The top 5 storylines of 2016
2016 is done. But before we fully turn to 2017, here's one last look at the biggest Pitt storylines from the last year.
5. A STRONG FINISH
One of the year’s biggest storylines came very early in the calendar when Pat Narduzzi and his staff finished recruiting for 2016 as strongly as any class in recent memory.
There were more than a few big recruiting wins for Narduzzi in January and February. Once Pitt fans - and coaches - moved past the pursuit of Miles Sanders, the focus turned to some of the big fish still on the board for the Panthers. Mid-January visits set the table for commitments from a pair of big defensive tackles in Amir Watts and Keyshon Camp, but the biggest commitments came two days before Signing Day.
That was the night that Damar Hamlin went on KDKA-TV and announced that he was staying home to play at Pitt. He wasn’t the only commitment that day; minutes before Hamlin went live on television, Clairton receiver Aaron Mathews publicly announced that he was flipping his commitment from Penn State to Pitt.
Along with those commitments, Narduzzi and his staff had a few more wins in January and February as a number of Power Five schools came after Pitt’s commitments. The coaches held off Miami for Henry Miller, Virginia Tech for Chase Pine, LSU for Thomas MacVittie, a host of schools for Camp and Penn State for a handful of recruits, including Maurice Ffrench, Therran Coleman, Bryce Hargrove and Rashad Wheeler.
All told, the final month leading up to Signing Day was one win after another for Narduzzi and the Pitt staff, and those successes created a lot of momentum heading into the spring. The 2017 class hasn’t seemed to build on that momentum thus far, but with a month remaining, Narduzzi and company still have a chance to put together another strong finish.
4. RESUMPTION OF A RIVALRY
Pitt fans circled the date when it was first announced five years ago, and they’ve been looking forward to it for 16 years.
Sept. 9, 2016. The day a rivalry was resumed.
And it wasn’t enough to have Pitt face Penn State for the first time since 2000. The game was a good one, with the Panthers jumping out to a big lead in the first half and then holding off a furious Penn State comeback in the final 30 minutes, capped by a game-clinching interception in the end zone by Ryan Lewis.
That play is iconic and permanently put Lewis’ name in the folklore of Pitt football history. And before that pick, there was a 99-yard touchdown drive, a dominant rushing attack bolstered by the unveiling of the jet sweeps, an 84-yard kickoff return, three fumble recoveries, four sacks and nearly 70,000 screaming fans packed into Heinz Field.
No sports event has been played in front of more people in Pittsburgh history. And no one who was there that day will ever forget it.
3. THE BIGGEST WIN SINCE…
The Penn State game was probably the one win Pitt fans wanted in 2016, but if they thought that was the only big win the Panthers had in store for the season, there was a surprise lurking in South Carolina.
Pitt went to Clemson in mid-November riding a two-game losing streak, including what was at that point the Panthers’ worst game of the season in a 51-28 loss at Miami the previous week. Waiting for them in Greenville was a Tigers squad that hadn’t lost a game all season and entered the Pitt contest ranked No. 2 in the nation.
Clemson had NFL talent all over the place, with a loaded defense and an offense that featured future pros at quarterback, receiver, running back, tight end and a few spots on the line. This was a mismatch for Pitt in every way imaginable: Clemson had a great passing game and a dominant defense. The odds for the Panthers were long.
But from the very start, Pitt showed that it was up to the task of at least giving the Tigers a game. The Panthers offense was rolling in the early going, catching Clemson off-guard with shovel passes and all the misdirection and motion that defined Pitt’s attack in 2016.
And the defense made some plays, too. They didn’t stop Deshaun Watson and his cavalcade of NFL targets, but the Panthers came up with some big moments: namely, three interceptions and a gigantic pair of stops on third-and-1 and fourth-and-1 with the game on the line.
Then it came down to Chris Blewitt. Pitt’s senior kicker had a 53-yard attempt blocked at the end of the first half, but Pat Narduzzi had no hesitation in sending him out to attempt a game-winner from 48 yards.
20 years from now, Pitt fans will probably still be talking about where they were when that 48-yard kick split the uprights.
Penn State was a signature win for Narduzzi, his first as head coach of the Panthers. On November 12, he scored his second signature win in Pitt’s biggest upset victory since the 13-9 game against West Virginia in 2007.
2. THE END OF AN ERA
It happened eight months ago and came at a time when a lot of Pitt fans weren’t disappointed to see it happen, but the departure of Jamie Dixon inarguably ranks as one of the biggest Pitt sports stories of 2016.
Simply put, Dixon was an institution at Pitt. 13 seasons. 11 NCAA Tournament appearances. 328 total wins and 143 conference victories (an average of 25 overall wins and 10 conference wins each season). Three Sweet Sixteen appearances. One Elite Eight finish. Two Big East regular-season titles and one Big East Tournament championship.
Jamie Dixon built success at Pitt that was unheard of prior to his arrival on Ben Howland’s staff in 1999. And while it took a few years, the “Howland-Dixon Era” eventually became, simply and fittingly, the Dixon Era.
That era was, without question, the winningest stretch in the history of Pitt basketball, and Dixon was the coach behind it. History will look more favorably on Dixon’s time at Pitt than the immediate reflection did, since his departure came abruptly on the heels of Pitt’s 47-43 loss in the NCAA Tournament at the hands of Wisconsin.
For whatever reason, Dixon didn’t transition well to the ACC. His team rebounded from 2011-12’s ignominious CBI championship to win 24 games and 12 conference matches in Pitt’s final Big East season the next year. The first year in the new conference wasn’t bad either, when the Panthers finished strong and entered the NCAA Tournament as one of the most popular upset picks. They lost to No. 1 overall seed Florida but still won 26 games and went 11-7 in the ACC.
The last two years were not as successful. Facing roster turnover and not having recruited and developed well enough to fill the holes, Pitt struggled. The Panthers went 19-15 overall and 8-10 in 2014-15 before losing in the first round of the NIT. And last year they went .500 in the conference and got bounced from March Madness by Wisconsin.
Four days after that game, he was hired to be the new head coach at TCU, a move that has, for better or worse, forever altered the course of Pitt basketball. And regardless of the details of his departure, this much doesn’t change: a lot of people made the Panthers into a successful basketball program, but none deserves as much credit as Dixon.
1. THE RETURN
There’s only one Pitt sports story that could rank above the departure of Jamie Dixon.
The return of James Conner.
Everyone knows the story, and that’s why this is No. 1 on the list of 2016 storylines: James Conner’s journey from ACC Player of the Year to season-ending knee injury to Hodgkin’s lymphoma to cancer-free to 1,000-yard rusher will live in the legends of Pitt football for a long time.
The images of Conner running through spring drills wearing a surgical mask are iconic, surpassed only by some of the most devastating stiff arms a Pitt running back has ever applied. Conner was at his best in Pitt’s biggest games, putting up big numbers in the wins over Penn State and Clemson.
And he logged what very well might be the definitive run of his career to beat the Tigers, a 20-yard score that saw him reverse field and bounce a Clemson defender off the ground like a basketball. Everything that made Conner special in his time at Pitt was in that run: the will, the determination, the toughness, the resiliency, the ability to deal with adversity and the sheer force-of-nature style of running that put his name in the record books.
Conner finished his career as No. 2 on Pitt’s all-time rushing list and No. 1 on the ACC’s all-time touchdown list. But his legacy with the Panthers will go beyond numbers, and like Lewis’ interception against Penn State or Blewitt’s kick against Clemson, Pitt fans will reflect on Conner’s four years in the program for a long time.
HONORABLE MENTION
The departure of Scott Barnes
- Pitt is searching for a new Athletic Director for the second time since December 2014
Stallings hire
- To replace Dixon, Barnes hired long-time Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings
Canada’s departure
- Pitt is also looking to hire a new offensive coordinator for the third consecutive year
Canada’s success
- If not for Matt Canada’s move to LSU, his success as Pitt’s offensive coordinator would have made the top five
WPIAL struggles
- Pitt’s success recruiting locally in the 2016 class didn’t carry over to 2017
Attendance
- Pitt sold out its football season tickets, but the attendance didn’t reflect that
Another 8-win season
- In light of what might have been, another eight-win season doesn’t move the needle, but Narduzzi has won more games in his first two years than any Pitt coach since Foge Fazio
The retros and the script
- Pitt finally brought back the old colors - or some version of them - but more importantly, all sports adopted the script logo in 2016
