Pitt wins ACC Championship, rewards strong fan turnout in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- What a night it was for Pitt football as the Panthers showed up and showed out, trouncing Wake Forest, 45-21, for its first ACC Championship win Saturday night.

Pitt and Wake Forest went back and forth early as the teams traded touchdowns in the first quarter. Wake Forest's average of 42.9 points per game ranked third in the country just ahead of Pitt's 42.8 points per game that ranked fourth. Wake Forest led 21-14 at the end of the first quarter with the game looking like it would be a shootout.

But then Pitt's defense took over and shut out the Demon Deacons for the final three quarters while the offense worked to take the lead back. The Panthers became the first team this season to hold Wake Forest under 300 yards, and intercepted Sam Hartman four times, including two by the game's MVP award winner Erick Hallett II, who returned one of them for a touchdown.

Hallett's fourth-quarter touchdown came moments after Israel Abanikanda's second rushing TD of the night. The junior safety put the Panthers up 45-21, allowing them to close out the game on a 31-0 run. 

At that point, Wake Forest replaced Hartman, who came into the night with the ninth-most passing yards and passing touchdowns in the country, and the celebration for Pitt fans began at Bank of America Stadium.

The Pitt fans in attendance could be seen partying for almost the entire fourth quarter, knowing that their Panthers had finally finished the job. This wasn't going down to the wire, there was no fear of a disappointing ending, and the only emotion emitting from them was pure joy.

They could finally celebrate a team with eleven wins, something the program hasn't seen since 1981. They could finally rejoice for their team being the best in the ACC for the first time since joining the conference in 2013. And they could cheer on their favorite player, and Pitt's undisputed leader, Kenny Pickett.

Pickett's final performance before the Heisman Trophy vote concludes wasn't his most impressive stat-line, but it was another example of him coming up big for his team when he was needed the most. He completed 20 of 32 passes for 232 yards and two touchdown with zero interceptions. In doing so, he passed Deshaun Watson to have 42 touchdown passes in a single season to set an ACC record. He also ran for a 58-yard touchdown that opened the night's scoring.

Pitt got to celebrate Pickett one last time on the night when Narduzzi pulled Pickett from the game in the final minutes for a curtain call, as the fans cheered Pickett on, chanting his name, "Kenny! Kenny!"

After that, it was just a short wait until backup quarterback Nick Patti took the final kneel-downs of the game to run out the clock, and then the real celebration began:

As the Panthers continued their celebration, the ACC rolled out the stage with the conference championship trophy to present to Narduzzi and his players.

It didn't take long for Pitt to assemble around the trophy before it was officially presented to Narduzzi and he could hoist it as his team and all the fans still in attendance cheered while cannons rained white confetti on the Panthers as they began to pass around the trophy.

Teammates were hugging each other, their coaches, and their families and celebrating with Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher and Athletic Director Heather Lyke who both joined them on the field.

It was a huge payoff for Pitt fans who suffered through several letdown seasons, including last year when the Panthers lost back-to-back, one-point games on their way to finishing 7-5. But seeing their Panthers climb to 11-2 as ACC champions, singing Sweet Caroline in Charlotte along with the players and the marching band, all that pain and disappointment was put behind them.

For Narduzzi, this win made up for the disappointment of the 45-10 loss to Clemson in the 2018 ACC Championship Game, as he talked about it on the podium after the game.

"Hail to Pitt," Narduzzi said to open his postgame press conference. "Four seasons ago, I was up here shaking my head after a loss, and four years later, we're back with a chance to win it. We had No. 8, Kenny Pickett, in the house. He's something special. We have 120 players who put hard work into this with a hard week of practice."

Earlier in the week, Narduzzi posted a picture on Twitter that his daughters took of the whiteboard in Pitt's locker room after that 2018 loss. They had written “we will be back" on the board, and sent him the picture again this week to remind him of what they wrote in Bank of America Stadium three years ago.

In that same locker room, Pitt celebrated its biggest win of the Narduzzi era, and the biggest for the program arguably since its win over Georgia in the 1981 Sugar Bowl. 

That's a lot to put into perspective, but what dawned upon Narduzzi on the podium after the game was how Pickett had broken down the team after every workout, every practice and every game with the words "ACC champs," projecting to the team where they wanted to finish.

And here they were, sitting with the championship T-shirts and hats in the media room of Bank of America Stadium.

"Something that just hit me," Narduzzi said. "At the end of the game we sang our fight song in the locker room, then Kenny broke us down and said, 'ACC champs on three,' and I realized, wow, we've said that so many times. We've said that for so many years to break us down, and then it's like, wow, we actually are ACC champs. It means so much. Our fans are unbelievable and they've been unbelievable all year. They showed up in Charlotte and they'll show up wherever we go next."

Pitt's fan presence was strong in Charlotte, as even before the game the Panthers' blue and gold jerseys could be spotted across the city and vastly outnumbering Wake Forest fans. That presence was even stronger at the game as the fans remained loud, cheering on their team.

"Very special," Pickett said of Pitt's fans. "I'm very grateful for the fans during my entire career here. This win was our chance to say thank you to them and everyone who supported us. This was the goal we've been chasing since I walked through the door in 2017."

When asked to recall his curtain call, Pickett sounded awed by how Pitt fans made him feel with their appreciation.

"It's unbelievable," Pickett said when asked about his curtain call. "It's special and it's been a long road. It hasn't been like this my entire career because we've battled through adversity early on and then to finish it like this is just unbelievable. I just don't have many words for it."

For Pickett, winning wasn't just about success finally coming as a fifth-year player in the program.  It was for all the seniors who are still on the team with him after beginning their journeys with him back in 2017.

"The 2017 class has a lot of guys still here," Pickett said. "To stand on the stage with Deslin Alexandre, Cal Adomitis, Cam Bright, Damarri Mathis, Gabe Houy, Carter Warren, Owen Drexel, we all came into this program with this goal. Like coach said, we've broke down saying ACC champs so many times in workouts. To say we're going to go out and do this, and actually do it, is special."

Adding to how special it was to do it was the magnitude of Pickett's decision to return for a fifth season. 

"Honestly, yes," Pickett said when asked if he envisioned an ACC championship when he decided to return to Pitt this season. "That's why I came back. I felt strong about what I could do and the talent we had coming back. This is everything I had envisioned."

All season long, Pickett would routinely turn down opportunities to talk about any accolades he earned or records he broke, saying that was for at the end of the season and he had to focus on the next opponent. But with no opponent coming for weeks, Pickett plans to do some reflecting over what he and the Panthers have accomplished.

"Yeah, I'm going home this week," Pickett said. "And I'll be able to be with my family and kind of just take a deep breath and look back on it. I've been so focused on what we've been doing I really haven't gotten a chance to sit back and take it all in. I told myself after we hoisted the trophy up I would be able to do that with my family, and just really enjoy it. Means the world to me to be able to do that."

Pitt's big ACC Championship win guarantees the Panthers will be in a major bowl game to be determined Sunday. But that bowl game won't have any implications to the College Football Playoffs. Don't tell that to Pickett though, as he made it clear the plan is to play in a final game regardless of which bowl Pitt's picked to play.

But until then, Pitt's players, coaches and fans can celebrate a huge, dominating win that put the first exclamation point on a strong season.