Commemoration of Syracuse rivalry a reminder of the tests time bring

NEW YORK -- The 79th meeting between Pitt and Syracuse has become a traditional matchup. 

In every season since 1955, the Panthers and Orange(men) have locked horns on the football field. The tests of conference and division realignment have passed by, and this series remains unaffected. Two schools separated by about 360 miles have deep history with each other and have forged a bond that seems unbreakable.

While this rivalry might not be as heated as Pitt's is with West Virginia, it can be argued the roots are just as deep. This series dates to World War I. These teams convened at Yankee Stadium for the first-ever football game in that grandiose structure 100 years and 22 days to the date of when the teams will meet on the "new" Yankee Stadium to renew the rivalry.

"There's been a lot of close games, I think it's a tough game," Pat Narduzzi said Thursday on the South Side. "I think it's physical. I do see it as a rivalry the longer I'm here, I really do. It's one of the old Big East games that was played and I do see it as a rivalry to embrace."

This rivalry always finds a way to find a way to rekindle itself. The first meeting on Oct. 21, 1916 was secured by Pitt, 30-0, and so the most-recent meeting on Nov. 5, 2022 by a 19-9 final score. Pitt has won the last five meetings and 18 of the last 21 games in this series, and Narduzzi is 7-1 in his career against the Orange.

But this game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday is about more than the rekindling of a rivalry that has stood the test of time. This will be about the 100th anniversary of that first matchup at the "house that (Babe) Ruth built." That game on Oct. 20, 1923, resulted in a 3-0 Syracuse victory. A defensive battle in an era where the forward pass was still in its infancy.

"Celebrating 100 years at Yankee Stadium playing our rival Pitt Panthers. The first game was 3-0 Syracuse, obviously a defensive battle." Syracuse coach Dino Babers said this week. "I'm sure it's going to be another defensive game in Yankee Stadium. They're a physical bunch. Pat Narduzzi does a fantastic job and we're looking forward to meeting them there."

That 1923 Pitt football team went 5-4 in the ninth and final season of Pop Warner's tenure. It averaged 9.2 points per game and allowed 5.0 points to the opposition. The Jock Sutherland era began the following season, and Sutherland became the winningest coach in program history in his 15 seasons at the helm.

(Narduzzi is second in program history with 64 wins in eight-plus seasons. Warner is third with 60 victories.)

The 1923 Syracuse team finished 8-1 under Chick Meehan. It averaged 26.3 points per game to finish 12th nationally, and their 2.1 points allowed defensively ranked fifth nationally.

The times have changed since, obviously, just as the game of college football has. Both schools were independents back then, they rekindled as members of the Big East, and both were shifted to the ACC in 2013 as part of further realignment.

And, with this new realignment process about to take place, the rivalry is going to continue.

The ACC is set to add California, Stanford, and Southern Methodist beginning in 2024, which is shifting the ACC's scheduling model. All 17 ACC teams will play each other twice over the next seven years, but certain schools were designated as "rivals" and will play each other in all seven seasons under the new model.

Guess where Pitt and Syracuse lie?

The ACC designated the schools as "annual rivals," meaning they fall into the latter. Pitt's other "rival" in this instance is Boston College, but that remains to be discussed for another day.

"I think I'm good with it," Narduzzi said. "I love playing a team over and over again. I think that's part of what makes a rivalry. You get to know who they are. It's more fun to game plan. We go back to 2016 and watch some of the plays they run, one of the plays they ran in that basketball game we played here (in a 76-61 final) they ran last week against B.C. They ran it against Western Michigan. It's the same stuff coming back out. You're like, 'here it is,' and so you're practicing the heck out of that. There's that chess match that you get when you play someone more than once or twice, so I kind of like that chess match."

Designation or not these schools always find a way back to each other. They will do so once more in the Bronx borough Saturday.