What Pat Narduzzi Said Thursday About Pitt Preparation, FSU & More
PITTSBURGH — Pitt football and head coach Pat Narduzzi have turned their full attention towards No. 25 Florida State.
Narduzzi met with the media one final time before the Panthers travel to Tallahassee.
Here’s what Pat Narduzzi had to say Thursday about the Seminoles, Pitt preparation and more:
– Opening statement: “Solid week of practice. Three really good days I think. We’ll watch today’s video and see where we are. Obviously a big challenge going down in the Tallahassee road game. I think our guys are prepared. It’ll be loud, I’d imagine at noon. We’ve got all the preparation we need there. It’s always going on the road, knowing that you’re gonna have noise, and getting the ball off. I mean, we had zero unforced errors a week ago at home. But it’s gonna be a lot louder down there than it was at home last weekend.”
– On Pitt getting off to a fast start: “Call the right plays and execute on offense, right? I mean, that’s how we get him in rhythm, is call the right plays, block them up front, and execute.”
– On approaching the second start with Mason Heintschel and keeping him level-headed: “Yeah, I mean, I think you do it kind of like you do every position, right? I mean, nobody cares what you did last week, okay? No one cares what you did two weeks ago or three weeks ago. They care what you do right now. I mean, we’re in a production business, and it’s all about today and what you do today on Thursday, what you do on Friday, what you do on Saturday, that’s what matters. So, I think that’s the message every week to our kids.”
– On Mason taking over four games into the season unlike previous Pitt QB changes: Yeah, obviously, different times, different offense coordinators. Back when Kenny took that last couple plays in the Syracuse game, when Max went down, Kenny was on the scout team, okay? Really, since August, preparing for that opener and all the way through September, we’ve been getting three quarterbacks reps. We’ve been repping all three quarterbacks on offense. So, I think that’s helped get him further along, closer to where we need him to be when we need him. And I think that’s, was he ready three weeks ago, four weeks ago? He’s a heck of a lot, he was a heck of a lot more ready now than he was, say, week one.”
– On if there’s a difference in today’s era of college football when making a quarterback change: “Not really, not really. You’d like folks to know, but to me, it’s about winning football games. That’s our job. Again, production-based, I mean, it’s about winning. Who gives you the best, I don’t care how much money you make, I care what you’re doing on the field and producing. That’s what it comes down to.
“No, there’s no, the politics are politics. I mean, and I don’t care if it’s a kicker. I mean, we’ll go back to when Sam Scarton started over Ben Sauls back in his, I mean, it’s all about who’s producing on the field. I don’t care, kicker, linebacker, quarterback, it’s all the same. We’re not like the National Football League, I’m sure they talk over there. But Mike Tomlin’s eventually gonna make the right decision to get the guy that’s gonna help him in a football game. It comes down to who helps you win, who gives you the best chance and we took a chance last week, right? I mean, shoot, it could have been a total disaster too. You guys be looking at me like, what are you doing? It could have been a disaster, but preparation helped him get where he was.”
– On the difference 10 years from now with more staff personnel playing into decisions: “Well, I mean, I’m not worried about 10 years from now. It’s a great question. It could get there, I mean, all these guys with these big time GMs. You got Luck, and Luck’s doing it. He’s raising money, got a $50 million donation this week. I mean, all those things, that’s great. I mean, ultimately, the coach better be in charge of who’s playing. I’m sure, in Stanford’s case, let’s just use that as an example, cuz he’s a pretty powerful GM, I guess. He seems like he’s like the head coach, telling everybody what to do. It sounds like he’s on the sideline, he’s right behind the head coach on the games I’ve watched on TV, whether it was them playing BC or whatever. But if a guy’s that heavily involved, he’s seeing probably the same thing the head coach does. So I think a guy like that that’s right there watching everything, sits in meetings, I’m sure Andrew Luck is sitting in meetings. When we have somebody that’s sitting in watching practice, then maybe they have a chance to say something. I would say that might be, who’s watching video tape, you practice every day.”
– On the challenges Pitt will face against the FSU run offense: “A ton, they’re gonna get the 11th guy, the quarterback, involved. So it’s gonna be 11 on 11, it won’t be a 10 on. We’re facing the most athletic quarterback we’ve faced this year. We’ve faced him before, we know he can make a lot of plays with his feet. We’re gonna have to keep him contained, and we gotta be careful what we do. We gotta run pressures, that’s great. But if it’s a pass, we gotta be careful there. They’re probably one of the best screen teams out there in the country. I think Gus does a great job, and obviously Mike Novell always has done a great job with the screens and unbalanced stuff. So we’re prepared for all that stuff. But we’re gonna have to go out and execute. They’re big up front, they got big 220 pound backs, so we’re gonna have to get them on the ground. They don’t go down easy, so it’s a gigantic challenge for us.”
– On how the Pitt d-line matches up against FSU: “Yeah, I mean, we gotta go out and play. I mean, we gotta go play our best game. For us to stop the run, we’re gonna have to play our best game we’ve played, and we’ve gotta be on point, and we’ve gotta play with leverage.”
– On Pitt RBs: “I think both of them have gotten better and more confidence as we’ve gone on, especially Boosie. Juelz had some reps last year, but you really see Boosie kind of stepping it up. He’s got talent, I mean, he’s explosive. Both those guys are really good. The backs, we’re happy with both of those two. We needed them to come on when they did, and they did.”
– On Pitt LB Rasheem Biles elevating his game: “I think he was the same playmaker a year ago. I mean, he had a nice pick six against Syracuse, but he kind of forgets about that. Like, he can carry the ball too, but again, that was a heck of a return against Louisville for a touchdown. I mean, that was special. I think he’s a little bit more attention to detail in some of the smaller things that he’s doing out there, but he was a playmaker a year ago. He’s continued to be a playmaker, and if you wanna run and throw Kyle, or run and throw where he is, I think both sides, quarterback’s gotta worry about what those guys are doing. I think the attention to detail, him reading his keys every time consistently in the run and pass game has been probably where he’s stepped up. He’s been a playmaker. He’s had a lot of TFLs. What I love about him is he plays with excitement. He is enthusiastic, he’s emotional, and he’s fun to watch.”
– On if teams are playing away from Pitt LB Kyle Louis: “Yeah, it seems like they’re not going at him as much. Again, that’s why Kyle just, again, what he did a year ago, people ask, well, can he go from there? If he can maintain it, that’s great. But he’s just gotta take care of his business and do his job. He can’t do too much. Kyle will get in trouble when he starts to do too much and knows too much, watches too much tape. Shoot, even last night, my radio show, he’s talking about reading the quarterback’s eyes. I’m like, he’s not supposed to be staring at the quarterback unless it’s a certain defense that doesn’t get called all the time. So he needs to just do his job. That’s fine. He gets excited when he’s making plays. He gets excited when he’s making plays, and Lovelace is making plays. So they’re not selfish, and I have not seen any selfishness out of Kyle where he wants to make the play. He had a critical, maybe the most critical play of the game last week, where he punched that ball out. I’ve talked about punching the ball. So that was a critical hustle play where he came over there and actually took it out like we coach. It wasn’t a giveaway, it was a takeaway. That was a big time play. So that was the first one that started the wave.”
– On Kyle Louis cheating the plays: “Well, he shouldn’t, but when you start to cheat, you start to think that’s when bad things happen.”
– On a position group that gets stressed the most with a running QB: “They all get stressed. Those safeties get stressed too. I mean, everybody gets stressed. I mean, when you got a guy that can, if he breaks through the D line, the stress is on the D line, make sure he doesn’t get past them. Then it gets some linebackers and it just trickles downhill. It goes to everybody. So I think anybody that’s on the field, it’s their responsibility to get them down.”
– On safety Kavir Bains-Marquez: “I love Kavir. I think he’s done a great job. He’s mature, he’s taken care of his business, he studies the game, and he’s made plays when he’s had to. We’ve gained a lot of trust the last two games with Kabir, whether it’s third down or playing back there in normal down situations. He’s gotten the guys on the ground, he does a great job taking your knees out for not a big guy, what we call sweep tackle, he needs to continue to do that.”
– On defensive tackling: “It’s been pretty good, except probably when we went down to work time, I thought we played our worst game tackling wise. And that was probably the worst defense performance of the year. But other than those, that game, the rest of them have been solid. I think we’ve tackled pretty well.”
– On Pitt CBs going up against FSU Duce Robinson: “Yeah, I mean, you’d much rather have a 6’3′ corner than a 5’11 or a 5’10 corner for sure. He’s big, he’s physical, he’s gonna do a good job pushing off on videotape. So we’ve gotta get into him and get him before he gets started. ‘Cuz once he gets started, a lot of people play off coverage against him. Obviously, we like to press and we’ll do what we do. Hopefully, you can neutralize him a little bit.”
– On if having someone else helping him call the shots would be an issue like Andrew Luck at Stanford: “Not at all. Me and I have another head coach, assistant head coach, whatever you wanna call him, it’d be great. You can talk to Allen Greene, maybe we can get one of those guys. That’s just another eyeball. It’s nice to have help on offensive defense. So no, that would be not a sign at all. It’d be a good sign for the University of Pittsburgh that we got extra people to do something like that.”
– On HCs still having final say on decisions in the future: “Yeah, I think it’s the same. I think head coaches are still gonna be in control. I mean, going back next door, I mean, Tomlin is gonna get what he wants done. I would imagine 90% of the national football league, we’re gonna play the guys that wanna play, trade the guys that wanna trade. And we’re gonna play the guys who wanna, I don’t think that’s gonna change.”
– On if the ideal person for a GM role comes from the NFL: “It’s all preference, I guess. I mean, I really can’t answer that question. It’s getting the right guy, the right person that fits with your staff. I think that’s the number one thing. It’s someone you trust, right? I mean, obviously, luck and they have a great relationship and they trust each other. I think it comes down to trust, who is that guy you trust? And if you’re on the same page of what you’re looking for and what you need.
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