Fresh off a rousing snow-kissed win over Navy, Notre Dame heads to Pittsburgh for a game that has playoff implications for both teams. The eternally salty Pat Narduzzi has a chance to lead his Panthers into the ACC championship game, and if they can get in they have every reason to believe they can win it and snag the conference’s automatic bid into the playoff. The overwhelmingly charismatic Marcus Freeman will have his Irish sitting pretty to land their second consecutive at-large bid to the playoff if he can get them through this road test successfully.
Notre Dame (-12.5) at Pittsburgh
Acrisure Stadium
Pittsburgh, PA
Date: Saturday, November 15, 2025
Time: 12:00 PM ET
TV: ABC (rejoice!)
Pitt began their season by beating FCS city-mate Duquesne and Central Michigan, then fell to West Virginia and Louisville. Sitting at 2-2 and with Alabama transfer quarterback Eli Holstein looking uninspiring at best, Narduzzi made the call to roll out true freshman Mason Heintschel as QB1 against Boston College. Since that point the Panthers are 5-0 and averaging exactly 40 points per game; I’m not sold that the turnaround is entirely real, but however genuine it is there’s no question they’re on a roll. Heintschel is a fearless gunslinger and capable runner and he’s injected quite a bit of energy into the Pitt offense.
Their defense this year is one of the better ones Narduzzi has fielded. Their style is very typical of what he usually wants – the safeties scream downhill to stop the run and the corners grab constantly and dare the referees to call all of it. The front seven is active as well and can be disruprtive, but they also have had to blitz to get pressure as the front hasn’t been able to consistently generate much on their own.
Discipline is an issue all over as they rank 128th in penalty yardage per game, and it’s not all from those grabby cornerbacks. Their offensive line has been grabby as well, they’ve jumped on both sides of the ball, they’ve committed personal fouls in all phases. It’s a mess, and something to keep an eye on this weekend. The game has the same crew that the Irish had for the NC State game, by the way.
All that said, their roll does have them in position to get into the conference championship game if they can pull a couple of upsets in the next two weeks – the first against Georgia Tech in Atlanta, the second against Miami in Pittsburgh. Miami having to play in Pittsburgh on November 29th is such a chaos opportunity, I love it…
Pat Narduzzi rather notably yelled at kids to get off his lawn made the case recently that the Notre Dame game is meaningless to him and Pitt, which is sort of right but also come on man completely wrong and everyone knows it.
Pat Narduzzi on if this game is a “must win” for Pitt: “Absolutely not. It’s not an ACC game. … They could put 100 up on us as long as we win the next two.”
— stephen thompson (@stephenethom) November 10, 2025
Sure, Jan.
Vegas Corner
The opening line had Notre Dame favored by an even ten points, and by midweek had drifted to Notre Dame -12.5. Kind of interesting that Vegas and the betting public are sources of respect for Notre Dame right now, given that the media and the coaching profession have some loud voices letting us know how overrated the Irish are.
Weather Report
At the moment the forecast calls for a high of 59 and a 50% chance of rain, which in western Pennsylvania in mid-November feels like a massive win. May the temperature drop precipitously between our visit and Miami’s.
Series History
Notre Dame leads 50-21-1
Pitt rounds out the top five most frequent opponents in Notre Dame football history. Take a shot at the other four now and we’ll let you know if you were right in the Fun Facts section.
The last time these teams met was in Freeman’s second year at the helm, 2023, in which his charges romped to a 58-7 win. The Irish were +3 on turnovers and nearly +300 in total yardage in that game, and had three touchdowns from defense and special teams – a punt return by Chris Tyree, an interception return by Jaden Mickey, and a fumble recovery by Ramon Henderson. Coincidentally, all three of those guys would eventually transfer out of Notre Dame.
The final score of that game was a touchdown from Steve Angeli, who also transferred out and tore his Achilles this season, to Cooper Flanagan, who tore his Achilles in January. Life is weird sometimes.
Pitt’s last win in the series came in 2013, the game with the super shady Tuitt targeting call that was made by the same ref who threw the OPI flag on the would-be go-ahead touchdown against Florida State the following season. So much fun.
More road firsts for Marcus – as the BC game was his first time visiting whatever the hell that stadium is called, nobody cares, this will be his first time visiting Three Rivers/PNC/Heinz/whatever. He has to love the fact that Narduzzi and Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire are taking passive aggressive shots at Notre Dame’s ranking, Miami grad Chris Fallica is posting stupid garbage about Notre Dame’s record, and ESPN is bringing Gameday to the Steel City. He knows the stakes of this game and he knows he has plenty of material to make sure nobody on the roster overlooks the opponent in any way. It seems absurd for the head coach of a near-two-touchdown favorite to be able to play the “nobody respects us” card, but here we are.
Fun Fact(s)
ESPN’s College Gameday is in Pittsburgh for the first time in 20 years. The last time, as you may have guessed, was when new Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis took on new Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt in the season opener, with Pitt actually a slight favorite at kickoff. The Irish, memorably, won that one 42-21 in Jeff Samardzija’s coming-out party.
The four teams Notre Dame has played more often than Pitt are, in order, Navy (95 games), USC (93), Purdue (87), and Michigan State (77). You all know the Navy and USC history. Purdue and Michigan State were the two Big Ten teams that thumbed their noses at Michigan when Fielding Yost tried to smother us in the cradle, and we’ve never forgotten. Pitt (72) was a fellow independent from 1890 to 1990, hence their frequent appearance on the schedule. If you’re a curious, it’s a pretty steep drop-off to Army (52) in the sixth spot.
The Irish have won seven of their last eight matchups with Pitt and all four of their games against Narduzzi Pitt teams.
Which is a nice segue into Narduzzi losing his last seven games against Notre Dame – those four at Pitt, plus his last three as defensive coordinator at Michigan State.
And why was he the defensive coordinator at Michigan State? Why, because he followed Cincinnati coach Mark Dantonio there, of course. But it’s slightly less of a straight line than that… You see, Narduzzi made it clear to Cincinnati that he would leave if they didn’t offer him the head coach job. Cincinnati said “lol ok buddy whatever” and instead decided to pluck Brian Kelly out of MAC quasi-obscurity to lead the program. Narduzzi had to wait another eight years to get his shot as a head coach with Pitt, all the while watching Kelly ride to national prominence at Notre Dame in no small part because of what he did in the Cincinnati job that Narduzzi wanted.
Yeah. He hates-hates Notre Dame.
Coaching Staff
Narduzzi is somewhat unbelievably in his eleventh year at Pitt, which makes him one of the longest-tenured coaches in FBS. For all his cantankerousness and at times curious decision making – when Kenny Pickett garnered Heisman buzz and played his way into being a first round pick, Pat couldn’t yell loudly enough or often enough that Pitt would not throw that much again – he is legitimately one of the better defensive minds in college football. His teams have consistently played solid defense and have been feisty when they’ve been able to pair that with a competent offense.
Defensive coordinator Randy Bates has been with Narduzzi since 2018 and is very much an extension of the head man. Before Pitt he spent a long time on Pat Fitzgerald’s Northwestern staff as their linebackers coach, so Narduzzi isn’t the only grumpy irrational Notre Dame hater Bates has worked for. Offensive coordinator Kade Bell is in his second year at Pitt after jumping up from FCS Western Carolina, where he was making some waves as potentially one of the next big things. His first year in Pittsburgh started out promising but fizzled rather spectacularly, with the Panthers posting a Weisian November record of 0-6 and averaging just 19 points per game in that span. 2025 so far has gone the other way, but with Notre Dame and Miami as easily the best two defenses they’ll see this season things could shift back.
Portal
Pitt had a whopping 27 players transfer out in the offseason, while they brought in 16. Their net loss in the portal at defensive line – seven left and three came in – is part of why they’ve struggled to generate pressure without blitzing.
WR Cataurus Hicks transferred in from Louisville. He starts at Z and has been solid, but also boom or bust – he had 113 yards against Louisville and 120 against NC State, and 120 yards in their other seven games. He had touchdowns of 84 yards against NC State and 39 yards against Louisville, which means about a third of his total production came on two plays. Still, he can get behind a defense.
Starting LT Jeff Persi transfered in from Michigan, where he spent five seasons and made three total starts. He’s part of the final COVID “super senior” cohort.
No other 2025 transfers are starters.
Top Players
QB Mason Heintschel
We touched on this above, but worth noting again that the team’s fortunes turned on a dime from the moment Heintschel took over as QB1. His efficiency rating is actually slightly lower than Holstein’s, but you can’t argue with the team results – against FBS competition, Pitt is +60 yards per game and +8 points per game since that point. He’s a fierce and fearless competitor who seems to relish pressure situations, as evidenced by Pitt converting 14 of 14 fourth down attempts with him under center versus only two of seven (not counting Duquesne) with Holstein under center. He’s not an elite scrambler but he can do enough to move the chains and to keep a team honest, to a much greater degree than Holstein.
Now, having said that… His fearlessness can be problematic too. In those six starts he’s thrown five interceptions and fumbled four times. He’s among the national leaders in turnover-worthy play rate. He’s been sacked a whopping 16 times, which is partly because their line is suspect but partly also because he holds the ball too long trying to make a play. Notre Dame, meanwhile, is third nationally in interceptions and 17th in sacks per game, despite having just one in their first two games. If the defense can pressure Heintschel he’ll make mistakes.
RB Desmond Reid
Reid was Pitt’s offensive engine last year but has been nicked up basically for the entirety of this season with a few different issues. The most recent is a significant ankle sprain suffered against NC State that kept him out of the Stanford game. He’s been good for them when healthy, but whether he’ll play and how effective he’ll be if he does are material questions. Freshman Ja’Kyrian Turner has filled in and had a breakout game against Stanford, with 22 carries for 127 yards. But, you know, it’s Stanford.
WRs Kenny Johnson, Raphael Poppi Williams Jr., Cataurus Blue Hicks
I mean… What a set of names. Anyway… I don’t know that any of these guys are super scary individually, but they’re a solid group and Notre Dame has been gotten a bit by solid groups this season. Miami’s Malachi Toney, Keelan Marion, and CJ Daniels, Texas A&M’s Mario Craver and KC Concepcion, USC’s Makai Lemon, Ja’Kobi Lane, and Tanook Hines – all groups that could put multiple points of the defense in conflict and groups that the Irish had trouble with, to various degrees. Now, I don’t know that you take any one of Johnson, Williams, or Hicks ahead of any of the other eight, but still, they’re competent and could cause some headaches.
LB Rasheem Biles, DE Jimmy Scott
The twin havoc merchants on a defense that, for all my digs at Narduzzi, is in fact pretty good. They’ve combined for 15.0 TFLs, 6.0 sacks, 12 hurries, two fumbles forced, one recovered, and one interception – by Biles, which he returned 75 yards for a score against Louisville. Biles has missed the last three games after rolling his ankle against Florida State, but hinted recently that his return was imminent. As with Reid, whether he plays and how effective he’ll be are something to watch. Scott has been good, but it’s also worth noting that Pitt’s depth at DE is perilously thin with a few members of the two-deep suffering season ending injuries earlier in the year.
LBs Braylan Lovelace and Kyle Louis
They’re 1-2 on the team in both solo and total tackles, and Louis is third in TFLs – something like what Drayk Bowen and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa are to the Irish, at least statistically. While Pitt uses their safeties heavily in run support, Lovelace and Louis will have to win on their own as well to contain the Irish rushing attack. They’ve been very good at that so far this season, although this is likely the best offensive line and obviously the best running back tandem they’ll see all season.
Bad Matchup
Pitt Run Blitzes vs. ND Run Blocking
Pitt is aggressive and effective in their run blitzes. Notre Dame has been… spotty in their run blocking this season, particularly in short yardage. There’s a very real probability that Pitt is able to muck up the run game enough that Love and Price can never really get going, which could make this an excruciating watch.
Good Matchup
Reckless Abandon
We touched on Heintschel’s propensity to put the ball up for grabs and try too hard to make something happen. Against a Notre Dame defense that’s tenth nationally in takeaways and 17th in sacks per game, that invites trouble. On the other side of the ball, that aggressiveness that makes Narduzzi defenses so good against the run can often make them vulnerable over the top, and this year is no exception. Narduzzi is going to fire his safeties down into the box and leave his grabby corners in man coverage and dare you to beat them deep.
Well, this year, CJ Carr has added an element to the Irish offense that was so sorely lacking for so long, as he’s among the national leaders in deep ball completion percentage. He leads the nation in yards per attempt – no really, go look it up – and has absolutely feasted against the blitz. All that downhill safety motion has also allowed tight ends to go off on Pitt all year, which may presage a big day for Eli Raridon. Finding the open man has been another strength for Carr this year, and there’s a good chance that it will often be Raridon.
Tight ends with big days against Pitt this year:
- Grayson Barnes, West Virginia – 5 catches, 58 yards, 1 TD (all season highs)
- Kaelan Chudzinski, Boston College – 3 catches, 70 yards, 1 TD (all season highs)
- Jaleel Skinner and Nate Kurisky, Louisville – 7 catches, 56 yards, 2 TDs
- Justin Joly, NC State – 6 catches, 101 yards, 2 TDs (all season highs)
- Sam Roush, Stanford – 8 catches, 104 yards (both career highs)
Eli, you’re up.
Special Teams
Freshman placekicker Trey Butkowski is 19/21 on field goals and 40/41 on extra points. Maybe we can get him to transfer next year? Kickoff specialist Sam Carpenter has put only 56% of his kickoffs in the end zone, so JD Price will likely have some opportunities for returns. He didn’t play in their last two games and I can’t find a reason for why, but he’s the starting kickoff specialist on the depth chart that Pitt just released so I assume he’ll be back. His replacement in those two games was punter Caleb Junko, who had just two of 17 kickoffs go for touchbacks.
UPDATE: Butkowski has been ruled out of the game with illness. Pretty significant as he’s been very good. Presumably they’ll turn to Carpenter for placekicking. In each of the last two seasons he attempted and made one extra point. He has no career field goal attempts and, notably, lost the competition for the starting job to true freshman walk-on Butkowski in camp.
Backup receiver Deuce Spann is the primary kick returner and is averaging a so-so 22.8 yards per return (Price, if you’re wondering, is averaging 37.9). Johnson and Hicks have taken the occasional return too. Reid was the primary punt returner in the first two games and had a touchdown against Duquesne. Johnson has been the primary in the last seven games and mostly has been unremarkable, although he did take one back for a score against Syracuse.
Junko averages a very respectable 44.8 yards per punt and Pitt allows an average of about 4.4 yards per return.
Prediction
Pitt is a good team. They’re 7-2 and ranked #22 by the College Football Playoff committee. They’re in a five-way tie for first place in the ACC and have a very real chance to get into the conference championship game, and depending on the opponent they may even be favored to win if they get there. They’re 24th in SP+, 33rd in FEI, 33rd in FPI. The elevation of Heintschel has breathed new life into the offense and brought it up to par with the defense. They’re actually good. And yet…
There are some alarm bells generally though and especially in this matchup. They’re better than you might think, yes, but they’re relatively untested and in any case are they really that good? Based on SP+, Notre Dame is far and away the best team they’ve faced – the Irish are 6th, and the highest-rated Pitt opponent to date is Louisville at 26th. Notre Dame, meanwhile, has faced three teams rated higher than Pitt – Texas A&M (5th), USC (12th), and Miami (13th). Yes, they went 1-2 in those games, but both losses came down to the wire and I think we’d all like the Irish’s chances in a rematch of both games today. Point being, Notre Dame has been more tested; while they’re 20 spots above Pitt’s toughest opponent, Pitt is almost exactly halfway between Notre Dame’s third toughest (Miami) and fourth toughest (Arkansas, which is 37th despite being 2-7, because they’ve played one of the toughest schedules in the country).
Should we therefore expect Notre Dame to win by 20? Well, no I wouldn’t go that far. There’s a fairly easy-to-see avenue to Pitt gumming up the offense enough and taking advantage of a few coverage busts on the other side to make this a dogfight. If I were a Pitt fan though there’s plenty about this matchup that would make me worried. This Notre Dame offense is elite and, in every game since Miami, has shown that you can try to play whack-a-mole defensively but they just have too many moles. The defense has improved steadily, and particularly at generating pressure, while the Pitt offensive line has looked shakier as the year goes on. There’s an avenue where this could turn into a blowout too. Freeman would never say it in front of a mic, but I would be willing to bet that he doesn’t harbor much love for Narduzzi and won’t hesitate to put the pedal all the way to the floor if he gets the chance.
In the 2023 game, Notre Dame got the ball with 8:11 left in the game up 51-7. That Flanagan touchdown capped an eight play drive that saw Steve Angeli go 4/5 for 53 yards. You don’t think Freeman would love to do something similar with Kenny Minchey this year if he gets the chance? I think the answer to that one is pretty obvious. Whether he gets the chance, less obvious. If the Irish play clean, even with the refs in Narduzzi’s pocket this won’t be close. If they shoot themselves in the foot or lose focus at the wrong time, it could go either way. In the end, I trust Freeman to get his guys dialed in with everything on the line. Because he always has.
Brendan,
This is a REALLY GOOD preview. Tons of information including some good history (I did get the four most played opponents, but you’ll have to take my word for it) plus excellent analysis.
Indeed the biggest concern is Pitt’s run D, like you said. I’m even more worried because our O-line just doesn’t impose on most short yardage plays, and with run blitzes coming fast and furious that’s likely to be much worse. Which actually might tie up Eli from going out for a pass.
I’m nervous, we’ll see!
Thanks
Ne t’inquietes pas, mon ami, je crois complètement qu’est-ce-que tu as dit. (J’espère que nous pouvons tutoyer, si non, pardonnez-moi s’il vous plaît. 🙂
I think most people would get USC and Navy pretty easily as the top two. You probably have to be of a certain age – maybe 40+? – to get Purdue and Michigan State, given how much they’ve dropped off the scheduling radar over the last couple of decades.
As for their blitz, Carr has been absurdly effective against the blitz and I think will pick them apart if (a) they want to play that way and (b) he doesn’t get himself wound up like he did against USC. If we get Good CJ I have a hard time finding a path for Pitt to win honestly.
Well I turned 40 this year and guessed MSU and Purdue, so that tracks. I’m pretty sure those and Stanford are the only teams we played every year I was in school, and I know the Stanford rivalry is something the modern administration is pushing as aspirational peers.
A point of order in defense of the current administration: “Aspirational peer” is something that Fr. Malloy (for you kids, university president from 1987 to 2005) first used to describe Stanford. I think Fr. Jenkins – who forced the ouster of Willingham over Malloy’s objections – was very different from him in that regard, and I think the administration generally has set aside the notion that we should aspire to be anything like Stanford in any metric aside from academic reputation.
I know “modern administration” and “current administration” aren’t equivalent terms, and I’m not taking a shot at you specifically with this – more just defending the current admin, which certainly seems to be all in on football excellence and as such I get the sense would have no patience for any aspirational nonsense with respect to Stanford’s program.
While I don’t like the Stanford “rivalry”, I don’t actually blame the administration for it. Current, modern, or past.
Yeah they suck and it’s a long road trip every other year. But they are a P4 team willing to play us every year. With the conference craziness I imagine scheduling is getting even more difficult, so I don’t blame the people who have to manage this stuff for just going with it.
They may suck, but at least they aren’t wimps like Miami or IU, who are afraid to schedule any team with a pulse.
I’m mid 30s and knew that. But Purdue and MSU have the benefit of being two of the closest schools to play, which historically is very important. Northwestern is also well into our top 10 opponents for that same reason.
Expanding the list:
Yep so basically:
Wisconsin at 19 surprises me really because it feels like we never play, I’m guessing they’re just close enough to have played a bit back in the day.
Takes me back, some of this list. So let me emit some super Old Timer stuff:
Those Iowa games in the 50’s were really something. Tough Midwestern programs, super physical. Interesting if we could tee them up again? Not sure they want any part of us now.
Army was such a deal when my grandad was the chemistry prof. There were a few lingering good games in the 50’s and 60’s. Too bad they and the other academies couldn’t hang in there, as they are still kind of good foes for us in certain ways. At least our players get to play against teams that are tough and disciplined and don’t quit.
I got the top 4 but, I’ll admit I might have put Army and NW ahead of Pitt before reading this.
None of the top 4 were pushovers when I first became an ND fan. I thought Pitt was until Tony D.
I would have to look up the history but I think Northwestern, Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin were all probably similar – bucked Michigan’s embargo on playing us, just not as early or as consistently as Michigan State and Purdue did.
Merci encore, Brendan, tu écris bien avec beaucoup de savoir-faire. Et bien sûr on se tutoie !
Re: their blitzing, I am interested in a technical aspect, namely, the run blitz as related to the pass blitz. Are those the same or different, technically? Will CJ be OK with both? Forgive the ignorance.
A little late here, but… Not quite the same, and full disclosure that I’m not an expert before I start my clumsy explanation. 🙂
With the run blitz, particularly the way Pitt plays it, they’re sending extra guys into the box (between the tackles and within five-ish yards of the line of scrimmage) to cut down on the room to run. When they’re super aggressive they’re coming down into the line itself, where they think the running lanes are going to be.
The upside is that it makes it much harder to run on them. The downside is that they have to make the play right away or the runner could hit a big one with fewer people outside the box to stop him (see: Love’s spin-o-rama). And, again, the particular downside of the way Pitt runs it is that they’ll bring both safeties down to the box, which means they leave big holes in the middle of the field.
You saw CJ take advantage of this repeatedly. The key is to stay calm and recognize where the blitz is coming from, then throw to that area. He hit so many to Raridon and Fields because he knew they were 1-on-1 with the safeties involved in the run game.
Great piece, BR, thanks much.
Great preview. I did get the Top 4 most played teams (Sparty was my first home ND game!), although I wouldn’t have pegged Pitt as 5th before reading the article.
“the super shady Tuitt targeting call that was made by the same ref who threw the OPI flag on the would-be go-ahead touchdown against Florida State the following season.”
Now THIS is Deep Lore I was unfamiliar with, and now I’m even more furious about both calls!
An Irishman, no less. A traitor to his people!
Sitting here on another Saturday morning, believing our collective overconfidence will negatively impact the team. Not so!
Pitt has not seen a team on our level, their coach has released his midweek filth into the ether, and a gameday and shiny ranking have created more of a trap scenario for Pitt than the Irish.
ND 38 Pitt 20