Rivalry or no, stakes are high for No. 13 Penn State and Pitt
PITTSBURGH » It took Pat Narduzzi three years to finally embrace the obvious. No more hiding behind coachspeak. No more cliches about treating all 12 of Pittsburgh’s opponents the same.
It just doesn’t work that way when it comes to the Panthers and No. 13 Penn State.
“Anybody wants to argue and say this is no different than any other week, OK, it is. That’s a fact,” the Pitt coach said. “If you want to ignore that, you can ignore it. It’s a big game.”
The meeting at Heinz Field on Saturday will be the 99th in a series that dates back to 1893. It’s also the last in Pittsburgh for the foreseeable future between the Panthers (10) and the Nittany Lions (10). There are no plans for the teams to play past next year’s centennial showdown at Beaver Stadium, a byproduct of the tricky scheduling of bigtime college football.
Neither Narduzzi nor Penn State coach James Franklin want to get involved in the big-picture implications. They’re too busy getting ready for this game. Pitt enjoyed a relatively boring opening weekend in throttling overmatched Albany while the Nittany Lions were pushed to overtime at home by Appalachian State.
The prime-time national television stage offers the Panthers a chance to prove they’re back after a disappointing 2017. It allows Penn State an opportunity to show its uneven performance in the opener was an aberration.
“We’ve got to make big improvements between week one and week two,” Franklin said. “A lot of people feel that’s when you make the biggest improvements, so we’re going to need it.”
They won’t lack for motivation. When Penn State visited Pittsburgh in 2016, the Nittany Lions walked away on the wrong end of a 42-39 loss, a setback that ultimately cost them a spot in the College Football Playoff. Falling to the Panthers again could have more far-reaching implications.
“We know we’re going into a hornet’s nest,” Penn State running back Miles Sanders said.
It’s a rivalry living on borrowed time.
“You either walk the streets or you’re going to walk the alleys after the game,” Narduzzi said. “You’re going to sneak out of Heinz Field, walk where you don’t have to see anybody, or walk out with your chest up and chin up, walk right down the middle of everybody, say, ‘Here we are. Let’s go.’”