Pitt-SMU football series history: All-time meetings, record between Panthers, Mustangs

The ACC football game of the year to this point of the season won’t be inside the hallowed walls of Clemson’s Death Valley or in Miami, where an undefeated Hurricanes team led by a Heisman Trophy front-runner has its sights firmly fixed on a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Rather, it will be at a 32,000-seat stadium in Dallas — more than 1,000 miles from the conference’s namesake Atlantic Coast — as a program in its first season in the league hosts a team picked to finish 13 of 17 teams in the conference’s preseason poll.

Though few would have anticipated it two months ago, No. 17 Pitt’s matchup at No. 20 SMU this Saturday will come with significant conference and perhaps even national title implications. Coach Pat Narduzzi’s Panthers are 7-0 for the first time since 1982 while the Mustangs, back in a power conference for the first time in nearly 30 years, are 7-1 and undefeated in ACC play.

REQUIRED READING: ACC power rankings: Miami, Clemson continue to lead the way after Week 9

While the 2024 season marks the first time they have competed in the same conference, Pitt and SMU have a lengthy history, one featuring future Pro Football Hall of Famers and some of college football’s most accomplished figures.

As the Panthers and Mustangs prepare to face off at Gerald J. Ford Stadium, here’s a look at the all-time meetings between the two, the series record and more:

Pitt-SMU series history

Saturday’s game will be the seventh all-time matchup between Pitt and SMU in a series that dates all the way back to 1938.

It will be the first-ever game between the programs played at SMU, as the first four took place in Pittsburgh and the final two were in bowl games (though one of those bowls was in Dallas.)

The Panthers won the first-ever matchup between the teams, a 34-7 victory for what was at the time the No. 1 team in the country in what would be legendary coach Jock Sutherland’s 15th and final season at Pitt. Two years later, a 7-7 tie was one of just two blemishes on SMU’s resume in a season in which it went 8-1-1.

In the 1948 season-opener for both teams, SMU picked up its first-ever win over Pitt behind the heroics of Doak Walker, that year’s eventual Heisman Trophy winner, who caught a touchdown pass and had a 76-yard punt return for a touchdown in a 33-14 victory.

Most recently, the Panthers and Mustangs squared off in the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama at the end of the 2011 season. SMU won that contest 28-6 against a Pitt team playing under an interim coach after Todd Graham unexpectedly left after one season to become the coach at Arizona State.

REQUIRED READING: Bowl projections: Oregon jumps Georgia at No. 1, two SEC teams join College Football Playoff

Pitt-SMU series record

SMU holds a 3-2-1 all-time record against Pitt, with wins in the past three meetings between the two programs.

Here’s a look at how each of the previous six games unfolded:

• Oct. 22: 1938: Pitt 34, SMU 7

• Oct. 12, 1940: Pitt 7, SMU 7

• Oct. 3, 1942: Pitt 20, SMU 7

• Sept. 25, 1948: SMU 33, Pitt 14

• Jan. 1, 1983*: SMU 7, Pitt 3

• Jan. 7, 2012**: SMU 28, Pitt 6

* Cotton Bowl

** BBVA Compass Bowl

REQUIRED READING: The possible College Football Playoff chaos in each conference leads Week 9 overreactions

Pitt-SMU Cotton Bowl

Among the six all-time meetings between Pitt and SMU, one in particular stands out — and it just so happened to occur during the last season that the Panthers started 7-0.

In the 1983 Cotton Bowl, No. 4 SMU knocked off No. 6 Pitt 7-3 to finish off an 11-0-1 season in which it finished No. 2 in the final Associated Press rankings. To this day, it’s the Mustangs’ highest-ever end-of-season ranking.

The game wasn’t just notable for its stakes and its result, but for who played in it.

That season, SMU was led by its “Pony Express” running back tandem of Eric Dickerson and Craig James while Pitt was headlined by senior quarterback Dan Marino, who grew up in the shadow of the university’s campus. That season, Dickerson and Marino finished in the top 10 of Heisman Trophy voting, with the former third and the latter ninth. Both men later went on to NFL careers that earned them induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

For all of its offensive stars, the game didn’t feature much scoring on a 38-degree day in Dallas with 15-mile-per-hour winds. Neither team managed more than 300 total yards, with Pitt outgaining SMU 285-254. Dickerson had 27 carries for 124 yards, an average of 4.6 yards per touch, while James, his backfield mate, had 54 yards on 14 carries. Marino, meanwhile, completed 19 of his 37 passes for no touchdowns and an interception in what would be his final college game.

“Without a doubt, we showed what kind of defense we have,” SMU defensive end Russell Washington said after the game. “We shut down a national power. When was the last time you heard of Pittsburgh only scoring three points in a game?”

Indeed, it was the Panthers’ lowest scoring output in a game over Marino’s four seasons at the school.

Both teams had opportunities for more points early in the game, but squandered them. Pitt marched all the way to the SMU 1-yard line on its opening possession, but fumbled. SMU got to the Panthers’ 7-yard line on its ensuing 22-play drive, but once there, it fumbled, as well.

After a scoreless first half, Pitt broke the deadlock with a 43-yard field goal in the third quarter and maintained that lead heading into the game’s final period. With 13:43 remaining, though, Mustangs quarterback Lance McIlhenny got a 9-yard touchdown run to cap off an 11-play, 80-yard drive and put his team ahead.

Marino and the Panthers responded, using its four-receiver offense to get all the way to the SMU 7-yard line. On third down, however, a Marino pass intended for Julius Dawkins in the end zone was intercepted.

With the loss, Pitt finished 9-3 in a season it entered as the No. 1 team in the country.

“I’m disappointed,” Marino said after the game. “We deserved to win today because we played better than they did. The difference was they scored when they had to and we didn’t when we had to.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pitt-SMU football series history: All-time meetings, record