Pitt alum Louis Riddick wants to see Panthers return to national prominence

When Louis Riddick was in sixth grade, he met Jackie Sherrill, and he was hooked.

In that instant — when Sherrill, then the coach at Texas A&M, was recruiting Riddick’s cousin, Tim Lewis — Riddick became a Pitt fan. Lewis chose Pitt on his way to the NFL as a first-round draft choice, and Riddick matriculated to Pitt a few years later.

Under Sherrill, Pitt put together back-to-back-to-back 11-1 seasons (1979-81) and Riddick idolized the men named Dorsett, Marino, Green and Fralic who made the program special.

When Riddick, an ESPN football analyst, returned to Pitt on Saturday to launch a Pitt clothing line with his name on it and catch up with his alma mater at the Blue Gold spring game, he spoke hopefully of Pitt returning to those days.

Under the current system of name, image and likeness legislation creating haves and have-nots in college athletics, it won’t be easy, he said.

“Not everybody is operating with the same amount of resources,” he said, “and I don’t know how that’s good for anyone. There are about 10-15 teams from an NIL perspective that have a huge amount of resources.

“Unless you have the resources to compete with them, there is, obviously, going to be a division as far as what reasonable expectations that you’re going to have. Teams like (USC), ’Bama, Clemson, Ole Miss, Penn State, Michigan, those teams are operating at a whole other level when it comes to NIL because of the money they have at their disposal.”

Where does Pitt fit in this new era?

“It bothers me from Pitt’s perspective because I want to see our school compete on a level playing field,” he said. “The playing field is not level. We all know that. None of us know where this is going.

“Relative to what we’ve become accustomed to here and what I was used to (in the 1970s and early 1980s) before I started coming here, yeah, that worries me. Of course it does.

“I’m not saying the country should feel sorry for Pittsburgh. We still have to go out there and compete, and we have to recruit, and we have to develop and we have to prove it on the football field.”

Riddick wants to see Pitt held in high regard such as it was in the previous century.

“Some people, like myself, they don’t like how Pitt is not at the forefront of everyone’s mind when we’re talking about the national picture like we used to be,” he said.

Riddick said he doesn’t know any specifics about Pitt’s NIL resources, other than, “I know enough to know they are working hard at it.”

“They are working to make sure they can remain competitive and get the kind of players here that they know they need to compete at the very highest level that they possibly can.”

Yet he said, “It truly is the wild, wild west out there.”

“How do you compete with the teams that have the resources they have now? It’s amazing what some of these schools have at their disposal. It puts many NFL teams to shame. Some of these have multiple donors who could own NFL teams themselves, and they are heavily involved in the recruitment and procurement of kids.”

When the transfer portal reopens at the conclusion of spring ball around the country, Riddick said player movement will continue.

“Some people are saying it’s going to be as crazy as you can possibly imagine, plus some,” he said. “There are going to be teams that feel as though that they are set going into the fall that they are ready to go ahead and challenge and compete. And they are going to get blown out of the water. Their team is just going to change.

“I don’t know how that necessarily is good for college football. I don’t know if that’s sustainable. I’m hoping there will be some really smart people who can get together, get their arms around this situation so it makes some sense to people.”

“It’s free agency every year.”