There are only four regular-season weeks left to sort out this whole ACC Coastal Division thing, but even as the Pitt Panthers are halfway home, tied for second place and in charge of their own postseason fate, you won’t find them parsing the conference standings.
“We don’t pay a lot of attention to all that,” redshirt junior Dane Jackson said Tuesday after practice.
But like any good cornerback should, Jackson seemed to anticipate where the conversation was headed and made a beeline right for Pitt’s opponent this week, 23rd-ranked Virginia.
Wait a second, 23rd-ranked Virginia? The same Virginia that was voted in the preseason to finish last in the division, the one that finished 3-5 in conference and 6-7 overall a year ago, the one whose head coach said in June had just 27 “ACC-caliber” players on the roster? Yes, that Virginia (6-2, 4-1) is alone in first place atop the Coastal.
“They’re a great football team, they’ve proven it all season, they’ve had some good battles,” Jackson went on. “We’re just trying to focus on us until we get to that point.”
That will come soon enough, 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Va., a college town that hasn’t had much football to get excited about in recent years. Not since Bronco Mendenhall was hired away from BYU for the 2016 season, starting his tenure with a 2-10 campaign. Previous coach Mike London’s six-year tenure featured one bowl game, 13 ACC wins and just 26 total victories.
“I’ll put my first vote in for Bronco Mendenhall to be coach of the year in the ACC,” his Pitt counterpart Pat Narduzzi, who’s 3-0 against Virginia, said Monday. “Count me in. No. 1, he’s a great guy. He’s a great coach. He’s done a great job really turning that program around.”
The previous time the Cavaliers were this good — as in really good, starting 6-2 or better type of good — a familiar face was on their staff. First-year Pitt offensive line coach Dave Borbely actually had two stints in Charlottesville, most recently for the 2015 season before Mendenhall came in, and from 2006-09, a span that included Virginia’s 2007 run to the Gator Bowl, finishing 9-4.
“I can tell you, a night game there, when you’re winning, is really electric,” Borbely said. “I’m sure it will be close to sold out, if not sold out. The crowd will be hype, that hill will be full of students, and it’ll be a great environment to play in.”
Coincidentally, Virginia blew out Pitt that year, 44-14, in a 7 p.m. non-conference kickoff before nearly 61,000 fans, many of whom were in those hillside seats Borbely referenced. The current Cavaliers are a stingy bunch, ranked 21st in Football Bowl Subdivision in yards (327) and 18th in points (18) allowed per game. And that’s after the graduations of linebacker Micah Kiser and safety Quin Blanding, both first-team All-ACC selections the past three years.
“It’s kind of just about time, really,” Pitt redshirt senior right tackle Alex Bookser said of Virginia’s resurgence. “I always thought they’re a real good program, had a real good team. They’ve always had good guys on defense, so that must mean they have a decent offense this year. … I know they lost some guys from last year, but it looks like they didn’t lose anything.”
Astute observation by Bookser, as there still are plenty of names to know in Mendehall’s 3-4 defense. Senior safety and leading tackler Juan Thornhill has four interceptions this season and 11 in his career. Junior cornerback Bryce Hall, a 6-foot-1 Harrisburg product from Bishop McDevitt High School, leads FBS with 18 passes defended and 16 pass breakups, and also has two interceptions. Senior outside linebacker Chris Peace leads all ACC players at his position with six sacks and is tied for the lead with 10 tackles for a loss.
Junior inside linebacker Jordan Mack, a three-year starter, is expected to return from an injury that forced him out for four games, but former WPIAL standout Zane Zandier has become the team’s second-leading tackler in Mack’s stead. A versatile sophomore linebacker out of powerhouse Thomas Jefferson, Zandier never received a scholarship offer from Pitt, but Narduzzi said his success isn’t a surprise.
“We took two athletic guys like him that kind of committed before he did. We really liked him. We wanted to see him in camp,” Narduzzi recalled. “He’s a good football player. I mean, you really love his toughness. He’s really smart. You can tell he’s a smart football player. … He’s obviously really intelligent, which is sometimes something you can’t tell when you recruit them.”
Zandier could be a key for the Cavaliers to limit Pitt’s powerful running game and extend their winning streak to four with just three ACC clashes left. As of Tuesday evening, they were a 7-point favorite over Pitt. Of course, the Panthers fancied themselves as a sleeper team in this league before the season started, and now have a chance to turn the tables on the foes who have commandeered that label.
“I don’t watch too much college football, but they’re definitely a team I wasn’t paying attention to all that much,” linebacker Elijah Zeise said. “But they’re here, and they’ve been playing really well.”
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: October 30, 2018, 10:16 p.m.
