Need to know: Everything to get ready for Pitt-Syracuse
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Pitt (9-2, 6-1) will face Syracuse (5-6, 2-5) at the Carrier Dome Saturday night in the regular-season finale. Here’s everything you need to know to get ready for the game.
Time, TV and radio
Pitt-Syracuse will kick off at 7:30 pm and be broadcast on the ACC Network with radio coverage in Pittsburgh on 93.7 The Fan.
What’s the spread?
According to BetMGM.com as of Monday morning, Pitt is a 10.5-point favorite at Syracuse with the over/under set at 59 points.
Weather outlook
Syracuse will host Pitt in the Carrier Dome, so the game won’t be affected by the elements. Outside the Dome, though, weather.com is projecting a 70% chance of snow the night before the game and through the day on Saturday, with a high temperature of 33 degrees.
Game week schedule
Pat Narduzzi will hold his weekly press conference on Monday at noon. Select players and assistant coaches will address the media on Tuesday and Wednesday; Narduzzi will also have his weekly radio show on 93.7 The Fan at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays.
Narduzzi will not hold his regular press briefing on Thursday due to Thanksgiving.
Here on Panther-Lair.com, The Kenny Pickett Show debuts every Wednesday morning and the Panther-Lair Show live stream airs Wednesday nights at 8:30 p.m.
Top storylines
- The big storyline for Pitt is what the Panthers accomplished on Saturday when they clinched the Coastal Division championship with a 48-38 win over Virginia in the final game of the season at Heinz Field. Now the team will wait to see who emerges from the Atlantic Division as their opponent for the ACC Championship Game. Wake Forest, Clemson and N.C. State are the three possibilities.
- Despite already clinching the Coastal, Pitt still has something to play for on Saturday. A victory would give the Panthers their first season with at least 10 wins since 2009, and it would make 2021 the first time Pitt has won 10 games in the regular season since the Panthers went 11-1 in 1981, Jackie Sherrill’s final season.
- Syracuse has something to play for, too. The Orange are 5-6, leaving them one game short of bowl eligibility, and while there will be teams who get invited to bowls with five wins, Syracuse likely would prefer to get a sixth win and not roll the dice on a postseason invite.
Notes of note
- This will be the 76th Pitt-Syracuse game, putting the Orange behind only West Virginia (104 games played) and Penn State (100 games played) on the Panthers’ list of all-time opponents. Pitt is 41-32-3 against Syracuse, with Narduzzi holding a 5-1 record through six meetings.
- Narduzzi’s lone loss to Syracuse was in 2017, but four of his six games against the Orange were one-score affairs. Only 2016 (a 76-61 Pitt win) and 2020 (a 20-10 Pitt win) saw a final decision of more than one score.
- Through 11 games, Pitt is averaging 43.9 points per game; the Panthers’ highest-scoring season since 1970 was 2016, when they averaged 40.9 points per game. Pitt has also gained 5,820 yards this season, which sets a new school record for yards in a season. It is the seventh time since 1970 that the Panthers have eclipsed the 5,000-yard mark in a season.
- Of course, a lot of that yardage has come from Kenny Pickett and the passing game. With 340 yards in Saturday’s win over Virginia, Pickett now has 3,857 yards on the season, breaking Rod Rutherford’s single-season record of 3,679 passing yards.
- Pickett’s career passing total is also up to 11,841; he broke the Pitt record for career passing yards in the win over North Carolina and continues to extend that lead. He also set the Pitt record for total offense in a single season with 3,857 yards to date.
- Pickett has thrown 36 touchdown passes this season; he needs one more to tie Rutherford and Dan Marino for the Pitt record and two to set a new high-water mark.
- Jordan Addison is also working his way up the Pitt record books. His career day against Virginia - 14 catches, 202 yards, four touchdowns - was one of the best games by a. Receiver in school history. It was the first time in 18 years that a Pitt receiver has topped 200 yards in a game (Larry Fitzgerald last did it in 2003) and it tied the school record for receiving touchdowns in a game (Julius Dawkins did it twice in 1981 and Billy Davis did it once in 1994).
- Addison now has 15 touchdown catches this season, which ranks third on Pitt’s single-season record list. Fitzgerald set the record in 2003 with 22 touchdown catches, and Dawkins caught 16 in 1981.
- To date, Addison has caught 74 passes for 1,272 yards and 15 touchdowns. That’s the ninth 1,000-yard season by a Pitt receiver in school history and the first since Tyler Boyd had 1,261 yards and eight touchdowns 78 receptions in 2014. His yardage total currently ranks No. 4 on Pitt’s all-time single-season receiving list; he can move to No. 3 with 26 more receiving yards and he can pass Antonio Bryant for No. 2 with 186 more yards. Addison would need 401 yards to break Fitzgerald’s Pitt record for single-season receiving yards, which is not entirely unattainable with three games left to play.