Pitt Welcomes SEC Opponent With Conference Pride on the Line
PITTSBURGH -- The average college football team usually takes a couple of weeks to ease into the most difficult parts of their schedule but the Pitt Panthers have chosen a different path. They opened the 2022 campaign with an intense rivalry game against a Power 5 opponent and will follow it up by hosting an up-and-comer from one of the strongest conferences in America this weekend.
The Tennessee Volunteers are coming to Pittsburgh, the first envoy from the Southeastern Conference to ever step foot within this city. According to Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi, there will be no mistaking them for the kind of big, bad team that many think of when the SEC is brought up.
"Sounds like the first time an SEC team has been coming into Acrisure Stadium, so we're excited about that," Narduzzi said. "We know we're going to get their best shot. They're talented. They're athletic. They're an SEC football team that is going to look the part when they walk into the stadium on Saturday."
This game on its own is deserving of its hype. Both the Panthers and Volunteers are ranked in the latest AP top-25 - Pitt at No. 17 and Tennessee at No. 24. Last year's edition of the Johnny Majors Classic delivered an entertaining game with multiple double-digit comebacks and concluded with a 41-34 victory for the visiting Panthers.
Any time two Power 5 teams meet on the field, there is endless talk of what the result says about either league. Interconference rivalries have only been made more heated by this summer's realignment frenzy, with the Big 10 and SEC entering an arms race for the top tier of college sports revenue-generators.
Meanwhile, leagues like the ACC have been left on the periphery. Narduzzi thinks this is a good time to make a statement about the quality of his league and its athletes, particularly since the Volunteers' greatest strength is its speed.
"You've heard all summer about the SEC, and how there's only really two Power Five conferences in the country, the SEC and the Big Ten," Narduzzi said. "So we're in the pee-wee league, and we're going to line up and see if we can play.”
Tennessee is a darling of the media and computers. They have lofty expectations and enter this weekend as nearly full touchdown favorites despite being on the road against a higher-ranked opponent. Narduzzi is embracing the underdog role and sees beating such a highly-regarded team from a highly-regarded conference as a chance to vault his program into the ranks of this year's elite.
"There’s two good football teams,' he said during his final press conference of the week. "I want to talk about us and I know we’ve got a good football team coming in here. We’ll find out what we got Saturday but we’ll decide that after the game. I’ll talk to you during the press conference on Saturday. We’ll decide how elite or not elite we are.”
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