Pitt did what it needed to do (barely)

Rivalry games are fun.

It is not overstating things to say that the Pitt football team entered the 2022 season with some of the highest preseason expectations it has had in …. God, I don’t even know how long. A long ass time. Let’s just put it that way.

They won 11 games a year ago, won the ACC, probably would have beaten a top-15 Michigan State team in the Peach Bowl had Pitt not been relegated to playing its third-string quarterback, and is returning a significant portion of that team’s core this season.

The entire starting offensive line is back. A strong stable of running backs is back. One of the nation’s best defensive lines full of absolute game-wreckers is back.