Pitt Athletics has experienced a phenomenal 2024 campaign so far, with several teams climbing to the top of national rankings, but it hasn’t always played out this way.
The school has seen its fair share of spine-chilling seasons, resulting in several frightening comments from coaches and athletes. If you’re looking for a good scare this Halloween, look no further than some of Pitt’s past press conferences.
No one was more frightened this past year than women’s basketball head coach Tory Verdi, and he didn’t hide it either. The team is left haunted by its performance last season (8-24, 2-16 ACC), and Verdi can’t seem to shake it.
In the ACC Women’s Basketball Media Day Tip-Off interviews, Verdi was asked to recount some positives and negatives of rebuilding the program.
“It’s kind of like PTSD right now,” Verdi said. “My wife says to me all the time, ‘Why are you doing this again?’”
Perhaps Verdi is looking for another good spook this season, or maybe women’s basketball will find its rhythm and Verdi can avoid another eldritch season.
Verdi’s terror was palpable throughout the 2023 season. After a brutal 58-84 loss against Boston College to close out the regular season, Verdi went so far as to console fans for having to watch the game at all, delivering a chilling post-game press conference.
“I would like to apologize to every little kid, every little girl who dreams of, you know, to play at this level and to see that,” Verdi said. “It’s not okay.”
Verdi isn’t the only Pitt coach to eerily shock a press conference. After football’s underwhelming 2023 performance (3-9, 2-6 ACC), fans were terrified of where the current season was headed. As a result, head coach Pat Narduzzi has had his fair share of fearsome press conferences.
Narduzzi received some hate for keeping redshirt senior quarterback Phil Jurkovec under center. In a pre-game interview before facing No. 17 North Carolina, Narduzzi commented on Pittsburgh fans, much to their dismay.
“We’re in boo city… Boo city, PA,” Narduzzi said. “If that’s what they want to do, that’s great.”
Despite the foreboding press conference, Pitt fans were unfazed by Narduzzi’s sentiment. Evidently, that is what Panthers’ fans wanted to do — and when they lost to UNC 24-41, fans booed again.
Before the final pick, an honorable mention goes to a live game reaction rather than a press conference. In a 2022 football game against Miami, defensive lineman Devin Danielson experienced some heated frustration mid-game — despite his team leading by 26 points.
When he walked down the sideline, the 6-foot-2, 300-pound senior smashed his helmet against his head three times. The players on the bench were the most frightened, giving the cameras a shot of their utter horror at the scene.
This wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, either, according to a Pittsburgh staffer.
“This isn’t the first time he’s done that,” the staffer said. “He’s crazy.”
Finally, the press conference interview that generated the biggest quantifiable scare occurred after the Backyard Brawl in September. After a heated game filled with Panthers’ penalties, Pitt won 38-34. In a postgame live broadcast interview, Narduzzi shared his thoughts on the game’s officials.
“Some of the calls we got … I’ve never seen anything like it,” Narduzzi said. “We beat West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl and we beat the officials too in one game.”
This quote may have spooked the ACC the most because Narduzzi was fined $5,000 from the conference for the comment.
These are the spookiest press conferences for now, but with fall sports concluding and the winter season starting up, another frightening press conference might be looming just around the corner.