Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 24

There’s nothing like a good, juicy quarterback controversy to add spice to a drab 1-3 start to the season. Except, none exists at Pitt, only a question about the health of Phil Jurkovec, who missed the second half of the loss to North Carolina on Saturday night with an unspecified...

Losing is as much a part of college football as the coin toss. Every game has a loser. The distinction is the good teams don’t help the opponent’s cause with mental errors and penalties. That is, at least, part of Pitt’s problem as it deals with a three-game losing streak,...

So many questions arose after Pitt’s 41-24 loss to North Carolina that just making a list may take most of Sunday morning before coaches and players can even think about how to fix them. Around midnight Saturday night, Pat Narduzzi spent 7½ minutes answering questions in the aftermath of Pitt’s...

A total of 12 athletes from seven sports, including four of the best players to wear a Pitt football uniform, were inducted Friday night into the Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame in front of a sold-out crowd at Petersen Events Center. The class is the sixth to be recognized since...

In a stretch of six regular-season games spanning 2019, 2020 and 2021, Pitt was undefeated in prime time. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but most likely it had more to do with having Kenny Pickett at quarterback than any boost the Panthers received from national exposure. Pickett is gone now, but...

Pitt has lost three of its first four games only three times this century (2017, 2005 and 2001), but the Panthers will be on the brink of a fourth slow start Saturday night against 17th-ranked North Carolina at Acrisure Stadium. Twice (in ’17 and ’05), Pitt won only four more...

One day after soccer practice, Caleb Junko was hanging out near the football field at Hudson High School in Akron, Ohio. It turned out to be a day that changed his life. He watched as several wide receivers and linebackers stepped out of character and tried punting and kicking. “I...

The outcome of Pitt’s game against North Carolina hinges at least partially on what results from two declarative statements made Thursday by Pat Narduzzi. One was expected. Asked directly if Phil Jurkovec will start at quarterback Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium, the coach answered with a quick and emphatic, “Yes.”...

When former NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck meets with Pat Narduzzi on Friday in advance of the ACC Network’s telecast of the North Carolina/Pitt game, one of his questions will be a query that has many people befuddled. What’s going on with the quarterback position at Pitt? “Part of what you...

When he met with reporters Tuesday in Chapel Hill, N.C., Drake Maye said he knows what to expect from Pitt when he leads North Carolina into Acrisure Stadium on Saturday night. “They try to play that bully ball,” he said. “They have that tough personality of the ACC. They hit...

While his team prepares to confront undefeated and 17th-ranked North Carolina on Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium, Pat Narduzzi remains supportive of quarterback Phil Jurkovec. Why, considering Jurkovec has completed less than half of his pass attempts (35 of 75, 46.6%) over Pitt’s first three games? Why, when Narduzzi admitted...

When random fans complain about Pitt quarterback Phil Jurkovec or rain boos upon him from high above the playing surface, that’s never good. If Jurkovec continues to struggle next Saturday against North Carolina, you can imagine what Acrisure Stadium will sound like. Yet no matter how hard the fans scream...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Pitt tried to be the bully Saturday night in the 106th renewal of the Backyard Brawl at Milan Puskar Stadium. Instead, the 17-6 loss to West Virginia ended with questions about Pitt quarterback Phil Jurkovec from everyone but coach Pat Narduzzi. Whether he’s ready to acknowledge it...

Bring on the hate. The Backyard Brawl will be contested Saturday night at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, W.Va., and Pitt players M.J. Devonshire and Konata Mumpfield are hoping Mountaineers fans will be loud and annoying. “I take it as a blessing, being able to play in those environments,” said...

Pat Narduzzi is in a profession where he’s expected to speak his mind. Actually, that’s probably how he got the job as Pitt’s head coach nearly nine years ago. It’s easy to see him going into the interview with university officials in December 2014, sure of himself, full of ideas,...

Frank Cignetti Jr. has many issues specific to Pitt’s offense that need to be addressed before the Panthers venture into hostile West Virginia territory Saturday night, where the Mountaineers and nearly 60,000 fans are ready to pounce. At least one problem may have been of his own making during the...

Neal Brown gets it. He knows all too well — from personal experience — that the passion triggered by the Backyard Brawl is real. It was a year ago at Acrisure Stadium when Brown, the West Virginia coach, walked onto the field before the game against Pitt. His son, Dax,...

Win or lose the day before, Sundays are pretty much the same at Pitt’s training facility. Truth be told, they’re probably the same at most schools across the nation at every level of college football. Coaches start early, sometimes mere hours after the end of the game. In some cases,...

There were people among the nearly 50,000 at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday night who were disappointed with what they were watching. It was Pitt’s second game of the season, and it turned into a 27-21 loss to Cincinnati, an unexpected result for many people. It also was quarterback Phil Jurkovec’s...

After Pitt lost a game no one inside or outside the program expected to lose, there is an unmistakable and somewhat misplaced tendency for fans to overreact. • Hire a better coach. • Change quarterbacks. (Coach Pat Narduzzi offered a definitive “no” to that one.) • If Pitt (1-1) can’t...

Phil Jurkovec’s footwork was bad. He was not in rhythm. He failed to trust the things he learned playing quarterback for three teams and six seasons. He either left the pocket too early or held onto the football too long. He was sacked five times. Those points could have been...

There is no reason to suspect that any couches were burned in Cincinnati when Pitt lost to the Bearcats in 2012 in the most recent installment of the River City Rivalry. A crowd of 27,112 — 71% of capacity — showed up at Nippert Stadium on the second week of...

Pitt only punted twice in its opener against Wofford last week, and the first one triggered some angst on the sideline. Pitt had fourth-and-20 on the Wofford 45-yard line in the first quarter when Caleb Junko placed a punt near the goal line. Three Pitt players — they’re called gunners...

After lining up either as a guard or center over his six seasons at Pitt, senior Jake Kradel finally came to his coaches with a definitive choice. Kradel (6-foot-3, 305 pounds) is a center and, he hopes, that will be so for a long time. “Jake really wanted to do...

Jeff Capel’s roster rebuilding efforts suffered another blow Thursday with the announcement that freshman Papa Amadou Kante, a forward who might have provided a rebounding and defensive presence off the bench, will miss the entire 2023-24 season with a knee injury. Amadou Kante suffered a non-contact injury during a workout...