Think about the necessary components that make up the great teams in college football in today's world.
Recruitment of talent nation-wide. Laying a foundation upon speed at all of the important positions. Gaining booster interest by the day. Having the appropriate backing from the school's athletic department to make the machine spin.
From the early-1960s and up until 1973, Pitt's football program was simply behind in these departments and, as a result, was falling behind among national powerhouses, especially as an independent program.
That all changed with the hiring of Johnny Majors.
Nearly 50 years later, his influence will be felt as Pitt and Tennessee once again meet in a game bearing his namesake.
Before we get there, let's rewind to the winter of 1972.
Sam Sciullo Sr., Bob Miller, athletic director Cas Myslinski, and Johnny and Joe Majors -- Johnny's brother and lawyer -- convened at Sciullo's house on New Year's Eve and settled on the details of his contract, after a hiring process which included looks at Arizona State's Frank Kush and North Carolina athletic director Homer Rice.
Majors was among the bunch of first recommendations to replace Carl DePasqua, who had a losing record in three of his four years as Pitt's coach, including a disastrous 1-10 in 1972.
As it goes, nothing came of Kush's candidacy, and Rice was never truly interested in the position, leaving Majors as the last man standing among the first batch of candidates recommended by Miller.
A former All-American running back at Tennessee, the now-head coach Majors had just resurrected an Iowa State program over a five-year period, which had included a pair of bowl appearances and a No. 12 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 poll in 1972.
But, Majors had opportunity at Pitt. That came with the opportunity to make its own schedule as an independent, gain an increase in pay, and continue to establish himself in the college football world.
The rest, as they say, is history.
"Pitt needed someone such as Johnny Majors," recalled Sam Sciullo Jr., the son of Sam Sciullo Sr. and a Pitt historian who authored the book "Golden Panthers: Pitt’s Ten-Year Affair with Football Prominence (1973–1982)," in an interview with DK Pittsburgh Sports.
"Pitt's football program was at death's door. There was very little interest. In the old Pittsburgh Press, the story of his hiring was below the fold in the sports section. I remember it was in the lower right. There weren't that many people interested in Pitt football at the time."
What Johnny Majors turned out to be was a transformative hire, not just from the standpoint of wins and losses, but of how Pitt's football program would be perceived and how it would operate throughout time.
Majors wasn't "ahead of his time" in the sense of bringing something totally new to the forefront, but he was in such ways that brought something to Pitt's program that it had never internally experienced.
"People know who Pitt is, and they've known it for a long time, and they know now that we're here to stay, and play, and to win," Majors said after Pitt's victory in the 1975 Sun Bowl.
When Majors was hired, everything changed. His background from the Southeastern Conference brought a Southern influence to a Northern team. All of what was mentioned above -- recruiting, the style of play, the booster interest, and the appropriate athletic department backing -- changed in an instant.
That also came with the resources allotted to him. He lobbied for more scholarships, and university Chancellor Wesley W. Posvar obliged.
Majors not only turned Pitt into a winning program in a span of five years, but he left the blueprint for continued success for the next 20 years, and especially following Majors' tenure, which gave way to Jackie Sherrill.
Carried by Tony Dorsett, Majors and the Panthers claimed the program's first unbeaten season since Jock Sutherland's 1937 team went 9-0-1, and it culminated with a victory in the Sugar Bowl, a National Championship, and a No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 in 1976.
As Majors said after watching Dorsett in a high school all-star game: "Yahoo! We got a tailback!"
From 1973 through 1992, Pitt had just three losing seasons. Majors began the program's historic run by improving upon the team's record in each season he coached, and it all came to a climax in 1976.
"I think the main thing was just the whole attitude, and what was different was that, before he came here, so many of Pitt's coaches were guy from Northeast and maybe assistant coaches, a lot of them, were 'Pitt men,' so to speak," Sciullo Jr. said. "He brought an entirely different culture. In a way, you could say he brought a Southeastern Conference approach to Pitt, which was totally different.
"Pitt never had coaches with Southern accents and, also what that did is, because he had coaches from so many different places who had contacts all over the country, it enabled Pitt to broaden its recruiting scope tremendously. So, in terms of bringing in personnel, I.E. players, that was a very important thing. That first class he recruited here had players from 12 different states."
He brought energetic and enthusiastic assistants along and, with this new philosophy, was able to rake in top recruits, namely Dorsett.
"He was a consummate salesman," Sciullo Jr. said. "He was a politician. He knew how to cultivate people, he knew what to say to people. He was a very self-aware person. He was cognizant of how people perceived and saw him, and he was always trying to promote himself and Pitt simultaneously, which he did."
Fast-forward to the present day, and his indelible mark still resonates within Pitt's program, especially with Panthers offensive line coach Dave Borbely.
Borbely was a graduate assistant under the head coach Majors in 1984 and 1985 at Tennessee. In 1985, the Volunteers achieved a 9-1-2 record, a No. 4 ranking in the AP poll, and earned a Sugar Bowl victory over Miami.
"Coach Majors was all business, he was all football, and the thing he always preached to us as graduate assistants was enthusiasm, fundamentals, and the kicking game," Borbely said. "I think he's famous for that, and he didn't just say that. He truly believed in that. I loved working for him."
If there isn't a coach that needs a pep talk on enthusiasm, it's certainly Pat Narduzzi.
"I had a great relationship with him," Narduzzi said. "He was just a special guy. Just a great personality. Probably met him 25 times. He was always around. He came to a lot of games. ... Some special moments we've had with Johnny Majors, and he's special."
Majors was as much of a rock star at Tennessee as he was at Pitt, going 116-62-8 and earning a 7-4 record in bowl appearances in his 16 seasons at the helm. The Johnny Majors Classic, which is set to renew on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Acrisure Stadium, is less about playing a rivalry game and is more about remembering the legacy he left at each school. The Panthers are 3-0 all-time against Tennessee, which includes last year's 41-34 win in Knoxville.
"Awesome opportunity to recognize coach Majors and what he did for both programs, but in particular here at Tennessee," Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel said. "His years here as a player, as a coach, the impact that he has had, and legacy that he has left on our program is something that we still see and feel today."
Now... on to Saturday's matchup.
THE ESSENTIALS
■ Who: No. 24 Tennessee (1-0) at No. 17 Pitt (1-0)
■ When: 3:30 p.m. Saturday
■ Where: Acrisure Stadium
■ Weather: Mostly cloudy, 78°, 10% chance of rain, 6 mph. wind
■ TV: ABC (WTAE-TV)
■ TV broadcasters: Sean McDonough (play-by-play), Todd Blackledge (analyst), Molly McGrath (reporter)
■ Radio: 93.7 The Fan, 92.1 WPTS-FM (Pitt student broadcast)
■ The Fan broadcasters: Bill Hillgrove (play-by-play), Pat Bostick (analyst), Larry Richert (reporter), Dorin Dickerson (reporter)
■ Streaming: ESPN App
■ Satellite: SiriusXM 106 or 193, SXM app channel 955
■ Media notes: Tennessee / Pitt
■ Live stats
TEN TO WATCH
■ #2 Israel Abanikanda -- If Rodney Hammond Jr. misses Saturday's game, expect Abanikanda to earn the lion's share of carries at running back. Hammond doubled Abanikanda's carries, 16-8, in the Backyard Brawl.
■ #6 John Morgan -- Morgan was an absolute force on the defensive line in the Brawl, especially after Deslin Alexandre left the game early with an injury. He will be vital in containing the Volunteers' athletic quarterback Hendon Hooker.
■ #7 SirVocea Dennis -- Speaking of which, the single-most important Pitt defender in containing Hooker should be Dennis.
■ #9 Kedon Slovis -- Pitt's QB1 threw for more than 300 yards in the Brawl and, most importantly, didn't turn the ball over. That turnover figure staying at zero will be key.
■ #14 Konata Mumpfield -- Pitt's leader in receiving targets in the Brawl, who already has a strong connection with Slovis and made two clutch catches for the Panthers in their final offensive drive, which tied the game ahead of M.J. Devonshire's game-defining pick-six.
■ #22 Vincent Davis -- Davis did not receive a carry in the Brawl. Does that change, regardless of Hammond's status?
■ #57 Gabe Houy -- This is more of a "watch the right tackle position" as Houy missed the Brawl. Matt Goncalves or Branson Taylor -- or a rotation of both -- would see the field if Houy can't go.
■ #86 Gavin Bartholomew -- Pitt's tight end registered just one catch in the Brawl, albeit a clutch diving catch on Pitt's final offensive drive. Does he see more action in the receiving game?
■ #90 Ben Sauls -- Pitt's place-kicker, who edged Sam Scarton in training camp for the job, converted all five extra points and his lone field goal attempt in the Brawl.
■ #94 Sam Vander Haar -- Narduzzi spoke this week of Vander Haar cleaning up his punting technique after West Virginia blocked a punt deep in Pitt territory in the Brawl. The Australian typically kicks in that style, with receiving the snap and taking a few steps before getting the punt off. On the blocked punt, he took a few steps too many.
"If you go back and watch every one of his punts -- I think there's six of them -- two of them, he takes five steps and then a punt," Narduzzi said. "The other ones he kicked, he took three steps. He's been told to take three steps and punt the ball. There's a thing called 'artificial hang time' that you like to get.
"The longer you can hold on to the ball and give our gunners a chance to get down the field -- we feel pretty good with our gunners and the guys running down the field -- but he's supposed to take three steps. The one he dropped at the 3-yard line, he took six steps to his left, really five steps and a swing leg, which is a sixth, which gets you blocked and causes problems. Again, on that block, the protection wasn't as good. We can clean up some things there. But he needs to get the ball off."
