Pitt Football Preview 2025: Make-or-Break Year for the Panthers

X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN

Pitt Offense Breakdown
Pitt Defense Breakdown
Season Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season

The 0-6 finish by Pitt was bad, but at least it doesn’t have the Steelers’ quarterback problem.

(The college team will start the season with the best quarterback in the city at any level - that's a half joke, but Eli Holstein is a good one.)

It’s a make-or-break year for every college football head coach - you’re one three-game losing streak away from being on a hot seat. But this really is a season when Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi needs to pull a full-grown rabbit out of his hat.

The GameAbove Sports Bowl loss to Toledo, and how that shook out with the various decisions that didn’t work, would’ve been enough to put just about any coach on Triple Open-Sourced Probation, but he always seems to come through when there’s trouble looming.

Narduzzi went 42-34 in his first six seasons. The only bowl win was against Eastern Michigan, and nothing was happening, and then … kaboom.

The 2021 team won the ACC Championship, it would’ve been in an expanded 12-team playoff, and the breakthrough was followed up by a strong 9-4 run.

And then he and the Panthers went 10-15 over the last two seasons. Worse yet, after a 7-0 start, highlighted by a takeaway-fest over Syracuse, everything fell apart after a blowout loss to SMU.

Pitt lost its final six games - to be fair, the schedule was nasty, playing nine bowl teams in the final 11 games - helped by a slew of injuries. There was a power outage on offense, the defense couldn’t stop anyone, and it should all pay off this year.

Narduzzi didn’t do much through the transfer portal, because he didn’t need to. The team is built up with home grown experience, there’s a great quarterback in place to get fired up about, and …

This had better be a strong year for the Panthers - and it should be.

Pitt Offense Breakdown
Pitt Defense Breakdown
Season Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season