Pitt Football Needs Your Support on Saturday
Hey there Pitt football fans! This season certainly hasn’t gone how we all expected or at least hoped it would has it? What with the embarrassing performance against Penn State on National TV in Week 2, the inexplicable loss to UNC not long after, and then being blown out by Central Florida things looked like they were going to go off the rails rather quickly. Personally, I believed that Pitt was headed towards a 3-win season at this stage. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of the more casual fans decided to tune out for the season around this point. I wouldn’t even blame anyone who made this decision. Based on attendance at Heinz Field this year, it looks like this has been the case.
Given that there have been less than 35,000 people in attendance on average for the non-Penn State home games this season, perhaps I should bring everyone up to speed. An overtime win against Syracuse signaled a change. They followed that up with a near-upset of still-undefeated Notre Dame. After a bye week, Pitt won two games in six days to somehow put them in first place in the Coastal. You read that right, the 5-4 Pitt Panthers who started the season so miserably are in sole possession of first place in their division. They are coming dangerously close to making Pat Narduzzi’s preseason boast that we’d see them in Charlotte for the ACC Championship Game come true.
It is pretty surprising that Pitt is currently the favorite to come out on top of the heap in this year’s version of Coastal Chaos given where they’ve come from. However, there is still a lot of room for error with this team. While they can still win the division should they lose to Virginia Tech this weekend, they can make things a lot easier on themselves with a win. If they take care of business on Saturday, they can clinch the division just by winning one of their last two games against Wake Forest or Miami. Because of this, the game against Virginia Tech this weekend is the biggest one played at Heinz Field in quite some time and the team needs and deserves a good turnout.
If you haven’t been down to Heinz Field very much this year, coming down this weekend would definitely be considered better late than never. Pitt hasn’t played in too many vital home games in recent years. Games against WVU in 2010 and UNC in 2015 were also important, but you would have to go back to the game against Cincinnati in 2009 to find one that was definitively more significant. That game was a de facto conference championship game with the winner automatically winning the Big East and getting that season’s BCS Bowl bid for the conference. Pitt lost that game and the other two mentioned, so hopefully they can reverse their fortunes this time around. To do this, the team could use as much fan support as they can get to give them a home field advantage.
If the biggest home game for Pitt football in nearly a decade isn’t enough to convince you to come down to Heinz Field, there’s a few other reasons I can think of to maybe coax you. First, one can’t deny that the weather has been pretty miserable this season. Games against Penn State, Syracuse, and Duke all left fans who sat through them soaked. There was even a delay during the 3rd quarter of the Syracuse game. There should be none of those issues this weekend. Though it will be rather cold according to the current forecast (36 degrees at kickoff), there should be none of the persistent precipitation that has plagued visits to Heinz Field this season.
Maybe you decided not to spring for season tickets this year or have already sold or given away your tickets for this weekend. Lucky for you, there are still ample seats available on the secondary market. As of Thursday evening on StubHub, there are tickets available for seats in almost every section of the stadium. Prices are as low as $6 in the upper deck and $15 in the lower bowl before fees. Regardless of how you do it, there are plenty of options for getting yourself into the stadium.
Finally, this is already the final home game of the season. Between only having 6 home games on the schedule and them being front-loaded, with 3 home games to start the season, the home slate is coming to an end sooner than it typically does. Though there are two more away games, a likely bowl game, and a potential ACC Championship game still to be played by this Pitt football team, this is your last chance to see them at Heinz Field for nearly 10 months. It’s also the last time that this group of seniors will go out and play for their school on their home field. Players like Qadree Ollison, Darrin Hall, George Aston, Oluwaseun Idowu, and the other seniors deserve to have a big crowd to cheer them on in their final home game, regardless of the importance.
Obviously, I’m not trying to shame anyone who, for whatever reason, can’t make the game this weekend. However, if you were on the fence about coming, hopefully I’ve convinced you to make the trek to the North Side on Saturday. The team could really use a raucous crowd for this big game and every extra Pitt fan helps. This team has fought hard to get to this position after the disappointing outings in the first half of the season. However, they’ve still got a ways to go and face a tough opponent in a key game. So come to Heinz Field on Saturday and give them your support!
*Attendance figures courtesy of ESPN
Let us know your plans for the game Saturday by commenting below, posting on our message board or tweeting at as @IntoPitt or @TheJeemTeam
