No. 19 Pitt is unbeaten as November looms. The Panthers believe their best is still ahead of them
PITTSBURGH — Kyle Louis kept receipts. Mentally anyway.
The Pittsburgh sophomore linebacker spent a portion of the run-up to the 19th-ranked Panthers' 80th meeting with Syracuse reading all about how the game figured to be a shootout, with Orange quarterback Kyle McCord providing a test that Pitt might not be able to pass.
“The whole bye week, our defense took that personally,” Louis said.
Sure looked like it.
Over three-plus dominant hours on Thursday night in an overwhelming 41-13 victory, the Panthers provided a reminder that while their offense has undergone a major transformation under first-year coordinator Kade Bell, some things never change under longtime coach Pat Narduzzi's watch.
Pitt is going to blitz. Then it is going to blitz some more, hellbent on turning pressure into mistakes. It's been that way since the day Narduzzi took over nearly a decade ago. It hasn't changed in 2024, where after a slow start — by Narduzzi's exacting standards anyway — the frenetic approach that's long been the Panthers' calling card has led the program to its first 7-0 start since 1982.
“Our motto all year is to ‘prove it,’” Narduzzi said. “I think we proved a lot (in) a primetime game time (with a) national audience.”
A season after a 3-9 freefall that included a loss to the Orange at Yankee Stadium in which Syracuse rolled up 382 yards on the ground while having tight end Oronde Gadsen II serve as the “wildcat” quarterback, Pitt picked off McCord five times, returning three of them for touchdowns, including a 59-yard dash down the sideline by Louis midway through the first quarter in which the former high school running back deftly weaved through traffic all the way to the goal line.
“If I get the ball in the middle of the field, I’m scoring,” Louis said. "So as soon as I got the ball, I just saw the field open up. I already knew where I was going to go.”
And Louis already knows where the Panthers are going to go. Asked if he thought being unbeaten heading into November was possible when the season started for a team picked to finish 13th in the expanded ACC, Louis just nodded.
“Of course, I thought 7-0 definitely could happen," he said. "We’ve got talent on this team that was tremendous. ... I don’t see anybody messing with us, for real.”
Nobody has, not yet anyway. While Pitt has several roadblocks to navigate — including a trip to No. 22 SMU on Nov. 2 and a home visit from No. 9 Clemson on Nov. 16 — the Panthers have shown a knack for winning games in various ways.
The same team that rallied from double-digit deficits in the fourth quarter to beat Cincinnati and West Virginia behind the playmaking of redshirt freshman quarterback Eli Holstein and undersized running back Desmond Reid is the same one that gritted out a taut 17-15 victory over California and overwhelmed Syracuse behind all those pick-6s and a handful of sacks.
“A win has come from each phase of football,” said kicker Ben Sauls, who has yet to miss this season, hitting all 45 of his extra point and field goal attempts. "If we continue to do that, we’ll be really dangerous.”
Pitt may already be there. The young secondary that had issues early in the season has matured quickly. So has a defensive line that has helped the Panthers rack up 10 sacks over their last two games. In the middle are the linebackers, nicknamed “The Sharks” by position coach Ryan Manalac over the summer.
Louis, Braylan Lovelace, Rasheem Biles and Brandon George have embraced it, putting their hands atop their helmets like shark fins after making a big play and celebrating in front of a raucous student section that on Thursday night featured an inflatable shark being passed around and at least one fan going full “Furry” and dressing up in a shark costume a week before Halloween.
Biles — whose 35-yard pick-6 on Syracuse's first possession set the tone — joked in the giddy aftermath that he might drop some shark merchandise once he got home and believes the whole “shark” thing has become a “movement.”
Fitting for a group named after an animal in constant motion.
Sharks, however, aren't the only creature that springs to mind for the ACC's biggest surprise. The swagger and confidence that were missing in 2023 have returned for a program that believes it's getting better by the week.
“We’ve got a shot against anybody,” Louis said. "We don’t even got a shot. We got an advantage because we’ve got some dogs on this team.”
