DETROIT — Pitt concluded the 2024 season with a 48-46 defeat to Toledo in six overtimes in the GameAbove Sports Bowl played at Ford Field. The Panthers held a 10-point second half lead, but a long list of errors led to Pitt playing in its longest game in program history. Following the game, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi spoke to the media. Here is a recap of what he said.

Narduzzi: First off, got two senior captains here with me, and I feel bad for our seniors. Told those guys that after the game, I felt like we needed to get that one for them, so I feel bad for our seniors. Hell of a game, our kids played their tails off. Credit goes to those guys who played their ass off, excuse my language, but they did. And we go overtime, we play with our third and fourth string quarterbacks, saw good stuff out of both of those guys. Really impressed with the way Julian handled himself as a freshman.

Again, we threw two pick sixes, that's 14 of their points. I hope you don't go over time if that doesn't happen, so we gotta be careful, gotta protect the ball, and I thought our kids played a heck of a game, but that's what we were dealing with. We had a chance to win the game several times in overtime. We needed to stop on defense, made some plays on offense. But there was all kinds of different stuff, 57-yard field goal by a senior. Defense had a fourth and one stop. Dugger ran hard. Gavin had a big two-point conversion, I think it was in the fourth quarter. Two great turnovers with PJ O'Brien and Cruce. Dugger had a great touchdown pass to Poppi, so there's a lot of good. The only bad thing was we didn't come out with a W today, so again, just proud of the way our kids played, and sometimes it happens like that.

So, questions?

Pat, in the second overtime, you had Gavin at quarterback and not just kind of your standard offense. I mean, would you kind of look at that again and kind of just put the ball in the quarterback's hands?

Narduzzi: I mean, you're talking about when Ghost had a chance to catch it and Gavin had a chance to run it in. I thought it was a hell of a play call by Coach Bell when he worked it. And we're a game of inches, and we're an inch away from scoring that touchdown, game's over, right?

I mean, so I have no regrets on the call that was made. We just gotta make a play. Somehow, someway, I'll go back and look at the tape. I'm not sure Gavin could have just carried that thing in. I think you wanted to get a touchdown pass under your belt, but I think you could have taken it in and the game's over. Game's over. So we had our opportunities, and I don't question that call at all. I thought it was a great call. They had the back of the box packed, I mean, again, I'll go back and look at it, but I thought it was the game winner right there.

It would have been a long kick, but did you consider setting Ben Sauls out for that, for a field goal at the end regulation?

Narduzzi: Yeah, that was probably too long, probably too long. We wanted to get it to, we thought that if we got to the 45, that we'd be okay, but what would that distance have been, 60-something, 67 yards? It would have been a long one. I think you risk going for that long that you've got your O-Line out there, and then all of a sudden you've got to cover, and it could have been an issue after that. So we thought about it, but I wanted to get another 7-8 yards. We weren't able to get that done.

With David and Julian, did you guys kind of have a set plan coming into today about who would play what amounts of snaps or anything like that?

Narduzzi: Yeah, we knew we were gonna play both of them. We knew we were gonna play both of them, and I think David threw two picks. Again, he's a young guy. We're asking young guys to go out there and make plays. He threw a pick-six, then he threw another ball that was picked off. Again, we worked Julian. We were excited about watching him play, and I think you can see why. He can make plays with his feet, he can extend the pocket, and he made some great plays today in the run game and in the pass game. So again, he threw a pick-six, had a D-Tackle drop off into coverage, which we hadn't seen a whole bunch of, and he took one back on him there. I mean, those two pick sixes and we’re obviously the game.

What led to David getting the start over Julian?

Narduzzi: We thought he operated everything, I mean, he's a little bit older. And he had a great week of practice as well, great couple weeks of practice, but we thought that was the number one. But we had a package for Julian to go in there that we liked, and it worked pretty good.

In the second overtime, it was fourth and one, was there any doubts about sending Sauls out there for the field goal or were you thinking about going for it on fourth down?

Narduzzi: No, what I wanna put, that's great, coach makes a call, I'm not for that. I don't care on the road, at home, I want our players to go make plays. To me, they had the field goal in the first part of that overtime, I believe. I don't even know how many overtimes there were, I'm just focused on that moment. I think there were six, but fourth and one, if you don't get it, you lose the game. I don't want an end like that, I want our kids to make plays. To me, I always put it in the kids' hand, for the coach to make a decision to lose the game or win the game, I'm not for that. I think the overtime's a great system, and that's kind of the way it goes.

Pat, how do you kind of put a wrap on starting 7-0 and losing six in a row?

Narduzzi: You know what, I mean, we stole some games early, and whether it was West Virginia, it was a great win. You think about it, Cincinnati, great win on the road and found plays, but the injury bug, whatever you wanna say it is, we had some opportunities to win games against good football teams. Later in the season, we didn't finish it and get it done as coaches and players.So, like I said, injuries, our kid played their tails off. They fought, they believed in each other, they worked together. We didn't see any quit out of that football team out there today. I mean, they didn't care who was in it, quarterback, didn't care who was in it, safety or wherever it might be, who was in it at fullback, you know, Ghost had opportunity, Isaiah Neal, to make a play, and he could have been the hero. So, I mean, as a whole, they're not gonna go the way you want. Like I said, we won some close ones, we lost some close ones. And that's kind of where we are.

I guess what's kind of the procedure moving forward now? I mean, do you guys still have to kind of work on retaining players? Do you have to go out on the portal? I mean, what's the next step?

Nrduzzi: We’re gonna worry about taking care of our football team in here, making sure we're good on the way home. Make sure guys get on their flights where they're going, take a deep breath. But I'm not worried about all that stuff. We got a really good football team, and I like where we're at right now.