Many college football fans are accustom to coaches downplaying the significance of rankings. Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi, however, is vocally unhappy about the Panthers’ preseason snub from the preseason Associated Press Top 25 after going 8-5 with a bowl win in 2019.

Jerry DiPaola of Trib Total Media shares that Narduzzi semi-jokingly threatened to no longer send him the Zoom link after learning he was an AP voter and asked, “Are you kidding me, Jerry?” about the preseason poll.

“You do have a pretty good defense coming back with some pretty good players,” Narduzzi said making his case for Pitt as a Top 25 teams. “Jerry talked about losing Jaylen. That’s one guy. Last year, we lost (Rashad) Weaver and (Keyshon) Camp. Knock on wood, we don’t lose anybody else.”

Per DiPaola, Narduzzi didn’t specify where he believes Pitt deserved to be ranked.

“I’ll take our quarterback (Kenny Pickett, approaching his third season as a starter) any single day, and I like the football team we got,” Narduzzi said.

Narduzzi may be focusing on the ranking snub to motivate his players.

“I would hope they play with a chip,” the coach said.

If only we could get Pitt to play Kentucky.