Pitt volleyball coach Dan Fisher enjoying the ride during latest trip to Sweet 16
Pitt women’s volleyball coach Dan Fisher has spent the past 11 years transforming the Panthers into a national power. With Pitt preparing to play in the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight year, the Panthers coach is working to appreciate every step of the journey. “I think I’ve gotten better...
Pitt offensive tackle Matt Goncalves says he’s entering NFL Draft
Pitt lost another senior Wednesday when offensive tackle Matt Goncalves declared for the 2024 NFL Draft. In his announcement over X (formerly Twitter), Goncalves wrote that seeking an NFL career is “a lifelong dream.” He also said that his five years at Pitt have been “the greatest years of my...
NCAA transfer portal, NIL make redshirting athletes risky business
Back in ancient times — otherwise known as the 1990s in terms of college athletics — Pitt coach Jeff Capel thought about transferring from Duke. “I thought about it one time,” he said, “but my dad talked some sense into me.” The NCAA transfer portal opened Monday, and more than...
WVU coach Josh Eilert makes sure players feel ‘passion’ generated by Backyard Brawl with Pitt
Josh Eilert’s plans to prepare his Mountaineers for Pitt’s intrusion into the West Virginia Coliseum on Wednesday night didn’t start with the first day of basketball practice in October. Go back another month. Eilert, the WVU interim head coach, demanded that every player attend the Pitt football game at Milan...
Pitt’s M.J. Devonshire named second-team All-ACC
Senior cornerback M.J. Devonshire, whose ball skills led him to record eight interceptions in the past three seasons, is Pitt’s lone representative on The Associated Press 2023 All-ACC first or second teams. Devonshire, an Aliquippa graduate, transferred from Kentucky before the 2021 season and was named second-team All-ACC as a...
Pitt opens 2nd location of Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology at the Pete
Patrons of Pitt’s Petersen Events Center will now have an AI-powered market for snacks and beverages and can skip the sometimes lengthy concession lines. The university announced Monday a second location for Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, “Pitt on the Go,” located at the Pete. The initiative, a collaboration with...
Improved defense, more help from the bench will benefit Pitt on its trip to WVU
When Jeff Capel was asked where Pitt must improve on defense, he covered every aspect of good defensive play, short of building a wall at the free-throw line. “We have to get back to being really good defensive rebounding,” he said. “Our post defense has to be better. We have...
Pitt loses defensive end Sam Okunlola, running back T.J. Harvison to transfer portal
The number of Pitt football players who have opted to enter the transfer portal increased to 12 Monday when two young players — defensive end Sam Okunlola and running back T.J. Harvison — decided to take their talents elsewhere. Okunlola, a redshirt freshman, is a significant loss after he was...
First Call: James Conner had vision of big return to Pittsburgh; Jim Leyland moments
Monday’s “First Call” captures James Conner’s successful return to Pittsburgh as his Cardinals upset the Steelers 24-10 on Sunday afternoon. Another former Steeler had a big game in the NFC South. And we look ahead to what could be an ugly game between the Patriots and Steelers on Thursday night....
Pitt can’t handle Clemson in ACC opener, loses 79-70 decision
In the moments before Pitt’s 79-70 loss to Clemson went final, most people in the announced crowd of 7,713 at Petersen Events Center were in an uproar. Many were looking for the Panthers to complete what would have been an improbable comeback Sunday afternoon. When a team is down by...
Homegrown Pitt men won 22 games in a row 50 years ago
While others were sleeping and the doors to Fitzgerald Field House were locked, they came out and ran up and down the streets of Oakland. Sometimes, they climbed the steps of the Towers — the on-campus dormitory complex whose tallest building rises 224 feet above Fifth Avenue — building endurance...
Pitt volleyball onto Sweet 16 for 4th consecutive season after defeating USC
Stifling the attack of USC outside hitter Skylar Fields was likely never an option for the Pitt women’s volleyball team. But putting up an aggressive and consistent block helped make Fields, a first-team All-American hitter, work for opportunities to score. Fields finished with 10 attack errors for the first time...
Pitt wide receiver Bub Means says he plans to enter 2024 NFL Draft
A day after Pitt tight end Gavin Bartholomew said he will return for his senior season and almost simultaneously as running back Rodney Hammond said he’s coming back, wide receiver Bub Means took the opposite route and announced Saturday his plans to enter the 2024 NFL Draft. Means has been...
Pitt Take 5: No easy road for Panthers on way to ACC opener against undefeated Clemson
When the ACC decided four years ago to boost each team’s conference schedule from 18 to 20, it created some quirks in the calendar. That’s why Pitt plays its ACC opener Sunday at Petersen Events Center against Clemson in the midst of a difficult stretch of nonconference games. In that...
Pitt volleyball recovers from slow start, advances past Coppin State in NCAA Tournament
Rachel Fairbanks doesn’t know what changed. Or even when the momentum shifted. But Fairbanks, the junior setter for the Pitt women’s volleyball team, doesn’t want to see the Panthers start another match slowly. Pitt fell behind first-time NCAA Tournament participant Coppin State by four points in the first set before...
Pitt women’s volleyball coach Dan Fisher makes sure players’ bodies, minds ready for NCAA Tournament
Pitt’s Dan Fisher works diligently in an attempt to recruit elite volleyball players, female athletes who can jump as high as the nation’s best players and dig out balls inches from the floor. But Fisher has been coaching long enough — 11 seasons at Pitt — to understand that athletic...
Pitt loses Bangally Kamara to transfer portal, 2nd linebacker this week to reveal departure plans
Pitt lost its second veteran outside linebacker to the transfer portal this week when senior Bangally Kamara on Wednesday announced plans to leave the team. Thank You Pittsburgh I will enter the Portal On Dec.4 pic.twitter.com/RMfKmluZ3y— . (@BangallyKamara) November 29, 2023 Kamara joins middle linebacker Brandon George, also a senior,...
Missouri pulls away from Pitt in 2nd half to claim victory in ACC/SEC Challenge
During video review of Pitt’s 71-64 loss to Missouri on Tuesday night in the ACC/SEC Challenge, coach Jeff Capel may look at two stretches of time and want to close his eyes and pretend they didn’t happen. But he’ll resist that temptation because these games are tough, but necessary, lessons...
Jeff Capel says Pitt will face ‘chaotic’ pressure against Missouri
Pitt coach Jeff Capel sees progress from his young team, but he’s smart and savvy enough to understand a lot can happen between November and March. He will continue to learn more Tuesday night in the ACC/SEC Challenge when Missouri (5-2) visits Petersen Events Center. “I think we’re pretty good,”...
Pitt linebacker Brandon George announces plans to transfer
Pitt middle linebacker Brandon George has decided to use his final season of eligibility elsewhere after announcing on social media Monday night his intention to enter the transfer portal. Thank you Pitt???????????? pic.twitter.com/10XGakT15F— Brandon George (@B_George06) November 27, 2023 George was among five seniors with eligibility who were honored at...
Here are 5 coaches Pitt should consider for its offensive coordinator job
Lacking the most important element in trying to pinpoint the identity of Pitt’s next offensive coordinator — that being the key to the desk drawer where Pat Narduzzi keeps his list of candidates — we are left to speculate. Coach searches are typically secretive endeavors for obvious, professional reasons. The...
Pitt fires offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr.
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi wasted no time in an attempt to reverse the team’s fortunes when he fired offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti Jr. on Sunday, less than 24 hours after the end of the season. Cignetti spent the past two seasons with the Panthers — his third stint with...
Analysis: At the outset of Pitt’s offseason, Pat Narduzzi throws support behind Nate Yarnell
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi’s nearly two-year-old quest to find a competent successor to Kenny Pickett will continue into the offseason. He should not and will not ignore the transfer portal. But perhaps he won’t have to look so hard for a quarterback from somebody’s else team. That hasn’t worked out...
Pitt’s 30-19 loss to Duke in finale turns into a repeat of tough season
In the bitter aftermath of a miserable season, Pitt’s 30-19 loss to Duke on Saturday in Durham, N.C., doesn’t matter as much as what coach Pat Narduzzi will do to fix the program’s trajectory in the days, weeks and months to come. There were the same problems that have plagued...
Pitt pounds Oregon State in NIT Preseason consolation game
After the second of Pitt’s five consecutive games against power conference teams ended in a 76-51 victory against Oregon State on Friday, Blake Hinson was asked to comment on that tough stretch of games. “Tough for whom?” Hinson said on the 93.7 FM postgame show. Call him brash, but don’t...