Pitt gets its 2018 schedule

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One weeknight game, a lot of November travel and another tough September highlight Pitt’s 2018 football schedule, which was released on Wednesday.

After opening the season against former Pitt assistant coach Greg Gattuso’s Albany Great Danes, Pitt will face long-time rival Penn State in a third consecutive Week Two matchup. This year’s game will be played at Heinz Field, the final home game for Pitt in the current four-year deal between the two teams.

As with last season, Pitt will stay in the Power Five ranks the week after facing Penn State. In 2017, Week Three saw Oklahoma State come to Heinz Field from the Big 12; this year, the Panthers will open ACC play in Week Three when they host Georgia Tech.

Pitt’s non-conference scheduling left another week open in September, and the conference filled it by sending the Panthers to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina on the 22nd. And lest last year’s September, with Penn State, Oklahoma State and Georgia Tech, seemed too difficult, Pitt will finish the ninth month of 2018 with a trip to Orlando to face UCF, which went 13-0 and finished No. 6 last season.

October will see Pitt host Syracuse and Duke around its first trip to South Bend in six years, as the Panthers will play at Notre Dame on Oct. 13. The month will also feature Pitt’s off week, as the Panthers don’t have a game scheduled in the week between the Notre Dame game and the Oct. 27 game against Duke. Last season, Pitt played on nine consecutive weekends before having an off week.

Following the Duke game, Pitt will travel to Charlottesville for its lone weeknight game of 2018, facing Virginia on Friday, Nov. 2. The Panthers then finish the season with Virginia Tech at home and back-to-back road games at Wake Forest and Miami.

Pitt hasn’t finished a season with back-to-back road games since 1992, when the Panthers faced Penn State and Hawaii to close the schedule. In 2001, Pitt’s regular season was scheduled to end with games at Rutgers and West Virginia, but the Sept. 15 game against UAB was rescheduled and played on Dec. 1 as the season finale.