For legal reasons, the above picture is not an accurate representation of my current feelings.

Tomorrow, November 5th, is a big day for two reasons: 1). The first official College Football Playoff rankings will be revealed, and 2). The NFL trade deadline will come to pass. Everything else (besides the Penguins-Islanders game at 7:30PM) is completely and utterly inconsequential, and thus does not deserve any of my (or, frankly, your) attention. 

I jest in some capacity, of course, as I have no idea what is, or should be, important to you. No matter the president, though, Derek Shelton will be the Pirates’ opening day manager in 2025, and that should have been addressed at one of the televised debates…”Vice President Harris, former President Trump, what would be your plan for getting this idiot out of the city of Pittsburgh?”

I digress, as this is not a political column. I do want to discuss the current state of the Pitt Panthers football team, who have flown under the radar of this blog with how much attention I have been giving to the Steelers in my weekly entries. Let us call this a “State of the Union”, of sorts, as we go over what has transpired for them thus far. 

Coming into the season, the expectations for the Pitt football team were minimal. After all, this was a team that finished 3-9 last year. Significant changes were made, especially to the offensive side of the football, with Pat Narduzzi hiring Kade Bell to be the play caller. Bell, who was the offensive coordinator at Western Carolina from 2021-2023, resembled a shift in the football program’s mindset, as they hired a young mind who, unlike his predecessors, would not run a pro-style offense. Instead, Bell would institute a high-speed, spread offense, more similar to those that one would see watching Tennessee, Ole Miss, and other high-powered offenses. 

Bell brought along with him some impact players, including running back Desmond Reid (590 rushing yards and 385 receiving yards as of today) and wide receiver Censere Lee (254 receiving yards, three touchdowns).

The biggest addition to the offense did not come from Western Carolina, but from the University of Alabama. Out the door went last season’s horrendous quarterbacks, Phil Jurkovec and Christian Veilleux, and in came former four-star recruit and Alabama transfer Eli Holstein, who sat out his first year with the Crimson Tide and earned a redshirt. 

Holstein started the season as QB1, beating out the established Nate Yarnell. His first start as a collegiate athlete came against Kent State, and he performed admirably, throwing for 333 yards and 3 touchdowns (and an interception). In fact, Holstein eclipsed 300 passing yards in four of his first five starts as a Panther, as Pitt raced out to a 5-0 record with wins over Kent State, Cincinnati (in a miraculous comeback), West Virginia (in a similarly unbelievable fashion), Youngstown State, and North Carolina. In those five games, Holstein threw for 1564 yards and 15 touchdowns, with only 3 interceptions. He also added three more rushing touchdowns with 265 yards gained with his legs.

Then came an ugly game against Cal, which required a Golden Bears’ missed field goal late in the fourth quarter for Pitt to escape with a 6-0 record. Holstein was, frankly, dreadful. He completed exactly half his passes, going 14/28 for a mere 133 yards and throwing two interceptions in the 17-15 slugfest. 

Pitt punched a 5-1 Syracuse team in the mouth 12 days later to improve to 7-0, but it was done with virtually no help from the offense. The Pitt defense intercepted Syracuse QB Kyle McCord five times—running three of them back for touchdowns—in a 41-13 rout of the Orange. It was a fun game to watch on a Thursday night, as close games in primetime do not suit my sleep schedule. Looking back, though, Holstein still was not great. His stat line was fine—11/15 for 108 yards and two touchdowns, with six carries for 20 yards—but he just did not look like the Eli Holstein that dropped three passing touchdowns in five straight games to start the year.

Look, I was not complaining. Pitt was 7-0 and ranked 18th in the AP poll. They had a top-20 showdown coming up with SMU in Dallas to make a statement, to catapult themselves into the college football playoff conversation, to prove the doubters—and the sports books, who had them as 7.5-point underdogs—wrong.

And…given the magnitude and significance of the contest, Pitt played one of the worst games in my lifetime. The defense could not tackle, the offensive line could not block, the coaches could not make adjustments, even the special teams were atrocious. In the blink of an eye, SMU put up 24 points in the second quarter, as the Mustangs galloped out to a 31-3 halftime lead that they would not even come close to relinquishing.

I was numb. If you had told me coming into the season that Pitt would be 7-1, ranked, but with one blowout loss, I would have taken that, no questions asked. As I said earlier, this was a team that was 3-9 last season. However, when you watch the team start out 7-0, you build up these expectations and think that you can make a run, especially with the expanded playoff format. Alas, SMU bulldozed those hopes in the span of fourteen minutes and three seconds of game time.

The playoff hopes are not officially dashed…yet. Pitt’s last four games are home games against Virginia (4-4, 2-3 ACC), Clemson (6-2, 5-1 ACC), and road games against Louisville (6-3, 4-2 ACC) and Boston College (4-4, 1-3 ACC). We will know more about what is required to crack the top-12 after the initial rankings are revealed tomorrow, but the minimum requirement will likely be winning the last four games, two of which will be extremely difficult (Clemson and Louisville).

Of course, none of that matters if the Panthers do not beat the Virginia Cavaliers Saturday evening. The offense—and Holstein, in particular—needs to step up and carry this team. This is not a roster built to win games with defense.

Be resilient and put the SMU loss behind you, Panthers. The season’s outcome is (partially) in your hands.

Also, I am still waiting for the Steelers to trade for a wide receiver. The trade deadline is less than 24 hours away. Clock’s ticking, Omar.