1976 Pittsburgh Panthers football team
| 1976 Pittsburgh Panthers football | |
|---|---|
 |
|
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Sugar Bowl, W 27–3 vs. Georgia
|
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| Conference | Independent |
| Ranking | |
| Coaches | No. 1 |
| AP | No. 1 |
| 1976 record | 12–0 |
| Head coach | Johnny Majors (4th year) |
| Offensive coordinator | Joe Avezzano (1st year) |
| Offensive scheme | Veer |
| Defensive coordinator | Bobby Roper (1st year) |
| Base defense | Basic 50 |
| Home stadium |
Pitt Stadium (Capacity: 56,500) |
The 1976 Pittsburgh Panthers football team represented the University of Pittsburgh in the 1976 NCAA Division I football season and is recognized as that season's consensus national champion. Pitt was also awarded the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy as the best Division I team in the East.
The previous season, 1975, saw Pitt win the Sun Bowl over Kansas to cap an 8-4 record highlighted by wins at Georgia and Notre Dame. The stage was thus set in 1976, with Pitt ranked 9th in the AP preseason poll, for the Panthers to make a run for the National Championship.
In the first game of the 1976 season, the Panthers faced off against Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. A year earlier, Tony Dorsett had finished with 303 yards rushing in Pitt's 34-20 victory over the Irish. "They even grew the grass high" said Carmen DeArdo, a diehard Pitt alumnus, "and everyone knew Tony would get the ball." "They didn't let that grass grow long enough," Dorsett said later. He darted 61 yards on his first run of the season and tacked on 120 more by the end of the 31-10 Pitt win.
The season continued with a 42-14 win at Georgia Tech and a 36-19 win over Miami. On October 23, the Panthers travelled to Annapolis to face Navy during which Dorsett broke the NCAA career rushing record on a 32-yard touchdown run in Pitt's 45-0 victory. Dorsett's achievement prompted a mid-game celebration in which even Navy saluted the feat with a cannon blast. Pitt won a tough, hard-fought battle against rival Syracuse.
On November 6, the number two ranked Panthers hosted Army at Pitt Stadium and won handily, but the significant action was taking place several hundred miles west, in West Lafayette, Indiana, where the Purdue Boilermakers held off the number one ranked Michigan Wolverines, 16-14, in the closing seconds. The Pitt Stadium crowd erupted in celebration when the stadium public address announcer dramatically gave the final score from Purdue. For the first time in the modern era, Panther fans could legitimately claim, "We're number one!" Pitt defended its ranking in a close Backyard Brawl against West Virginia to go 10-0 heading into the regular season finale against instate rival Penn State.
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