Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 10

In the midst of Pitt’s two-week stretch of misery, a streak of positivity could emerge Saturday at Acrisure Stadium when the Panthers meet No. 20 Clemson. Every year from 2016-23, Pitt has defeated at least one nationally ranked opponent, ranging from second-ranked Clemson and Miami in 2016 and 2017 to...

Jeff Capel ventured into a fertile area for basketball talent and was rewarded when Omari Witherspoon signed a letter of intent to play for Pitt. Witherspoon, a 6-foot-4, guard, plays at St. John’s College Prep in Washington D.C. “That’s an area that we want to try and recruit,” Capel said...

When Jeff Capel accepted the Pitt coaching job in 2018, he turned to some trusted friends in the Pittsburgh professional sports scene to get a sense of what to expect. “People … would tell me when (Pitt basketball) had it going (under former coaches Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon), this...

Pat Narduzzi walked inside the big conference room adjacent to his office Thursday afternoon and correctly read the minds of the assembled reporters. “Probably the big question is how is Eli doing, right?” Pitt’s coach said of quarterback Eli Holstein, who has left two of the past three games with...

The day football programs set aside to honor their seniors is almost always a special time, often the last home game — such as it will be at Pitt on Saturday — and an event coaches might use to motivate their players. “I talked to our team just about playing...

You need both hands to count the number of issues Pitt quarterback Eli Holstein and offensive coordinator Kade Bell must overcome. • Some that are of the team’s own doing: poor throws, problems running the ball, too many penalties and meager gains on first down. • Some that are unavoidable:...

When Jeff Capel called his VCU players together for the 2003-04 season, he didn’t pay much attention to the walk-ons. But if Capel didn’t notice walk-on Jesse Pellot-Rosa at the time, he surely got to know him later. Ever perceptive, Pellot-Rosa noticed Capel not noticing. “He didn’t play me in...

Pitt’s 83-64 victory Monday night against Gardner-Webb was not unexpected, and the outcome never was in doubt. Yet it might have been one of the most important nonconference games of the season. It showed coach Jeff Capel a facet of his players’ game they need to master when the competition...

Pat Narduzzi has juggled his offensive line. He’s turned to a backup quarterback. He had seven different pass catchers targeted at least three times Saturday. Injuries have been among the reasons for Pitt’s coach turning to so many options, but he’s running out of players and running out of time....

No, the sun didn’t come up Sunday morning when Pitt coaches and players began gathering to pick through the trash of penalties, dropped balls and interceptions during their second loss of the season. It was cloudy and rainy outside, while inside Pitt headquarters on the South Side, Pat Narduzzi and...

Let’s call Pitt’s complicated 24-19 loss to Virginia on Saturday night a missed opportunity by a team with lofty expectations, a letdown with the season on the line and a mix of penalties, injuries, dropped passes, general offensive malfunction and even officials adding to the confusion. Pat Narduzzi was unhappy...

The problem with winning most of the time is that those teams are forced to take the other guy’s best punch week after week. It’s like going into the woods to bag that 10-point buck no one can track down. If you’re successful, it’s a prize you’ll talk about until...

Pitt coach Jeff Capel believes his team has the ability to score at a high level, and not just in nonconference games against mid-majors. The Panthers have totaled 179 points in their first two games — both victories — including 83-68 Friday night against Murray State and 96-56 in the...

Simple math tells you Pitt can lose Saturday to Virginia and still maintain hope for getting to the ACC championship game. Reality, however, tells you that’s not the case. Yes, conference co-leaders Miami and SMU could stumble, creating opportunity for Pitt or Clemson, but that’s not happening. The Hurricanes and...

Guillermo Diaz Graham is 21 years old now, no longer a newcomer to the rigors of ACC basketball like he was in 2022. He’s a Pitt junior, entrusted by coach Jeff Capel to shoot 3s, rebound and launch his 7-foot frame off the dribble and toward the basket. Diaz Graham...

Compared to other sports, college football seasons are short — 12 games and three months for a team to state its case amidst the pressure of often-unreasonable expectations. For Pitt, they became great expectations after the Panthers started the season 7-0. There is a school of thought, however, that the...

The difference between the two acts of force in question is obvious, but perhaps the end result is the same. At least, that’s the way Pitt hopes matters turn out after the decisive loss to SMU: • Either you get punched in the mouth, • Or you do the punching....

Despite a 48-25 loss to SMU, Pitt remains relevant nationally, listed No. 18 in the first College Football Playoff top 25 rankings released Tuesday night. Selection committee chairman Warde Manuel, the athletic director at Michigan, said members valued Pitt’s seven-game winning streak to start the season. Pitt is 7-1 for...

Players can lift weights until their joints ache, crash into each other for two hours, three days a week, and study video until it’s time to get some sleep. But football is also a game of relationships and pulling together, and sometimes talk helps. That’s what Pitt players turned to...

There were plenty of numbers on the stat sheet that pleased Pitt coach Jeff Capel after the Panthers opened the 2024-25 season Monday night with a 96-56 victory against Radford at Petersen Events Center. He believes his team can score, so nothing about the career-high 21 points from sophomore guard...

Pat Narduzzi couldn’t hide from his family. Even after Mass, his demeanor was miserable Sunday morning. “My kids said I was miserable in the morning before I left (for the office), after church,” he said Monday, less than 48 hours after Pitt’s first loss of the season. But he said...

Perhaps too easily, collegiate athletes are called kids by those who observe them and analyze the games they play. No doubt, some of them are, especially in this time of prospects skipping half of their senior year in high school to enroll six months before graduation. But Brandon George is...

If you paid attention to Pat Narduzzi’s news conference after Pitt’s miserable performance Saturday night against SMU, you should have spotted a trend. Narduzzi willingly exposed himself to his critics while discussing SMU’s 48-25 victory, taking blame for everything that led to Pitt’s first loss of the season. In a...

Jacob Bronowski began his college football journey as a freshman quarterback at New Mexico in 2013. He was not part of the Lobos’ 49-27 loss to Pitt that year, but it didn’t matter. Coaching was in his future. No later than 2016, he was a 22-year-old graduate assistant for his...

At the outset of this century, Pitt basketball players patrolled the Petersen Events Center and Fitzgerald Field House floors with intensity and physicality. If a bit of blood appeared on someone’s jersey at practice, play on. Worry about it later in the locker room. No wonder Pitt earned 10 consecutive...