Pitt football was scheduled to be taking on Georgia Tech on Saturday, but the game was been postponed until Dec. 12. This is due to both teams pausing all football activities due to COVID-19 protocols. Neither team has released the number of players that have tested positive, but the Georgie Tech athletic director noted the team would not have had enough players at every position to take the field.
The postponement of this game is not only unfortunate because of the COVID-19 outbreaks but also because Pitt had a shot to start building momentum. Pitt had just played its most well-rounded game since Week 1 when it played a significantly lesser team in Austin Peay. It seemed as if the Panthers were going to have a real shot to keep things rolling and pick up two more wins before they matched up with Clemson in their final game of the season.
Things will no longer shake out the same way as Pitt will now be facing Virginia Tech and Clemson prior to taking on Georgia Tech. This is what will likely keep Pitt from building up a lot of momentum going forward. Even if they manage to pick up the win against Virginia Tech next week, it is rather unlikely that the Panthers will take down Clemson. The Tigers took Notre Dame to overtime, and that was without their star quarterback and likely first overall pick in the NFL Draft, Trevor Lawrence.
Pitt will likely be coming off a loss to Clemson heading into its matchup with Georgia Tech, instead of heading into the game following a dominant win over Florida State. This doesn’t fare well for Pitt as it has proven to be streaky and may just roll over in the last game of the season if it falls at Clemson.
Of course, there is also the possibility the Panthers pull off the upset and knock off Clemson. This is a team that is well known for pulling off upsets. They have pulled off two big-time upsets with Kenny Pickett at quarterback as they took down No. 2 Miami in Pickett’s first collegiate start back in 2017 and knocked off No. 15 UCF last season thanks to Pickett catching a touchdown off of the Pitt special. There also is the obvious 2016 upset over Clemson in which Chris Blewitt hit a field goal late to give the Panthers over the eventual national champions.
Pulling off an upset would give Pitt an insane amount of momentum heading into this season finale against Georgia Tech, but even with its history of upsets, it can’t be expected that Pitt will do anything other than be blown out. It will likely lose and need to rally to pick up one last win.
This postponement has really mixed up Pitt’s path to winning out through the rest of the season and took what looked like a possibility to build up momentum prior to taking on one of the best teams in college football and turned it upside down.
Photo by Kaycee Orwig | The Pitt News
I am a senior at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in English Writing. I am a fan of the Phillies, Eagles, Trail Blazers, and I have recently started supporting Tottenham in the Premier League. My favorite sports memory is the Eagles winning the Super Bowl.