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Mar 11, 2025; Charlotte, NC, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Jeff Capel during the first half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Jeff Capel Bringing Toughness Back to Pitt

Originally posted on Pittsburgh Panthers on SI
By Mitchell Corcoran | Last updated Oct 9, 2025 1:51 PM ET

PITTSBURGH — The Pitt Panthers' 2024-25 season was a disappointment, to say the least.

After starting the year 12-2 in 3-0 in ACC play, the Panthers finished 17-15 overall and 8-12 against the conference. They went 7-13 after the new year in the bulk of the ACC schedule and lost in the first round of the conference tournament to Notre Dame.

It was one of the worst losing stretches of Jeff Capel's tenure at Pitt.

"At the end of last season, there was no one more disappointed than me and our staff," Capel said at ACC Tip-Off. "It was an opportunity last season that we had to take a jump, and we just didn't do it. And that's all me."

The one thing missing from last year's team was toughness. Capel admitted that he believed last year's group possessed the same toughness as the teams from the previous two years did. But when they faced adversity, they folded.

Now, Capel is ensuring that this year's team is built differently.

"We made a decision after the season in recruiting that we've got to get tougher," Capel said. "We've got to get back to that. We've got to get back to the edge that we've had the previous two years."

That same toughness and edge that Capel is searching for yielded back-to-back winning seasons from 2022-24, with a combined record of 46-23 overall, 26-14 against the ACC and the first NCAA Tournament appearance of the Capel era.

It is the same recipe that the old Big East Pitt teams used — the same ones that appeared in 10 consecutive NCAA Tournaments from 2002-11 and earned multiple No. 1 seeds.

Capel's goal is to bring back toughness and edge in this new era of collegiate athletics, and it starts in recruiting and in the transfer portal.

"I told our team, 'We are not the most talented, but we haven't been over the last three years, but what we can be is the toughest, the most together," Capel said. "We can fight, we can do all of those things."

Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

In the offseason, Capel added nine new players to the roster — four transfers and five high school recruits. Capel's blueprint: Acquire players with something to prove.

"When you look at Barry Dunning Jr., he was on the South Alabama team that was picked last, and they won the league. You look at Demarco Minor, his numbers may not pop, but he was on an Oregon State team that was picked last and won 20-plus games. He was a big part of that," Capel said. "Even a guy like Nojus Indrusaitis, who didn't play at Iowa State last year but he was a part of a top 10 team all year, and got to experience that."

Capel said that's the same recruiting strategy Pitt used throughout the 2000s.

"They may not have been the most talented, but man, they were competitive," Capel said. "They may not have gotten the best player from Philly. They got the second or third best, but he thought he was better than the best."

The biggest tell to see if this 2025-26 team will be more successful than last year's is how they respond to adversity throughout the season, something the previous team failed to do.

"We lost a lot of close games, but we couldn't get over that hump, where the previous two years, we had the toughness, the togetherness and the competitive spirit, where we were able to do that," Capel said.

With less than a month to the start of the regular season, this year's Panthers' squad already appears to be on the right track.

"The thing that I've been impressed with is how hard they have gone every day, the natural competitiveness," Capel said. "We have not had to rev them up. We've not had to come in and yell. It's just naturally there, and that's important."

All that's left to do is show the ACC and the country what kind of toughness and edge this year's Pitt has.

" I really like what we've done so far," Capel said. "Now we've got to go out and do it when the lights come on."

This article first appeared on Pittsburgh Panthers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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