Riddick sheds light on the current state of Pitt and college football

Louis Riddick is one of the more recognizable football commentators in the world right now. Riddick, a 1991 Pitt alum, is always one to actively promote his alma mater whenever he can. In most of his TV spots on ESPN, you can see a Pitt football helmet in his backdrop. His passion for the school is something he wears on his sleeve, and on Saturday, that meaning was quite literal.

Riddick, along with the clothing company Mitchell & Ness, teamed up to introduce a new line of Pitt clothing that was released earlier this week. The former Panther and current ESPN star was at Pitt’s spring game to help promote the clothing line and to support his alma mater, but he was also available for questions with the media prior to the scrimmage, and shed light on some of the biggest topics surrounding the sport at the moment.

There is no denying the entire idea of college athletics changed prior to the start of the 2021 football season. The Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) ruling was passed by the NCAA, allowing athletes to profit off of their own name, which effectively allowed college athletes to get endorsement deals.

While the concept is a welcomed one for college athletes themselves, who have the chance to earn money for being a star player, it has altered how the game is played at the highest level. The innocence of NIL and athletes getting small endorsements quickly went out the window, and a new ‘pay for play’ model has taken over the sport, with little regulation behind it.

“I’m hoping that there will be some people, some really smart people, that can get together and get their arms around this situation, so it can kind of make some sense to people,” Riddick said on Saturday. “Right now, there is no limit in terms of what you can do and not everybody is operating with the same amount of resources and I don’t know how that’s good for everyone.”

Riddick is talking to college athletics as a whole, but recognizes where Pitt falls into the mix. There is no denying 10-15 programs have more resources than the rest, and it's also no secret that Pitt is not one of them. He is confident that Pitt and its NIL collective Alliance 412, are helping keep the program in a nationally relevant place in the sport.

“I know enough to know that they are working hard at it,” Riddick said of Pitt’s current NIL efforts. “They are working to make sure that they remain competitive and get the kind of players here that they know they need to compete at the very highest level that they possibly can."

While he remains hopeful about Pitt’s place in college football, the ESPN star is aware of the great unknown that is silently lurking in the shadows and understands that some schools simply have more capital than others. His expertise is usually with the NFL, and it surprised him how select college programs can operate in a different realm, even compared to the pros.

“It’s amazing at what some of these schools have at their disposal,” he explained. "It puts many NFL teams to shame. Some of these teams have multiple donors and people who can own NFL teams themselves and they are heavily involved in the recruitment and procurement of kids 18-19 years old coming to play for their school.”

Like many others who follow college football, Riddick just sees the current status quo as something that is unreasonable and likely not sustainable. Couple the NIL situation with the conference realignment phenomena, it just leaves him, and everyone else, guessing as to what comes next.

“I want to see our school be able to compete on a level playing field,” Riddick said of Pitt. “The playing field is not level, we all know that. I don’t know where this going. None of us know where this is going, that’s the problem.”

While money and conference realignment are two things out of everyone’s control, one of the newer implementations by the sports has certainly caught his eye: the expanded College Football Playoff. There will now be 12 teams selected for the postseason tournament, as opposed to the current four, which should allow for more teams to feel like they are in the running.

From a fan perspective, Riddick said that is something to cling to when the expansion takes effect.

“It gives a lot more teams hope,” he said of the 12-team playoff. “That’s what people want, they want a chance to get into the mix, get into the tournament so to speak, that’s terminology that’s even used at the NFL level.”

Riddick knows of the cautionary tales of losing players to the transfer portal for seemingly monetary reasons, like in Pitt’s case with Jordan Addison, but there are also opportunities for any school to make a quick move to improve their fortunes. The transfer portal is a fast plug to help improve on a losing season. Riddick believes these upcoming two weeks could be crazy when it comes to portal jumping, but also knows that’s an opportunity for some teams to really improve their chances on a whim.

“Look, it’s free agency every year, right? You get a couple of key players at key positions, you can flip your fortunes around in hurry,” said the former Pitt defensive back. “You target the right people at the right positions who are true game changers, it can absolutely change things.”

There are a lot of uncertainties when it comes to college football these days, but one thing Riddick believes is pointing to the past. Pitt’s history is something he is very well versed in, and believes that can still be a useful recruiting tool, even in the current climate.

“Look, this place has a tradition that can stack up against anyone’s across the country,” he said of his alma mater. "If you put Pitt’s all-time team together and it can compete with any school out there.”

As for the current team, like many who watched Pitt football in 2023, he believes the team needed a jolt on offense. Pat Narduzzi dismissed Frank Cignetti Jr. from his offensive coordinator role at the end of last season, and brought in Kade Bell, a young, yet unproven, coach known for running an up-tempo and high scoring offense.

In order to remain relevant in the sport, a self-admitted defensive guy, Riddick believes scoring points is ultimately the name of the game.

“That’s what kids want to see,” he said of up tempo offenses. “They want to be around teams that are exciting. You have to put a lot of resources into that side of the ball and you have to open up that side of the ball and make it exciting because that’s what kids are attracted to. That will bring not only more offensive recruits in, it will bring defensive recruits in, too. Because they’re going to see a team that looks exciting.”

As for the Bell hire, he believes it’s a step in the right direction for Pitt to improve on a 3-9 season in 2023. The Panthers finished the 2023 ranked 115th in the FBS averaging just 20.2 points per game. For comparison, Bell's Western Carolina team at the FCS level, averaged 37.5 points per game, good for fourth nationally.

“It was obvious that that side of the ball needed to have some juice,” Riddick said of Pitt’s offense. “It needed to have an infusion of excitement and Pat’s a good football coach. He understands what the game requires right now in order to win and in order to get other kids to come to your program.”

Riddick is a Pitt historian of sorts, and can rattle off names and games like the most diehard of fans. He noted he regularly watches YouTube videos of old Pitt games from the teams of the 1970s and 80s and is optimistic his alma mater can achieve those heights again, even in the current undefined landscape of the game.

“I sit at home and I was just doing this, pull up ’79 and '80 Pitt-Penn State games where these guys were ranked one in the country, two in the country, playing on Thanksgiving weekend, national TV, Keith Jackson…that’s what I grew up with," Riddick proclaimed proudly. "That’s what people want to see again. Hopefully we can find a way to get back to that kind of...competing at that kind of level. That’s what all the alumni ultimately want.”