Inside The Panthers

Pitt HC Reveals Major Changes to Spring Game

Pitt Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi announced that the won’t carry its traditional spring game.
Kevin Sinclair|
Nov 16, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi leads the Panthers out of the tunnel to play the Clemson Tigers at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Nov 16, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi leads the Panthers out of the tunnel to play the Clemson Tigers at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

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This year’s Blue-Gold Game will have a different feel than previous Pitt Panthers spring games. 

On Tuesday, after head coach Pat Narduzzi touched on today’s draft ahead of the spring game, he explained the tweak to the competition in Saturday’s in-house matchup. 

“Everybody ready for the draft? So, we'll have that in here at noon, and get ready for a spring game which will be thud this year. Going to go thud, just want to stay up, stay (as) healthy as we can coming out of that game,” Narduzzi said in the press segment available on YouTube. “Being it's not on the ACC Network, I want to make sure it's thud. If it was ACC Network, I would've gone live probably. So, it's a good thing for me."

Going “thud” means the game won’t be full contact. Defensive players will make contact with ball carriers but won’t be permitted to take the opponent to the ground in full-tackle fashion. 

Of course, this is a part of an effort to keep injuries at bay, always a priority for college coaching staffs throughout each off-season.

It’s part of a nationwide trend as many programs have either tweaked their spring games to look more like practices if they haven’t cancelled them altogether. 

For example, Michigan State and LSU, to name just a few, will not hold a spring game this year. Instead of a typical spring competition, Oklahoma is holding a ‘Crimson Combine’ instead of its typical spring contest. 

It’ll be interesting to see how quickly spring games will be ousted nationally following this year, if they do actually evaporate altogether. 

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Kevin Sinclair
KEVIN SINCLAIR

Kevin Sinclair writes coverage of the Pitt Panthers along with the Baltimore Ravens, the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Tennessee Titans for On SI. Previously, he was a recruiting reporter and managing editor at Irish Illustrated, the privately-owned Notre Dame site within the 247Sports Network, for over seven-and-a-half years. Kevin studied multimedia journalism and has been a sports writer for nearly a decade.

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