Pitt Football Rated Near Bottom of ACC Standings

The Pitt Panthers had a poor 2023 season and ESPN predicts them as one of the worst football teams in the ACC.

Nov 16, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi on the sidelines against the Boston College Eagles at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports / Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers had a terrible 2023 season and ESPN predicts that they'll feature as one of the worst ACC football teams in 2024 as well.

ESPN uses a SP+ metric, which is a "tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency."

"It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and along those lines, these projections aren't intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the season," according to Bill Connolly of ESPN. "These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date."

The SP+ metric for Pitt is -4.8, which ranks No. 81 out of 134 FBS Division I teams and second worst in the ACC. Only Stanford, who plays their first season in the conference from the Pac-12, has a worse rating at -5.6, No. 84 overall.

The Panthers also have ratings of 21.5 for offense, No. 97 overall and worst in the ACC, and a 26.4 ranking for defense, No. 53 overall and No. 9 in the ACC.

ESPN also ranks Pitt's strength of schedule at No. 64 overall, middle of the pack, and they predict Pitt to win an average of 4.6 wins overall and 2.5 wins in conference play.

They also gave the Panthers a 0.3% chance to win the ACC title, 0.0% chance to win 11+ games and 27.1% to win six or more games.

Much of what is factoring into this is the lack of returning production from Pitt from the past season. They bring back 57.1% of their offensive snaps, No. 80 overall and No. 14 (fourth least) in the ACC, and 53.8% of their defensive snaps, No. 98 overall and No. 17 (second least) in the ACC.

The Panthers lost a few starters to the transfer portal in defensive linemen, defensive ends Dayon Hayes and Samuel Okunlola, plus defensive tackle Deandre Jules and linebackers Bangally Kamara and Solomon DeShields. All three cornerbacks, M.J. Devonshire, A.J. Woods and Marquis Williams also graduated as well.

On offense, Pitt lost offensive tackle Matt Goncalves and wide receiver Bub Means to the NFL Draft, and offensive linemen Blake Zubovic and Jake Kradel to graduation as well.

While the Panthers don't return many snaps or veterans from last season, they also finished 3-9 overall, their worst record in 25 years, when they went 2-9 in 1998.

Pitt opens up the 2024 schedule against Kent State at Acrisure Stadium on Aug. 31. Kent State is the worst ranked team in the FBS heading into 2024 after a 1-11 2023 season.

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