#84 Days Until Pitt Football: Tom Tumulty

If you spend any time on Twitter, you no doubt have seen people posting certain Pitt players wearing uniform numbers that correspond with the number of days left until the football season kicks off. Jim did it last year and this year, Pat Narduzzi has been doing it.

I know we have a lot of younger readers here and also some folks that may not have spent their entire lives following Pitt sports. For that reason, I thought it would be cool to not only do the countdown here, but also give a brief writeup on the player to potentially help fans connect a little more with some of the all-time greats.

Quick disclaimer - this isn't necessarily about picking the best player for each number. Not only is that disputable in many instances, but it's not really the point of the exercise. So don't be offended if your favorite player doesn't make the list here. I'll probably mirror Narduzzi's list for the most part but may go off the board in a few instances.

These will also be brief, folks. It's the offseason and we all use this time to wind down a bit. These won't be theses or anything, but we'll cobble together a few facts for each guy.

Finally, feel free to add on to a player's accomplishments in the comments section. Some I'll leave out due to space/time and some I may not even know about. But this will be a good learning exercise for all of us.

Continuing our countdown today is linebacker Tom Tumulty.

Tumulty was around for some of Pitt's leaner (okay, pretty bad) seasons in the early-mid 1990s, but was one of the standouts of those teams. Before signing with Pitt, he was a Parade All-American with offers from just about every major school, including Notre Dame, Ohio State, Florida State, Michigan State, and Penn State. In 1991, he was the Big East Rookie of the Year. His impact was felt right away as he started in his very first game as a true freshman, making the first tackle of the game in a road contest with West Virginia. He redshirted in his sophomore year with a pectoral injury, but rebounded to play well after that, playing 20 games in 1993 and 1994.

After a four-year career with the Panthers, he was taken in the sixth round of the NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals and played three seasons in the pros, starting 18 games. He retired after knee issues.

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