The Big Three
There’s no denying that Pitt sports went nuts this year, but no one expected THIS. The National Collegiate Athletics Association, better known as the NCAA, had Pitt women’s volleyball ranked as #1 in the country for the majority of the season, as well as men’s soccer. Hell, even Pitt football had a HUGE comeback after last year’s walking embarrassment, which was named blah blah Jurkovec. Get it? Since he just walked off after every loss rather than doing anything for his team? TBH…the name Jurkovec is fitting!
Third Times a Charm
Pitt women’s volleyball is headed into its third year with a solid chance of winning its designated tournaments, and it didn’t disappoint! Pitt fans prayed hard for women’s volleyball to play hard for a victory, and they just put the W in women’s Volleyball! Winning the 2024 Atlantic Coastal Conference (ACC) Women’s Volleyball Championship, 3-1 against Louisville. But it doesn’t stop there; they are officially heading straight to the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball tournament.
The players shared many successful moments, including celebrating the ACC Yearly Volleyball Awards. Sophomore Olivia Babcock won ACC Player of the Year, and Coach Dan Fisher won Coach of the Year, following other weekly titles of recognition throughout the season. Leading the ACC Volleyball stats are three Pitt women’s volleyball players—Bre Kelley with .514, Torrey Stafford with .377, and Olivia Babcock with .328!
Dan Fisher, the renowned collegiate head volleyball coach, has respectfully earned ACC Coach of the Year. He helped recruit, guide, and drive the team to success this season. After his 12th season coaching at Pitt, he finally made his dream team, and now it is the best in the country. These girls worked, making program history as they won their third consecutive ACC Outright Championship! While Women’s Volleyball remains the No. 1 Seed, its apparent that Pitt volleyball is NOT to be messed with. Sweet Sixteen here we come! This year is our year.
Get a Kick Out of This
If you think Pitt women’s volleyball is all we had going for us, you soccer fans are going to get a kick out of this one! Pitt Division I men’s soccer definitely showed out this year, and we got to watch them advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals after beating Kansas City 3-2. Shoutout to Albert Thorsen for kicking the winning goal in the 98th minute of the very close game! They had a huge possibility of taking it all, as they sat as the No. 2 Overall Seed. Making it at all to the Quarterfinals was a huge goal that the Panthers had fulfilled, however they just fell short to Vermont this past week, and had to say goodbye to their 2024 season. This doesn’t change how great our team is, and we should only expect to see more hunger out of these guys next year. So long Pitt Soccer, until 2025!
A Kid Named Eli
Moving on to what we’ve all been anticipating… Pitt football is well known throughout the country and within the state of Pennsylvania. We had one of our best seasons this year, with our first 7-0 streak since 1982. All it took was a better team, a better coach, and a kid named Eli, who we witnessed turn into what our campus, Pitt fans, and all of college football know now as THE Eli Holstein! Not saying he’s the only reason for the program’s success this year, but he certainly took one for the team. Initially being recruited by one of the top collegiate football teams in the nation, Alabama was “not good enough.” But Eli Holstein is exactly what Pitt Football needed for the Sharks… I mean, Panthers, to attack on the field.
Eli has time to improve his game, but still, as a freshman, he broke several records, including the most passing touchdowns by a Pitt freshman, totaling 17, the most passing yards per game by a football bowl subdivision or an FBS freshman, averaging 241.9 yards per game, and even the first Pitt quarterback to win his first seven career starts since Dan Marino in 1980, which says a LOT about the Bama transfer.
Panthers, Perunas and Mustangs OH MY?!
If you’re wondering who ended our only 7-0 streak since 1982, it was the Mustangs. You might ask yourself… “WTF IS A PERUNA?” as did I when I saw them on the schedule. Well… that would be the name of their mascot (not as cool as Roc though). But, for some reason, it wasn’t WVU or Cal who caused our suffering, but rather a breed of horse from Texas we’ve never heard of. This breed was different, as Pitt went undefeated until the unfortunate turn of events that went down in Texas. Just when we thought we were on our way to SOMETHING, we gave NOTHING! Maybe they were just jet lagged? Yeah, totally! As a Panther in the Pit who can’t do anything but cheer on your team at games, it’s sort of IMPOSSIBLE to yell at them through your screen at home, so we had the loss coming for us. But hey Coach, next time you can put me in!
The Conference Realignment that Changed Everything… LITERALLY EVERYTHING.
I too saw SMU strike us out of nowhere, so if you’re also lost, that’s because this is only SMU’s first season in the ACC. Unfortunately for the teams already in the ACC like Clemson, Florida State, and we’ll… Pitt, SMU Mustangs that could easily resemble Knights in the game of Chess, have made their moves on college football with a high chance at pulling “checkmate” and snatching the ACC title. We don’t have to blame Pitt though, the ACC knew what they were in for when inviting these teams.
These invites and shifts in the Pac-12 changed the entire landscape of college football. However, this wasn’t that random, as the Pac-12 decided to disband due to a lack of money, and the competition fans were craving no longer served them. The ACC Network is good when it comes to football, but we excel in academics just as much as athletics, which is another reason why the ACC felt so obligated to include SMU as part of its network, too.
I will say this about SMU, from the 40s to the 80s, they produced some of the greatest college football and NFL talent like Eric Dickerson, Don Meredith and Bill Forester. Previously, it was in the Southwest Conference, then the American Athletic Conference (AAC), and now the ACC, so you could say they’ve come a long way. Once with SMU in the Pac-12 with other Western colleges, the ACC invited several universities to play in their conference, like Stanford, Cal, and, yes, SMU. As much as it hurt losing to them, we must give them credit and respect for being the team they are, as they didn’t let a single loss against BYU (one of the best teams in collegiate football) make them suffer a losing streak after (yes, I’m talking about you Pitt). SMU recently went on to make the 12 team field for the college football playoffs this year edging out Bama for the final spot, they’re the next big collegiate football team and new talk of the town. One could raise the question, if SMU wasn’t invited into our conference, could Pitt have kept their W streak?
Why Pitt Football Earns a 7/10 for Their Efforts This Season
It’s pretty self-explanatory, really; we only won seven games. We’re also heading to the GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit on December 26th. Fans are relieved to be in a bowl game thanks to great talent like Eli Holstein, Ben Sauls, and Desmond Reid, as we’ve have improved since the traumatizing 2023 season. We actually got ranked this year—#19 in the country, but still ranked. After watching Pitt go as one of the final undefeated collegiate football teams in the country, I’d say we’ve accomplished great things. There’s always room for improvement, and I think, considering that most of our best players are only freshmen and sophomores, they have plenty of time for growth, and I can’t wait to watch.
Heads turned to Pitt this season by fans, alumni players like Larry Fitzgerald and ESPN as the hot topic of the week, with the ACC Network as a posing as a “big threat”, and alumni players like Larry Fitzgerald. In fact, Larry returned to Pitt for the “Larry Fitzgerald Night” game to support the 2024 team against Syracuse, to which Pitt didn’t disappoint. During this night, he served as the honorary captain and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, being the 20th Pitt player ever to make it.
We even got a new nickname for the team – the sharks, due to the young and aggressive defensive play sought from the newbies on the team. A part of that can also be attributed to the fact that since we were the biggest underdogs coming into this season, compared to last year, the pack of “sharks” were starving for bait. The atmosphere at the football games after the Backyard Brawl and Cal was absolutely electric. Winning the first seven games of the season is a huge deal when it comes to Pitt. I mean, really think about it, we haven’t seen a streak like this since 1982! I attended every home game, and I was more than impressed with the turnout of fans.
The Final Takeaway
As a Pitt student, I find this wild plot twist overwhelming for Pitt Sports compared to last year. With women’s volleyball securing a spot in the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Tournament, it’s safe to say that Pitt’s a volleyball school, and I’m not mad about it. While many students here wish they could experience what it feels like to go undefeated for an entire football or soccer season (if you’re into that), they’ll most likely never experience that as a full-time student, but you could try Bama. After this season’s comeback of second chances in our top sports, there is so much hope, potential and school spirit in the air that excite me to see what we’ll accomplish next year in the Athletics department. Now…GET HYPE, GO CRAZY! It’s time to cheer on your favorite ball players, the Pitt Panthers on the Court. Catch you in the Oakland Zoo!