Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi wanted to make a point about Pitt being overlooked by pollsters Monday during his press conference.
Naturally, Penn State caught a stray.
“Look at the school down the road,” Narduzzi said. “They were in the Top 25, and what did they really do to get in the Top 25?”
It was vintage Narduzzi, whose Pitt team defeated Virginia Tech, 35-33, on Friday after a potential game-winning kick was ruled no good as time expired. With Pitt still outside the AP Top 25, Narduzzi went after the voters.
There’s just one problem.
Penn State actually had a pretty strong statistical case.
Before facing Wisconsin, the Nittany Lions ranked No. 3 nationally in scoring defense at 7.3 points allowed per game, No. 4 in total defense at 201 yards per game and No. 2 in pass defense at 90 yards per game.
They were also eighth nationally in explosive-play defense, ninth in turnover margin at plus-five and ranked inside the Top 25 in both scoring and total offense.
Was the schedule impressive? No.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.But when a ranked team plays inferior competition, voters expect domination. Penn State was dominating.
What happened next is a different conversation.
Losses to Wisconsin and Northwestern exposed significant problems and rightfully sent Penn State tumbling out of the rankings. Nobody needs to defend where the Nittany Lions stand now.
But Narduzzi wasn’t talking about now.
He questioned what Penn State had done to earn its ranking in the first place.
The answer is pretty simple: Penn State demolished the teams it was supposed to beat and produced one of the best statistical profiles in the country.
Narduzzi can argue Pitt deserves more respect.
He just picked the wrong example to make his case.
