In this week's 3-2-1 Column, we're talking about Pitt's win over Syracuse, a need for playmakers at receiver, Larry Fitzgerald and more.

THREE THINGS WE KNOW

Thanks for the distraction
I think we all needed something to distract us on Wednesday, don’t you?

I don’t talk politics in this column, or on the message boards, or on Twitter, or basically in any public forum because that’s not what I’m here for. That’s not why you’re reading this. That’s not why you check out Panther-Lair.com.

But I don’t think I’m getting too political in saying that Wednesday was a day we won’t soon forget - and not necessarily for good reasons.

That said, Pitt provided a very welcome distraction from everything else going on in the world by doing something I really didn’t think they would do.

None of us thought it would happen, actually. In our “Staff Picks” feature, everyone on the Panther-Lair.com staff - me, Jim Hammett, Matt Steinbrink, Stephen Gertz and Houston Wilson - all picked Syracuse to win the game at the Dome on Wednesday. And for good reason: Pitt was shorthanded and playing a midweek afternoon game that was thrown together 72 hours earlier. And the Panthers hadn’t played in two weeks.

It was perfectly reasonable to think Pitt would lose. And for damn near 40 minutes, it looked like the Panthers would do just that. But then…

They didn’t lose. To the immense credit of Pitt’s players and coaches, they persevered through the adversity that surrounded them coming into the game and persevered through the adversity that faced them all afternoon. From trailing by 18 in the first half to a 14-point deficit at halftime to being down by 11 with 5:31 to play, Pitt was fighting an uphill battle the entire game.

And even when it seemed the valiant comeback would fall short, when Ithiel Horton’s three-point attempt while down one with eight seconds to play bounced off the rim and it looked like the Panthers would have to fly back to Pittsburgh with only a moral victory, there was Au’Diese Toney doing his best impression of Jaron Brown with a jump that was timed just exactly perfect to allow him to get a few fingertips on the ball and force its trajectory back toward the basket.

Back through the basket.

Pitt wasn’t losing after that. Syracuse made sure of it with a bad inbounds pass and Xavier Johnson sunk two free throws to lock the thing up.

And all the adversity, all the hardships that exceeded even the standard-issue challenges teams have to face these days - it all made the win that much sweeter.

These are the good stories. These are the kinds of stories that make sports fun. And for a couple hours on Wednesday, they gave all of us at a little break from everything else that was going on.

The balance of encouragement and frustration
Early in the week, as I was planning this column, I had a thought about the 2020-21 Pitt basketball team. My thought was this:

The more encouraging the team looked this season, the more frustrating it would be.

My logic was that Pitt would show signs of improvement over the course of January and February, but any steps forward would probably be shown in losses as the team struggled to overcome the absence of Justin Champagnie.

I thought the Panthers could both improve and lose, simply because Champagnie is that important to their overall success. And I thought that would lead to frustration - the frustration of what-might-have-been as the team left multiple wins on the table.

I still think that’s going to happen to some extent, but as the overall picture of this team comes further into focus, I think that the encouraging signs just might win out. I think if you go back to the season opener against St. Francis and draw a line through to Wednesday’s game against Syracuse, it more or less points up the whole way. At the very least, it doesn’t really point down in any stretch.

Even in the loss to Louisville, I think there were some encouraging signs as the team battled pretty valiantly without Champagnie and Au’Diese Toney.

The biggest thing Pitt fans want to see from Jeff Capel and this program right now is improvement. It’s Year Three for Capel, and the program has to show steady progress throughout the season. That has been the case through eight games so far, in my opinion, and I think there are plenty of reasons for optimism.

There’s the emergence of Champagnie as a star. Sure, he had his breakout campaign as a freshman last season, but he has really come into his own this year. There’s the continued development of Toney and Xavier Johnson, both in their play and their leadership. And there’s the ever-growing presence of young players like William Jeffress and Femi Odukale and John Hugley.

Plus there’s a strong commitment to defense and rebounding - two familiar themes that helped Pitt win a lot of games in the last two decades and have been embraced by this year’s squad. In fact, if you were to circle any key element that led to the Panthers’ win over Syracuse on Wednesday, it would be rebounding (and defense wouldn’t be far behind).

There’s a lot to like with this team and how it’s playing right now. And while it will likely provide more than a few fits of frustration along the way, I think we’re going to come out of this season feeling more encouraged than not by how the team develops.

A possible strength
Call it the January...um, blues or doldrums or what you will, but I was thinking about the Pitt football team this week and started having this weird thought.

I think the offensive line might be headed for a significant improvement in 2021.

I understand that this is going out on a rather big limb. And I also understand if you are skeptical. Pitt’s offensive line hasn’t been a strength in years - probably since 2016. The line was pretty good at run-blocking in 2018, but it didn’t pass-block very well that year. The group improved in pass-blocking the last two years, but it still wasn’t very good in that department and the run game was abysmal.

So predicting a jump forward for the offensive line in 2021 is a prediction that isn’t based on a lot of historical evidence. But I think there are a few things pointing in that direction.

The first one for me is Matt Goncalves. I was really high on his potential after hearing a lot about his play on the scout team in 2019. Then he actually got on the field this past season and played really well. Goncalves was among the players who got an opportunity due to the COVID outbreak that got the Georgia Tech game postponed and held more than a dozen players out of the Virginia Tech game.

In that win over the Hokies, Goncalves started at left tackle allowed two pressures and zero sacks on 58 pass-block snaps. He was even better the next week at Clemson; despite how ugly that game was, Goncalves locked things down at left tackle, allowing just one pressure and - again - zero sacks on 54 pass-block snaps.

Two starts against ACC competition. 112 pass-block snaps. 3 pressures. Zero sacks. Not bad for a redshirt freshman seeing the first real action of his career.

I’m also really intrigued with the addition of Marcus Minor. I understand if fans take a wait-and-see approach with Minor; he doesn’t have an extensive resume from his playing time at Maryland, but that was largely due to injuries, which limited his playing time this past season and in two of the three years prior to that.

I think if he plays a full season, he can be pretty good - maybe not an improvement over Bryce Hargrove, but close enough to Hargrove’s level to keep the play solid at that position.

We’ll see how the position battles play out, but that’s my early pick for the left side of the line in 2021: Goncalves at tackle and Minor at guard. And if it goes that way, there are all kinds of options for the two spots on the right side.

You’ll have 2020’s starters - Jake Kradel and Gabe Houy - back, plus Carson Van Lynn, who played as the top reserve at right tackle; Carter Warren, who started at left tackle; and Blake Zubovic, who was a top reserve at guard. Houy and possibly Van Lynn and Warren could possibly play guard or tackle, so you can see the variety of options there.

Center will be a question mark, of course. I’m guessing that battle will be between Kradel and Owen Drexel, who was Jimmy Morrissey’s backup this past season. One of those will probably win the center job, and then the two spots on the right will get filled out accordingly with some combination of the guys I mentioned earlier.

I really like how that group looks right now, and I think it has a chance to be quite a bit better than it was this year. Obviously there are other factors that affect the run game and pass game beyond just the personnel on the line, but I think there is some quality talent and depth there for the coming season, which is a good start.

TWO QUESTIONS WE HAVE

Who is going to step up at receiver?
The wide receiver position is an interesting one for Pitt in 2021, too. Almost everyone is returning plus two recruits are joining the roster and yet…I’m not sure there’s a lot of confidence about the group for this season.

I mean, Jordan Addison had a great freshman year. He stepped into the throw-every-pass-to-him role that Maurice Ffrench vacated and became one of the best first-year receivers in the country. He’ll return as Pitt’s No. 1 receiver, and hopefully he can expand his role to incorporate more types of routes from different parts of the formation to make him even more dangerous.

But Addison is only one player, and my questions are about the guys around him. Who is going to step up? Who else will emerge as a legitimate playmaker? Because right now, there’s nobody who stands out as an obvious candidate.

Taysir Mack is the upperclassman of the group, a sixth-year senior who will play his “free” season in 2021. He was Pitt’s second-leading receiver in 2019 but took a step back this past year. He only played in eight games and caught less than 50% of the passes thrown to him. That’s probably why he was third on the team in targets but fifth in receptions and receiving yards. So he’s going to need to be far more consistent - and stay on the field - if he’s going to be a primary contributor.

Shocky Jacques-Louis will be a senior in 2021; he was my pick to take a big step forward this past season, but that didn’t happen. He saw just seven more targets in 2020 than he did in 2019 and finished with three fewer receptions and 21 fewer yards. Addison probably took over the role that Jacques-Louis was supposed to step into, but the Florida native still seems like he’s got enough talent that he should be able to produce more than he has.

Another intriguing upperclassman is Jared Wayne. As a sophomore in 2020, he turned a low reception rate - 21 catches on 41 targets - into the highest yards per catch rate of any Pitt player with at least 20 receptions. I think Wayne can be a really solid receiver, but I don’t know if I see him being a game-breaker.

Actually, I think if I had to pick one guy who really has my attention for 2021, it might be Jaylon Barden. He didn’t get a lot of playing time in 2020 - he only had three games with more than 20 snaps on offense and he only saw 10 targets all season - but his production on those 10 targets was pretty impressive:

7 receptions, 140 yards, 1 touchdown

Granted, that 20.0 yards per catch was greatly influenced by his 68-yard catch against Austin Peay, but even if you take that out, his season stat line of 6/72/1 is pretty solid. He turned five of his seven catches into first downs or touchdowns, and when he was called into active duty for the Virginia Tech game, he caught 5-of-5 targets for 65 yards and a score.

Barden wasn’t a primary weapon in the offense, but he made plays when he got the chance. So while he’s not going to be the No. 1 receiver in 2021, I’m pretty interested to see what he can do with more opportunities.

Somebody has to step up opposite Addison. Maybe a healthy Mack plus continuing contributions from Jacques-Louis and Wayne plus a breakout season from Barden can give this passing game some real punch.

Who’s the best?
Pitt fans like to talk about the school’s history of great players.

Eight Pro Football Hall of Famers. 24 College Football Hall of Famers. 25 first-round Draft picks. That’s a pretty good collection of talent, and some of the best players in the history of the game - college or pro - have come from Pitt.

But who’s the best of the best? Who tops such an impressive list?

There are some obvious names to consider. Tony Dorsett, Hugh Green, Bill Fralic, Dan Marino and Mark May are clear choices from the 1970’s and 1980’s. Mike Ditka, Joe Schmidt and Marshall Goldberg stick out from before that era. Larry Fitzgerald, Aaron Donald and Darrelle Revis are good options from the 21st century.

But I’ll ask again: who’s the best of the best? Set aside any qualifiers or caveats; don’t get sucked into era-specific distinctions or any of those footnotes we feel that we need to add in discussions like this. Just answer the question:

Who’s the best player to ever wear a Pitt uniform?

Dorsett is certainly in the conversation. So is Green. And I don’t think we can leave out Fralic. I mean, he was a top-10 finisher in the Heisman Trophy voting as an offensive lineman - twice. Those are the big three, right? Who else is on their level?

For my money, there’s one guy: Larry Fitzgerald. I was thinking about him this week after some erroneous reports about his retirement from the NFL, and I have to say, if he’s behind those other three, it’s not by much.

The key difference between Fitzgerald and that big trio is in the years. Dorsett, Green and Fralic played four years each; Fitzgerald only played two. But what he accomplished in those two years just might rival anything the other three did.

In terms of stats, Dorsett finished his career holding the Pitt records for single-game rushing (303 yards), single-season rushing (2,150), career rushing (6,526 yards) and career touchdowns (63). And I can’t see any of those records being broken. That’s really impressive.

But Fitzgerald finished his career holding the Pitt records for receptions in a season (92), receiving yards in a season (1,672) and career receiving touchdowns (34), and he was third in career receptions (161), fourth in career receiving yards (2,677) and fifth in career points scored (204). And again, he did all of that in two years.

Beyond the numbers, there’s the fact that Fitzgerald was widely considered the best in the game while he played. Dorsett won the Heisman Trophy, of course, and he’s the only player in Pitt history to do so, but Fitzgerald got as close as possible without actually winning it. We all know that story: Fitzgerald finished second behind Oklahoma quarterback Jason White in 2003.

Only two other Pitt players have ever finished second: Green in 1980 and Marshall Goldberg in 1938. I still think we should give some bonus points to Fralic for finishing in the top 10; that’s a testament to how dominant he was. But getting into the top two is a pretty significant distinction.

And then Fitzgerald also has two major awards: the Biletnikoff, which goes to the top receiver in the nation, and the Walter Camp Award, which goes to the “nation’s most outstanding player,” as decided by the Walter Camp Foundation. Dorsett’s got the Walter Camp and the Maxwell Award to go with his Heisman, and Green has the Walter Camp, the Maxwell and the Rotary Lombardi Award as the top lineman or linebacker in college football.

Somehow Fralic didn’t win any major national awards, but I’m pretty comfortable keeping him in the conversation here, particularly since he was the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft in 1985, tying Dorsett for the highest pick in Pitt history.

So what do you think? Is Larry Fitzgerald a top-four player in Pitt history? Is he higher than that? Are these four that I named actually the top four? Is someone missing? And if these four are the top four, what’s the order?

I don’t have answers or an opinion on this; I want to know what you think.

ONE PREDICTION

Pitt will have a major award winner in 2023
The math checks out here:

In 2003, Larry Fitzgerald won the Biletnikoff Award (best receiver) and the Walter Camp Award (player of the year). In 2013, Aaron Donald won the Outland Trophy (best interior lineman), the Nagurski Trophy (best defensive player), the Bednarik Award (defensive player of the year) and the Lombardi Award (the best lineman or linebacker).

2003. 2013. You know what comes next:

2023.

Like I said, the math checks out. So get your bets in now on 2023 futures, because that year’s Heisman winner is going to be wearing blue and yellow.

Okay, a Pitt player probably isn’t winning the Heisman in 2023. And two years from now is too many - really, it’s three seasons from now - to predict that any of the current Panthers will win any major award. But when I noticed the 2003/2013 synergy, I figured I would project out a few years to see who might find themselves holding some hardware.

There are a couple awards that go to player of the year - the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp Award - I’m guessing that Pitt isn’t likely to have anyone in that conversation. We’ve seen some exceptional players at Pitt, but other than Larry Fitzgerald, nobody this century has even gotten close.

Aaron Donald, for instance, couldn’t even crack the top 10 in 2013. So I doubt anybody is going to get on that list in 2023.

Then there are a bunch of individual position awards: Biletnikoff (receiver), Butkus (linebacker), Davey O’Brien (quarterback), Doak Walker (running back), John Mackey (tight end), Lou Groza (kicker), Outland (interior lineman), Jim Thorpe (defensive back), Ray Guy (punter) and Rimington (center).

Let’s see: who are the obvious options? If we’re talking receivers, Jordan Addison is really good and should be among the best in the ACC over the next couple of years. But we don’t know what the quarterback play will be like in 2023, and quite frankly, if Addison progresses as he should, he might not even be in college that season since it would be his fourth year of eligibility. So that’s tough to project.

Is there a running back on the roster who could win the Doak Walker? Vincent Davis would be in his super-senior free year in 2023. So would Daniel Carter. Israel Abanikanda would be a fourth-year player. And the incoming freshmen will be juniors or redshirt sophomores. Pretty tough to project that one, too.

At tight end…

Let’s move on to the other spots.

There’s a quarterback award, a linebacker award, an interior lineman award, a center award, a defensive back award and awards for the kicker and punter. Given that we’re talking about three seasons from now, it’s not easy to pick somebody out. Maybe I’ll stay on-brand with my praise of and high expectations for Khalil Anderson. I think he’ll be really good at Pitt, so perhaps he can make a name for himself over the next two seasons and then be a known commodity nationally entering the 2023 schedule.

Hey, Pat Narduzzi has coached one Jim Thorpe winner in Darqueze Dennard, who won it at Michigan State in 2013.

Oh look: Dennard won in 2013. That’s another entry on the 2003-2013 continuum. I’m calling it now. Khalil Anderson will win the Jim Thorpe in 2023. It’s not like anyone will remember this three years from now.