What Did Pat Narduzzi Say Thursday Ahead of Pitt's ACC Opener?
PITTSBURGH — Pitt football head coach spoke for over 15 minutes on Thursday with the media ahead of the Panthers’ ACC opener against Louisville.
Here are some of the key quotes from Narduzzi’s final briefing before Pitt football’s Saturday matchup:
— Opening statement: “We had a great week of practice. I’m excited to watch our guys go out and play. Obviously, we were tested a week ago. We had a great week off, or an open week, which we really didn’t have off, went out pads both days. Got a lot of good work done and fixed some things that we needed to get fixed. We’ve had a great week of practice.”
— On if losing sooner provides any benefit than waiting until the eighth game like last season: “I think so. I think you get on that high of a seven game win streak, and you think you’re invincible, and then you don’t get it back, even though we played some really good football, like we did last week. Besides the execution, it was a ball game, and you guys probably enjoyed it, overtime game and all that, but we wanna get the win. I think it’s good to get hit in the mouth early, non-conference game, huge. Obviously, we get into the ACC play, we know those are the ones that count.”
— On how Narduzzi feels about the Pitt run game after two weeks off: “I feel good every week. I feel good week in, week out. We gotta go out and produce tomorrow, or Saturday, I should say. But we gotta go produce, so I’ll let you know after the game if I feel good. But we practice the same every week, and so we’ll see how we execute.”
— On the challenge Louisville brings in the run game: “You love the challenge. They got great tailbacks. They got three of them that are really productive. Brohm does a great job in the run game. You said we were great till the end. No, we weren’t great the whole game, so we weren’t good the entire game. I didn’t like how we fit. I didn’t like how we executed on defense. That’s not what we look like, even though they had 60 rushes. Our goal is to give up 3.3 per rush, and I think we gave up 3.8 per rush. There was some plays that shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t have got to that. We shouldn’t let it happen. We gotta make them one dimensional. We let them be two dimensional the entire game, and that’s a problem.”
— On Louisville coach Jeff Brohm’s reputation and what he brings: “Yeah, I think he’s an excellent football coach, and he’s had success wherever he was. Western Kentucky, Purdue, back at Louisville. Had great results when he was there with Petrino at Louisville back years ago, when we played him. I just think he has a system that he believes in, and I think it works. I think he does a great job with quarterbacks.He’s a quarterback whisperer, and I just got a ton of respect for what he does on offense.”
— On Louisville quarterback Miller Moss: “I think he’s an accurate passer. I think he’s relaxed. He’s a veteran guy that’s played a lot of football, so I think that’s what stands out. An away game is not gonna surprise him. He’s been there. He’s an older guy, and he’s a veteran.”
— On getting Pitt skill players touches early in the game: “We’re always trying to get our playmakers touches. You’re looking at Kenny, Kenny’s gotta get the ball. Poppi’s gotta get the ball. Des has obviously gotta get the ball. You’re mixing it up. You got different plays for different guys, but those are plays that you have. It’s not like these explosive plays that you’re setting up and trying to have big, explosive plays every series that you go in, but it all depends on what the coverage is, so there’s plays for everybody.”
— On if opposing defenses have locked in on one Pitt receiver over another: “Not really, I don’t think you can do that. I don’t think you really can do that against us. With all the shifting and motion we do, I think they got respect for really all three of our guys out there. I think, and throw Deuce in there as well. Deuce, in my opinion, he’s a starter, and I think they got respect for all of them.”
— On working with Kenny Johnson on capitalizing on opportunities: “Yeah, that comes down to protection and making sure we get the ball to him. There’s been times he’s been open if you go back and watch the tape, so we just gotta get it to him.”
— On Pitt wide receiver Blue Hicks’s emotions playing against his former team in Louisville: “No, I hope his mind is on what he’s gotta do. It comes down to – where you play in the past doesn’t matter. I’m sure it’ll be an emotional game for him, but you don’t want to get too emotional. I think we gotta stay in our lane. Blue’s just gotta worry about what Blue has to do. You can have fun after the game.”
— On the Pitt defensive tackle play through three games: “I think we’ve been pretty solid in it. When you talk about the run game, I have not been disappointed with what they’ve done in there. Nick James continues to play to high level. I’ve been really, really impressed with the way he practices every day. He’s getting better every week. Then you got Francis and obviously, Sean Fitzsimmons and Ghost gives us different stuff. He’s got a high motor. I love how he plays as well.”
— On getting pressure from DTs opening up plays for other defenders: “Yeah, if you can put pressure, at least squeeze the pocket. There’s no Aaron Donald out there. There’s no Calijah Kancey right now that I can speak of, but by the end of the year, maybe we do have one of those. Those elite guys like that are hard to find. Nick James had a great week pass rush. He just seems to play up as the season goes on. I’m really happy with what he’s done. Iff we can get pressure out of our d-linemen, that’s a bonus. The big thing is when you got edge rushers, we gotta push the pocket. The d-line can’t be sitting at the line of scrimmage and the d-ends up in the field and you leave lanes between those two where a quarterback can step up and scramble.”
— On assessment of the Pitt safety room: “Cruce has played really well. He can make more plays. Javon’s got a tough job, him and Kavir out there to the field, Bains, that is. But they got a tough job, I think they’ve done a solid job.I think, I’ve been happy with what they played. There’s a couple, there’s the plays, going in, we didn’t play great. The last play going into overtime when they threw that touchdown pass, our leverage wasn’t good and that’ll get you beat. Paying attention to those details all the time. It’s about consistency. You can be good for 90 plays out of 100, but those other 10 plays matter.”
— On Javon McIntyre bouncing back after touchdown plays: “Javon’s a captain. Javon, he’s been through it, he’s seen it before. He knows he’s not gonna be perfect and neither is the offense. But Javon, he’s a football player. He’s never down or up, he’s like this all the time, he’s a football player. He’s got a tough job and played a lot of plays.I think he had over 90 plays last week.”
— On if sacks are necessary for the Pitt defensive tackles to do their job: “No, those are nice flashy plays and we want them to get sacks, but you get in a problem on defense when guys are trying to make too many plays. You start to go out of your lane and try to make something happen. Like, I don’t care if it’s the d-tackles, the d-ends, and all the way back to the safeties. You have to play within the framework of the defense and everybody’s gotta do their job for you to be successful. Whether it’s a defensive end spilling to a backer or a backer being in the right spot, I think sometimes you get into those guys that think that I’m a playmaker, I gotta make a play, and that’s when you have problems. Our guys can’t do it all by themselves. Kyle Louis, for example, he’s just gotta play Kyle Louis ball. Kyle got to where he is today because he was detailed and does everything the right way. Everybody on defense gotta be the same way. The plays will come to you, you can’t make them come to you. When you make them come to you is when you’re gonna have an issue.”
— On if anybody has surprised Narduzzi through three games: “I’ll go back to Shawn Lee, I’ve been impressed with him. I think we talked about that maybe Monday. But just because he’s a freshman. How many freshman play 90 snaps and play as well as he did, so he’s been really good. Talked about Nick James, I like what he’s doing. Zach Crothers been good. On offense, we got a lot of older guys up there that doesn’t shock me. We gotta play better, we gotta execute better around, but there’s all older guys, no one’s really, I’d say, there’s no new guys out there. I guess Bryce Yates. Bryce Yates, we should have scored a touchdown. He set Kenny up for a block and then he cuts back, and Kenny can’t block for him. He should have cut back to the two-thirds of the field instead of the one-third of the field. We scored a touchdown instead of getting a field goal on that drive. We can’t get the ball down to the five and not get in. Little things like that will get you beat. Bryce should score a touchdown there. That should be a touchdown. When he cut to the right, Kenny was in position to just keep running. You’re gonna run right to the end zone. But those are freshman mistakes. He’s had his opportunities to make plays, and he’s converted on those and that’s big. So I’d say Bryce Yates has done a nice job when we’ve asked him to go in there and make some plays.”
— On rotating more in the back seven of the Pitt defense: “We did a poor job last week of rotating. We talked about our rotation at our staff meeting at noon today. We’ll rotate more guys than we can, we should, and we need to. We got to keep guys fresh. You never know when you’re gonna get the 90 plays or 100. I think we become stronger when we got more guys that we can count on, and we got guys that we can count on, like Nick Lappi, Cam Lindsey. He’s gotta play more. I think he played six snaps last week. We gotta get him out there and give those other guys breaks.”
— On ACC giving Syracuse a fine this week faking injuries: “It’s been all over the news. It was a big thing. They changed the rule to where, if you fake an injury, you’re gonna lose a timeout. The ball’s gotta be set. It’s something that has been going on for years across the country. You’ve seen some bad ones. I think I may have mentioned it to you, maybe I didn’t. (11:41) We had an issue. I’m not gonna put up with fake injuries. When we played at Tennessee, I could see it clear as day. They had the ball, Tennessee had the ball in about the 15-yard line to our right. Keyshon Camp couldn’t get off the field, and he went down all by himself. There was no one that did what Syracuse did, tell him to go down, go down. He went down, you go back and watch the tape, and I called a timeout. Because you couldn’t get out, that was our defense’s fault. We gotta sub properly, and if you can’t sub properly, you got problems. We work on substitutions all the time. We actually have a little period after practice just making sure, whether it’s a timeout or regular defense, that we can get ff guys on the field. We haven’t had that problem.”
— On if there’s concern if the ACC mistakes a real injury for a fake one: “Doesn’t really concern me because I’ll go crazy on the ACC. But last week, people boo you when guys get hurt. Guys are gonna get hit in the stomach. I go out there last week, and Crothers is down, and he’s puking and gagging, and I’m looking, and the referees are looking. You know when a guy’s hurt. I saw the brief [Syracuse] video. I didn’t watch the whole game. Someone sent it to me Monday or Tuesday, whatever day that news came out, and that’s faking an injury. That’s what they’re trying to eliminate and get out of the game, cuz it’s embarrassing, really. But guys are gonna get hurt. We know they’re gonna get banged up, whether it’s kicked in the stomach or what. I don’t even know what Zach’s deal was. I didn’t really find out out there because he couldn’t really talk cuz he’s busy on his side spitting up.”
— On if handling Pitt quarterback decisions has changed in the last two years: “I mean, no, it really hasn’t changed. I’m gonna let it be with our offense coordinator and quarterback coach on what we do with that position. We got three guys that can play. (13:47) We got a lot of faith in Eli and what he does, and like I said, we gotta protect him. He didn’t have a great game last time. He’ll have a great game this week. He’s had a great week of practice, but we’re counting on him. He’s got a high pressure job. Everybody’s looking at him and doesn’t see what happens. We got max protection and we get him to hit the first play of the game. That’s not good. That’s not fair to him. We gotta do a better job across the board. It’s everybody. It’s receivers being in the right spot so he doesn’t have to hang on to the ball and him pulling the trigger.”
— On ACC adding a ninth league game: “I knew that was coming. I think we may have talked about that a month ago that I expected that to come. Everybody else is doing it. I always feel like we shouldn’t be the last ones to do it, so I’m happy with that. I think everybody playing at the same level and us going to 10 Power Fours, I think it’s a good thing. I think it’s a bad thing for FCS and Group of Five. I think it’s crowding the way where they don’t get many games. They’re gonna struggle to find games. It’s gonna be Group of Five conferences playing Group of Five conferences. And I think it’s really, for a FCS guy, Rhode Island coming here, Youngstown State, I think those are money games for them that keeps their athletic department rolling. I think it’s gonna take a hit on them, but we can’t worry about them. We gotta worry about the Power Four.”
— On Pitt retiring Aaron Donald’s number: “I wish I could have coached that guy. That guy’s an unbelievable football player. He was unbelievable at Pitt. He had an incredible NFL career. I can’t say enough good things about him. The thing I’ll say about him is, I didn’t know him as a player. I didn’t get to coach him, but you watch his motor, if you watch any videotape on him, he’s an amazing football player that plays with an attitude every time. Is he the biggest guy in the world? No, but that chest cavity of his is gigantic. He’s got a big heart, not only on the field, but off the field. For what he gives back to the University of Pittsburgh, I mean, he’s around. Our kids love seeing him here in the summers that he was still playing. We’re excited to get him back this weekend. Well deserved, probably overdue.”
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