Thursday isn’t just Senior Night but the home finale for Pitt football this season, and it will come with Boston College also coming into town.
Pitt will be back on national television for the first time since losing to No. 4 Florida State earlier this month, and Matt will handle play-by-play duties, former Mississippi State and Florida head coach Dan Mullen will serve as his analyst and Harry Lyles Jr. will report from the sideline.
Bill Hillgrove, of course, is in the booth for 93.7 The Fan, with Pat Bostick serving as his analyst and Larry Richert and Dorin Dickerson reporting from the field at Acrisure Stadium.
Boston College rebounded off a poor season (and a poor start to this season) in a solid way, currently 6-4 and in position to head back to a bowl game.
BC rattled off wins over Virginia, Army, Georgia Tech, UConn and Syracuse before being smoked by Virginia Tech at home over the weekend. The five-game win streak gave the Eagles the chance to hit eight wins this season for the first time since 2009.
Thomas Castellanos took over the Boston College quarterback job earlier this season, and he’s thrown for 1,824 yards with 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions, while adding 806 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground, in what has become a solid rushing offense.
Pitt and Boston College haven’t met for a handful of seasons now, not since a 31-30 loss at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Mass., but Pitt does hold the all-time series lead.
The Panthers are 17-15 all-time against the Eagles, dating back to an inaugural win in Boston way back in 1959. After losing two back-to-back games in 1970 and 1971, Pitt won eight straight matchups into the early 80s.
Boston College was the better team in the 1990s, losing just twice, but Pitt is 5-3 since the turn of the century. However, the Eagles did win the last two matchups in 2019 and 2020.
The modest rivalry will resume once again this week, in a game that will pit Pitt quarterback/tight end hybrid Phil Jurkovec and offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. against their old team.
Narduzzi said Monday that Jurkovec will see if the field if he’s able to help Pitt win the football game.
Television — ESPN
Matt Barrie (play-by-play)
Dan Mullen (analyst)
Harry Lyles Jr. (reporter)
Radio — 93.7 The Fan, Pitt Panthers Radio Network
Bill Hillgrove (play-by-play)
Pat Bostick (analyst)
Larry Richert and Dorin Dickerson (reporters)
SiriusXM Satellite Radio
Channels 161 or 193 or on the SiriusXM app
WPTS Radio (Pitt Student Station) — 92.1 FM
My condolences to the crew that drew the short straw for calling this game.
Matt and Dan won’t even be here. They will broadcast from Bristol, CT. – Covid era style.
Who will lead the team in injury timeouts poll: #92 Tyler Bentley, #2 David Green, or #95 Devin Danielson. #0 DeAndre Jules doesn’t play that non-sense. Also like how Coach Pat comes out and asks the guy what’s up, and then puts his Mic handle down to relay the information up to Randy Bates. Real classy approach to in game adaptation. Meanwhile had they rotated in the three excess offensive lineman last week in at nose-guard and ran 5-3 they likely would have done a bit better on the run defense. Real hard assignment, eat up blockers. Get run on… Read more »