Thanks to parents’ Army background, Pitt linebacker SirVocea Dennis grows into leader
A year ago, SirVocea Dennis survived his sophomore season at Pitt — conquered it, really — recording 14½ tackles for a loss while earning third-team All-ACC honors at outside linebacker. Then, coaches came to him and said, “‘OK, you showed you can handle the outside. Now, we’re moving you to...
Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi hopes lack of traditional TV coverage will increase attendance Saturday at Heinz Field
Among those concerns giving Pat Narduzzi the most angst this week, the lack of traditional TV coverage for Pitt’s game against Western Michigan on Saturday is far down the list. But he did use the occasion to make a plea for a bigger crowd at Heinz Field. The old excuse,...
Do Pitt’s signs of maturity in 2-0 start signal success for 2021?
Midway through a four-game nonconference season that looked soft enough for Pitt to handle, the Panthers are handling it. But what does it mean? Pitt has scored 92 points, tied with the 2009 and 2014 teams for the largest offensive output in the first two games since 1988. That year,...
Kenny Pickett, Pitt win critical moments, game at Tennessee
After Pitt’s 41-34 victory against Tennessee, Pat Narduzzi looked to the heavens. Maybe he knew that what happened Saturday in front of 82,203 people in Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., was based nearly as much on good fortune as good football. But — make no mistake — there was plenty...
Pitt basketball assistant Milan Brown promoted to associate head coach
With his three top assistants returning to Pitt for a fourth consecutive season, coach Jeff Capel on Friday announced that Milan Brown has been promoted to associate head coach. Brown has more than 25 years of coaching experience, including 12 seasons as a head coach at Holy Cross (2010-15) and...
Pitt Take 5: Can one game in September set tone for the season?
There is an argument to be made that Pitt’s game Saturday at Tennessee could set the tone for the season. A victory, even against a second-tier SEC team, might get people talking and cause them to pay attention to the events at Heinz Field when Pitt is playing. A loss...
Ex-Pitt tackle Brian O’Neill reaches out to Pat Narduzzi after signing $92.5M contractVideo
Pat Narduzzi’s check list for Saturday’s game against Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn., included: • Helping his players deal with the expected noise from nearly 100,000 people at Neyland Stadium so Pitt can run its offense properly and no snaps will sail over the unsuspecting quarterback’s head. • Handling the speed...
ACC wide open after league’s disappointing opening week
The Atlantic Coast Conference crown seems up for grabs after the league’s disappointing opening week performance. Its three preseason ranked teams all lost as the league went 7-7, a dent to a conference eager to show that it’s more than just Clemson at the top. The Tigers, who started at...
Former Pitt linebacker Troy Benson remembers the day his roommate tackled Reggie White
Linebacker Troy Benson said he recorded a barely believable 23 tackles in Pitt’s 13-3 victory against Tennessee in 1983. But it was a tackle — of sorts — a Pitt offensive lineman made that remains one of Benson’s most vivid memories of that game, the last between Pitt and Tennessee...
Former Pitt coach Jackie Sherrill eager to return to Tennessee’s noisy Neyland Stadium
In a football sense, Jackie Sherrill grew up at the knee of Bear Bryant. His cradle was the SEC. He played fullback and linebacker from 1962-65, before serving as a graduate assistant for the legendary Alabama coach in 1966. When Sherrill walks into Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday...
Linebacker Phil Campbell III says Pitt keeping egos in check
Back in Kendall Park, N.J., Phil Campbell III compiled a long list of honors that demand too much time and space to chronicle here. MSG New Jersey Player of the Year was just one. Campbell rushed for 848 yards and 14 touchdowns and recorded 110 tackles during his senior season...
Tim Benz: Twitter shame-police are making me defend Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly
So it’s come to this. Twitter has fallen so deep into the ninth circle of hell that it has forced me to side with the head coach of Notre Dame football. And, yes, that head coach is still Brian Kelly. I need a shower and I haven’t even gotten to...
Pitt notebook: Pat Narduzzi seeks more consistency from kicking game
Walk-on Sam Scarton was awarded the first opportunity to kick field goals and extra points, and Ben Sauls handled kickoffs in the opener. But it doesn’t appear Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi is satisfied with his kicking game. “Ben Sauls did a good job. First one he knocks out (for a...
Despite the big victory, Pitt has plenty of work to doVideo
When speaking to reporters and his team this week, Pat Narduzzi will choose his words carefully. He wants everyone to know more good news than bad surfaced after video review of Pitt’s 51-7 victory last Saturday against a weak UMass team, but he also doesn’t want to give the impression...
Pitt notebook: John Petrishen carves out spot on defense by combining skills of linebacker, safety
John Petrishen put Pitt’s 51-7 victory against UMass into terms anyone locked inside training camp for a month can appreciate. “We were waiting to hit somebody else,” he said. After Pitt players collided only with teammates almost every day since early August, there was a game to play Saturday and...
Pitt notebook: Tight end becomes a position of interestVideo
Almost from the minute Lucas Krull stepped on the Pitt campus, he felt a connection with quarterback Kenny Pickett. “Our relationship has been building, truthfully, since my visit here,” Pitt’s senior tight end said of his recruiting visit last year when he was transferring from Florida. “He hosted me. I...
20 years later, events of 9/11 have lasting impact for Pittsburgh sports figures
Jason Kendall was relaxing at his home in Pittsburgh’s southwest suburbs when his phone rang about 9 a.m. on a sunny, seasonal, late-summer Tuesday. Seeing it was his brother calling, the then-Pittsburgh Pirates star catcher instinctively knew something was amiss. “You know how you get that phone call early enough,...
Pitt rolls over UMass in openerVideo
The numbers were so outrageous — 597 yards, 35 first downs, seven touchdowns and 51 points — that Pitt’s opening day victory against UMass didn’t ever look like a fair fight. The defensive line overwhelmed and overran the UMass offensive line and quarterback Kenny Pickett propped up the offense with...
Pitt Take 5: Pat Narduzzi says his flavor of the week is not vanilla
With no preseason games to test their training wheels, college football teams march right into the action with a real game that counts. Sometimes, it’s against an obviously weaker opponent. Sometimes, it’s a Power 5 team that generates buzz. Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi is 5-1 in season openers, but the...
After long days, short nights, Pat Narduzzi says Pitt prepared for opening day
College and NFL coaches might be the only people who won’t get offended or embarrassed if you ask where they sleep at night. “In the couch, over there,” Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said Thursday afternoon in a conference room adjacent to his office. But he emphasized he hasn’t done so...
Pitt football receives historic $20 million gift from 1997 graduate Chris BickellVideo
Chris Bickell graduated from Pitt in 1997, and he remembers all too well the 72-0 loss to Ohio State and many, many others during his time on campus. But he was a fan then, and he is a fan now, and he proved it Thursday. The IT businessman made a...
Habakkuk Baldonado fights off homesickness for his native Italy by embracing family at PittVideo
With arms and legs that look like logs and a 6-foot-5, 260-pound frame, Habakkuk Baldonado fits his role as a ferocious hunter of quarterbacks. But Pitt’s junior defensive end is 7,322 kilometers from his native Rome, Italy, and he is only human. Perhaps it’s no surprise that he admits to...
Michigan State names Alan Haller as new athletic director
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State named football alumnus and deputy athletic director Alan Haller as its 20th athletic director on Wednesday. Haller served as deputy athletic director since 2019, having been with the athletic department since 2010. He was a lieutenant for the university police department for 13 years. Haller...
Mark Whipple still fond of UMass, but stays focused on improving Pitt’s offenseVideo
Mark Whipple spent some of the best years of his life at the University of Massachusetts. He twice was hired as the Minutemen’s head coach, spent a total of 11 years there and won a national championship in 1998. He was fired after the 2018 season — after he was...
Pitt notebook: Fans will be able to see Pat Narduzzi’s entire face in Saturday’s opener
Don’t be surprised at Pat Narduzzi’s answer if you ask him to name five things he’s most anticipating in Saturday’s opener against UMass. One of them might have nothing to do with football. For the first time since the Quick Lane Bowl on Dec. 26, 2019, he won’t be required...
