998. The Panthers held a late lead in the second quarter, but a litany of errors led to Duke grabbing control of the game after halftime.
Here are five things that stood out the most in the 2023 season finale.
Same old story
Pitt’s ninth loss of the season felt a lot like the first eight. This team has not been very good this season and typically bad teams have repeated errors and that is surely the case with the 2023 Pitt Panthers. When you go back and look at why the season played out the way it did, you really only have to watch the Duke game to remind yourself of what has not worked all season.
The first thing, of course, is Pitt is one of the worst offensive football teams in college football and once again we saw why on Saturday in Durham. Second year offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. has not been working out at all, and it feels like this very well could have been his last game with the program, and yea, the Duke game was a similar result to a lot of the previous losses.
Pitt has only scored over 30 points this season twice. The team did it against Wofford and then later in the year against Louisville. If you can’t score more than 30 points, you are not going to be very successful, but here is the thing: Saturday marked the sixth time Pitt did not even score 20 points. So in half the games this year, Pitt’s offense has virtually sabotaged any kind of potential success it might have had by being this ineffective on offense.
The offense was bad, but guess what? The penalties were back today. After doing better in that department in recent games, the Panthers were flagged nine times for 93 yards and the ACC’s most penalized team fit the description on Saturday. Pitt had the ball at the four after a run by Nate Yarnell, but a blindside block by C’Bo Flemister took that scoring chance of the board and Yarnell threw an interception two plays later. It was kind of par for the course for this team.
In addition to poor offense and being flagged too much, Pitt struggled on special teams, another recurring issue, and had trouble wrapping up some tackles in the second half which led to big gains for the Blue Devils If you have been following along since the Cincinnati game, then you know all of these things have persisted all season long and it held true to form in the 12th game of the season.
Yarnell played a solid game
I think you can point to maybe two or three miscues by Nate Yarnell in this game that were not great, but otherwise he played a nice game in only the third start of his career. Yarnell posted a solid 25-of-35 stat line for 265 yards and two touchdowns, but did throw one pick. He led Pitt on its longest scoring drive of the year (93 yards) and had some beautiful throws throughout the game including a late touchdown to Bub Means in the back of the end zone while he was on the run. It was high level stuff and it is definitely an encouraging thing for him and Pitt heading into the offseason.
Yarnell looked comfortable in his second start of the year and had a nice connection with Pitt’s entire receiving corps. Nine different Pitt players caught a pass from Yarnell and there seemed to be a good relationship in place with the starting receivers, despite him being the third string most of the year. He was able to spread the ball around and make some impressive throws and he strung together some nice drives, too.
I think the interception looked worse than it was, because Kenny Johnson got caught up on an official, but even so that pass may have been picked off either way, as it kind of sailed out of his hands. Yarnell also took a costly 14-yard sack in the first half that was nearly a safety. As a quarterback, you can’t really back up over ten yards that close to the goal line and expect much good to happen. But overall, I think Yarnell showed some good signs. It’s also probably a little frustrating for Pitt fans and maybe the team, because he certainly looks more poised back there than Phil Jurkovec and Christian Veilleux ever did this season.
No repeat performance for Hammond
I think one of the things that helped spark Pitt’s win over Boston College was controlling the line of scrimmage and having a sound rushing attack. On Saturday, it was just not there against Duke. Pitt totaled 43 rushing yards on 32 carries. Even with the Yarnell sack yardage factored in, that was a pretty dismal effort on the ground.
Rodney Hammond has been one of the more interesting figures for the Panthers this season. Many believed he would be the heir apparent to Izzy Abanikanda, but his usage and production have not been what everyone expected this season. He finished with 21 yards on 12 carries and also had one 14-yard catch. This was just one game after he rushed for a season-high 145 yards a touchdown.
I don’t pin the lack of production on Hammond necessarily, because Duke was able to shut Pitt’s running game down period. It’s not like there were missed running lanes, but rather Hammond was often running into a mess of bodies at the line of scrimmage. In fairness, the Blue Devils have some good players in the front seven. But still, 43 yards is 43 yards and it was a big reason why this team lost.
Pitt could not muster much on the ground, and it should have been an asset in this game, and season for that matter, but rather it has typically been a detriment for this team. The running game should be the best friend to a quarterback making only his third career start, but with the lack of success there, it felt like it added pressure to Yarnell’s plate throughout the game and I think it sort of showed late in the game.
Defense does not make necessary plays late
Pitt’s defense did some OK things in this game. The Panthers only allowed one offensive touchdown in the first half, the sixth straight game that has happened. So like usual, the defense did enough to give the offense chances to seize control and it did not equate to much on the scoreboard, just a 10-10 tie heading into the break.
Again, another familiar thing this team has done all season.
After halftime, however, there were some breakdowns that were unfortunate and proved to be costly. On Duke’s first touchdown in the second half, the Blue Devils and Panthers were tied at 13. Pitt had Duke facing a third and seven from the Blue Devils’ own 36-yard line. Rather than rolling with the base defense, Pitt rushed a wholesale line change for its third down package. It was a hurried sequence and Pitt appeared disorganized, and in fact, they were. Duke immediately gashed them for a 46-yard gain, with multiple missed tackles by the Panthers, and then scored a touchdown one play later. So from a third and seven in their own territory, Duke scored a touchdown in two plays and it was a game changer.
On Duke’s first fourth quarter touchdown, Pitt yielded a 16-yard gain on a third and 16. A stop there would have been a field goal, but Duke then scored six points, which could have meant a lot in two-score game.
Again, Pitt’s defense has been good to the point where they have given the offense a chance in nearly every game this season. That’s a low threshold, but it has been something to hang their hat on this year. Despite giving at least that, the Panthers have had some uncharacteristic breakdowns this year especially in defending the run, missing tackles, and allowing some late touchdowns. It was all on display on Saturday in the finale.
A lot on the horizon
In Pat Narduzzi’s final postgame press conference of the year, he talked some about the Duke game and what led to the loss, but I think the offseason has been front and center for this program for a while now and that is where the discussion went.
Narduzzi did not divulge much, which was to be expected given the circumstances, but I think everyone is aware change is on the horizon. While there have been calls from Frank Cignetti Jr. to be fired, I think there could be some other staff changes that will be explored. It’s pretty clear Pitt needs some new energy on the offensive side of the ball in general, beyond just the guy calling plays.
Pitt is also set to face an interesting set of decisions from a player retention standpoint. We all know the existence of the transfer portal and NIL, and while Pitt obviously needs to add some players to bolster the roster, Narduzzi even noted cornerback specifically, but there also is the threat of some key Pitt players perhaps leaving.
While Pitt has a 3-9 record, this team is not devoid of talent, and there are some pieces this program would not like to lose. It will be interesting to see how that all shakes out in the coming days and weeks. NIL and the portal just leaves a lot of unanswered questions for any team in the current landscape of the sport.
The quarterback position moving forward is something to watch and for the first time all year, Narduzzi definitely stood by his signal caller and heaped some praise on Yarnell and showed some confidence in him heading into the offseason.
Pitt could see some coaching changes, some additions and departures via the portal, and the team must settle on a quarterback by August 31st of 2024. There will be a lot to happen over the next 279 days before that happens. The season is over, but the real fun (?) begins.
