Tag: Pat Narduzzi

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi rips officials after thrilling win over West Virginia

Pitt ralled from 10 down to stun West Virginia

Eli Holstein lost his helmet. Nate Yarnell came into the game with the Backyard Brawl on the line and handed off to Derrick Davis Jr., who ran the football into the end zone from a yard out with 32 seconds left Saturday to give Pitt a 38-34 victory.

Holstein was magnificent on the game-winning drive. On a running play he got the ball to the one-yard line before what seemed like the entire West Virginia defense ripped off his helmet.

Pitt called its final timeout. West Virginia called a timeout. Yet, Holstein had to miss a play because his helmet came off.

Enter Yarnell, who did what he had to do and the Panthers had a victory in the rivalry.

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi was fuming afterward, saying his team not only beat the Mountaineers but also the officials.

“I think our DBs did a heck of a job — period,” Narduzzi said. He then shifted his focus to the third team on the field, the officials,” Narduzzi told ESPN’s Dawn Davenport. “I mean, some of the calls we got. Late hit out of bounds. They catch a ball with a hands to the face. I’ve never seen anything like it. You know? Wow. We beat West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl. And we beat the officials, too. In one game.”

The Panthers trailed 34-24 with 4:55 left but rallied behind Holstein, who was 21-of-30 for 301 yards and three TD passes. He also rushed for 59 yards.

Competition continues as Pitt set to play two quarterbacks in season opener

Pat Narduzzi and the Pitt Panthers will play two quarterbacks against Kent State in Week 1 as the competition continues.

Pittsburgh Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi reportedly plans to play two quarterbacks in the season opener against Kent State. Both Nate Yarnell and Eli Holstein have been battling for the past eight months for the job, and it does not appear there is a winner yet.

Yarnell is a redshirt junior, while Holstein is a redshirt freshman who came over from Alabama. Yarnell tossed for nearly 600 yards last season in four games, including four touchdowns. He was who many felt was going to get the job. Holstein has done great work in the off-season, and as Narduzzi told the media Monday:

Eli has made some major, major improvements.It’s like he caught up. To me, they need to be put into a game-like situation and let it go from there. Both those guys are going to play on Saturday, and let the competition begin.

Both players have “OR” next to their name on the depth chart. Following the home game against Kent State, the Panthers’ 2024 season gets much tougher. They will head to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats, and then come back home and welcome West Virginia to town. Pittsburgh starts Atlantic Coast Conference play on October 5th at North Carolina.

Narduzzi has been the head coach at Pittsburgh since the 2015 season, going 65-50 in his career with the Panthers. He is also 2-4 in bowl games.

Before his time with Pittsburgh, he was the defensive coordinator at Cincinnati and then Michigan State.

Pat Narduzzi really wants to lose more games to Penn State

Conference media days means Pat Narduzzi is talking about wanting to play Penn State again.

It is conference media time once again in the Big Ten and the ACC, which can only mean one thing around these parts. The media day quips about when Penn State and Pittsburgh might get back together for some non-conference football again. Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi has once again tried kicking up some dust on the subject by suggesting his Panthers are ready for more games against the Nittany Lions.

The only problem is Penn State has little interest in reviving the in-state rivalry, so it seems. Narduzzi made a quick comment about Penn State not wanting to play Pitt when commenting on the revival of Pitt’s backyard rivalry with West Virginia (Pitt and West Virginia resumed their rivalry last season with the Mountaineers winning 17-6; Penn State also revived its series with West Virginia with a 38-15 victory in State College).

“They won’t play us,” Narduzzi said about Penn State. Narduzzi and Pitt have continued to claim the door is open for a continued series with Penn State, but Penn State has failed to show much interest in doing so.

Penn State and Pitt played a four-game series that ran from 2016 through 2019. After losing the first game in the four-game scheduling agreement, Penn State won the next three.

James Franklin is among the scheduled speakers on Wednesday at Big Ten football media day. You can bet Franklin will be asked about Penn State’s scheduling philosophy moving forward in a changing landscape for the sport, with a slight focus on a possible matchup with the Panthers. But if that question is also posed, do not expect Franklin to take the bait.

As long as Pitt and Penn State fail to play non-conference games against each other, this conversation is going to be recycled time and time again. This is not something that will go away as much as some would prefer it to do so.

Penn State will face West Virginia to open the 2024 season and will play non-conference games against Bowling Green and Kent State this season. The Nittany Lions have a fully booked non-conference schedule in 2025 (Nevada, FIU, and Villanova), 2026 (Marshall, at Temple, and Buffalo), and 2027 (Syracuse, Delaware, and Temple). Penn State currently has one schedule vacancy to fill in 2028 (Ball State, at Syracuse).

Pitt has a schedule vacancy to fill in 2025 and 2026 and at least two vacancies to fill in 2027, 2028, 2030, and beyond.

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8 college football coaches on the hot seat, including Houston’s Dana Holgorsen

Jimbo Fisher was the first major domino to fall in what could prove to be a wild coaching carousel.

In contrast with the chaos of the college football coaching market the last two years, it’s been a bit of a slow burn to start the 2023 carousel.

As the calendar turned to November, the only Power Five openings were Michigan State and Northwestern, both of which opened for non-football reasons. It looked like we could be heading for a relatively quiet cycle.

Then, a major domino fell. In what became something of a “Black Sunday” for college football coaches, Texas A&M decided to part ways with coach Jimbo Fisher (and pay the $76 million buyout that came with that decision).

Since then, we’ve seen a few more changes, including in the SEC West. Mississippi State fired first-year coach Zach Arnett just 11 games into his tenure after he took over last December after the death of coach Mike Leach.

In the Group of Five ranks, Boise State axed third-year coach Andy Avalos, and San Diego State (and former Michigan) coach Brady Hoke announced his retirement.

These were the first moves to be made, but if history is any indicator, they’ll be far from the last. Here are eight more coaches who find themselves on the hot seat with two weeks left in the regular season.

Former Penn State QB struggles as Pitt gets blown out at Notre Dame, Narduzzi rips talent

Pat Narduzzi’s offseason comments about Pitt’s ‘real offense’ continue to blow up in his face, and now he may have lost some of his players after a blowout loss to Notre Dame.

Things have not exactly been great for the Penn State offense the last couple of weeks, but things could always be worse. You could be the Pitt Panthers.

Pitt fell to 2-6 this season after getting scorched on the road at Notre Dame this weekend by a score of 58-7. The Irish led Pitt 17 at halftime and blew the game wide open in the third quarter with a 27-point quarter. Former Penn State quarterback [autotag]Christian Veilleux[/autotag] had a brutal outing in his latest start with 4 interceptions and -13 rushing yards.

Veilleux has taken over the starting quarterback job for the Panthers and is currently up to 774 passing yards with 5 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. The Panthers are 1-2 since Veilleux has taken over the starting job with an upset win over Louisville and back-to-back losses against Wake Forest and Notre Dame. Pitt has be

The Pitt offense now ranks 113th in total offense, 101st in scoring offense, 117th in rushing offense, and 92nd in passing offense. Now heading into November, it is worth taking a look back at some of the comments Narduzzi had to share about the Pitt offensive philosophy when asked about the transfer addition of Veilleux from the Nittany Lions.

“Christian is a guy that, well, things are brand-new for him,” Narduzzi said in during the summer media day season. “He’s coming from a one-word offense to a real offense.”

Of course, this comment has already been revisited once this season. After Pitt scored 6 points in a rivalry game loss to West Virginia, we looked back at that quote, keeping in mind Penn State put 38 points on the board against the same Mountaineers team just a couple of weeks prior.

The state of Pitt’s “real offense” continues to take a beating after a horrendous showing against Notre Dame. And Narduzzi may be doing more internal damage than he can afford after his postgame comments about Pitt’s talent level were making the rounds on social media.

This comment was selectively taken a little out of context, as it was just a part of a response to a question where Narduzzi was attempting to explain the recent struggles starting with him, but it was enough to cause a stir online from some of Pitt’s players.

Narduzzi took to his social media account later to try and calm the noise a bit, but you have to wonder if it will resonate with his players well enough given how this season is going.

Narduzzi says Veilleux will remain Pitt’s starting quarterback moving forward. Veilleux and the Panthers will be in for another massive test next week when they host undefeated Florida State. Pitt is 2-6 and one more loss away from being ineligible for a postseason bowl game.

Meanwhile, in Happy Valley, Penn State has its own offensive concerns to address in the coming weeks. Penn State visits Maryland this weekend and will host Michigan next week. Penn State’s offense has to be cleaner and more crisp if it is going to avoid an upset at Maryland and compete with the two-time defending Big Ten champions.

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Notre Dame routs Pitt, gets Pat Narduzzi to call out talent of team

Pitt fans might want to buckle up as only more turbulence seems to be headed their way.

Pat Narduzzi has been the head football coach at Pittsburgh since the 2015 season.  He’s had success, winning the ACC just two years ago and going 62-41 previous to 2023.

He and the Panthers have gone just 2-6 in 2023 however, with their latest defeat coming of the 58-7 variety at Notre Dame.  It was the biggest loss they’ve suffered under Narduzzi and the biggest blowout loss they’ve had since falling 60-6 to Notre Dame 27 years ago.

After the game Narduzzi took responsibility the latest loss, but only after questioning the overall talent of the 2023 Pittsburgh squad.

“You lose a lot of good players a year ago, you think as a coach you’re going to replace them, we obviously haven’t,” Narduzzi said. “It starts with me. I didn’t do a good enough job of coaching today. Put it on me. We’ve got to make plays. It comes down to making plays and doing a better job of coaching.”

Although Narduzzi stepped up and took responsibility for the rough state of affairs, some of his players weren’t thrilled upon seeing the quote.

Narduzzi followed that up with a tweet of his own shortly after, accepting responsibility for the loss.

It’s one of those things I think a few things can be true.  Narduzzi can be right that his team isn’t as talented as it was just a year ago, but I can promise you that saying his players lack talent immediately following another blowout loss isn’t exactly going to win back a locker room, and doesn’t simply just go away with a simple tweet.

Pitt players didn’t seem happy Pat Narduzzi partially blamed them after Notre Dame blowout loss

Some Pittsburgh players aren’t happy Pat Narduzzi seemingly threw them under the bus after losing to Notre Dame.

Pittsburgh football coach Pat Narduzzi might be in a bit of trouble with his locker room after comments in a postgame press conference seemed to indict his current roster.

After the team’s 58-7 disaster against Notre Dame, Narduzzi tried to talk about why his team isn’t in the best situation right now with a 2-6 record and a bowl game completely out of focus.

To Narduzzi, the team hasn’t necessarily replenished the talent it lost from the players who left the program.

“As a football coach, you lose a lot of good players a year ago, you think, as a coach, you’re going to replace them,” Narduzzi told reporters. “We obviously haven’t… Again, it starts with me. … I didn’t do a good enough job coaching today, and put it on me. … We’ve got to make plays.”

The part about not being able to replace the talent that left the program a year ago started to go viral after it was shared by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Noah Hiles.

Well, a number of Pittsburgh’s football players saw the post above and expressed their displeasure in their coach seemingly throwing them under the bus. You can see their responses below.

Narduzzi tried to play damage control with a Twitter post that put the loss on him completely.

However, he will likely have to do more to walk back his comments as a number of his players have now publicly responded to them.

Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi says Panthers ‘didn’t do a good job’ replacing talent, players react

Narduzzi said Pittsburgh lost talent and didn’t do a good job replacing it, a sentiment his players seemed frustrated by.

Pittsburgh lost to Notre Dame 58-7 on Saturday, and Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi teed off on his roster after the game.

“We lost a lot of good players last year,” Narduzzi said. “We thought we’d replace them and we obviously didn’t do a good job of that.”

Narduzzi expanded upon his thoughts more, saying it starts with him and he didn’t coach well enough on Saturday, but the damage was done. His comments ignited a firestorm in his locker room, with players like tight end Gavin Bartholomew, running backs Rodney Hammond and Derrick Davis, and defensive back Ryland Gandy all responding to the quote on social media with varyingly clear displays of frustration.

The coach clarified his comments further on social media after the game.

Narduzzi signed a contract extension through 2030 after the 2021 season, which saw the Panthers win the ACC behind Heisman finalist Kenny Pickett’s quarterback play. His buyout is not currently known, but the USA TODAY Sports database says the Pittsburgh coach is due to make $5,875,817 this season, the 28th-highest-paid coach in the sport.

Notre Dame football: Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi discusses Irish

Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi met the media to start game week against Notre Dame. Here is everything he had to say about the Fighting Irish

Notre Dame has had its difficulties with the name Pat Narduzzi for quite some time.  Before becoming Pitt’s head coach, Narduzzi was the defensive coordinator at Michigan State from 2007-2014, coaching the Spartans to some of their finest seasons in recent memory.

Narduzzi took over the Pitt Panthers in 2015 and has gone 65-45 in that time, including a 42-28 record in the ACC.

Pitt has long been a rival of Notre Dame’s as the two met annually for the better part of 75 years.  Now they meet a bit more sparingly but still regular enough.

Narduzzi met the media on Monday to start off Notre Dame-Pitt week.  Here is what the Panthers head coach had to say about the 6-2 Fighting Irish.

Report: Pittsburgh benches Jurkovec, expected to start Veilleux next week

Phil Jurkovec, who has 2 TDs and 3 INTs over his past three games, will reportedly no longer be the starter for the Pittsburgh Panthers.

The Pittsburgh Panthers have made a change at quarterback, according to a Wednesday report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Noah Hiles.

The Panthers will trade senior Phil Jurkovec for sophomore Christian Veilleux when they next take the field against Louisville on Oct. 14.

Jurkovec, a three-year starter at Boston College who transferred to Pittsburgh before this season, has struggled so far in 2023. He’s completed a career-low 50.9% of his passes, he’s thrown more interceptions (3) than touchdowns (2) over his last three starts, and he’s been given a QBR below 35 in three of his five games.

Hiles reported Jurkovec told his teammates about the move during a players-only meeting on Wednesday morning.

Veilleux spent the past two seasons at Penn State before he also transferred to Pittsburgh this offseason. He’s thrown 27 passes in this season, completing 12 of them for 145 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.