PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi raised eyebrows this week when he declined to describe the 23rd-ranked Panthers' showdown against No. 9 Notre Dame as a “must-win.”
Technically, Narduzzi was right. Pitt's only path to the College Football Playoff is by winning the ACC championship.
Notre Dame has no such wiggle room. And the Fighting Irish played like it.
Jeremiyah Love ran for 147 yards and a score, Malachi Fields hauled in a pair of touchdown passes and Notre Dame bullied the Panthers 37-15 on Saturday.
The Irish (8-2) have won eight straight following an 0-2 start. If Notre Dame can avoid being upset by Syracuse or Stanford to end the regular season, it is likely heading back to the CFP after finishing runner-up to Ohio State a year ago.
Love gave his burgeoning Heisman Trophy campaign a boost by finishing with 167 total yards, including a 56-yard sprint to the end zone in the first quarter that included a spin move seemingly lifted straight out of a video game.
The junior credited his team's cohesion for helping it grow comfortable with its back against the wall after it began the year with consecutive losses to Miami and Texas A&M.
“Everybody cares for each other,” Love said. “There’s no offense on this side of the locker room or defense on the other side. Everybody’s together at all times. I feel like that togetherness has helped us to fight through adversity.”
Not that there's been much of it over the last two months. Notre Dame's margin of victory during its current run is a healthy 25 points, with all eight games decided by double digits.
“We're getting better, but we're not perfect,” Irish coach Marcus Freeman said.
Maybe, but Notre Dame hardly needed to be on a day when the Panthers (7-3) were the ones making the majority of the mistakes.
The Panthers' rise to near the top of the ACC standings began when Mason Heintschel supplanted Eli Holstein at quarterback in early October. The true freshman's impressive start hit its first significant speed bump against an Irish defense that gave him little time or space to work.
Heintschel completed just 16 of 33 passes for 126 yards with an interception that Notre Dame's Tae Johnson zig-zagged 48 yards for a touchdown to give the Irish an early 14-0 lead they never flirted with giving away.
Notre Dame sacked Heintschel four times and safety Adon Shuler — whose bruising but clean hit on Pitt receiver Blue Hicks on the Panthers' opening drive helped set the tone — returned a 2-point conversion attempt 100-plus yards the other way to put Notre Dame up 30-9 late in the third quarter and end any remote chance of a comeback after a pick-6 by Pitt’s Rasheem Biles had briefly given the Panthers a jolt.
“He’s not a guy who gets shaken up, but I think it would shake anybody up a little bit,” Narduzzi said of the pressure Heintschel faced. “You start to go, ‘OK, I’ve got to get the heck out of here.’ Give them credit, they’ve got a good front seven, as talented as any you’re going to face in the country.”
Notre Dame seemed to have a significant size advantage at nearly every position, perhaps nowhere more so than at wide receiver, where 6-foot-4 Malachi Fields caught seven passes for 99 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Yet neither score — not even his leaping 25-yard grab at the goalline late in the first half that put Notre Dame up 18 — compared to the diving one-handed snag Fields made at midfield in the first quarter that left his teammates in awe.
“Crazy,” Love said. “I don't even think Malachi thought he was going to catch that ball.”
Notre Dame: The Irish seem to be getting better with each passing week. Save for some questionable play-calling — Notre Dame turned it over on downs at the Pitt 1 in the first half when the Irish opted to have Carr pass rather than hand the ball to the best running back in the country — this one was never in doubt. The Irish will hold steady at worst in the CFP rankings and could tick up a spot or two.
Pitt: The Panthers still have a shot at reaching the ACC title game if they can beat No. 14 Georgia Tech and No. 16 Miami to end the regular season. Still, they were decidedly outclassed by the Irish, who outgained the Panthers 387-219 and pushed them around on a day Pitt retired the No. 97 jersey of former defensive lineman and likely future Pro Football Hall of Famer Aaron Donald.
“Everything's still ahead of us," Heintschel said.
Notre Dame: Hosts the Orange next Saturday.
Pitt: Will try to be the Yellow Jackets for a fourth straight time on the road next Saturday.
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Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love (4) gets past Pittsburgh defensive back Kavir Bains (23) en route to a 65-yard touchdown run during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Pittsburgh, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love (4) gets past Pittsburgh linebacker Kyle Louis (9) en route to a 65-yard touchdown run during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Pittsburgh, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In December, Stephen Curry made a conscious effort to smile before he coolly converted two free throws with 12 seconds left that helped seal a 119-116 win against Phoenix.
He seemed calm. He wasn’t — saying so afterward. Sometimes, even Curry’s nerves kick in when the game is on the line, even 17 years into his NBA career and now at 38 years old.
“That’s more mental warfare for me to just enjoy the moment,” Curry said at the time. “I don’t care how many free throws you’ve made, when you need two of them, you do get nervous, so the smile is more to kind of embrace the moment and enjoy it instead of overthinking or worrying about mechanics or anything. So I’ve been doing that a lot lately, like last couple years, just playing mind games with myself and enjoying the moment.”
Other professionals find some comfort in Curry acknowledging his angst and anxieties, being he’s one of the best in basketball and still has to work through things -- even in real time. It's relatively new for athletes to even be talking publicly about nerves, given the more open dialogue in recent years about the importance of mental health and seeking help through various struggles.
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, whose club has won the past two World Series titles, happened to be in the stands at Chase Center to see Curry make those free throws on Dec. 20.
Roberts has witnessed so many of his own players deliver for the Dodgers in crucial moments on the big October playoff stage.
“I think that’s telling that Steph would say that and there is an innate fear in people to fail in big spots or to be nervous. I think it’s just important to admit it at times and then kind of move on from there,” Roberts said this spring. “We were talking about it a couple days ago, those moments I think you mitigate the fear or the nerves from preparedness. I think Steph has shot so many free throws when he’s tired in big spots, so to admit that he’s nervous, he knows at the end of the day that he’s prepared for that spot. Most of our guys, we talk about that a lot, so I think that’s how they can get past that fear or nerve hurdle.”
Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan polled his players earlier this season whether they considered a free throw with one second left in a tie game the same as one in the first quarter of a tie game. The answer was a resounding no.
“I said, ‘Why is it different?’ and they explained all the consequences of what would happen, but the reality is it’s still the same exact shot it is in the first quarter or the second quarter,” Donovan said. “And I find that guys in those moments have the ability to block out the consequences or what the ramifications are and really lock in to what they can control and the routine. The basket’s still 15 feet away, it’s still 10 feet high. And just because the circumstances may be different, the routine should be exactly the same.”
When it comes to the nerve factor, mental performance coach Graham Betchart suggests one trick in the moment can somehow transform those fears of failure into something positive instead.
“The biggest surprise to most people is that great pro athletes have the same feeling that a kid has, they just reframe it,” Betchart said. “I remember one of the first pros I worked with, I said, ‘What’s pressure like for you?’ He said, ‘Graham, what you call pressure, I call joy.’ I said, ‘What does joy feel like?’ He said, ‘Joy feels like I’m going to pee in my pants, 10,000 butterflies in my stomach, heart is pounding, self doubt everywhere.’ I said, ‘That’s joy?’ He said, ’Yeah, ‘cause when I feel that I’m about to go do what I love, which is play ball.’ So we call that reframing. I think this is one of the biggest unlocks in the entire world.”
Hall of Famer Jason Kidd, the Dallas Mavericks coach who played 19 NBA seasons and was a 10-time All-Star and 1994-95 Rookie of the Year, realizes sometimes fans might forget professional athletes are people, too.
And becoming fearful is a natural response to stress.
“It is healthy. I think that just lets everyone know you’re human. Steph is human,” Kidd said. “There are feelings and emotions but I don’t know if he gets nervous. Free throws are like layups for him, like 2-foot putts. But it’s also great that he is open to sharing that about his feelings, that’s pretty cool.”
Each day, Warriors guard De’Anthony Melton aims to make 10 free throws in a row. That way, when he gets into a game situation he tells himself the same thing: “Whatever happens, happens, you’ve just got to live with the results, but sometimes getting to the free-throw line can help you get into a rhythm and get your shot going, too.”
Coaches have their moments, too. Doc Rivers doesn’t always trust himself to make the right call in crunch time.
“There’s nerves with everything. I can draw up a play as a coach and I know it’s a good play, but I’m nervous if we’re going to run it right or is it going to work. As a player, I was an 80-percent free-throw shooter, but it’s still there. That’s why you breathe deep and that’s where routine comes in. The more you do the routine, the more it becomes normal. But there’s nothing normal in life when you’re shooting a free throw and there’s 20,000 people screaming to make you miss, that’s not normal in life. So you have to breathe your way through it.”
Athletics pitcher Luis Severino spent the first nine years of his major league career in New York between the Yankees and Mets. That brought its own pressure, so the days he felt off on the mound, the nerves were worse.
“I think it’s more of how you’re feeling that day. If Stephen Curry is feeling like he always feels, there’s nothing to worry about,” Severino said, chuckling. “If that day I’m feeling good, I have nothing to worry about. If I’m struggling with command and or a pitch, not commanding my breaking balls, I will get a little bit nervous, but if I’m good that day I have nothing to worry about.”
San Francisco Giants shortstop Willy Adames appreciated hearing that Curry, too, fights nerves in crucial moments.
“I think it’s a great thing, I think it’s something that you have to embrace and know that it’s OK to feel it,” Adames said. “I always try to tell myself, ’if you feel a little nervous or a little anxious, just embrace it like it’s OK, it’s OK to feel it. But just know that you’ve got to take a deep breath and try to make sure that you’re under control.”
Betchart believes that pros speaking of their nerves will help others learn ways to better cope. Working with members of the Army who told him they're fearless, he learned they do actually experience fear but embrace that as being part of the job.
“They're not fearless, they feel the fear, and then they lean into it,” he said. “So it's really a power of vulnerability, it's a victory of the vulnerable.”
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FILE - Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan reacts during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Golden State Warriors, March 10, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)
FILE - Athletics pitcher Luis Severino delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, in Pittsburgh, Sept. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
FILE - Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd looks on before being ejected during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls, Jan. 10, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty, File)
FILE - Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, left, waves as manager Dave Roberts waits before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch and receiving his ring during a World Series ring ceremony prior to a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Friday, March 27, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
FILE - Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry looks down during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks, in Dallas, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
