Pitt has no escape from Pat Narduzzi's mediocrity 

The Pittsburgh Panthers football program is stuck in a perpetual state of mediocrity under head coach Pat Narduzzi, and there might not be an easy way for the program to escape it. 

After blowing a 10-point fourth quarter lead to its biggest rival (West Virginia) two weeks ago, it opened ACC play on Saturday by blowing a 17-0 lead to Louisville, dropping to 2-2 on the season with an ugly, mistake-filled 34-27 loss. 

There were turnovers, special teams blunders, poor coaching and clock-management decisions, a benched starting quarterback and a defense that didn't make enough stops when needed. It was everything that Pitt football has come to expect in recent years.

Even worse, there seems to be no way out of it for Pitt.

Mediocrity has become the expectation at Pitt

Narduzzi has been Pitt's head coach since the start of the 2015 season, and the best way to describe the entire experience is that it's been... just okay. They beat a lot of the teams they should beat, pull off the occasional big win, lose a few games they should win and ultimately end up somewhere around seven wins. 

After Saturday's loss, Narduzzi's winning percentage at Pitt sits at .560, which averages out to about seven wins per 13 games. 

They had one peak season in 2021, where they won the ACC with quarterback Kenny Pickett producing a Heisman finalist season, played in one other ACC Championship game and have mostly just plodded along in the middle of the conference. 

Not only should expectations be higher, they always seem to fall short of what little expectations they usually have.

Even worse, the program is regressing from where it was in 2021 and is just 21-21 since that ACC championship season. 

Pitt has no way out of this state of mediocrity

While Pitt fans -- and perhaps even the university itself -- might be tired of this and want a fresh start, it is extremely difficult to see how that could even happen.

The first issue is that Pitt may not even be able to find an upgrade. 

While Narduzzi's tenure has been mostly average at best, it's still a program that has had some high points and hasn't been consistently bad. It still wins on occasion. Just not as much as it should. 

This also isn't a program that is a destination job that is going to attract the top coaches in the country, or even somebody who is a guaranteed upgrade. It's not Alabama, LSU, Notre Dame, USC or Texas. It's a stepping stone program. 

Even with that, somebody using Pitt as a stepping stone to a bigger job could still produce a couple of high-level seasons and at least bring some temporary glory. Pitt is not even getting that at the moment.

The bigger issue, however, might be the fact that nobody actually knows what Narduzzi's buyout with the school is. Pitt does not reveal those contract details, but given his guaranteed salary per year (around $6 million) and the fact that his contract runs through 2030, a buyout could potentially cost the program in the neighborhood of $30 or $40 million. 

The university might not have the funds — or the stomach — for eating that sort of cost.

All of that together leaves Pitt in a situation where it might be stuck with the status quo. Even if it is frustratingly mediocre.