Should Pitt Move On From Pat Narduzzi?

Narduzzi was 53-37 before the signing and is 21-20 since signing that extension, which includes a 3-9 season in 2023 and six-game losing streak to end 2024.

Pitt does not publicly disclose any financial records that would include the terms of Narduzzi's contract, but the buyout is likely at a hefty price, considering that there are still five years remaining on his deal. What was released publicly is the amount Narduzzi has made since inking the extension.

In 2022, Narduzzi made $5.6 million, then $5.9 million in 2023 and $7.0 million in 2024. He'll likely make even more this season.

That's a lot of money for a head coach with one double-digit win season.

Narduzzi vs. the ACC

With the current format of the College Football Playoff, competing in a conference championship is extremely beneficial. In 2024, the first season of the 12-team playoff, three Power Four conference championship losers still made the playoff. The Big Ten and SEC also had teams that did not make their conference championships, but were still selected into the playoff.

Teams just need to compete well in their conference for a chance to make the playoff, and Pitt has not done that. Narduzzi is 46-36 all-time in ACC play with a 56.1% winning percentage. In his 10 full seasons at Pitt, Narduzzi has five winning seasons in ACC play, two .500 seasons, and three losing seasons. Two of those three losing seasons came in 2023 and 2024.

The 2021 season was the only dominate year Pitt had in its confernce. The Panthers went 7-1 against the ACC and represented the Coastal division in the ACC Championship.

However, that season was merely an outlier. Traditional ACC powerhouses like Clemson, Miami, North Carolina and Florida State all had down years. Clemson had the best record at 10-3 overall and 6-2 in the ACC, Miami went 7-5, North Carolina went 6-7 and Florida State was 5-7.

To Narduzzi's credit, Pitt beat unranked Clemson at home 27-17 and North Carolina 30-23 in overtime. But Pitt lost to unranked Miami 38-34 and Western Michigan 44-41, both at home.

Those two losses, along with a 31-21 loss to No. 10 Michigan State in the Peach Bowl, are what kept the Panthers out of the College Football Playoff that season, as they finished 12th — the lowest ranking out of the Power Five conference champions that year.

Narduzzi vs. the Field

Narduzzi has just been average record-wise in his time as Pitt's head coach.

He is 74-57 all-time at Pitt. That's a 56.5% winning percentage. He isn't even top 250 among all-time college football head coaches with a minimum of 10 years of experience. Neal Brown and Rich Rodriguez both have better winning percentages than Narduzzi.

Against AP Poll top 25 teams, Narduzzi is just 9-22 during his time at Pitt. That's a 29.0% winning percentage, which is the fifth-worst percentage out of all ACC coaches who have coached at least one season. That also does not include Brent Pry, who was fired on Sept. 14.

In 2026, Pitt will play at Ole Miss, which is currently ranked No. 13 in the AP Poll, as part of its out of conference schedule. The Panthers are also scheduled to play Wisconsin, UCF and Miami (Ohio).

Pitt will play Wisconsin again in 2027, along with Western Michigan and UConn. It has scheduled NIU and UConn in 2028 before facing UCF and West Virginia again in 2029, along with Delaware and Richmond.

Luckily or Pitt, that's a pretty light out of conference schedule. However, Narduzzi has already lost to Western Michigan and UCF before and squeaked out a 17-14 win over Delaware in 2019.

Going 4-0 against out of conference opponents is helpful because you'd only need two wins to become bowl eligible, but if you can't compete in your conference, there's no chance of making the College Football Playoff.

Narduzzi vs. Rivals

One of the many things that makes college football so great is how passionate rivalry games are. If your team can win rivalry games, it sometimes doesn't matter what you do for the rest of the season. See 2024 Ohio State, who lost to rival Michigan, but still won the National Title.

But if they consistently lose those rivalry matchups, well, it can lead to the situation Narduzzi is in now. Fans calling for his job, losing hope in the season, etc.

Narduzzi has been bad against Pitt's rivals. He is now 2-2 against West Virginia after Saturday's loss, 1-3 against Penn State, 1-1 versus Cincinnati and 0-4 against Notre Dame. That's a 4-10 record against Pitt's top rivals.

In some rivalry games, Pitt hasn't even come close to winning either, especially against ranked rivals. Notre Dame was ranked No. 14 in 2023 and No. 3 in 2020in the two most recent matchups, and Pitt lost 58-7 and 45-3, respectively.

The Panthers also played Penn State twice when they were ranked, No. 4 in 2017 and No. 13 in 2018, and lost 33-14 and 51-6, respectively.

What's Next?

Well, nothing really. At least not this season. There isn't a lot Pitt can do other than go out there and perform well against ACC competition this season.

Narduzzi is very likely going to be the head coach for the next couple of seasons due to his lengthy contract extension. The good news is that there is still plenty of time for Pitt to improve this year, hopefully.

But the fact of the matter is that Narduzzi has been a mediocre head coach, with one outlier season, and will very likely continue on that track if he doesn't make program-altering changes.

Pitt has continuously failed to compete in the ACC and subsequently had a subpar overall record in relation to the College Football Playoff. And perhaps worst of all, Narduzzi's teams consistently underperform in rivalry games, like they did on Saturday.

Pitt has just been good enough not to move on from Narduzzi, but being good enough isn't enough anymore.