WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The ACC Coastal Division Title and a spot in the ACC Title game is at stake Saturday when Pitt travels to Winston-Salem, N.C., to take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
(Photo by Paul Burdick. Check out more of Burdick’s work here)
A victory by the Panthers would secure the school’s first ACC Divisional Championship and would pit the Panthers against Clemson in the ACC Title Game Dec. 1 in Charlotte.
Watch Pat Narduzzi’s weekly media conference. Video courtesy of Pitt UPMC LiveWire.
Pitt (6-4 overall, 5-1 ACC) has won three in a row after rolling past Virginia Tech, 52-22, last week. The Panthers are looking for their first four-game win streak since October 2015.
Wake Forest (5-5, 2-4) is coming off a last-minute 27-23 win at North Carolina State last week on a Thursday night game. The Demon Deacons erased a 10-point deficit in the final period to upend the Wolfpack, who entered the game ranked No. 22.
This is the first meeting between Pitt and Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons are the only ACC team the Panthers have not played since joining the conference for the 2013 season. Since beginning ACC competition in 2013, the Panthers are 8-3 all-time against members of the Atlantic Division.
The Panthers’ winning streak has been fueled by a powerful rushing attack. Over the past three games, Pitt is averaging an incredible 410 rushing yards per game.
For the season, Pitt is churning out 256.9 yards per contest on the ground. That average ranks 10th nationally and second in the ACC (trailing only Georgia Tech’s spread-option attack). Pitt is producing at its highest rate on the ground since the Tony Dorsett era of the 1970s. The Panthers’ average of 256.9 rushing yards per game is their highest since the 1976 national championship season. That year, the Heisman-winning Dorsett powered a run game that averaged 290.5 yards per contest.
The Panthers boast a formidable senior tailback tandem in Qadree Ollison and Darrin Hall. Pitt has never had two 1,000-yard rushers in the same season but Ollison (1,054) and Hall (844) are on the cusp of that historic first.
A pair of Wake Forest players earned awards after last week’s win.
Quarterback Jamie Newman was one of eight college quarterbacks named to the Manning Awards Stars of the Week list and safety Cameron Glenn received the ACC Defensive Back of the Week award.
Newman, a 6-4, 235-pound redshirt sophomore from Graham, N.C., made his first career start in Wake Forest’s 27-23 win at No. 14 NC State. Newman completed 22 of 33 passes for 297 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Most importantly, Newman took control of the Wake Forest offense at its own 20 with 1:39 to play in the game, trailing 23-20. Newman completed five of seven passes for 80 yards on the drive including a game-winning 32-yard scoring pass to tight end Jack Freudenthal. After starting the game one of four passing in the first quarter, Newman went 16 of 22 for 227 yards and three touchdowns in the second half.
Newman posted a 172.27 passing efficiency rating vs. NC State. It is the highest efficiency rating for a Wake Forest quarterback making his first career start since Norm Snead had a 203.33 rating in his first career start vs. Maryland in 1958.
Glenn, a 6-2, 205-pound senior safety from Stone Mountain, Ga. (Stephenson), had 11 tackles (seven solo, four assists) in Wake Forest’s 27-23 win over No. 14 NC State.
Glenn, who had six career tackles for loss entering the game, had a career-best four TFLs vs. the Wolfpack. That ties as the most TFLs in a single game by an ACC player in 2018 and the most by any ACC player this past weekend. In addition, Glenn had his first career sack and two pass break-ups vs. the Wolfpack. Glenn helped Wake Forest’s defense hold NC State to just 47 yards rushing, 103 yards below the Wolfpack’s average in ACC games this season.
SERIES NOTES
This is the first-ever meeting between Pitt and Wake Forest…since Pitt joined the ACC in 2013, Wake Forest is the only conference member the Panthers are yet to play in football … Pitt annually plays two members of the Atlantic Division: permanent crossover rival Syracuse and a rotating opponent … the Panthers are 8-3 all-time against Atlantic Division foes … in ACC play, the Panthers are 5-1 against Syracuse and 1-0 against Boston College, Clemson and Louisville … Pitt is 0-1 against Florida State and NC State.
