Pat Narduzzi's Confidence In Pitt's Portal Class Could Burn Him

PITTSBURGH — Pat Narduzzi made a bold claim after the Pitt Panthers' first spring practice on March 2 that caught me, and I'm sure others buy surprise.

"I truly believe, through the portal, that we've got a better football team right now than we had last year," Narduzzi said in his opening statement.

This is obvious coach speak, right? Narduzzi went on to say that he felt the same about last year's group, and the same with the year before that and so on. But it doesn't take an expert to see Pitt's transfer portal class was sub-par.

Of course, the head coach isn't going to stand at the podium and admit that this year's team is worse. That'd be insane. However, it's one thing to express confidence in your team, and it's another to double down, like Narduzzi did on March 4.

"You guys are saying bad things, but I don't know where we ranked in portal classes. All that's baloney," Narduzzi told the media. "I don't care what rankings are in high school or college, transfer portal-wise. Like I said, I think we've got a hell of a class."

I'm not saying Pitt is guaranteed to finish worse than last year's 8-4 team that lost to East Carolina in the Military Bowl — I actually think the Panthers have a chance to match or even improve their record because of their favorable 2026 schedule.

But if this year's team has a bad season, insisting that the transfer portal class led to a better overall roster than last season's will look quite foolish and likely lead to serious questions about Narduzzi's future with the program.

"We'll find out at the end of the year. That's when you really get evaluated," Narduzzi said.

Analysing Pitt's 2026 Transfer Portal Class

Nov 15, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers linebacker Rasheem Biles (3) scored a pick-six touchdown against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish during the third quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

The glaring issue with Pitt's 2026 portal class is that only one Power 4 starter was added. The rest of the players were either starters at the Group of Five, FCS or Division II levels, or were backups at their previous institutions.

As a result, Pitt finished with the No. 74 portal class on 247Sports and the No. 65 class on On3. Both rankings were the worst Pitt has ever finished in the transfer portal era.

Rankings are one way to quantify the talent of a particular class, though.

All players on the list before started at least one game during the 2025 season, according to Pro Football Focus and various other sources.

Departed Starters	Transfer Starters
QB Eli Holstein (Virginia)	RB La'Vell Wright (Western Kentucky)
RB Juelz Goff (Boise State)	WR Malik Knight (Western Carolina)
WR Kenny Johnson (Texas Tech)	TE Elijah Lagg (UAB)
TE Malachi Thomas (LSU)	OL Netinho Olivieri (Penn)
OL Lyndon Cooper (Vanderbilt)	OL Keylen Davis (Akron)
DT Francis Brewu (Notre Dame)	LB Alex Sanford Jr. (Purdue)
DT Jahsear Whittington (Nebraska)	LB DeMarco Ward (Memphis)
LB Rasheem Biles (Texas)	CB Kanye Thompson (Slippery Rock)
K Sam Carpenter (Sam Houston)	P Gabe Russo (Idaho State)
K Trey Butkowski (Michigan)	K Sam Hunsaker (Northern Arizona)

As shown in the graph above, eight of the 10 former Pitt players transferred to Power 4 programs and are now contending for a starting job, while Pitt added just one Power 4 starter, five Group of Six starters, three FCS starters and one Division II starter.

Another way to look at this chart is to compare production.

The offensive starters that left Pitt produced 23 unique touchdowns, meaning overlap in touchdowns between a quarterback and receiver was not counted, while the offensive transfer starters scored just 18 touchdowns in 2025. That's a difference of 30 points, or 35 points assuming the PAT is made with each score, across an entire season.

On the defensive side, Pitt's departed starters recorded 148 total tackles and 6.5 sacks, while the transfer starters tallied 170 tackles and three sacks.

While some of these numbers seem close, or even surpass Pitt's totals, this only includes the starters who transferred. These numbers do not include the contributions of starters heading to the NFL Draft or are out of eligibility, like Desmond Reid, Raphael "Poppi" Williams, Deuce Spann, Justin Holmes, Jake Overman, Jeff Persi, Joey Zelinsky, Nate Temple, Kyle Louis, Nick Lapi, Tamon Lynum, Rashad Battle, Kavir Bains-Marquez, Javon McIntyre, Caleb Junko and Nilay Upadhyayula.

Others around college football have acknowledged Pitt's poor portal class, too. Manny Navarro of The Athletic graded the portal class a "D" and highlighted many similar concerns.

"Pat Narduzzi brought in six former starters via the portal, but five come from FCS or G6 schools," Navarro wrote. "Sanford (46 tackles, 3.5 TFLs) and Ward (63 tackles, three TFLs) were productive last season, but replacing Rasheem Biles (Texas) and NFL-bound Kyle Louis will not be easy. Strader, the MAC Cornerback of the Year at Miami (Ohio) in 2024, didn’t start a game last year at Auburn. In addition to Biles, the Panthers lost three other starters who signed with P4 schools."

In a more recent piece, The Athletic sourced 14 front office personnel to analyze portal classes around the country, and one anonymous ACC staffer went in on Pitt.

"Pitt got destroyed in the portal, and I didn’t think they did a sufficient job replacing the talent they lost," the staffer said.

Judgement Day

Nov 29, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi (left) reacts to line judge Josiah Ford (right) during the third quarter against the Miami Hurricanes at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

It's great to have confidence in your players, and it's great to hear each new transfer addition speak on their positive experience since joining the program. That's a sign of great culture. But let's not pretend that there aren't serious question marks and unproven talent on this roster.

Like Narduzzi said, the end of the season is when you really get evaluated, and the end of the 2025 season was a disappointment, to say the least. Losing to a depleted East Carolina team was a bad look, and Narduzzi's poor coaching decisions in the fourth quarter made the loss even worse.

If this 2026 team fails to meet the expectations Narduzzi is setting with the claim that this roster is already an improvement over last year's, then it could just come back to burn him with serious conversations about his future now in the back half of his contract.

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