It was a dream season for Pitt football in 2021. The Clemson Tigers lost their edge and fell from the top spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Clemson lost three games, and Pittsburgh dealt the Tigers one of their three defeats. The Panthers were able to win the ACC Coastal Division championship and face a non-Clemson opponent in the ACC Championship Game. Pittsburgh defeated Wake Forest to win its first ACC championship, a tremendous achievement for coach Pat Narduzzi. The Panthers made the Peach Bowl, reaching a New Year\u2019s Six bowl game and gaining the level of achievement their fans always thought they could attain. Quarterback Kenny Pickett was a Heisman Trophy finalist, finishing third in the voting behind eventual winner Bryce Young of Alabama and defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson of Michigan. It was a golden year for the program, but now comes the challenge of trying to do it all over again and maintain status as a powerhouse program in the Atlantic Coast Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Key Personnel Lost<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The personnel losses for Pittsburgh are significant. Kenny Pickett became a first-round NFL draft pick at quarterback. He\u2019s gone. Receiver Jordan Addison transferred to USC to play for head coach Lincoln Riley and quarterback Caleb Williams. Many people feel that Addison will be a first-round NFL draft pick next year, so that\u2019s a very big loss for the Pitt offense. The feeling inside the program is that Addison left for USC because of another change inside the Pitt program: Offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, who did an outstanding job with the Panthers\u2019 offense in 2021, chose to leave the program and take the offensive coordinator job at Nebraska under embattled Husker head coach Scott Frost. With Whipple gone and Frank Cignetti in as the new offensive coordinator, Addison reportedly did not like that new arrangement, so he bolted for USC and what he thought was a better developmental situation for his upcoming NFL career. Narduzzi has a lot of adjustments to make in light of these losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Important Incoming Freshmen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ryan Baer is a four-star offensive tackle who could play a valuable role in protecting Pitt\u2019s new quarterback for the upcoming season. Baer is joined by six three-star recruits who will join the Panthers as freshmen this fall: defensive lineman Samuel Okunlola, cornerback Ryland Gandy, defensive lineman Sean Fitzsimmons, linebacker Marquan Pope, receiver Addison Copeland, and punter Sam Vander Haar. The Panthers will need these reinforcements after the keys losses they endured this past offseason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Key Position Battles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Quarterback is the main position battle. Kedon Slovis is a transfer from USC, who came to the program before Jordan Addison transferred out of Pittsburgh and went to USC. Slovis was probably counting on being able to throw to Addison. Now that scenario won\u2019t materialize. Slovis was injured in 2020 and 2021 and did not play well in the early stages of last season. No one should think he is an automatic lock to be the season-long starter. This is a crucial position battle the coaching staff has to keep tabs on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biggest Offseason Goal(s)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pittsburgh lost a star quarterback and receiver and the offensive coordinator who enabled them to work well together. Narduzzi needs to get his offensive players and coaches on the same page, so that Pitt can display the continuity and potency it needs in order to thrive again on offense this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was a dream season for Pitt football in 2021. The Clemson Tigers lost their edge and fell from the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":6371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23035,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23024\/revisions\/23035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}