It’s hard to say if the Pitt Panthers won one for Coach Pat Narduzzi, or for absent broadcaster Bill Hillgrove, but win they did last night in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit, 34-30 over Eastern Michigan.
Pitt players were punched and spat upon, but kept their cool in critical moments to win a bowl game for the first time in five appearances under coach Narduzzi. Kenny Pickett threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Taysir Mack, who made a falling, one-handed catch with 47 seconds left for the winning score. After taking its first lead of the game in the final minute, the Pitt defense forced the Eagles to turn it over on downs from its 40 to seal the Panthers’ first bowl victory since winning the same bowl game six years ago.
Eastern Michigan quarterback Mike Glass was ejected with ten seconds left after throwing punches at two players and inadvertently grazing an official who was trying keep players separated. Eagles cornerback Kevin McGill was ejected earlier for unsportsmanlike conduct for spitting on a Panthers player.
Pickett completed 27 of 39 passes for 361 yards and three scores, including a school-record 96-yard TD pass to Maurice Ffrench that tied the game in the second quarter. Ffrench finished with 12 catches for 165 yards and broke Larry Fitzgerald’s single-season Panthers record of 92 receptions, set in 2003.
Play-by-play man Bill Hillgrove missed the game because of back surgery. Larry Richert handled the broadcast on the Pitt Football Network. Rob King will take the microphone for Sunday’s Steelers’ game at Baltimore, and Jeff Hathorn will lead Pitt’s basketball broadcasts until Hillgrove returns.
