Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi may have just dropped the most outlandish quote in ACC Media Days history
It seems as if the headlines of the entire season came out of this week’s ACC Media Days in Charlotte.
From Florida State head coach Mike Norvell pretending to be unaware of any hot seat talk to SMU’s Rhett Lashlee angering the entire conference with his comments about the Sun Belt, college football fans were treated to only the best in offseason theater from the Atlantic Coast Conference’s many personalities.
But on Friday, one man joined the conversation with perhaps the craziest comment any college football fan has heard in years.
Meet Pat Narduzzi, head coach of the Pitt Panthers.
SMU HEAD COACH RHETT LASHLEE POURS GASOLINE ON THE FIRE, SHOULDS SUN BELT’S CLAIM ABOUT CFP BETH
Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi reacts to a call made in the second half against the Syracuse Orange at the JMA Wireless Dome. (Zengin Barnes/Imagn Images)
Pitt had a solid season under Narduzzi in 2025, going 6-2 in the conference and even getting a chance to play for the ACC title in the final week of the season.
Perhaps this moderate success confused the man, because he made a quote so shocking you have to hear it to believe it.
Did all these ACC coaches get a call from the conference’s public relations director telling them to produce some headlines in exchange for clicks?
Now listen, I’m an SEC pro, so the last thing I want to do is defend the Big Ten, but where has this guy been for the last three years?
He notes that he has a “winning record” in bowl games and the regular season against both the SEC and Big Ten, which I guess means something, but he wasn’t very specific about the years or teams involved, so I’m not even sure you can count that as a win for Narduzzi.
The Pitt logo is seen during a game between the Pittsburgh Panthers and the Penn State Nittany Lions at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 10, 2016. (Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) ***Local Caption)
I distinctly remember Miami losing to Indiana in the College Football Playoff championship game, and that means something.
INDIANA COACH CURT CIGNETTI IS BECOMING UNSTOPPABLE THANKS TO THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN HIS RECRUITMENT TRAIL
Speaking of championships, the Big Ten has a three-year streak of winning the national championship in college football, and before that the SEC had a four-year streak.
To find an ACC team that won it all, you have to go all the way back to 2018, when freshman Trevor Lawrence helped Clemson destroy Alabama in the Bay Area.
He claims the ACC has better players than the Big Ten, but I’m not so sure about that either.
In the 2026 NFL Draft, 68 players (10 first round) were selected from the Big Ten, while only 38 players (six first round) were selected from the ACC.
The recruiting side of things doesn’t help Narduzzi’s narrative either.
According to the 247Sports 2026 recruiting rankings, the Big Ten trailed the ACC in terms of top-25 teams (six to four), but when you look at the top ten, it’s even more lopsided in the Big Ten’s favor, as it held three of the top four spots in the composite, while Miami, the ACC’s only representative in the top ten, sat at number nine.
Pittburgh Panthers tight end Jake Overman makes a catch in a game against the SMU Mustangs on November 2, 2024. (Matthew Visinsky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Other than the aforementioned Hurricanes, the ACC hasn’t had much to brag about the last few years, but that apparently didn’t stop Narduzzi from trying.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION
Who knows, maybe Narduzzi and the rest of the ACC will make me eat my words this year when they dominate other Power 4 rivals en route to a national championship.
But by then college football belonged to the Big Ten and the SEC was hot on their heels, leaving the ACC in a distant third place.
