The ACC Coastal Division is always up in the air, and this year is going to be no exception. With so many home games lined up at the end of the campaign, the Pittsburgh Panthers might be able to go on a late-season tear with a little bit of luck.
2015 SCHEDULE
9/5: vs. Youngstown State
9/12: at Akron
9/19: at Iowa
10/3: at Virginia Tech
10/10: vs. Virginia
10/17: at Georgia Tech
10/24: at Syracuse
10/29: vs. North Carolina
11/7: vs. Notre Dame
11/14: at Duke
11/21: vs. Louisville
11/27: vs. Miami
It's amazing to think that a major conference team like Pittsburgh is going to play just one home game against an FBS team until the last week of October. The Panthers play six road games this year, but if they can get through October 24 at 5-2 or so, they'll definitely be in play for the ACC Coastal Division title and will certainly end up in a bowl game.
SEASON WIN TOTAL
Bowl eligibility is the cut line for the Panthers in terms of their season win total. If you just want to go game by game and place lines on them, you'll be hard-pressed to find too many after Week 2 in which Pitt would be favored. A home game against Virginia will probably be amongst them, but aside from that, there isn't a lot here to work with.
However, most of these games are going to be of the competitive variety, somewhere between -7 and +7 either way.
OFFENSIVE OUTLOOK
You probably don't realize this, but the ACC's Offensive Player of the Year last season wasn't Jameis Winston. Instead, it was James Conner, who ran for 1,765 yards and 26 TDs.
Tyler Boyd looked great in spite of the fact that he didn't have a legitimate quarterback throwing him the football all year, and his 78 catches, 1,261 yards and eight scores proved to be huge, and he can be again this year as well.
The question is whether Chad Voytik is going to prove to be a legitimate quarterback or not. New coach Pat Narduzzi doesn't really have much of a choice; Voytik is the only QB on this team with any experience whatsoever. He wasn’t asked to do much last year, throwing the ball a pedestrian 287 times, but he'll have to do better than 16 TDs and seven picks this season.
DEFENSIVE OUTLOOK
You're not going to find a lot of names on this Pittsburgh defense. Bam Bradley and Nicholas Grigsby could make great linebackers in Narduzzi's new attacking defensive system, while Lafayette Pitts is a four-year starter in the secondary who will captain this year.
It's all about Narduzzi and new DC Josh Conklin, though. These two men should both bring a lot of ferociousness to this Pittsburgh defense, and that mean streak might fluster a lot of young quarterbacks in the ACC.
SEASON PREDICTION
We're higher on Pitt than most are this year, as we think this could be a nine-win team in the ACC, especially without having to deal with Florida State or Clemson out of the Atlantic Division.
Conner and Boyd both have All-American potential, and Conner is even a bit of a dark horse to win the Heisman Trophy at 60 to 1.
Still, you could find better things to do with your money than to bet on Chad Voytik to win the National Championship, even if the price is 600 to 1 on the Panthers to do so.
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