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REWIND: The Strangest Season · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to another edition of Pittsburgh Sports Memories Podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Steve Wirt, and as usual, I'm with Hi everybody.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Tim Hannon.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're going to be uh going back and uh covering a uh season that's not too long ago, so you know it's pretty pretty fresh in our memories, and um it's the 2016 Pitt football season.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: So uh where were you in 2016?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh doing something else, I guess.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like it's not that long ago.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I I went with a different theme.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Normally we do chronologically, but I decided to go a little different because it's kind of a different kind of season.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: So um I kind of summed this season up into three different categories, and I will call it the good, the bad, and the ugly.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this is obviously a play on the uh famous Clint Eastwood movie starring him, Leon Van Cleef, and uh Eli Wallach.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: So um just to kind of uh before we jump right into the uh the ugly, which will be the first, uh, we'll do the backstory.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: What was how did we get here in 2016?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So the coach pre-thousand 2016 was Paul Christ.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: He kind of rebuilt the program back to uh some level of at least respectability.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um their defense had not been good.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: He had he was more of an offensive coach, so he um definitely rebuilt the offense.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um after uh 2015, Christ leaves for Wisconsin.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's his alma mater, it's where he's from, it's like where he has a very deep connection to, I think his family's there, and you know, he played there.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like a Johnny Majors to Tennessee move.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's the only school that he would ever leave Pitt for.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, he did this without the Johnny Majors of bringing a national championship to Pitt.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think he finished 500.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think Paul Chris finished 500.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: So Pitt's looking for a coach, and they've had a lot of coaches in the last, what, six to eight years.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So they're kind of tired of hiring people.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So they go out and they get a guy named Pat Narduzzi.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Pat Narduzzi's from Youngstown, so he's kind of a western Pennsylvania guy.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he's been a defensive coordinator at Michigan State under Mark Dantoni.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: He was with Dantoni, I think, in Cincinnati and a couple other stops along the way.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is his first head coaching job.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he's a defensive coordinator, so they want him to rebuild the defense.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I think more importantly, is what Pitt is looking for is they want stability.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want to be hiring someone in four years because he wants to go back to Michigan State.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's kind of from Pittsburgh, Youngstown, so he has some roots in this area, and um he's had some success, you know, at college football, and he's kind of young and up and coming.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So Narduzi's first season in 2015, the team goes six and six.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um they they kind of did the they beat the teams, they they should lost to the teams that were good.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a weird season that way.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, because normally Pitt has like a head scratching, loss, head scratching, win.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: They really didn't have either of those in that season.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: They just kind of like, oh, okay, this team's better, they lost.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: This team's better than them.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: They won.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Navy might be the only one that's kind of close, but I didn't think Pitt was all that great that year.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Navy was pretty, pretty good, and that was Navy's bowl game, which was played in Annapolis, was basically an extra home game for Navy.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: The only thing I remember about that game was that the Naval Academy wore these really cool uniforms.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: They had like helmets on the city.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: They had the battleships on the helmets.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, with the battleship on the helmet.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: And when it was like 21-0 Navy, I just that was the only cool thing about that game.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I mean, that's a that's the I I actually attended that bowl game.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it started on yeah, it's we went to Annapolis, which is a beautiful town, yeah.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's uh it we returned to opening kick for a touchdown, uh, Henderson.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, okay.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, quadry Henderson, yes.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that was it.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was all downhill from there.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: That would have been a cool place to visit, I imagine, just just in case.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: We never yeah, we kind of left.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why, but I guess we never did make it to like you're s you really should go to the naval museum.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: I suppose that's pretty cool, but we never we never made it there.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe next military goal, yeah.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um other things that happened was Jim Cheney, who was the offensive coordinator for Pitt, uh, he left after one year.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted that sweet SEC money at Georgia.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So he's gone to the SEC.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so they have a vacancy on their coaching staff, and they uh Narduzi knows this guy.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: He coached against him, I think, in like the good old Mac days, uh, Mac Canada.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Canada is a career assistant coach, uh, but he's become like this offensive guru, and he's been he's been at NC State for a couple seasons, and they've always had like a really decent offense, decent to good offense.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: But um, for some reason, Canada has a falling out with the NC State head coach Dave Doran, and um they they he's let go.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: So this guy's available and uh Pitt picks him up to their credit.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Josh Conklin is the defensive coordinator for Pitt.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's in his second year as defensive coordinator.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know he's kind of a young guy, another young guy.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: He kind of has these young up-and-coming assistants that's kind of way in our doosey's going.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um on the player front, um, James Connor had injured his knee the year before against Youngstown State.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then while he was rehabbing, he was, of course, diagnosed with uh Hodgkin's lymphoma.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um it was a devastating uh diagnosis.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: I remember telling my parents, and they were sorry, they were very upset at the time.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it ends up being like this motivational thing for him.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um in learning of this diagnosis, his quote was fear is a choo choice, and I choose not to fear cancer.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: He said that in his uh press conference.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh on May 23rd of 2016, so that was like the fall of 2015, he is declared cancer free by the doctors.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh here they have like video of like Connor like practicing with the team in the spring, and yeah, it was pretty, pretty emotional time there, and it was like I think it brought the team together and gave them kind of like you know, some resiliency, and you know, he was a good team leader for that.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was it was really cool and it was like a national story.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, he was on like the um Ellen de Generate and stuff like that.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: It was a big, big deal national news and very inspirational.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um now the quarterback now was Nathan Peterman.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: He'd replaced Chad Voitick, who really wasn't that good.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but Peterman that one year was kind of mediocre.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: He kind of got run out of Tennessee because people didn't think he was that good.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So he's kind of like a mediocre.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's at least a quarterback, which I I think I never thought Chad Voytek was like on that level.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So like I said, we're gonna do the good, the bad, and the ugly theme here.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll start off with the ugly, which was the character's name was Tuco and is played by an actor named Eli Wallach.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um Eli Wallach, he he was a great actor.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: He he done a lot of roles, but he never won an Academy Award.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: They did give him an honorary run in November of 2010.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Should he have won one for the good, bad, and the ugly?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: He was pretty good in that.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know who the other nominees were in 1968 or whatever that was, but uh but uh he was pretty good in that.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I he uh I all three of them were pretty good.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh oh yeah, they were brilliant.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: So so so before the show.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Before the show, I expressed to Steve, much to his utter disgust, the fact that I've never seen this movie, The Good, Bad, and the Ugly.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard of it, I'm familiar with the phrase, but I've never seen it.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's what they call spaghetti western, because it was filmed in Italy and made by an Italian director.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it it's part of like three other movies they call the Dollars trilogy, starring and it's all starring Clenn Eastwood, who's the man with no name, but he actually has a name in this in the in this ver in this part of the trilogy.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Can't go wrong with Clint Eastwood and a Western.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: No, no.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is before Clenn Eastwood decided to do his crotchety old man roles.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: So this is uh we'll go over Clint Eastwood when we get to the the good.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um so the ugly, this is the really bad parts of the season.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll just get that out of the way in this podcast, get the misery out here.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: So um Pitt loses to Miami.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, what a shocker! Woo-hoo.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Pitt always loses to Miami, and it was 51 to 28.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um Miami kind of shut down the running game in the second half.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Connor only had 40 yards rushing.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Peter and only had two he had two passing touchdowns, but he also had an interception.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh once again, uh Quadri Henderson did have a kick return for a touchdown.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: He was really good at returning kicks for touchdowns outside of uh uh what's his name for the Bears?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: White or was it White?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Devin Hester.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Devin Hester, that's it.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Didn't the Steelers sign him um as a kick returner?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think when he was like way over the hill.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um Quadri Henderson.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's been on and off the team.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: They've got him a couple like I I I always feel bad because like he in other years, if he would have came in the league ten years ago, he would be on a team somewhere just because he's really good at returning kicks.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: But nobody returns kicks anymore.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he's okay at returning punts, but he makes sometimes questionable decisions returning punts.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Kickoffs were really his his specialty there.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And like you said, they all go over.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, they moved they wanted to get rid of kickoffs.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I think that if they could just start the ball at the 25, they would.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, they kind of like you know, moved the ball up and yeah, got rid of all that.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um the the worst part of the Miami game was uh the defense.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: They gave up four passing touchdowns and 356 yards passing, the Brad Kaya, who's not exactly Vinny Testaverdi or Jim Kelly, or uh I don't know.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Gino Torretta.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, the other the other guy that won a national championship at uh Miami, you know, the guy from Philly, uh that guy too.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's like you know, four to ten other like Miami quarterbacks that are way better than this guy.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Ken Dorsey?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Ken Dorsey was definitely way better.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a there was a guy in the 90s, I can't remember his name.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've I've that's I've already exhausted my list of Miami quarterbacks.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, this guy was not them.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: No, he was not them, and he wasn't probably even in the conversation as them.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um this 23-point loss was the largest of the season.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Pitt never beats Miami.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: They've only beat Miami three times in the last 24 years.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: So ha, they got that going for them.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um the next really bad loss, this is this is ugly too.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's more the opponent, like like the Miami loss wasn't as shocking because Miami all pit always loses on Miami, especially in that game was in Hard Rock Stadium or whatever it's called this week.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: So uh on October 27th, uh Virginia Tech 39, Pitt 36.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um Pit I I went to this game, uh P Pitt's offense had their worst, I would say, first half of the season, like especially first quarter.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: They really didn't get off that first stat a strong start.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: So they kind of fell behind Virginia Tech.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, but they ended up ha like scoring 36 points and they they had a strong second half.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Connor had 141 rush yards and uh three touchdowns.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um Peter in the passing game were mediocre to bad.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: 26 267 yards passing.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: He had a TD and interception, really isn't good.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: But really, the story of the game was the defense because literally they the quarterback of Virginia Tech was Gerard Evans, who's once again not Michael Vick, Jim Drunkenmiller, name your list of like Virginia Tech quarterbacks who are way better than this guy.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And literally they ran the same play the whole game.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was just like fade pass, fade pass, fade pass.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Can you stop a fade pass?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's third and nine.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Here comes the fade pass.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: So Pitt just could not like I remember even after like the game, like Narduzzi was like, Yeah, we we didn't pass our fade pass test or something.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was like some sarcastic remark.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so the receivers for Jitec really weren't all that fast.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: They were just very tall.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: So they were so they had that going for him.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um Brian O'Neill uh he scored a a rushing touchdown this game, and that that was kind of like became a theme later in the season, but it was kind of like weird because he's like a he was a tight end that became a tackle, and I think he does he play for the Vikings?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's in the NFL somewhere as a tackle.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: But like he like an offensive lineman scoring touchdowns were like that's the play, like that's the actual play call.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like they called it on a sweep.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of odd, but it was entertaining to watch a fat guy touchdown.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um as of this brocast, as far as I can tell, that's the only time Virginia Tech has won at Heinzfield.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Because I mean Pitt normally owns them pretty well, so Yeah, and and they had that role where they didn't play each other for about ten years and then they both got into the ACC.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then the pit kind of picked up right where they had left off.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: And beating them every year.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then yeah, this was that hurt to lose to them at home.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and especially it was just the same play over and over and over again.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, that's again, yeah, there's a theme developing here about the defense, especially the passing defense.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: So on September 24th, this is early in the season, uh, this this one hurts.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I was just talking about this game literally a week ago, whenever the Bears benched Mitchell Trubisky.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, here you go.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: 36 to 37.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Pitt loses the North Carolina.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's three things that are guaranteed in life: death taxes, and Pitt losing the North Carolina in football.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um this is like I said, this is a game that helped uh quarterback Mitchell Trubisky get drafted ahead of Patrick Holmes.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're welcome, Bears fans.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure they're really happy about that.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I mean, good for Mitchell Trubisky, made a bunch of money.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh the defense couldn't stop North Carolina.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like they literally had like four fourth downs and they converted every one of them.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was the game-winning touchdown on the fourth down?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even remember.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: So there were But they but on that drive, they can like they had like fourth and four, fourth and five, and they just kept the so yeah, they're down, they're down, they have to score a touchdown on their last drive.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: And Pitt literally at least twice, maybe three times, has them down to fourth down, and they just converted every time.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then the the game-winning touchdown was scored with two seconds left on a on a like a corner of the end zone.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy wasn't even like it wasn't even that hard of a catch, if I remember correctly.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like he was kind of open, like by a fair amount.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Not wide open, but open enough where like if he would have dropped it, you would have remembered it.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Mitchell Trubisky finished with 453 yards passing.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Take that, Patrick Mahomes, and five touchdowns.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Ryan Switzer also had a big day.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Another Steeler from the soon-to-be Steeler.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: He had 16 receptions and 203 yards.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, Steeler fans, you can thank Pitt for Ryan Switzer, too, I guess.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Ryan Switzer.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: So Trubisky, you're right, when he was drafted, because the Bears traded up to get him, which everybody was like, what in the world?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: They traded from three to two, which they didn't need to do.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody wanted him at that spot.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: They passed on Mahomes at the time.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they could they could have passed they could have yeah, they still could have drafted at three, Mahomes.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, or they could have drafted Trubisky at three because nobody wanted him there.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: They passed on Mahomes, they passed on Watson, and everybody was was shocked.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember like that's all they well, well, who is Mitchell Trubisky?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's like fucking burnt pit.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then Ryan Switzer is another guy that, you know, the Steelers finally let him go in in 2020.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: And for years I was so like, let's throw a screen pass to Ryan Switzer, and let's have Ryan Switzer return the punt sideways for one yard.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just he was another guy that I just was like, why do we why do we keep having Ryan Switzer?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I you're right, I feel like this game made both of them.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you can tell they probably are like checks to like you know, Pat Narduzzi or like Avante Maddox and Ryan Lewis, other members of the secondary.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I just I was so disgusted after that game.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: I just remember being like, you know what?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: This is just it's what a classic pit loss.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that was in North Carolina.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was, yeah.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um on a positive note, uh Quadri Allison, the running back, had 170 yards rushing on nine carries.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, they kind of have they they have like this group of running backs.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get more into that later.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's I I I think they don't get as much hype as they should.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um sticking with the the really ugly parts of the season, overall the pit defense was awful, beginning to end.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: They never really improved.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: They gave up a ton of points to like mediocre, like you know, the better quarterbacks I can see, you know, they're good quarterbacks, but this was kind of the off like at least the year before they seemed to be able to stand up to mediocre quarterbacks.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: This year it was like it was horrible.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Narduzzi and Conklin couldn't really adjust, or maybe they just didn't have the players.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: They were still using Chris's players at that point.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: That was only Narduzzi's second year, so really hadn't had his recruits yet.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: So um another fun fact, me and uh me and a friend at work started calling Avante Maddox the one-pick corner of Monte Saddox.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So uh you're welcome, Eagles fans.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the he's their problem now.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I just there was a playoff game, I remember watching it.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: I remember he got burned.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was that was against Russell Wilson.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was Seattle, yeah.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it was like, what a shock.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Avante Maddox getting burned.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen that one before.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: So uh that's enough with that.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: That was the really ugly part.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're just gonna we're getting a little better.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is just the bad.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't it isn't good.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was bad, but it wasn't as bad as that stuff.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the bad was played by a gentleman named uh Lee Van Cleef.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: His character's name was Angel Eyes.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: And uh this is probably my favorite bad guy actor outside of Alan Rickman, who I mean Alan Rickman, you know, Hans Gruber Snape, you know.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, but uh the sheriff from Robin Hood.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: But uh Lee Van Cleef is just awesome, is a bad guy, and he's the bad guy.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: He like the plot of like not to get too much into the good bad and the ugly, but they're trying to find this lost gold, and Tuco knows part of the mystery to find it, and the good guy Clint Eastwood does too.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: So like Lee Van Cleef basically like tortures like Tuco for like an hour.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's like unbelievable.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Not like graphic like Quentin Tantero, they just kinda like beat the crap out of him in a chair, but it's Lee Van Cleef, he's a bad guy.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then he like you know turns on his whole gang, so he's a bad guy.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: So um starting with the bad, uh the pinstripe bowl.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh it's a bowl game in Yankee Stadium.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's played a month after the season, so Pitt's season is over.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything that Pitt had done up to this point was kind of like way better than this bowl game.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it was kind of like I mean, in like, okay, I'm gonna drive to New York, sit in the freezing cold Yankee Stadium, and watch Pitt play Northwestern, who isn't even remotely like a rival at all, or anybody that like nothing against Northwestern, but you know, I'm sure Northwestern's felt the same way.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it did uh you know, Pitt played a bad game.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh James Conner got hurt, uh Peterman got hurt, didn't finish the game.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: It just was an unnecessary game.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: They had to play because it's the bowl game, and I guess you know, it's your reward.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um Pitt had already like I said already won all the big games that were way bigger than this.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um it was just such an afterthought, and like who cares?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: I just remember the whole time it was like, I don't care about this bowl game.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I couldn't really care if they won or lost, or it it just didn't matter.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of the fans, I don't know what the team's attitude was, but that was my attitude.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: So and they lost, so agreed.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um another bad moment was uh September 17th, uh pit 38, Oklahoma State 45.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Connor had 111 yards rushing, and uh so does uh Quadri Henderson, the receiver.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um he had 95 yards rushing.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the defense is terrible.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: They give up 540 yards passing in two D TDs, and it's once again the future Steelers.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um Mason Rudolph has a good game, but not as good as the game we would have next year.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And James Washington has a great day with 269 touchdowns, 269 yards receiving and two touchdowns.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the one thing the most I remember about this game was besides it was kind of getting like by that point in the season, you kind of got a feel for a bit, like you knew it was going to be a lot of high scoring back and forth.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: But like in the I think it was in the fourth quarter or late in the third quarter, there was a lightning delay because it's like they're in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And like, because it's Pitt, it's just like I don't know if they televised the game in Stillwater, but they sure as heck didn't televise it here.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you literally, I've never to this day, I've never seen the end of this game.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: I could not tell you how it ended, except for the I know they scored a late somebody scored a late touchdown because you had to read the it was like 1920s, like falling pit football.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, let's see what them old Panthers do.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's open the paper and read about it.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's just there's like a newsboy on the corner.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Read all about it.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Pit loses again.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: Defense stinks.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: That was really weird.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: I remember that the lightning delay.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember checking my phone because, like you said, you couldn't watch it after after the lightning delay.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember what happened to Oklahoma State the week before that?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: That was the game where they lost to Central Michigan on the city.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: On Antonio Brown.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Was that the Antonio Brown Hail Mary?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: No, it was it was um it was a Hail Mary.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Antonio Brown was right.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: That was the game where they threw the ball out of bounds.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: They called intentional grounding, even though really the the receiver's like right there.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's like if you're gonna call intentional grounding every time somebody throws a pass over somebody's head, you're gonna be have a busy day as a referee.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: So Oklahoma State, there was like two seconds left.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: Or there was they didn't they didn't they couldn't take a knee.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was fourth down.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was fourth down.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: So the quarterback just drops back, waits for a clock to tick to zero, and just throws it out of bounds.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: And the referee said, Well, that's intentional grounding.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: There's one untimed down for Central Michigan.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: That was actually the wrong call.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Intentional grounding is a loss of down.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: It does not precipitate uh an untimed down.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: So they messed that up.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: They actually gave Central Michigan a down where they didn't deserve it.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then they threw a Hail Mary that they caught on like the five-yard line.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: But then the guy like scampered around and somehow got into the end zone.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was like this miracle win.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember I I saw the end of that game and I was like, oh no, we have to play Oklahoma State next week.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like they're not gonna lose two games in a row at home under these conditions.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I d I just don't even know what the I that was yeah, bad officiating.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's Oklahoma State, Jeff Van Gundy, he was a man, he can take it.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's 40 years old.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: But he's a man.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I I yeah, officiating.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: You could complain about that's uh well, I didn't realize it was an actual rules interpretation error.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why they lost and then and then they played pitch.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean it shouldn't have been intentional grounding anyway, because like you could see there's a receiver down the field, I think.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just a bad call anyway.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll we'll save that for the Oklahoma State podcast.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah, I'll see how many downloads we get in Stillwater.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: But but um November 26th, and this is probably uh I I've gone to season tickets for 10 to 12 years.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've gone to a lot of Pitt football games.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've gone to a fair amount of football games in general, between youth and high school, and this is the oddest game I've ever witnessed in my life.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: I've never seen anything like it.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: It literally made me hate football.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was that bad.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we should have put this in the ugly, but I didn't think it was ugly.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Pitt does win, but it was just so weird.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: So on November 26th, it's the last game of the season, and you know, Syracuse Syracuse is, according to AC, our de facto rivalry game.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of a rivalry.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is, but Pitt wins this, and it's just so odd.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's like Syracuse decided, like, I think halfway through the game, that they had no answer for our offense.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: They couldn't stop our offense.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: So Dino Babers, the coach, I think made a calculated decision.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: What he did was he just literally put everybody on his defense in the middle of the field.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, if you're gonna score in one play, that's fine.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: You only take like 10 seconds off the clock because then I can get my offense back.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And his offense was scoring, as you'll see.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: The final score was 76.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Bad had to score 76 points to win the 61.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: They gave up 61 points.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: And still one.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and still one.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they just and it was literally every pit drive was just like one play drive.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because like they I remember like two or three times, like they they would run the little jet sweep, and Syracuse just wouldn't cover it.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, they're just like literally just like stand there and like either try and go for the strip or just like, oh, the guy's bias.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, all right.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, score, we'll just get the ball back.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was literally like Jim Beheim took over coaching Syracuse.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, we're just gonna play basketball.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it it's horrible.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't football.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't football.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was a travesty of football.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was in pit one, and I I can't remember.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: I just remember being so annoyed with this game.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: And this was regulation, right?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: This this wasn't like No, it didn't go to overtime.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, some of those some college games it goes into like six overtimes and you see these weird stuff.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, this happened in fourth four quarters of regulation play.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't pull up the box score, but I mean it's like I said, like I think really the strategy by Syracuse was as long as they don't take five minutes off the clock and score a touchdown, we're okay.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Even if they score a touchdown, if they only do it like in a minute or less, you know.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that was kind of their whole defensive game plan.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um another bad part was um WVU ended up playing in a bowl game there in the Big 12, and they they had a bowl alliance with ACC.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: So uh for some reason they decided to send WVU to the was it the Russell Bowl in Orlando, Florida.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why you wouldn't just flip-flop, I don't know if it's the way like that bowl game was tied in with the Big 12 and the pinstripe bowls with the Big Ten, like it would have made sense to flip-flop those opponents to like, you know, okay, West Virginia comes to New York or you know, however you want to flip-flop it, just those two opponents need to switch.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like, you know, Pitt ends up playing, you know, Northwestern.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas if Pitt would have played WVU, that would have now that game I would have cared about.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people, a lot of fans from both uh Morgantown and Pittsburgh would have gone to that game.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, even if you would have had an Orlando still, right?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Especially if you would have had New York, that's an easy drive for both schools.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, uh that like you probably Pitt probably didn't end up doing this because they lost to Miami.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe if they beat Miami and finished better, you know, with a better record, then they can get to that bowl in early on.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: But also the ACC like on the minor bowls likes to keep them drivable.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, we were talking about the military bowl in Annapolis.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's why like you know, if you're in a lower tier bowl, like the ACC likes to either send you to like the bullens in North Carolina or the bowls in Maryland or New York so that like the fans can just drive to it so that it gets more fans in the stands.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Even though it's really TV, but I mean it is just kind of and Orlando obviously is more drivable for Miami than you know Pitt is.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um their schedule was really tough.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a throwback to when they were an independent.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um the worst team they lost to was Northwestern in that meaningless bowl game at 6-6.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Oklahoma State finished uh with a 10-3 record.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Their final ranking was 11th, they won the Alamo Bowl over Colorado.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: North Carolina and Mitchell Trubisky um were eight and five.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um they weren't ranked and they lost the Sun Bowl to Stanford.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: So Mitchell Trubisky still got drafted though.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they didn't hold it against them.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Virginia Tech um became the uh they were ranked sixteenth.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: They were the coastal division champ.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: They lost the Clemson in the championship game, but they beat Arkansas, SEC, SEC in the Belt Bowl.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: So uh Miami, like I said, they beat they beat WVU in the Russell Bowl in Orlando, Miami finished nine and four.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: So and they were ranked twenty-third.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: So pretty much every team they well, there were two teams they lost to, although I mean the Northwestern I don't know if that really counts.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: But but North Carolina was definitely the worst regular season loss.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that's enough of the bad.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's time to get to the good stuff, the fun stuff.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, let's let's have some fun here.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the good is uh played by Clint Eastwood, of course.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you're younger and you only remember him from like Gran Torito, there was a time when Clint Eastwood wasn't like a million years old and played old man roles.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: He was uh the roles that Clint Eastwood tended to play, like when he was in his prime, was this uh character called the man with no name, and he's kind of this anti-hero is the 60s, and you know, they're bigger, like you know, back in the 50s, I guess it was like Roy Rogers, and like, oh, I'm the white hat, good guy, and they do everything.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's the good guy, but he's kind of the bad guy anti-hero.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very '60s.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean so um he's uh I don't think uh has he ever won an Academy Award?
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Probably for like Bridges of Madison County or something like that.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's one of them director.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's won several.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's sort of like director, I think.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Unforgiven and the the boxing movie I think he won a best best director for.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah, Blondie is the perfect uh personification of the pit team that year.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're the anti-hero, we're not the good guys, we're here to ruin your team season.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to it.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Thunderdome.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so um we'll start off with uh an October 1st win against Marshall, pit 43, Marshall 27.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um it was a good comeback win.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um they had lost two games in a row before that game, and both in the fourth quarter, and uh that was after the really tough last-minute loss, like we said on the last play game in North Carolina.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um at that point, the pit defense was the second to worst ranked pass defense in uh NCAA FBS.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, what are there, 124 teams, so they were like like 123?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: So you can't do well, you can do a little bit worse than that, but not much.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: So Pitts and Pitts uh defense would uh be but they showed some resilience and they came back and won, and they really could have like gone in the tank at that point, but you know, that wasn't how this team rolled.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: They really uh you know showed some uh toughness there, even though I mean definitely had some shortcomings.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: October 15th, I remember this game, pit forty-five, Virginia 31.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it was a close game, and this was in Virginia.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um it turned on a on a defensive play.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: What a shocker.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jordan Whitehead, who plays for Tampa Bay, made an interception before the half.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: And um Connor had a decent rushing game.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: George Ashton, who's kind of like developed into this fullback, like also like you know, when they're not using Allison or Henderson, you know, they kind of slip Ashton in there.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he he has like a ton of big plays this season.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um the offense didn't have any turnovers.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: They obviously scored 45 points, that's pretty good.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: The defense got a turnover, so it's kind of like the defense isn't great, they give up a lot of points, but if they can get some turnovers here and there, they kind of like can tilt the you know, they can tilt the advantage to Pitt because they're so good on offense.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um I remember Connor playing defense uh in this game.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think he he actually rushed the quarterback and got a holding call against the tackle.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: So so James Connor's just like really impressive.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: He he was played a lot, not a lot, but he played a decent amount on defense early in his career.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: But nobody will ever remember that.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he was drafted as a defensive end.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, recorded as a defensive end.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: So um the next week they play Duke.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um I've talked about David Cutcliffe, I think, before, but um he he's a class act, and he really is.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: And um when um when he heard um O'Connor got hurt, he sent him a note and he said, I wanted and those in the notes said, I wanted to send you a quick note to say all of us here at Duke, we're saddened to hear about your injury.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then in um that was like typed out, and then there's like actually a hand so it isn't like he just like oh secretary type, he actually had a handwritten part on it.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, You're a great competitor, and we wish you the best of luck with your recovery.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, David Colclass, a class act, you know, he he worked under Johnny Majors and Phil Former, he's just uh in general a good coach, good guy.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've never heard anything bad about him.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um the Duke game, this isn't the good because um this is the most complete performance by the pit team.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is their best, like com as far as complete win, this is it.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um they held the Duke to 14 points total.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: Peterman had three TDs passing, Connor had two TDs rushing.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Daniel Jones was their quarterback, so they only held him to a T D passing, so guy that you know was a D ended up being a decent quarterback.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: I remember him also it was snowing, like not like a bad, but like one of those early like season snows.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I think once Duke got down by a couple touchdowns, they were kind of like, where's the bust to North Carolina?
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: But uh a very complete win in uh Jester Wea and uh was developed as a wide receiver.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like the passing game really came around in this game.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um October 8th, um, Georgia Tech 34, Pitt 37.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Georgia Tech at this time was still coached by Paul Johnson, who was a triple option guy.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: So there's no passing game to worry about.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: So the defense can't, that worst pass rating defense can't get burnt, right?
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: So um they got a little lucky to win this one.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: They probably earned a little bit of lucky after you know the some of the North Carolina games and others.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um they ran that this is the where they first trotted out the Brian O'Neill play where he like he stood in the backfield like on the other side of the field as like a tackle and they threw him the ball backwards, so it was a lateral.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not a receiving, it counts as a rushing touchdown.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh even though it's a it looks like a pass, but I guess you have to throw it laterally for him to be eligible or something.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like wide open and ran for like 40, fifth, forty yards or something.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was the I remember seeing I saw it in person, I still can't believe it happened.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean So it's it's it shows on the statute as a tight end had like a 40-yard rush rush or something like that.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it it was odd.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um late in the game, I remember this too.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: There was a tipped pass where Scott Orendorff caught it.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like it literally probably should have been at least knocked down, if not intercepted.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it literally tipped in Scott Orandoff just like ran in the end zone.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, yay! Um and then a curious part of this game was with under two minutes to play, and the score was tied 34-34.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Pitt kicks off, and Georgia Tech gets the ball at the 25, and they have a fourth and one at their own 34, and Paul Johnson at their own 34.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, that's pretty much in fuel goal range already if you don't get this, or really you know.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, they ran that, they've they run their little option and like Tariq Jarrett, the biggest human being I've ever met in Matt Columbus, absolutely stuff them.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: I remember my dad saying, Oh my gosh, I probably got stuffed.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: And like you could literally hear, like, it was such a loud clap when they came together, like you'd hear it.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the best part of this was the ACC officials, God bless them.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's just like if you're like one of the ACC original teams, you get every break in the world.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's like literally, they started at the 25.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: If the ball isn't touching the 35, it's not a first down.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need the measure here.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's either touching the 35 or not touching the 35.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: We'll bring the chains out and measure.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's more dramatic that way.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: They were sure.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's Clint Eastwood we'd be proud.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like, what the heck?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I still don't understand.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I've I guess can't I guess a coach can ask for a measurement.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that I it was just the oddest thing I've ever said.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, why are you measuring it?
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's either on the 35 or not.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it had that going for him.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: But um after after that, uh Pitt drives the ball down to the um, what was it, the Georgia Tech 12.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, Chris Blewitt had had his uh ups and downs that season, decided he couldn't just like kick like, you know, what was it, a 12?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like what a 20-some-yard field goal.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Can't just like simply kick, like it's basically an extra point in the NFL now.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: But you can't just like put it through the middle, you know, wee, it's an easy field goal.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, he calls bank.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: I remember that like he hits off the upright and it goes through, thank goodness.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like literally the most crisp blue thing to do ever.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: And another fun fact, remember the Bears are gonna sign him, so that would have driven the Bears fans in.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Four Bears fans.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: It just tortures them unnecessarily.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: But um, but you know, after that, uh Pit Pitt got lucky, they won 37-34.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Connor didn't score in this game, but the offense is coming around as other weapons.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, Jester Wea.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Allison had a good game.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Orndoff is like becoming like a really good tight end, and um Henderson, the receiver, is doing good.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I guess we'll, you know, fun well, Brian O'Neill's there there's a YouTube video of Brian O'Neill's two touchdowns if you really want to see like fat guy touchdowns.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: So we can we can post that on the website.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: I th this was like that era, there were a lot of weird games like this with Georgia Tech.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because remember, I don't think it was a year before.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was two years before.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was when Chris was still there.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: They had the homecoming game where they fumbled the on their first five.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: I went to a hot dog, I went to get a hot dog after the third fumble.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: That was in one quarter.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't take it, I couldn't take it no more.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: It literally one was Connor was like just running down the field and just it was like a 90-yard run.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: And like he's gonna score, and he's just like he pulls like um Deshaun Jackson, or who was that?
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or like there's a receiver who did that.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like he celebrated, he didn't even celebrate too much.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't celebrating, he just dropped the ball.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: Just like it's like it was like a strong stiff breeze like blew it out of his hand or something.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they fumbled.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: I I think they fumbled away.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was after that play I went upstairs.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: I I was like I said, I'm out.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm out, Dad.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: I got I gotta go get a hot dog or something.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: I can't watch any more of this.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: It was 28-0 in Georgia Tech after the first, like I want to say 10 minutes, because Pitt fumbled away their first five possessions.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: And Georgia Tech scored touchdowns every time.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: So it was nice to have this win because they just had so much bad luck against them before that.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: So it's nice they had some good luck, like the Blue It kicked bouncing off the post.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and Georgia Tech inexplicably going for it on.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I can see if it was in between the forties.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I guess that's only six more yards, but especially like if they're at midfield, it's like, well, you know, maybe.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's happened before.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like Barry Switzer famously did that when he coached the Cowboys against the Philadelphia Eagles.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: He went for it, it was like his own 29, and they call it a um, they blew a whistle or something.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: He got stu they got stuck.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: They stuffed like three ties.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, it I guess the idea is that you you have a lot of faith in your ability to get a yard, and you don't have a lot of faith in putting it back and putting the game on your defense.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: So uh they do I will say Georgia Tech, that triple option is like tough to stop under normal circumstances.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Normally, if you have like three yards or less, it's almost an automatic first down.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like having watched the triple option, especially in college.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's very tough to stop.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I mean to Pitts defense's credit, they made a play there.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, for as much as maligned as the defense is, especially the passing part of the defense, the running defense, I I never could figure out if they were good or not.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because like nobody ran on them.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: So like it w you could never really make up your mind.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, are they good just because nobody runs, or are they good because they can stop the run?
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: That was kind of another thing that weird that happened during the season.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um September 3rd against Villanova.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is the first game of the season.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um normally, you know, the young Stout date games, you only talk about them if they lose them, you know, these FBS teams like you know, Delaware or you know, who cares, you know.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: But this was really was probably one of the biggest games in like it that I've ever gone to at Pitt.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just because Connor had come back from cancer.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: And on that first drive when he drove down, that's another great like thing you can look up on YouTube is like Connor just totally mauls the defensive back.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, it's an FBS guy, but I it it yeah, he just totally mauls mauls him while he goes in the end zone, scores a touchdown.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: That was one of the biggest moments of the season.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: And like you said, it made the national news, like when he you know, and it was all the highlights of that game.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: They they really didn't pit didn't do much that game.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was kind of boring because they didn't they end up scoring twenty-eight points, but I remember this game was like very close for a long time because like they were very vanilla on offense.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a lot of Connor up the middle, Connor maybe the side.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: They really didn't want to show anything on offense because they would have to play Penn State the next week.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they didn't want to give, you know, coach the coaches from Penn State any anything to scout or anything like that.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that was kind of why that game was as close.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: But it it still was like that.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: I still I can still remember that very clearly, Connor scoring, and it was a very you know emotional moment at the stadium and you know, and for Pitt in general.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: So um we'll go on to the the next two games are really like Pitt season here.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: These are the PSD stones for our our fans and friends.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is the this is the top, top of the heap, the best the best games you know that happened that year.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is really Pitt's season in a nutshell.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um September 10th, Penn State 39, pit 42.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some background about this game.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um that this is the first game Pitt had played Penn State since 2000.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Pitt had won 12 to nothing.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: That was Joe Praterno's last game that he ever coached against Pitt.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason that was his last game is because Joe Praterno decided it was going to be that.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Way.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that is no one's fault but Joe.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you know take it to your grave.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: 409 and 12 nothing.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't 410 because you lost.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: Anywho, moving on.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: James Franklin on uh he he he made some statements before the game.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess I'll try and bow I'll say the statements first and I'll try and balance.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: I I think I understand what he was trying to do, but it didn't work, I think.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um he said on whether the pit game is a rivalry game, he said, I think obviously being in the same state in the past history of the game is really going to put a major emphasis on it.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: To me, a rivalry, there's no doubt that it's there from a hist history perspective.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's elements there from a historical perspective, but our players haven't done that.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: We approach this like every other game on our schedule.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: Our guys are excited about it, but I think everybody understands the significance of that.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: And on uh 9-6-16 before the game, uh Trace McSorley said in a press conference call that no, I'm not saying it's a rivalry.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I think what he was trying to do was in case they did lose or win the game, he didn't want them to like get so high or low that they would lose the next week, which I think they did anyway to Michigan.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: So so that didn't really work out.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: But it ended up like really firing up the Pitt team because there's always this perceive that Penn State looks down their nose at Pitt for no re no good reason.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: And this kind of played into that that perception that Pitt has of Penn State.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that that had been going on for years.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned how Paterno, you know, for years that you know they they basically Penn State was responsible for the rivalry ending.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then for years after that, it was always like poo-pooed at Penn State.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll never forget Tim Curley.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: When they when they announced the series, 'cause and this was years before that.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: This was like maybe 2010, where they s where they said, hey, in 2016, the Pitt and Penn State are gonna have a four-game series against each other.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_01: And they had Tim Curley on Pittsburgh Radio.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: Tim Curley was the AD uh of Penn State at the time.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, they were like, Oh, this must be great getting the rivalry back together.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: And and Tim Crowley did everything he could to downplay it.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he was like, Well, I mean, we had a hole in the schedule, we had to fill it with somebody in the school.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: What where's this place again?
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_01: Pit Pittsburgh?
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, it just seemed like a school that was willing to play us, so we just said, Okay, I guess we'll put them on our schedule.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was such a insulting, like you know, and and of course, you know, Tim Curley is in jail now because the the arrogance that he and so many at that school carried with him came back to bite them.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I think I think too, like, I remember I remember Joe Paterno when he was there saying, Oh, it's important that we play an in-state rival, that's why we play Temple.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, really, really?
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay, yeah, yeah.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: So they just do a lot of stuff like that.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: And there's another quote, I'll hit after the game, by Franklin, that I think totally reveals that Franklin was just it was coach speak.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't want to say it's lying, but it he he cares more about this game than he's letting on.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll we'll show that later.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um Narduzie kept his players away from the media that week, so they were like seething and ready to go.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I one thing I will say about Narduzzi is he is like, say what you will about him, and he has his bad losses, but like, unlike Chris, or like who is that goofball they had for one year?
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Graham.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean he understands how to coach at Pitt because I think because he coached at Michigan State and they were always the little brother, uh so you know, and Michigan does the same thing to Michigan State.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: So like Narduzzi understands that so well and how to like play that to his advantage.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good insight, yeah.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I just I I I always thought that's why I think like he's a he he really is a good fit for Pitt, and he wants to be here.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I I I know he hasn't won what we wanted him to win, but you know, I I do we really have to go back to high octane offense.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: So um we're gonna go on to the actual on-the-field stuff.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine that.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: So uh the Penn Pitt tends to say it's a rivalry game, and I don't care how much the people in State College want to, and then they do their little unrivaled, yeah, whatever.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's a rivalry game, and you just don't play your rival because you don't want to.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: But anywho, um the game starts off well.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Pitt goes on a 90-yard touchdown drive.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: They are backed up, and like the first play out of the gate, like Connor goes for like 15 yards and just like mauls like the Penn State defense.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's capped off.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: They the George Ashton, who's the fullback, they kind of like sneak him around the edge, and he scores a scores a pretty easy touchdown.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, it was that was right down the field.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: Later later on, they have another drive where they drive down and they they pass to a wide open uh Henderson, the wide receiver.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he theterman throws a nice pass to Orndolf, who was pretty well covered.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: So they like I just remember in all the games like against big time opponents, I just I was in shock like that first half because I couldn't believe like Pitt was scoring was such like it was like nothing to it.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: This was like watching like Alabama or like USC or like one of the big schools, you know, I was like, my goodness, Pitt normally doesn't do this to people.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I and also the defense made an early play, they first forced a fumble, and uh that resulted in a touchdown.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but not to Penn State's credit, they kind of like recovered from that initial shock of like Pitt scoring a bunch of points.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: They had a big punt return that got him back into and uh Saquon Barkley scored uh from the pit uh scored for Penn State.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: He actually scored twice in the first half, and Pitt went into the half leading 28-14.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: Pitt scoring 28 points on a for real.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't like Villanova or Delaware or even like NC State.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is like a for real rival big time team.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: It was at State College, too, wasn't it?
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, that was here.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was at this game.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was attending this.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was in attendance for this game.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: So now in the second half, it kind of turns like the gate the momentum shifts.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Penn State comes out firing on offense, um, and they narrowed the the game to a one touchdown lead.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um James Connor scored on a touchdown, short TD run on the I think the next drive of the drive after.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: But actually it was Darren Hall who would go on to promise a couple years later.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: I forget I forget about it.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: He was on this team.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like the running backs are unbelievable on this team.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_01: Paul Chris could recruit a running back.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: If there's anything he could do, he knew how to find a running back in a running game.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we really haven't had one since.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, since Paul Chris took that all with him, the Wisconsin.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: But uh Darren Hall had a great run, but it got reversed.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was really close play, but then they scored anyway because James Connor.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, Penn State.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're gonna stop James Connor at the one.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_00: Sure you are, buddy.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, but then disaster dish strike.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Connor, they're deep in their own end, they give the ball to Connor, and Connor fumbles.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: And now the defense makes a big play, it's a big play in this game.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: They hold the Penn State to a field goal.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a big play by the defense and kind of goes under the radar a little bit in this game.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Connor then redeems himself by scoring a uh touchdown on a shovel pass.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: That pass would become like a staple of the offense this whole season.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think uh Clemson's still trying to figure out how to stop that.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh Penn State scores a uh touchdown and a successful two-point conversion, so the defense is kind of like they've only really made two plays the whole game so far.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: The fumble and stopping Penn State, holding them to a field goal.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh now in the next series, uh Pitts still up, and they have a chance to get a big third and four and a run out the clock, but the Penn State defense stops Connor on a swing pass.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Peterman kind of checked it down and they are just they were ready for it.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now on the next drive, and I'd seen like you were talking about like fourth down stuff.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like this became like a really bad, like, I don't know, I always say habit or trend I mean of that defense.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_00: They they gave up a fourth and sixteen.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember they had done that to somebody like the year before, like they gave up like a fourth and twenty.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how often do you see a team convert a a third and sixteen or a third and twenty?
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't happen that often.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was painful.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you thought and you thought, great, we're gonna lose on that play.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it and and it was like part of it was like I don't think Narduzzi like he needed to he at maybe he needs to still progress with this, like learn how to adjust your defense.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like he his big thing is he wants to like get a lot of pressure on the quarterback, and if that leaves your like corners and like bump and run coverage, like single, you know, he's gonna put his corners out there on an island.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm sorry, Avante Maddox, Ryan Lewis, and I don't know who the other corner just weren't up to that task the whole season.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you give up fourth and sixteen in a game where like if you just literally rush three or four and tackle him after five yards, you get the ball back.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, um uh they convert to have this big play, and then on second and ten of that same drive, Trace McSorley he gets greedy, he thinks he's Rex Grossman.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's up with all the Bears references today, and it he he literally chucks it deep.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: And like if you watch the replay, like the receiver for Penn State is not open.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_00: He it's like so badly underthrown.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like Ryan Lewis like makes the easiest inter like I remember seeing it in person thinking it was a good reception, good interception.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I watched the replay, I was like, ooh boy, he really that was a horrible pass.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_00: So Ryan Lewis makes his game clinching interception.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it was a stupid throw, and it was second and ten.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_00: McSorley didn't need to do that.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he could have just you know checked it down again.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if that was fourth down, you could see it.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just total off overconfidence.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_00: The game was over at that point.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_00: Pitt takes a couple knees.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_00: So the fallout, the offense was really good.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_00: Peterman's stats were three touchdowns and only one interception.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: Henderson and Ordoff had these great games receiving.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_00: They each scored a touchdown.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_00: The running backs, like I said, they stole stole the show.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um probably probably like the most underrated group in Pitt history.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean you have Connor, Allison, Hall, Ashton, and and then they even had that Jamar Parish, who I mean he made a play here.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: He was more of a blocking guy.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's and I mean that's that's an unbelievable group.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: And two of those guys are in the NFL.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I that's pretty good.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um Trace McSorley had this the Penn St.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_00: Corbin had this stupid TD celebration.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like after he would throw like a touchdown pass, he'd like do this like imaginary like baseball bat swing, like he just hit a home run.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not sure if he did that after he threw the interception to Ryan Lewis.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_00: He was like, yeah, home run.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he like pretended to strike out.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he walked back to the dugout disappointingly.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um back to that quote about James Franklin.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um a year later, Franklin said they beat Pitt the next year.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_00: Beating Pitt was like uh beating Akron, down playing the rivalry.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he was just mad because he had lost to them the year before.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, he was mad because Penn Pitt had celebrated too much.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, always like the Super Bowl.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, when you beat Penn State, you should just go, I'm sorry, Coach, I'm sorry we beat you.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_00: We'll never do it again for the next three years.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: Which they did.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't beat him again.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is Pitt's only win out of this four-game little series.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that's true.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it, like I said, I think it shows that it really is a rivalry.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that kind of, you know, why would you go and say that a year later if you weren't if you didn't think it was a rivalry?
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the annoying Penn State media, we kind of touched on them.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um literally, first question out of the box was, no, what a great game by Connor, what a great play by Ryan Lewis.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, you know, defense didn't look good.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh boy, St.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_00: Claim Barkley is the best running back you've ever seen.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, who cares?
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a freshman on a losing team, and this is the Pitt press conference.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_00: Go ask Franklin that kind of question.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: It just like the media just like worships Penn State in this town.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Franklin also got annoyed.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like Tony Dorset obviously um maybe had a few adult beverages that game because like they had interviewed him and he was really excited and happy.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: So after the game, he made sure when he was walking by, like Franklin, like hail the pit and stuff.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: So another one, oh, they celebrated the Super Bowl.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Franklin, you never won one, and Tony Dorset has.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh well, that's enough trash talk, I guess.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh going on that on that theme, uh, nothing brings out the venom, as you can see, from Pit fans, as myself by playing Penn State.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's the most passionate, you know, Pit fans who were normally like kind of laid back and you just resigned to our lot of life of going six and six to eight and four every year and losing the pinstripe bowl.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh fun story, like I was acting at the game, and there were these two uh ladies, this lady and her daughter, and she was probably like in her 30s, and her mother was obviously older, and it was me and my dad, and they were like the most just typical laid back pen, the pit fans.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_00: They would come and you know enjoy the enjoy the game and you know they cheer everyone, but nothing too crazy.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, her daughter, the lady's daughter was younger, was like sitting like right no, sometimes she's sitting on the other side, she was sitting right beside me, and I I her mother wasn't there, her husband was there, I think.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_00: And like the stuff that came out of this woman's mouth would make a sailor blush.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, oh my goodness.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I remember literally at like one point, like I said, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, holy cow.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, I'm normally the guy jumping up.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_00: You can see I get pretty passionate.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_00: I normally jump talking trash on the officials or Kellen Winslow and getting Pit players hurt, but be that as it may, like, you know, boy, man, nothing the Pit fans just uh they see that that Penn State uniform, man.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_00: All bets are off.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was a it ends up being a pretty devastating loss for Penn State because they win the big they actually win the Big Ten that year.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_01: But they they get left out of the college football playoff.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_01: And have they won this game, I don't think they get left.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because the only other game they lost was to Michigan because like number four at the time.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I think if they win this game, they're in the college football playoff that year.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, once again, we're we're the anti here.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're here to ruin your season.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um Pitt follows up by losing the next three games, and you know, James Franklin can go back to looking down his nose and comparing Pitt to Akron.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_00: So good luck playing Akron and Demple.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_00: Moving on, the next, the bigger game that year, and it's only bigger because it was a more higher-ranked opponent, and they're much had had much more success at that point was Clemson.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_00: Clemson had Deshaun Watson and Dabo Sweeney and Wayne Golman and like uh I think Bulware on defense.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_00: They had a really good team.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're ranked second for a reason.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um they had won 46 straight games against unranked opponents over five seasons.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_00: I forget they had won a bunch at home.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_00: They hadn't lost to an unranked team at home in years.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um the best part is Clemson always seems to duck Pitt.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like they ducked him, they were supposed to play him when the Big East ACC like settled.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_00: They were supposed to play as part of that settlement.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Clemson was like, no, we'll just pay the money and not play Pitts.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_00: Clemson rarely comes north, like they don't like to come any further north, I guess, than like Raleigh.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_00: But every other year they have to go to Boston, so I I don't know.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_00: But that's really the only time like Clemson comes north.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um the funny part is I I I actually predicted Pitt would win this game before the season started.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_00: I actually said because I said I just knew it was like, yeah, yeah, that that that's a game Clemson's probably probably gonna lose.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: Pitt's gonna win that somehow, some way.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's the most pit thing to do.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_01: It it is the most pit thing to do, but I I gotta say, I was definitely not in that same mode.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_01: I I remember this game.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_01: I we had friends over and our kids were like playing with their kids, and I just kind of had the game on.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I was kind of like, you know, conversing with friends and and with the kids, and and then it was like you kept coming back to the TV.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, huh, this isn't a blowout yet.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_01: Huh, this still isn't a blowout yet.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_01: You just it was at Clemson.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Clemson like do you want to talk about how good Clemson is or was?
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean still is.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they they haven't they haven't lost.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: They they had I think that's the last home loss since then.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that was 2016.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well here, let's let's take it to another level.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_01: Since 2015, since the beginning of the 2015 season, they've lost two regular season games, period.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_01: Period.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of them.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of them.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_01: 2017 they lost to Syracuse.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_01: So so that's at the time of this recording.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's why they don't like playing teams from the north.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_00: They just lose for them.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's five entire seasons plus however many games we are into the 2020 season.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_01: They've lost twice in five and a half seasons.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how good Clemson is.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_01: Just to set the stage for what kind of historic level of upset this was.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, well, on another another beat of history, uh Clemson was ranked second, so Pitt had that going for.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_01: Pitt Pitt, you don't want to play Pitt when you're ranked number two.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about that in previous episodes.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and yeah, and Pitt had just a couple years early beaten West Virginia when they were ranked number two.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_00: Although West Virginia didn't quite have the pedigree that Clemson has.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_00: Clemson that year had kind of had like they had a lot of close wins.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_00: They'd almost lost to NC State earlier in the year.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_00: They had to go to overtime to win that game, and I think the NC State kicker had missed some field goals that would have won the game or put it away.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, onto the game.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_00: Pitt scores first by using a pass to Jamar Parish.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's like, hey, Jamar Parish.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh George Ashton gets the score on a 15-yard shovel pass.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's that shovel pass, and this would become like huge the whole game.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_00: And on Clemson's first drive of the game, Ryan Lewis gets a big interception in the end zone.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_00: That was a big play.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but on the next offensive drive by Clemson, the um the offense responds.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um they have a big jump ball over over Ryan Lewis.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, their receivers were pretty good.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it set up a rushing touchdown by Wade Gallman.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was pretty good, I think.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um then Pitt catches the Clemson defense napping again.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um they hit Connor for like a a touchdown.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_00: He was like kind of out of the flat as a running back, and he just like yeah, they weren't watching.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_00: He was like Connor with a pass.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_00: Woo.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um on the next offensive series, um, there's this weird play where Wayne Gallman looked like he was stopped short or and like then he kind of fumbled.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was a four I think it was a fourth down, too, wasn't it?
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_00: I or maybe it was fourth down, but it looked like it was stopped short and looked like he fumbled, and like Jordan Whitehead picks up the ball and returns it all the way, but then it goes to replay and the ACC remembers that like Clemson is an old school ACC member and they're playing at home, and you know that that of course is going to be a touchdown for Clemson.
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's a 14-point swing.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was a big play in a game.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_00: Clemson takes the lead on a passing touchdown to Mike Williams.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then Pitt hangs in there.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_00: They they they uh make a nice card scarred orndroff who had a great season, makes a nice catch for 54 yards.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_00: He kind of pushes off a little, but he just kind of outfights the defensive back.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh then we get in the poor Chris Blewitt.
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_00: He he misses the extra point and Clemson still leads 21 to 20.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_00: After the extra point miss, Narduzzi gives his kicker a pep talk and a kiss for some kind of Bill Raffery with the kiss.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um it worked.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_00: Pitt goes for a fourth and goal at the Clemson one-yard line.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_00: They get a passing touchdown to George Ashton.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um Pitt reclaimed Clemson reclaims the lead on a passing TD to Artavio Scott.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um late in the half, uh Pitt has a chance to um take the lead again because they're still down by one point due to the extra point miss.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_00: So they try a long field goal by Chris Blewitt.
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um the really weird part of this play is like Dabo Sweeney's trying to call timeout, and like the official doesn't see him or hear him, so he doesn't get the timeout, but it works out because Chris Blood kicks the ball in the back of the offensive lineman.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_00: So kind of a break for Clemson there.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know if Chris Bluett would have made the second attempt anyway.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_00: But so Pitt is down at the half by a point.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_00: Chris Blood is like shaky at best.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_00: He's mixed an extra point and a field goal, so uh, you're kind of like uh come down the lake field goal.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_00: So the third quarter, Clemson scores twice, one on a pass and another short reign, short run by Wayne Gallman.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but Pitt scores on another shovel pass.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_00: They they run the shovel pass again and scored Orndoff.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of like almost like the option.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like they would have the running back run to the side and they'd have Orndorff go up the middle.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it was almost like an option, but with the shovel pass.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_00: Clemson really.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_00: Had trouble with that play all day.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_00: The big play of the game comes as Clemson is up by eight points and they're driving.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_00: And they have a first and goal.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_00: They convert a third down.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_00: They have a first and goal at the pit three.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_00: And Deshaun Watson, he still kind of has he like in moments, he'll throw an interception.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_00: He can make some big plays and win you some games, but there's just sometimes he just throws kind of like head scratching interceptions.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_00: And this is one of those cases.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_00: This really is what turned probably won the game for Pitt.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_00: Watson throws a pass and it's intercepted by linebacker Selim Brightwell.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really one of the biggest plays of that season, if not Pitt history.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_00: Brightwell um returns the ball down to the Clemson side of the field.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_00: On third and ten, Pitt does get a break from the officials.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_00: They call a questionable pass interference call.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_00: The Clemson fans weren't too bad.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't happy about it, but it wasn't that great.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let James Connor stiff arm your uh defensive back and score a touchdown on the very next play.
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, maybe tackle James Connor and you know it's not an issue.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_00: But so yeah, it it James Connor like had a really good game that day.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_00: I remember uh Bulware said he had to change his face mask after like early in the game, Connor hit him so hard he bent his face mask.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_00: So James Connor's a man on a mission at this point.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_00: So um on a fourth and one, so they score a touchdown, and um they don't get the two-point conversion, so Clemson I think is still up by two?
• 1:07:36
  SPEAKER_00: By two.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_00: Two, yeah.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and so Clemson gets the ball back, and the next big play, and we you know the defense much maligned, is another one.
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like the defense made some plays this game.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_00: They gave up a lot of points, they gave up some yards, but they got the interceptions, and this is another big play.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_00: On a fourth and one at the pit 34-yard line with a minute two left, uh Clemson's just gonna hand the ball.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_00: Wayne Gallman's already had like three short yardage touchdowns.
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_00: Pitt hasn't been able to stop it pretty much all day.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_00: So they hand the ball to Gallman and Avante Maddox like somehow like gets outside and forces Gallman inside, and Golombo and one of the I don't I couldn't I watched the replay and I couldn't tell who the defensive end was, but Golambos really cleaned up the mess.
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was really Maddox and the defensive end that made the play.
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_00: And Golombo made a nice tackle and they stopped them well short.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_00: So this is probably outside of the interception by Brightwell, the second biggest defensive play of the game because you know if Clemson gets the first down there, the game's over.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_00: So now they're they're at their own like 35 with only a field goal.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_00: They only need a field goal to win.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um Pitt drives the ball to the Clemson 31-yard line.
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's a big catch by Orendolf again in there.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_00: And once again, in college football, like you can pass over the middle as long as you're getting 10 yards, as long as you're getting first downs, you can still like it's not as costly.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_00: The NFL like is not as much time runs off.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_00: So so Chris, so Lord knows they try out Chris Blewitt for a 40-yard, a 48-yard field goal.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't remember, did uh did they freeze him?
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think they did freeze him this time.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Dabo did get his uh get his timeout.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it was uh it was it was it was a lot of lot a lot of hoping and praying going on, but uh Blewitt knocks it up there and it goes through.
• 1:09:28
  SPEAKER_00: It goes, it it's not the most confidence-inspiring field goal, but it made it in between, and that's all that matters.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I just remember after that went through, because I was at work watching this.
• 1:09:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you watch the replay, James Connors going like, everybody calm down.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, IS is the same way because it's like I've seen Pitt do this before.
• 1:09:47
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow they screw this up.
• 1:09:49
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody, hold on.
• 1:09:51
  SPEAKER_01: Because there was there was like 10 seconds left.
• 1:09:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there was and there was like literally time for like a kickoff return, but yeah, you're right.
• 1:09:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's bad, you never know.
• 1:09:59
  SPEAKER_00: James Conner was literally on the side, like because everybody's going nuts and you know, hugging and everything it is like and James Conner's like, everybody, calm down, I've been here too long.
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_01: That was such a cool moment for Blewett because um because they were gonna lose because of that extra point.
• 1:10:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's why they had to go for two on that touchdown.
• 1:10:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:10:17
  SPEAKER_01: Was because of the what happened with the extra point.
• 1:10:20
  SPEAKER_01: So like he was literally going to have cost them the game, and then he got a chance to redeem himself, and then he did.
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So uh they they pickets out of the kickoff without it really wasn't even that dramatic.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson has 508 yards passing.
• 1:10:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I'll say this passing yards are probably the most overrated stat in the world.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he does throw three touchdowns, but what kills him is he throws three interceptions.
• 1:10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that that one late in the game, the Brightwell, it I don't that was first down, I think.
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, it's like kind of like the McSory.
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you just if you take a sack there, what does it matter, you know?
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was kind of head scratching.
• 1:11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Wall Gallman has three rushing touchdowns, but he he didn't get that fourth down.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Gallman had a great game.
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Peterman, this really is probably the game to put Peterman in the NFL.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this makes him John Gruden's favorite quarterback.
• 1:11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Peterman has a five touchdown, no interception game.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's in Clemson.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's pretty darn good.
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh James Conner had a great game with 132 yards rushing and a touchdown that, you know, that uh one I was talking about where he mauled the Clemson player.
• 1:11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um the much maligned defense comes up with the big plays.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Clemson fans complained a little, but I don't remember hearing too much about it.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, outside of, oh, there wasn't pass interference or we didn't get our timeout.
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there was enough calls that went against Pitt.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it it all kind of evened out in the end.
• 1:11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the the interference call, you already said it was a was a bad call.
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, it happens.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_01: That wasn't like the game deciding play.
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_01: And certainly, like you said, the interception at the goal line, the fourth and one.
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_01: They had their chance.
• 1:12:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, even after they got stuffed in the first time.
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, plus Pitt got ripped on the first.
• 1:12:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that should have been a touchdown.
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you could have said that could have been a touchdown the other way for a pitch.
• 1:12:11
  SPEAKER_00: That was definitely they had their chances.
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_01: And even after they got stuffed in fourth and one, that was at the pit thirty-four.
• 1:12:15
  SPEAKER_01: They still could have stopped them from driving.
• 1:12:18
  SPEAKER_00: So um it's Pitt gets bowl eligible.
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_00: They were still not bowl eligible at this point in the season.
• 1:12:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's their sixth win, so they're bowl eligible.
• 1:12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yay, pin straight bowl.
• 1:12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's the biggest upset in pit history outside of 13-9.
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think Yeah, I would agree.
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, again, winning at Clemson.
• 1:12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, they've lost two games in six years.
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And this was one of them, and it was at home.
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I don't you know, I think the the West Virginia the 13-9 is bigger because the whole season was on the line, the the hopes and dreams of Morgantown, you know, everybody's life like that.
• 1:12:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's why that was a bigger upset.
• 1:12:56
  SPEAKER_01: But this in terms of like uh, you know and and this tip this Pitt team was better than the the 07 team.
• 1:13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, West Virginia.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_01: So so that was another reason.
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_01: It you can't put it in the same category, but this was pretty huge.
• 1:13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um the some of the aftermath, uh the loss to Pitt would be Clemson's only loss of the year.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_00: So the only team that that law that they lost to was Pitt, and they finished 14-1 and beat Alabama in the National Championship.
• 1:13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um which I think Watson had a great game against a Nick Saban defense too, so you can't be too mad at the Pitt defense, you know, for giving up all those yards.
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um the Clemson loss did not derail their season for Clemson.
• 1:13:36
  SPEAKER_00: It just made it a little more bumpy, but in the end, and they still made the national championship game.
• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it just caused, you know, some fans, you know, some consternation for a week or two.
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um in contrast to that, like we said, the Pitt loss totally derailed Penn State season.
• 1:13:56
  SPEAKER_00: That ruined if they just would have lost to Michigan and not Pitt, or you know, whatever version of one loss is, like you said, they would have won.
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_00: So no, I worry, that's okay.
• 1:14:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's like beating Akron.
• 1:14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you lost to Akron.
• 1:14:09
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 1:14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um they were able to win the rest of their game.
• 1:14:13
  SPEAKER_00: I remember that championship game that was against their good buddy Paul Chris.
• 1:14:16
  SPEAKER_00: They came back, yeah.
• 1:14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um, but then they had to play a real team like USC, so then they lost to USC in the Rose Bowl because I I can I just express like I love USC football.
• 1:14:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're my hit squad.
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like whenever somebody starts getting out of hand, like Notre Dame or Penn State or one of the SEC teams, I just get a call to you know, LA and say, hey, can you guys like take care of business for me?
• 1:14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And USC never disappoints.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_00: How can you not like a team that beats Penn State, Notre Dame?
• 1:14:48
  SPEAKER_01: I remember when I remember when Penn State came back to beat Wisconsin.
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_01: The only thing I could think is, my God, Pitt beat two of the top uh two of the Power Five Conference champions this year.
• 1:14:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's an odd season, though for sure.
• 1:15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 1:15:01
  SPEAKER_01: They beat two of the power five conference championship.
• 1:15:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then lost and then lost to uh North Carolina.
• 1:15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 1:15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, lost to Mitch and Ryan Switzer.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's a if that's not a Pitt season, Steve, I don't know what is.
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_00: I said Pitt would play uh Pitt would play in the ACC championship game in 2008.
• 1:15:19
  SPEAKER_00: This they would face Clemson again, but they didn't have um they didn't have quite the quite the team they had in 2016.
• 1:15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um big stories, you know, James Connor playing well after coming back from cancer.
• 1:15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um it just gave that team, I think, like a perseverance through the you know, after because a lot of teams after that one loss to North Carolina might have really gone in the tank.
• 1:15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Connor had a great season, 16 touchdowns and a thousand yards rushing.
• 1:15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not as good as his 2014 season, but I mean, considering the knee injury and the cancer, I I think I'll take that.
• 1:15:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take that.
• 1:15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um he did get drafted by the Steelers after that year, yeah.
• 1:15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um Nathan P Nathan Peterman really was the beneficiary, the biggest benefit.
• 1:16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because I don't think he would have made the pros without this season.
• 1:16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Agreed.
• 1:16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um he had a great year at quarterback.
• 1:16:08
  SPEAKER_00: He made he got better the whole year.
• 1:16:11
  SPEAKER_00: His stats were 2,855 yards passing and 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
• 1:16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Lamar Jackson, who was the Heisman winner that year, had uh 30 TDs passing and twenty nine interceptions, so they were pretty close passing.
• 1:16:24
  SPEAKER_00: But Jackson had 21 rushing TDs.
• 1:16:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's probably why he got the Heisman and Nathan Peterman wasn't even thought of in the same conversation.
• 1:16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not that yeah.
• 1:16:35
  SPEAKER_00: So um just to kind of close the book on Peterman, I was thinking of this too.
• 1:16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like it he's probably the most successful quarterback outside of Bill Stahl.
• 1:16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like I mean, I yeah, like if you're ranking like top five quarterbacks even a pit all time, like he's gotta be somewhere tied for fifth, right?
• 1:16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I I I can't like he's definitely I mean I'd say you'd have more successful career pit than Palco.
• 1:17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I would agree with that.
• 1:17:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean so so you had Danny Marino, you had Alex Van Pelt.
• 1:17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Matt Kavanaugh, that's probably your three there.
• 1:17:11
  SPEAKER_01: But then everybody after that.
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Rod Rutherford, I mean, if Larry Fitzgerald's not playing, you don't put him in that list.
• 1:17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know, David Priestley, John Terman.
• 1:17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's not even close.
• 1:17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like Stahl, Stahl's like I think Stahl and Peterman almost the same quarterback because like they played on this great where they weren't they didn't have to be the man.
• 1:17:32
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't have like Palco was always on teams where he had to drive the offense.
• 1:17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say probably about Marino and Van Pelp, too.
• 1:17:40
  SPEAKER_00: But like Peterman was just such a he got complimented by that running game so well.
• 1:17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I I don't know.
• 1:17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And like I I think Peterman is definitely like he's definitely a solid five.
• 1:17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like him and Stahl are probably like five tie, you know.
• 1:17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he was very good and in that season, especially.
• 1:17:57
  SPEAKER_01: He he really came through and that's what got him to the NFL, like you said.
• 1:18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's John Gruden's favorite backup.
• 1:18:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's still QB with the Raiders as of this time.
• 1:18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um the running backs, Allison, Hall, Ashton, what what an unbelievable uh combination, you know.
• 1:18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Those guys, uh a couple of those guys in the NFL.
• 1:18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I can't think of a better running back core in pit history.
• 1:18:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I mean, I know there was that way back when group like from like the twenties, you know.
• 1:18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um Orandoff was another guy.
• 1:18:28
  SPEAKER_00: He he I don't think he's in there, I don't think he ever made the pros, but he was he was pretty good.
• 1:18:33
  SPEAKER_00: He had a great season, a lot of big catches.
• 1:18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um Jester Wea uh developed nicely throughout the year.
• 1:18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um Henderson was the kick returner.
• 1:18:43
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he was a very good kick returner.
• 1:18:44
  SPEAKER_00: He had some big kick returns, but he was like the speed guy, like they would do all that jet sweep motion, and when teams like Penn State did that, I noticed in the first half they just started stacking everybody inside to stop Connor.
• 1:18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's almost like okay, it's almost like the option.
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you're gonna stop sell out that much to stop the fullback, we're just gonna run around you, and that that killed teams too.
• 1:19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Teams couldn't figure that out.
• 1:19:10
  SPEAKER_00: The offense just had an amazing year.
• 1:19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Matt Canada had this that great scheme.
• 1:19:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's like it really is the triple option running attack from a pro set.
• 1:19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that that really and then he marries it kind of a passing, a pro passing style game.
• 1:19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it's worked everywhere as tried except for you, LSU, because LSU just, you know, didn't realize they didn't have James Conner, Claudio Ellison, you know, Darren Hall, you know, George Aston.
• 1:19:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, you know, I don't know who was on that LSU team, but I'm sure those running backs were better than whoever they had.
• 1:19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, Matt Canada Joe's for the big payday at LSU.
• 1:19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um it doesn't work out for him.
• 1:19:50
  SPEAKER_00: He gets fired after one season.
• 1:19:52
  SPEAKER_00: He spends a horrible year at Maryland.
• 1:19:54
  SPEAKER_00: He becomes the intern coach because the main coach got fired because in a practice one of their players died.
• 1:20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um he it Canada spends a whole year out of football, though we would hire him, which I figured was gonna happen to him because like that's kind of a big scandal.
• 1:20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like somebody dying is not good on your resume.
• 1:20:10
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I mean he finally he kind of he kind of comes back into it.
• 1:20:14
  SPEAKER_00: He he's now an assistant coach for the Steelers.
• 1:20:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it's weird that he was only there for one season at Pitt.
• 1:20:20
  SPEAKER_01: You kind of forget that, don't you?
• 1:20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I think I think I remember like him because it was so short and I thought it was kind of like like at the time I thought, I know like Pitt's cheap and everything, but Narduzzi said they offered him over a million dollars to stay.
• 1:20:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and I agree, like people were like were trying to make something like Narduzzi was he wasn't being like mean to Canada.
• 1:20:42
  SPEAKER_00: He just was talking to other coaches who said, be patient and you'll get your head coaching dig.
• 1:20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Where like let's say Canada stays at Pitt, gets two or three more years, and like they have you know, even mediocre offenses or good offenses.
• 1:20:57
  SPEAKER_00: He's a head coach somewhere.
• 1:20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere he is a head coach.
• 1:21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's obviously his goal.
• 1:21:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he wants to be.
• 1:21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right, but I th I think LSU is obviously way bigger time college football than Pitt, and that's what he was thinking is I can I can make my bones at LSU.
• 1:21:13
  SPEAKER_01: It did like you said, it did not work out well for him.
• 1:21:15
  SPEAKER_01: And Narduzi was probably right there.
• 1:21:17
  SPEAKER_01: He should have just stayed, and then he would have been a hot coaching prospect at that point.
• 1:21:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it just stinks.
• 1:21:23
  SPEAKER_01: It stinks when a guy makes a decision like that, and then it doesn't work well for both for either side.
• 1:21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:21:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's like and it really it it actually got worse, yeah, as it went on.
• 1:21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:21:32
  SPEAKER_00: So Yeah, because I remember reading articles, like people would like dig them up, like he was living on the in the outer banks of North Carolina, like, yeah, I don't know, nobody's calling me.
• 1:21:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just kind of hanging out.
• 1:21:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that was part of the settlement with LSU or what, but he spent a year out of football.
• 1:21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um just you know, the what-ifs, what if Pitt could have beat North Carolina and Virginia Tech?
• 1:21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they probably would have won the coastal and they had to play Clemson again.
• 1:21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Could they have beat Pen Clemson twice in one year?
• 1:21:59
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think you're gonna catch Clemson napping twice in one season, so I don't know.
• 1:22:03
  SPEAKER_00: At least it wouldn't have not been in Clemson.
• 1:22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe if Clemson would have been ranked number two, that would have been kind of scary for them.
• 1:22:10
  SPEAKER_01: It would have been interesting to have had the chance.
• 1:22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And like we said, it's such a stereotypical up and down season from the off-stell st off field stuff with James Conner, the Penn State disrespect, then beating two national championship contenders in Penn State and Clemson.
• 1:22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's just uh I guess one of the more head-scratching seasons.
• 1:22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's a fun season.
• 1:22:32
  SPEAKER_00: It was a blast to watch, blast to live.
• 1:22:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, as a Pitt fan, I I enjoyed it.
• 1:22:36
  SPEAKER_00: A ruining Penn State season.
• 1:22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, we could have stopped in week three, and it would have been all right in my book.
• 1:22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:22:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, what what beating two of the Power Five champions and then you know losing to Mr.
• 1:22:52
  SPEAKER_01: Bitsky and Ryan Switzer.
• 1:22:53
  SPEAKER_01: I just I can't it's just Pitt.
• 1:22:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's Pitt.
• 1:22:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's Pitt.
• 1:22:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's what you you get being a fan of pitch football, and you just take it the good, bad, and the ugly.
• 1:23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um, thanks for um listening to our podcast.
• 1:23:06
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed our recap of the season.
• 1:23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um check us out on the website with you.
• 1:23:11
  SPEAKER_01: So the link to the website, the link to our Twitter, and the link to our Facebook page are all in the um description of this podcast.
• 1:23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Nice, nice, awesome.
• 1:23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for listening.
• 1:23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh tune us in next time for another uh great look back and sports history.