Pitt VS Penn State Preview

by Jake DeLuca

After sixteen long years, the in-state rivalry between Pitt and Penn State is about to be reawakened on September 10th.

What was once an annual event fell to the wayside in 2000, but after over a decade both players and fans are ready for the rivalry to be reignited.

Penn State holds a narrow margin in the record column when these two teams play. Since 1893 Penn State holds the winning record of 50-42-4.

A Look At Pitt:
This year Pitt brings in a new offensive coordinator in Matt Canada, but it will be hard to believe that he will change anything too drastically. With running-backs James Connor returning to the team healthy after beating Hodgkin lymphoma and 1,000 yard back-up Qadree Ollison the Panthers’ running game should be as good as it was when Shady McCoy was carrying the ball.

In Connor’s last healthy season (2014) he was able to carry the ball 298 times for a total of 1,765 and 26 touchdowns according to sports-reference.com.

As for the passing attack, Pitt Sr. quarterback Nathan Peterman will look to improve on a pretty good Junior campaign where he threw for nearly 2,300 yards and had 20 touchdowns to only 8 interceptions. This year will be a real test for the senior; Peterman has one year of starting experience under his belt for the Panthers, but lost his favorite target Tyler Boyd to the NFL draft.

Last year Boyd had 926 of Peterman’s 2,287 yards. On top of the yardage loss, Boyd was also accountable for six of Peterman’s 20 touchdowns last season.

Pitt’s defense looks to be stronger this year, as well. Now in their second year under the defensively minded Head Coach Pat Narduzzi, the Panthers defense looks to improve on a better than expected 2015 season.

Sophomore ACC rookie of the year Jordan Whitehead will look to improve on his stellar Freshman campaign where he posted a team high 110 tackles.

Now On To Penn State:
Once the Holy Grail of college football, Penn States’ fall from grace has gone much smoother than most initially expected, at least when it comes to football.

Now on their second head coach since Joe Paterno was fired in 2011, the third year Nittany Lions Head Coach James Franklin hopes to continue improvement with new offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead and new defensive coordinator Brent Pry.

Pry is taking over for Bob Shoop who took the defensive coordinator job at Tennessee, leaving Pry with some big shoes to fill. Joe Moorhead takes over for John Donovan and hopes to make the Penn State offense more dynamic than it has been in the past couple of years.

The biggest loss to the team (which may not prove to be much of a loss) was their starting quarterback turned 2nd round NFL draft pick Christian Hackenberg. A quarterback with all the talent in the world who never really fit the scheme at Penn State after his great freshman year moved on to the New York Jets in the draft, which left the position open for new Penn State starting quarterback Trace McSorley.

Penn State will be returning most of their offense, including four offensive linemen and 1,000 yard rusher Saquon Barkley.

This year, the Nittany Lions will get their game changing linebacker Nyeem Wartman-White back from injury. Nyeem will look to take some pressure off of a defense who lost three defensive linemen to the NFL draft as well as linebacker Troy Reeder, who transferred to Delaware.

What To Expect:
There are still a lot of question marks about this game, and a lot of them won’t be answered until Pitt plays Villanova and Penn State plays Kent State, but here is what we know so far.

We already know that Pitt is going to try and establish the run against the Nittany Lions, and with Penn State losing most of its defensive line to the NFL draft, it will be interesting to see if they can stop James Connor from going off in his first game back after beating cancer.

We know that Penn State will be debuting a new offense and a new quarterback. We don’t know much about the new Penn State QB, other than what we saw from the TaxSlayer Bowls last year where Trace McSorley went 14/27 for 142 yards and 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. Having Saquon Barkley back should lessen the load on the inexperienced McSorley.

I expect both of these teams to rely heavily on their rushing attacks, with Pitt leaning on James Connor and Penn State leaning on Saquon Barkley. Outside of Chris Godwin for Penn State, there are not any wide receivers who will keep defensive coordinators up at night on either of these teams.

Defensively I would have to give the edge to Pitt, solely on the fact that no one knows what to expect from the new defensive line of Penn State and I believe James Connor will be back with a vengeance.

Both teams are under new offensive coordinators, but you still have to believe that this game will be a battle on the ground with the occasional big pass.

This game should be the slug-fest that we are all used to from this in-state rivalry.

My prediction is 24-20 with Pitt coming out on top.

Kickoff at Heinz Field is set for 12:00 PM on Saturday, September 10. Check local listings for more details.

You can weigh in with your opinion online at www.Kittanningpaper.com

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