The story is clear by now.
Saturday will mark the 100th meeting between Penn State and Pitt, and it’s also the last scheduled matchup between the two.
The programs have grown apart in recent years, with the Nittany Lions winning 31 games in the last three seasons and the Panthers winning 20.
The coaches of each program have taken different approaches to the game. Pitt players won’t talk to the media this week because coach Pat Narduzzi wants them to focus on the big opportunity ahead of them. He calls the game a rivalry.
Penn State’s James Franklin says, as he always does, that the Nittany Lions will treat this as just another game.
From an outside perspective, the barrier for continuing the series into the future seems to be on Penn State’s end. That’s mainly because Narduzzi has emphasized that he wants the matchup to persist but said Monday that he’s “going to emphasize to our kids that we might be the last team to ever play this game. Might be. I don’t know. If it’ll ever be played, I’m going to be in a coffin or retired, probably.”
On Tuesday, at Franklin’s weekly teleconference, he left the door open to potential future games between the in-state opponents.
“I could see us possibly maybe doing a neutral-site game with them,” Franklin said. “That’s a possibility. We can have discussions, but we’ve gotta be creative about it. Again, the challenge is with us having nine conference games and them having eight. There’s some problems with the home-and-home, but we’re open. We’re open to having discussions, but it’s gotta equally make sense for both parties.”
Franklin acknowledges that fans care deeply about this game, especially those in the western part of the state. But he also pointed out that many of his own players weren’t as in-tune to the rivalry as much as the fans are.
At one point, Franklin was asked by a young reporter about the 2016 matchup, which broke a 16-year hiatus in the matchup.
“How old are you?” Franklin asked.
21
“Had you ever seen a Pitt-Penn State game?”
No. Never.
“And that’s kind of the same that our entire locker room was.
“... But there’s no doubt about it. I get it. And I understand the significance of it. A lot of it is just bragging rights, people going back to work on Monday. Like I mentioned, going back to Pittsburgh. Going back to see family and friends. It’s all those types of things it just hits a little bit closer to home.”
This year, perhaps more than others, the matchup does breach the locker rooms. Safety John Petrishen spent four seasons with the Nittany Lions. This offseason, however, he joined the Panthers for his final season of eligibility.
As soon as that decision was announced, Franklin says he got his team together. They changed up their offensive and defensive signals to deny Pitt the opportunity to use Petrishen’s institutional knowledge as a competitive advantage.
Beyond that being an exceptional factor, Franklin toed the line, recognizing the importance of the game to many, while downplaying its significance within his own team.
“Do we understand that this is a big game to the media and to the fans and to the lettermen and college football? Yeah, we are not burying our heads in the sand,” Franklin said. “We understand the significance and the impact of this game, but our approach does not change.
“You know, we believe Sunday through Friday, that we are going to prepare the same week-in and week-out. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing or what you’re doing or where the game is going to be played or what the weather is going to be like, none of those things change.”
Mike Persak: mpersak@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDPersak
First Published: September 10, 2019, 7:59 p.m.
