Tag: Pat Narduzzi

Coach who ripped Jordan Addison for transferring to USC is now in huge trouble

Pat Narduzzi criticized Jordan Addison when the receiver left Pitt and went to USC. Now, Pitt is at the bottom of the ACC. What a shame.

Remember when Jordan Addison transferred from Pitt to USC? Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi didn’t have to like his receiver’s choice, but then he chose to speak publicly about Addison instead of staying quiet. It wasn’t a good look.

As we noted in our coverage of this story, Narduzzi said that “We (Pitt) helped him win a Biletnikoff and be the player he is. He had one of the best quarterbacks in the country throwing the ball every day. I think sometimes people forget how they got where they are.”

Narduzzi also brought up the issue of tampering, clearly not liking the way that transfer went down with USC.

When talking negatively about Addison, Narduzzi also had uncharitable things to say about former Pitt offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, who guided the Panthers to the 2021 ACC championship by using Addison so well in the Panthers’ offense:

“Our old offensive coordinator had no desire to run the ball,” Narduzzi said about Whipple. “Everybody knew it. He was stubborn. Wake Forest was 118th in run defense and we threw the ball every down. When we ran it, we ran it for 10 yards but that wasn’t good enough.”

Narduzzi wanted to run more and throw less.

Well, he got his wish.

As a result, Pitt — the 2021 ACC champion — is now at the bottom of the ACC. The Panthers lost to Virginia Tech on Saturday to fall to 0-2 in the ACC. Only Virginia is also 0-2 in the conference. Pitt is 1-4 overall. Only Virginia, at 0-5, is worse. Pitt might not win three games this season.

It’s a real shame, isn’t it? Jordan Addison is certainly chuckling as he watches Pitt fans lose their minds about Narduzzi, as you can see below:

Penn State’s ‘one-word’ offense scored more against West Virginia than Pitt’s ‘real offense’

Penn State’s ‘one-word’ offense did much better against West Virginia than Pat Narduzzi’s ‘real’ Pitt offense.

Remember when Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi made a comment about Penn State’s offense not being as real as Pitt’s offense this offseason? That comment seems pretty fun to look back on now after Pitt’s offense struggled against an opponent Penn State opened the season with a bang against.

Narduzzi was discussing Pitt quarterback [autotag]Christian Veilleux[/autotag], who transferred to Pitt from Penn State in the offseason. Narduzzi suggested Veilleux would be in a better spot to thrive in what he referred to as  areal offense compared to Penn State’s “one-word offense.”

“Christian is a guy that, well, things are brand-new for him,” Narduzzi said in a one-on-one interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He’s coming from a one-word offense to a real offense.”

Narduzzi tried explaining he was not taking an actual shot at Penn State and was stressing the different offensive styles between the two schools. That’s a fair assessment, because it is clear Penn State and Pitt have vastly different offenses this season. And now we have a common opponent to compare and contrast the two, much to the chagrin of Pitt’s head coach.

Penn State opened the season against West Virginia and won by a score of 38-15. Starting quarterback [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] made his first college start and ended his night with 325 passing yards and 3 touchdowns in the win for the Nittany Lions. Allar also completed 21 of 29 pass attempts against the Mountaineers with no interceptions to show for it. Penn State’s offense totaled 478 yards of offense in the win as well.

This past weekend, Pitt got a chance to attack that same West Virginia team, although this time the Mountaineers were playing at home instead of in a packed stadium on the road. So how did Pitt’s “real offense” do?

Not well.

Pitt starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec struggled all night long. Jurkovec completed just 8 of his 20 attempts for a grand total of 81 yards. He threw no touchdowns and was picked off three times, and Narduzzi was left in a tough spot defending his quarterback and starting quarterback decision after the game.

Could Pitt about to be making a quarterback switch in favor of Veilleux? If things continue down this path in western Pennsylvania, it could be happening soon. Pitt is 1-2 after their loss to West Virginia, and ACC play is about to get fired up.

Now, it is worth pointing out that this weekend also saw the least impressive showing by Penn State’s offense so far this season. Penn State struggled to get much going on offense in their first road game at Illinois, but Allar did not make any costly mistakes with a turnover-free game and over 200 yards of passing despite a mediocre pass-completion rate.

Drew Allar and Penn State’s “one-word” offense will prepare for a top 25 battle with Iowa this weekend in front of a whiteout crowd in Beaver Stadium on Saturday night.

Pat Narduzzi takes another apparent shot at Penn State’s offense

Pat Narduzzi takes another apparent shot at Penn State’s offense

You have to love talking season, especially when Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi gets in front of a microphone. While Penn State was going through the Big Ten media day fun in Indianapolis, the ACC football kickoff was showcasing its programs in North Carolina. And Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi almost couldn’t help taking what was perceived by some as a shot at Penn State’s offensive system and quarterback play.

Asked about his quarterback options and depth for the season, Narduzzi commented on Christian Veilleux, the former Penn State backup quarterback who transferred to the Panthers this offseason. Narduzzi praised Veileux and suggested he was coming along with getting used to a new offensive system, suggesting Pitt’s is more advanced than what Penn State operates with.

“Christian is a guy that, well, things are brand-new for him,” Narduzzi said in a one-on-one interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He’s coming from a one-word offense to a real offense.”

Ahh yes, there is the subtle shot at the Penn State offense that Narduzzi just couldn’t help unloading. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted Narduzzi stressed this was not intended to be disrespectful of Penn State, but that won’t stop many from believing Narduzzi knew what he was doing with his quote. He is not one to typically hold back with his comments. But it is fair to suggest Pitt and Penn State run two totally different offenses, and there is a wide range of offensive styles found throughout the world of college football.

For example, Pitt’s “real offense” is coming off a solid season in which the passing game ranked 79th in the nation with 223.5 yards per game with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions thrown.

By contrast, Penn State’s “one-word offense” struggled with the nation’s 46th ranked passing offense with 252.5 yards per game and just 29 touchdowns to seven interceptions. And all that culminated in a Rose Bowl victory over Pac-12 champion Utah to close the season. Sean Clifford was named the game’s offensive MVP in his swan song with the Nittany Lions.

Narduzzi seems to be riding on the coattails of the one season in the past decade in which Pitt had a top-30 passing offense, with Kenny Pickett electrifying the ACC and leading Pitt’s eighth-ranked pass offense in 2021. But outside of that one blip on the radar, there has not been much to crow about with the success of the Panthers’ pass attack over the years under Narduzzi. Perhaps the 2021 season was the exception to the norm in western Pennsylvania.

But maybe we shouldn’t be too hard and overreact to this line from Narduzzi. Because he does have a point in saying that Pitt’s offense is designed differently than what Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich has cooked up in State College.

“But it’s a totally different offense,” Narduzzi said. “This offense is NFL-style with sophisticated terminology. We’re going to see a different version of Christian.”

And this is a very good point to consider. Veilleux, who backed up Sean Clifford the past couple of seasons and saw the writing on the wall with the addition of five-star Drew Allar in the Class of 2022 (even though James Franklin insists there is actually a quarterback competition for this season). Veilleux will have a great chance to thrive at Pitt, one that he likely was not going to have at Penn State.

And we’ll all be watching to see how Veilleux does with the Panthers, even if out of just pure curiosity. Meanwhile, a reminder one last time that a one-word offense can do some serious damage against the right opponent. And Narduzzi is well aware of that.

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Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi says, ‘You gotta beat Clemson’ to get to the ACC Championship

Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi had this to say about Clemson.

The 2023 ACC Football Kickoff is off to a hot start after day one. Wednesday’s day two brings different ACC teams to the media to discuss their team, the Conference, and the season ahead of them. 

The 2023 season in the ACC will look much different than any other before, with the Conference moving away from divisions and doing its first season with the 3-5-5 format. Rather than the divisional winners making the ACC Championship, it will now be the top two teams based on winning percentage to make the game. 

A major shift, Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi and his program know a bit about what it takes to make the ACC Championship, and even with the lack of divisions, you still need to get through Clemson.

“I think back to in ’21 when you go to the championship game and beat Wake Forest, you beat the reigning champion in Clemson at home and you took care of business,” Narduzzi said. “Whether you’re in the Atlantic or whether you’re in the Coastal division, pretty much you gotta beat Clemson to get there, correct? To me, we did that and won the championship. So to me, that makes it even sweeter.”

Narduzzi clearly respects the Tigers, who  won the conference title in seven of the last eight seasons. The lone winner of the last eight that wasn’t Clemson was Narduzzi and the Panthers.

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Deion Sanders responds to Pat Narduzzi’s criticism

Coach Prime responded in a memorable way to Pat Narduzzi’s recent criticism

What Deion Sanders is doing with the Colorado Buffaloes has essentially never been seen before. If the results live up to the hype, there might be a statue built for him outside of Folsom Field.

However, the wild, topsy-turvy state of the transfer portal and this current era of recruiting hasn’t been as exciting for other programs, and Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi recently issued some critical comments about what Sanders is doing with the portal.

Now, Coach Prime has responded in an epic way (h/t Steve Gardner of USA TODAY Sports).

Sanders dismissed recent criticism from Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi by telling 247Sports in an interview this week, “I don’t know who he is; if he walked in here right now I wouldn’t know him.”

That’s some massive clap back toward Narduzzi. Of course, he expressed frustration last year when he saw Jordan Addison, the 2021 Biletnikoff Award winner, leave for USC in what was a rumored NIL move. Sanders made sure to bring that up, too, as a reason why Narduzzi was upset.

“He is mad at the situation in football now that allowed his best player to leave a year ago,” Sanders said. “He’s not mad at me, he’s using me to shoot bullets at another coach who he has an issue with.”

There isn’t anything wrong with what Coach Prime is doing, and the current state of the game allows for things just like this. Nonetheless, Narduzzi isn’t happy, and these latest comments by Sanders might bring another response.

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Former Penn State punter Blake Gillikin rips Pat Narduzzi’s final coaches ballot

Former Penn State player fired off shots at Pat Narduzzi and Pitt on Twitter

This week saw the final USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll released following Georgia‘s national championship romp over TCU in the College Football Playoff national championship. While the coaches’ individual ballots are kept secret during the course of the regular season, the final ballots are shared publicly to allow fans to see how the coaches stacked teams up from 1 through 25.

We got a chance to dive into James Franklin’s final ballot, and he did have a couple of Big Ten teams ranked while the consensus stuck to just Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State. But it is also interesting to see which coaches ranked Penn State the highest and which ranked them the lowest. Perhaps not too surprisingly, Penn State’s lowest ranking in the final coaches poll of the season came from none other than Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi.

Narduzzi’s final ballot had Penn State ranked at no. 9, which is still a solid final ranking for the Nittany Lions. But Narduzzi was the only coach in the poll to vote Penn State that low.

Seven coaches ranked Penn State as low as no. 8 and most coaches voted Penn State at no. 7, with a handful of ballots going as high as no. 6 (including Rutgers‘ Greg Schiano and Maryland’s Mike Locksley).

Conversely, Kansas head coach Lance Leipold had Penn State ranked the highest on his final coaches poll ballot of the year. Leipold ranked Penn State at no. 5 and was the only coach in the poll to do so.

But Narduzzi’s ballot did not go unnoticed by the Penn State community, of course. And it was former Penn State punter [autotag]Blake Gillikin[/autotag], now with the New Orleans Saints, who fired off a bit of a shot at the head coach of the Panthers upon looking over the final ballots.

“Pat Narduzzi is SALTY,” Gilliken said on his Twitter account after looking over the breakdown of the coaches ballots.

But Gilliken didn’t stop there. He followed up with a kind reminder that it has been quite some time since the last time Pitt won a major bowl game.

It’s true. Pitt’s last major bowl victory was the 1982 Sugar Bowl against Georgia to spoil Georgia’s national championship hopes. But since then, Pitt is 0-4 in games that make up today’s New Years Six.

Surely Narduzzi has some explanation for ranking Penn State as low as he did when everyone else in the country had the Nittany Lions at least one spot higher. But we probably have a good guess as to why Narduzzi voted the way he did.

And, of course, Franklin left Pitt off of his ballot entirely.

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Pat Narduzzi went after USC and Lincoln Riley; now he’s going after Utah on NIL

Pat Narduzzi was furious at Lincoln Riley over the Jordan Addison situation. Now he’s mad at Utah for taking a receiver away from Pitt. Someone seems mad. Really mad.

Pat Narduzzi is not having a very Merry Christmas.

Narduzzi and his Pittsburgh Panthers are preparing to play the UCLA Bruins in the Sun Bowl, but Narduzzi is angry at Pac-12 schools other than UCLA. We’ll explain below.

Pitt didn’t have a terrible season in 2022, but the Panthers were certainly much worse than they were in 2021, when they won the ACC championship and reached a New Year’s Six bowl game. Kedon Slovis did not thrive in Pitt’s offense; he wanted out, and has made his decision to enter the transfer portal yet again.

The 2022 season didn’t go as coach Pat Narduzzi intended. Crucially, the ACC moves to a division-less format in 2023. Pitt will not be able to win the ACC Coastal and get to the ACC Championship Game. It will have to finish in the top two of the conference standings to get there. With Florida State clearly moving up the ladder in the conference behind Clemson, Pitt’s chances of returning to the ACC title game just got worse. Maybe that’s why Narduzzi is mad at another Pac-12 school.

Here are the details, in case you missed them:

Notre Dame appears about to flip big-time quarterback target

Where there’s smoke…

Notre Dame extended a scholarship offer to four-star Hendersonville (Tenn.) Pope John Paull II quarterback [autotag]Kenny Minchey[/autotag] back in September.  The thing is, Minchey committed to Pittsburgh back on April 30.  That commitment is no longer and it appears to be great news for Notre Dame.

Minchey announced Monday that he was officially ending his commitment to Pitt.

I want to thank Coach Narduzzi, Coach Cignetti, Coach Dibiaso, and the rest of the coaching staff at Pitt for believing in me and providing me with an opportunity to play college football.

After prayer and conversations with my family, I have decided to decommit from the University of Pittsburgh.

Thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me through this hard decision.

-KM4

Rumors began circulating online recently that Notre Dame was in the running to flip a 2023 quarterback.  It just so happens that Minchey is set to make an official visit to Notre Dame this weekend as the Irish host Boston College on senior day.

On3‘s Recruiting Prediction Machine now gives the Irish over a 96% chance at winning the race for Minchey.  A potential Minchey commitment would give the Irish 24 total pledges in the 2023 recruiting cycle with 21 of those having at least a four-star rating on 247Sports.

Fighting Irish Wire will keep an eye on all of this as things could soon be getting even sweeter for Notre Dame on the recruiting front.

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Related:
Instant takeaways as Notre Dame holds on to beat Navy
Twitter reacts to absolutely insane Braden Lenzy touchdown catch
History of Notre Dame’s rivalry with Pitt

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Steelers QB Kenny Pickett hasn’t given the Saints much cause for draft-day regret

It’s early, but Kenny Pickett hasn’t given the Saints much cause for draft-day regret. The Steelers rookie is going into this matchup as the NFL’s most turnover-prone QB:

There were more than a few New Orleans Saints fans hoping their team would select Kenny Pickett in the 2022 NFL draft’s first round, bringing a promising quarterback prospect to a team that could use one. Instead, the Saints passed on Pickett twice, moving up to select wide receiver Chris Olave (who is making a strong case for his Rookie of the Year candidacy) at No. 11, then taking left tackle Trevor Penning (who just took a big step towards returning from the injured reserve list) at No. 19. Pickett wound up going to the Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 20.

And there was plenty of smoke surrounding the situation. Pickett met with New Orleans ahead of the 2022 draft, and Saints head coach Dennis Allen recently said that he was their top-graded quarterback in the rookie class. Pickett’s college coach Pat Narduzzi even thought the Saints had selected Pickett on the night of the draft, when New Orleans was on the clock, and broke the bad news to Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin on a phone call.

But Pickett hasn’t exactly lit the NFL world on fire in his pro debut. He took the reins from Mitch Trubisky three and a half games into the season, and currently leads the league with an interception rate of 4.8%. Pickett has scored just 2 touchdown passes against 8 interceptions, also fumbling 3 times while scoring 2 touchdown runs. He’s been sacked 12 times across 5 games, going 1-3 as a starter. His 3.19 adjusted net yards per pass attempt (which accounts for touchdown passes, interceptions, and sacks) also ranks last in the NFL. Pickett’s longest pass completion has gained 30 yards.

So it’s not like the Saints are kicking themselves for passing on him. To be fair, neither Andy Dalton nor Jameis Winston have been effective this season, but while Pickett may have been an alternative he likely wouldn’t have been a better alternative. We’ll see how his career develops this week and in the future.

For his part, Pickett isn’t thinking about what-might-have-been. When asked this week if he carries a chip on his shoulder from having been passed over by teams like New Orleans, he responded: “No, man, I’m happy as hell to be here. You know, everything works out for a reason. Incredibly proud to be the quarterback of this team and go out there and play on Sunday.”

So it’s good to see the rookie is keeping his chin up amid a rough start to his NFL journey. He’ll be looking to get right against a Saints defense that has only intercepted a pair of passes all season, while New Orleans is hoping to take advantage of that same matchup versus a young turnover-prone quarterback. Something has to give.

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Pat Narduzzi on Mack Brown: ‘He’s a legend… He’s great for college football.’

Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi had some high praise for UNC football head coach Mack Brown this week heading into Saturday’s matchup.

The UNC football program is preparing to extend its lead in the ACC Coastal division on Saturday as it takes on Pitt in Chapel Hill.

Ahead of the matchup, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi spoke on his relationship with Tar Heels’ head coach Mack Brown and had some high praise.

“I just think he’s a legend. I love him. I just think he’s great for college football, period,” Narduzzi told reporters this week. “I’m glad he’s out of the media industry and back into college football because he’s good for college football. He gets it. He’s old school. Just listening to him in coaches’ meetings — hanging out with him in coaches’ meetings, he gets it and he’s old school, and that’s what I love about him. He does it the right way.”

Narduzzi comes into this weekend’s matchup 2-4 all-time as a head coach against North Carolina. Both wins have come in back-to-back seasons.

Pitt, sitting at 4-3 overall and 1-2 in conference, is looking to get back on track after a 24-10 loss to Louisville last weekend. Its lone win in confidence came against Virginia Tech the week prior.

The Tar Heels on the other hand, are 6-1 and ranked No. 21 in the country. Its lone loss was against Notre Dame this season.

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