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Pitt is past the midway point of the season with a 3-4 record. Despite the less than ideal overall start, the Panthers are 2-1 in the ACC with their destiny in their own hands.

Now Pitt will close out the season with five straight ACC games - four against Coastal Division opponents - starting on Saturday with Duke coming to Heinz Field for a 3:30 kickoff.

As it stands right now, Virginia Tech is leading the Coastal with a 3-0 record in ACC play, followed by Virginia at 3-1. Pitt and Miami are right below at 2-1, Duke trails with a 1-2 record while Georgia Tech and North Carolina are sitting on 1-3 records.

With a little over a month of football left, the Coastal is far from being settled, and it’s not an unfamiliar position for any of the teams involved. The Coastal tends to be unpredictable with no real dominant program winning the division year after year.

“There's not one team in the Coastal that's going to defend another one and say that's an easy win,” Pat Narduzzi said during Monday’s press conference. “There’s a dominant team over on the other side (Clemson) of the division. In our division, it's a lot of great football teams that you are going to win by three or lose by three.”

For a football team that has had some tough non-conference losses, the allure of having a goal down the stretch is enticing for Narduzzi’s team. The team's stated goal all season long has been to play in the ACC championship game, and that's still very much in play with five games left on the schedule.

“You can look at it and say, 'It doesn't matter what happened at Notre Dame, UCF,’" Narduzzi said. “Still have your goals in front of you. I don't think anybody is blind to that.”

As any coach would do, Narduzzi acknowledges the greater opportunity ahead but wants his team to focus on the task at hand as well.

“Really, the standings mean nothing,” said Narduzzi. “The only thing that matters is what we do this weekend against Duke.”

Narduzzi added, “Only one that matters is Duke. The games get bigger if you win them,” he said. “If you don't win them, they get smaller. Got to make them bigger."

For his part, Narduzzi is pleased with the team’s attitude despite the 3-4 start. “The thing I like is they're resilient, they're going to come play, period,” Narduzzi said of his team.
“They love the game of football.”