Does anyone know how I can get parking spots in the gold or green lots for the October 10th 2026 football game?

Only 31 more days until Pitt begins their 2026 campaign with a match at Michigan. Not quite the test that Nebraska was to open 2025. Nevertheless, I’m sure the Wolverines will be eager to avenge their loss to Pitt in the second round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.

The rest of the 2026 schedule follows a similar footprint: competitive but less daunting than 2025. Non-conference is filled with mostly 2025 tournament teams, with showcases against fellow National Championship contenders Kentucky and Wisconsin. They’ll face the Badgers at a neutral site in Milwaukee and the Badgers at the Pete. In conference, the Panthers will only face Louisville once this season; instead they’ll play North Carolina State twice. They’ll still play Stanford and SMU twice. In addition to a new home-and-away opponent, Pitt will also start play at a new home facility: Victory Heights Arena. Though the program will not begin playing at the newly built court until the ninth match of the season against Jacksonville.

Like last year, Pitt will be a contender for the National Championship with the added pressure that this is Olivia Babcock’s final collegiate season. We’re going to be talking about Babcock a lot this season as she has the opportunity to cement herself as the greatest college volleyball player of all time. With all other accolades achieved, the two time National Player of the Year has only two challenges left in her career: (1) win a Final Four match and (2) win the National Championship.

Volleyball is a team sport, and Babcock has chosen to stick with Pitt and Coach Dan Fisher to give her the best chance to win the 2026 national championship. Running Pitt’s offense in 2026 will be Penn State transfer Izzy Starck. Izzy sat out most of 2025 after being named Freshman of the Year and Second Team All American in 2024. Starck will look to be the third consecutive All-American setter at Pitt after Rachel Fairbanks and Brooke Mosher. Starck has the floor awareness of Fairbanks and the net aggression of Mosher which will make for some fast and exciting volleyball. Starck will be backed up by redshirt junior Haiti Tautua’a - a reliable veteran that knows Pitt’s system and demonstrates our culture well. The setter position will look to be a stronghold of the team.

Another strength of the 2026 squad will be the pins / hitters. This team starts and ends with Babcock. Unquestionably, the best offensive player in volleyball. She can score from any spot on the court and very few opponents can compete with her at the net. She has always been a top tier front row defender but has worked tireless to become a reliable back row defender and passer. I expect the one skillset that Liv will improve the most over the offseason is her serve. In 2024, she was the most electrifying server in the country, but 2025 saw her become more cautious. I’s love to see that spark return to her serve.

Opposite Olivia will be senior Blaire Bayless. Bayless was Second Team All-ACC in 2025 and will have aspirations for All-American accolades in 2026. Bayless was very reliable on the front row and hopefully has progressed on her back row play. If she can pass consistently, then she can be utilized as another back row attack option which could give Pitt four or more attacking options. Additionally, she also has a powerful jump serve which I hope can be unleashed this coming year.

Pitt returns outsides Sophia Gregoire and Marina Pezelj. Both provided necessary depth last year when Coach Fisher needed a spark or change up. Gregoire is more of a power hitter like Babcock and Bayless whereas Pezelj is more of crafty hitter seeking holes in the defense. Pitt also made some big additions at hitter in its freshman class. I expect to see a lot of top 5 recruit Ayanna Watson - a six rotation player who finished as Nevada’s all time kills leads. Another big addition (literally) is 6’6” Jessica Smallwood - a four time state player of the year that will likely be heir to Pitt’s right side. And because the rich keep on getting richer, Pitt also added 2025 AVCA high school National Player of the Year Nominee Lola Sageer.

The position with the biggest hole to fill will be at middle blocker. Pitt saw three exits with All-American Bre Kelley exhausting eligibility, 2024 All-ACC Freshman Ryla Jones transferring to Penn State, and Dalia Virlan transferring to Oregon. The Panthers retained Abbey Emch who has been a mainstay on the USA National Team circuit and would have likely received All-ACC accolades if she started the entire season. Pitt brought in Kentucky transfer Jordyn Dailey and Dutch professional Maaike Heilig to complete at the second middle spot. I also wonder if Jessica Smallwood might be given reps at middle given her height and the depth that Pitt has on the outside for 2026.

The last position group to consider are the liberos / defensive specialists. Pitt returns junior Mallorie Meyer and reclassified Sophomore Izzy Masten. Meyer was more of a traditional steady passing libero whereas Izzy was more of a free roaming athlete relentlessly tracking down rogue balls. Meyer and Masten were also the most reliable servers last year. The team also has incoming freshman Trinity Thompson to compete at defensive specialist and setter. I suspect the staff’s plan was to switch to a 6-2 system with Thompson and Isabelle Hoppe as setters of the future; however, the plan changed when Izzy Starck agreed to transfer to Pitt which led Hoppe to decommit and enroll at Wisconsin.

2026 has a talented and deep team. The main obstacle will be building team chemistry. I’m not sure if the program scheduled more scrimmages this summer or if they simply publicized them more, but it’s clear the coaches want this new group to get as much playing time as possible together. Once this team finds its groove, we might be in for the best Pitt team yet!

That’s it. That’s the post.

This coming season will be Pat Narduzzi’s 12^th season as head coach of the Pittsburgh Panthers and only Jock Sutherland had a longer coaching tenure (15 years) as Panthers head coach.

In the past 11 seasons, Narduzzi had his ups and downs, but at the present time in the Atlantic Coast Conference, only Dabo Swinney at Clemson and Dave Doeren at North Carolina State have coached longer than Narduzzi at their respective universities.

Which players since Narduzzi took over as head coach at Pitt in 2015 would make the All-Pat Narduzzi Pitt team? Presenting the All-Pat Narduzzi Pitt team:

https://johnbaranowski.wordpress.com/2026/06/14/presenting-the-all-pat-narduzzi-pitt-team/

Hi! I'm a freelance college football writer previewing all 138 FBS teams for the '26 season and figured I'd share my Pitt post in here. Thanks for checking it out!

Pitt Athletics Discussion sans Men's Basketball and Football

Both the Trib and PG had articles today on the AD meeting with "select Pittsburgh media". The PG article didn't really seem to have many details. The Trib article mentioned a recent large donation to wrestling and had actual bullet points on some of the topics discussed: https://triblive.com/sports/now-is-the-time-allen-greene-preaches-increased-participation-among-pitts-fans-donors-community-at-large/ Naturally the first one was on-campus stadium: "Right now, we have a relationship with the Steelers down at Acrisure (Stadium). We’re going to work our tails off to bring Pitt down to the North Shore.”

There are 10 ‘Pitt Is It’ posts on Instagram, 8 ‘committed’ posts, and 9 new commitments listed on 247sports / on3. All nine listed as three star recruits by 247sports.

Hopefully their performance this week will be enough to push them into the CWS Regionals. This has been an amazing run in the ACC Tournament, but UNC is a beast of a team. Pitt's projected to be the last team in by D1 Baseball.

Pitt Panthers vs Florida State Seminoles

Pitt Panthers vs Louisville Cardinals

* Venue: Truist Field; Charlotte, NC

* Time: 9:00 PM ET

* TV ACC Network

Pitt Athletics Discussion sans Men's Basketball and Football

Notre Dame is taking literal batting practice. 6 home runs and counting. Zero shut down innings.

6’9” guard from Russia. Was a freshman last season avg 12.9ppg and 4.7 reb a game and shot 36.2% from 3.

https://x.com/jeffborzello/status/2055324479161544974?s=46&t=NGRQlb63PNehcxSg5EIyDA

Pitt Athletics Discussion sans Men's Basketball and Football

Was at GT in 2024 and Syracuse in 2025. The 6’9” forward avg 0.9 ppg, 1.9 Reb, and .2 ast last season on an avg of 8.3 min a game

Per ESPN only played 1 year at concord and in 1 game but shot 33% from the field and 40% from 3. Seems like a depth piece off the bench

Pitt Athletics Discussion sans Men's Basketball and Football

Who would you say were Narduzzi's two best cornerbacks?  Some that came to mind: 

MJ Devonshire, Avonte Maddox, Dane Jackson and Marquis Williams. Others? 

Who would you say were his two best safeties?  Some that came to mind: 

Damar Hamlin, Jordan Whitehead, Donovan McMillon, Paris Ford, and Erick Hallett. Others?

Pitt Athletics Discussion sans Men's Basketball and Football