Pat Narduzzi set the tone last Monday. His claims that he didn't care if Pitt lost to Notre Dame were strange then. They were stranger after the Irish dismantled his Panthers and ended their hopes for an at-large bid to the College Football Playoffs.
While Jeremiyah Love said after the ND win that Narduzzi's comments weren't a motivator to him, he thought some teammates might have used the words as "bulletin board material." What Love was sure of was that Pitt didn't really respect Notre Dame, and they should have.
"Me personally," Love said after the 37-15 win. "I feel like there was a little bit, I feel like they didn't respect us. They didn't really talk about how aggressive we were as a team. They didn't really talk about how much we were basically just dominators."
Jeremiyah Love says Notre Dame wasn't respected by Pitt
"It was kind of a little bit disrespectful. They had a lack of respect for us. I really couldn't care less what anyone else is doing. I'm still learning, I think."
"But looking back, it was a little bit of lack of respect."
Love wasn't the only member of the Irish to be glad to beat Pitt and move on. Head coach Marcus Freeman showed he didn't have a lot of love lost for Narduzzi when the two men met at midfield for the post-game handshake.
Narduzzi went in for a bro hug, and Freeman quickly shook his hand, then shook the Pitt coach off and ran back to his sideline and locker room. It's clear the Irish head coach was tired of the theatrics and the antics and was ready to get back to chasing the National Title.
Jeremiyah Love, who once again made a case for the Heisman, didn't let whatever Pitt was doing get in his way. Notre Dame is now 8-2 and looks like a shoo-in for the College Football Playoffs as long as they win out. Then Pittsburgh may respect them.