I was recently perusing the Reddit college football page when I stumbled across some quality trash talk by a Penn State fan who was rubbing it in the face of Pitt with another in-state verbal for the Nittany Lions. That commitment came from the No. 101 offensive tackle and No. 1,057 Composite player in the country.

Thus, a glimpse through the window of the Penn State-Pitt rivalry decline.

For one, the schools haven’t played in 15 years. I don’t wish to get into all of the politics and accusations for why that happened but the simplest excuse is that both programs’ entrance into conferences eventually led to the dormancy of the rivalry. Further, the recent history in Pennsylvania hasn’t been kind either as the once talent-rich state has seen its bounty dwindle this Century with many of the rare top recruits that become available being scooped up by the likes of Ohio State and Notre Dame.

To put that decline into perspective that No. 1,057 Composite player above is the No. 15 recruit in the state of Pennsylvania.

Making matters worse, neither the Panthers or Nittany Lions have lit the world on fire in recent campaigns. During the 1980’s these were the 7th (PSU) and 19th (UP) winningest teams in the country. Penn State held strong in the 1990’s (6th) but Pitt completely imploded dropping to 97th in win percentage. Since 2000, Pitt has improved to 43rd nationally but the Nittany Lions have dropped to 31st in winning.

Not that there’s much of a correlation but these teams stopped playing each other and a lot of mediocrity ensued for both sides. This fall, they’ll meet once again, kickoff inside Heinz Field, and next year at Happy Valley.

On the national scene this isn’t a huge game by any stretch of the imagination. However, there are some interesting regional dynamics at play that will ripple towards Notre Dame. For one, this will be a massively important game for James Franklin and his job security.

Penn State travels to Heinz Field in week 2 to kickoff a 3-game stretch that sees them also host Temple and then travel to the Big House in Ann Arbor. Losing to Pitt would be a tough pill to swallow. Falling to Temple for the second straight year might get the pitchforks good and ready. A big loss to Michigan might find Franklin praying he isn’t left at the airport on the way back to State College.

The game isn’t nearly as big for Pitt, although they opened as somewhat heavy 9-point favorites back in May. Pat Narduzzi had a nice 8-5 season in his first campaign with 4 losses to ranked teams and an impressive 6-2 ACC league showing. Mostly everyone thinks he’ll be Doing Good Things™ at Pitt for the next several years.

Still, this is also the start of a big 3-game stretch for the Panthers, too. After the rivalry game they travel to Oklahoma State and then whip back to the East Coast for a road game at North Carolina. They too, could be in danger of starting 1-3 on the season.

The best-case scenario for Notre Dame? This game turns into a slow, grind-it-out slop fest that’s an overall poor advertisement for both programs. Kind of like the last meeting! Back in 2000, the Panthers scored the game’s only touchdown, limited Penn State to 64 rushing yards, and won 12-0. I wouldn’t mind a repeat of that performance.