Need to know: Everything to get ready for the ACC Championship Game
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No. 17 Pitt (10-2, 7-1) will take on No. 18 Wake Forest (10-2, 7-1) in the 2021 ACC Championship Game Saturday night in Charlotte. Here’s everything you need to get ready for the game.
Time, TV and radio info
The ACC Championship Game will kick off at 8 pm at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte (N.C.). The game will be broadcast nationally on ABC with radio coverage in Pittsburgh on 93.7 The Fan.
What’s the spread?
According to BetMGM, Pitt is favored to beat Wake Forest by three points, with the over/under in the game set at 72.5 points.
In June, BetMGM had Pitt at +4000 to win the ACC and Wake Forest at +8000. Only two teams - Syracuse and Duke - had longer odds than Wake Forest. Pitt’s odds were ninth-best.
Weather outlook
According to weather.com, Charlotte will have a high temperature of 70 degrees on Saturday with an overnight low of 43 and a 10% chance of precipitation.
Game week schedule
Pitt’s media schedule for this week is adjusted from typical weeks. Pat Narduzzi and Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson held press conferences via Zoom on Sunday, which replaced Narduzzi’s regular Monday press conference.
Select players should be made available to the media on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Narduzzi and Clawson will another head coaches’ Zoom on Friday in the lead-up to the ACC Championship Game on Saturday night.
Here on Panther-Lair.com, The Kenny Pickett Show debuts every Wednesday morning and the Panther-Lair Show live stream airs every Wednesday night at 8:30 pm on the Panther-Lair.com YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe to Panther-Lair.com on YouTube to never miss a live stream.
Top storylines
- There’s really just one storyline this week: Pitt is playing for the ACC championship.
- Pitt joined the Big East prior to the 1993 season. Since then, the Panthers won the conference in 2004 and won a share of the title in 2010.
- With Pitt and Wake Forest winning their respective divisions, the ACC will have a champion who is not named Clemson or Florida State for the first time since Virginia Tech won in 2010.
- The Panthers and Deacons will both be making their second ACC Championship Game appearance. Wake Forest made it to the title game in 2006 - the second year the conference held a championship game - and defeated Georgia Tech 9-6 for the Deacons’ second ACC championship; they also won in 1970. Pitt appeared in the 2018 ACC Championship Game and lost to Clemson 42-10.
- Pitt is 1-0 all-time against Wake Forest. In the lone previous meeting, the Panthers beat the Deacons 34-13 in Winston-Salem to clinch the 2018 ACC Coastal Division title.
- The matchup of Pitt and Wake Forest seems likely to produce some serious offense. The Deacons are No. 1 in the ACC in scoring at 42.9 points per game; the Panthers are No. 2 at 42.8 points per game. They also rank No. 3 and No. 4 nationally in scoring offense.
Notes of note
- Kenny Pickett’s list of broken records just keeps growing. After 12 games, he has broken the following records at Pitt:
Career passing yards (12,050)
Single-season passing yards (4,066)
Single-season passing touchdowns (40)
Single-season completions (314)
Career touchdown responsibility (99)
Career total offense (12,822)
Career pass completions (1,025)
Single-game pass completions
Single-game passing yards (519)
Career 400-yard passing games (5)
And he tied Dan Marino’s school record of 79 career passing touchdowns, so that one should fall on Saturday as well.
- Pickett has thrown for 4,066 yards, 40 touchdowns and seven interceptions this season. He ranks No. 5 in total passing yards, No. 6 in passing yards per game, No. 2 in passing touchdowns, No. 3 in points responsible for and No. 8 in passing efficiency.
- Pickett’s favorite target, Bieltnikoff Award finalist Jordan Addison, caught 11 passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns in the win at Syracuse on Saturday, giving him 17 touchdown receptions on the season. That puts him behind only Larry Fitzgerald on Pitt’s single-season touchdown reception list; Fitzgerald caught 22 touchdown passes in 2003.
- Addison might not catch Fitzgerald - although he did catch six touchdowns in his last two games, so it’s possible - but the ACC record for single-season touchdown receptions is very much in sight. That was set by Clemson’s DeAndre Hopkins, who caught 18 touchdown passes in 2012.
- Addison is No. 4 nationally in receiving yards and No. 1 in receiving touchdowns despite ranking No. 12 in total receptions.
- Sam Scarton is quietly also approaching the Pitt record books. The redshirt freshman kicker made four PATs and one field goal at Syracuse to push his season total to 108 points. The Pitt record for points in a single season is 115, set by kicker Dan Hutchins in 2009.
- On the season, Scarton has made 60-of-63 PATs and 16-of-19 field goals. He is 4-of-4 from 20-29 yards, 7-of-8 from 30-39 yards, 4-of-5 from 40-49 yards and 0-1 from 50-plus yards. Two of his three misses this season came in the win over North Carolina at Heinz Field, when he went 1-of-3. He also missed one kick against Miami, but he has been perfect in the other seven games when he attempted a field goal.
- With 10 wins this season, Pat Narduzzi is now 52-36 as Pitt’s head coach. That ties him with Walt Harris (52-44 from 1997-2004) for the fourth-most wins in school history.