Like the region it calls home, Pitt football under Pat Narduzzi has proven to be rugged, relentless and continuously rising.

Upon his hiring on December 26, 2014, Narduzzi pledged his Panthers would "play with a tough, blue-collar mentality—and how else would you want it in the City of Pittsburgh?"

Promise kept.
 
The eighth-year Chris Bickell '97 Head Football Coach has made an emphatic imprint on Pitt's program. His vision for the Panthers—on and off the field—continues to bear fruit with each passing season.

The 2021 campaign will go down as one of the most celebrated in Pitt’s long football history. The Panthers stormed to 11 victories—their most in 40 years—and claimed their first outright conference title with a 45-21 triumph over Wake Forest in the ACC Championship Game.

Pitt earned a No. 13 ranking in the final polls, its highest finish since 1982. The Panthers placed No. 12 in the final College Football Playoff ratings, their highest ever.

Individually, three Pitt players earned first-team All-America honors from NCAA-recognized selectors: wide receiver Jordan Addison (consensus), quarterback Kenny Pickett and long snapper Cal Adomitis. The Panthers last had three first team All-Americans in a season in 1982.

Addison won the 2021 Biletnikoff Award (nation's outstanding receiver), Pickett won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award (nation's top upperclassman quarterback) and Adomitis earned the Patrick Mannelly Award (nation's top long snapper).

Pickett finished third in the 2021 Heisman Trophy balloting, the highest finish by a Pitt player since wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald was the 2003 runner-up.

Narduzzi also earned personal accolades, receiving the Andy Talley Tri-State Coach of the Year award, annually bestowed by the esteemed Maxwell Football Club to the top college coach in the northeast. Narduzzi was a finalist for the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year, Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year and Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year national awards.

The 2021 season was a culmination of Narduzzi’s steady yet unmistakable program building. But the crowning achievement of an ACC title was preceded by many other milestone moments and accomplishments. Among them:

• From 2015-21, Narduzzi directed Pitt to 36 victories in ACC play, the conference’s third-highest win total during that span. Only Clemson (52) and Miami (37) won more.
   
• Narduzzi directed the Panthers to two ACC Coastal Division titles (2018 and 2021). Since ACC expansion in 2013, Pitt is the only team with multiple Coastal crowns.
   
• Narduzzi has coached seven first team All-Americans at Pitt, including four who earned consensus status. Over the 2020-21 seasons, Pitt was one of only four programs nationwide to have at least three consensus selections, joining Alabama, Notre Dame and Texas A&M. In addition to Addison in 2021, defensive ends Patrick Jones II and Rashad Weaver were 2020 consensus All-Americans.
   
• Six Pitt products—Jones, Weaver, center Jimmy Morrissey, safety Damar Hamlin, cornerback Jason Pinnock and defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman—were selected in the 2021 NFL Draft, the most of any program in the ACC and tied for eighth nationally. In the 2022 draft, Pickett was a first-round selection of the Pittsburgh Steelers—the first Pitt QB to be drafted in the opening round since Dan Marino in 1983.
   
• Narduzzi’s Panthers have a well-earned reputation as a dangerous opponent for highly ranked foes. In 2019, Pitt scored a 35-34 triumph over UCF, which visited Heinz Field riding a 27-game non-bowl winning streak. The winning touchdown—a gadget-play pass caught by quarterback Kenny Pickett—has been immortalized as the "Pitt Special."
   
• In 2017, Pitt closed the season with a 24-14 victory over No. 2 Miami, which entered the game undefeated and on the cusp of the College Football Playoff.
   
• In 2016, the Panth ...