Tag: Pat Narduzzi

Pat Narduzzi said something silly about the quality of Big Ten competition

Time to reset the “Days since Pat Narduzzi said something silly” counter to zero.

As Penn State was struggling its way through a mediocre season, the Pitt Panthers were enjoying a run to the school’s first ACC championship. Pitt’s ACC championship season ended in a loss to Michigan State in the Peach Bowl, although the Panthers were playing without star quarterback Kenny Pickett. Had Pickett played against the Spartans, odds are good Pitt would have had stood a better chance of topping Michigan State, which led to a somewhat eye-catching quote from Narduzzi during ACC media days.

“If that’s one of the best Big Ten teams, let’s go to the Big Ten and win it every year,” Narduzzi said, referring to the Spartans. Michigan State was one of the best teams in the Big Ten in 2021, finishing in third place in the Big Ten East behind College Football Playoff-bound Big Ten champion Michigan and Rose Bowl champion Ohio State.

Well, that is certainly a bold statement to make for a head coach who owns a career record of 1-6 against Big Ten teams with five straight losses in head-0to-head matchups against the conference. After hanging on to beat Penn State in 2016 in the renewal of the in-state rivalry, Pitt has been outscored by Big Ten opponents 163-75. Penn State did a big chunk of that damage in a 51-6 rout of Narduzzi’s Panthers in Pittsburgh before a national primetime audience in 2018.

While it is fair to suggest Pitt was hurt by not having its Heisman Trophy-finalist quarterback, it should also be noted Michigan State was playing without Doak Walker Award running back Kenneth Walker III either. Both Pickett and Walker opted out of the bowl game.

Considering the kind of season Pickett had for the Panthers, Narduzzi may be right in believing his team would have topped the Spartans in last season’s Peach Bowl. But was Narduzzi subtly stumping for Pitt to make a move to the Big Ten? Nah, probably not.

Having Penn State and Pitt in the same conference would certainly be great for the in-state rivalry, which is now sitting on the shelf for the foreseeable future after the two schools completed the four-year revival of the series in 2018. There are no talks of the series being continued anytime soon and future scheduling and conference realignment changes are making it more and more challenging to see happening.

But if Narduzzi wants that smoke, it sure would be fun to see if he could back it up.

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Narduzzi defends the ACC: ‘People need to wake up’

Amid all the conversation surrounding conference realignment and the chatter about how the Big Ten and SEC are poised to dominate college football as a pair of “superconferences,” Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi recently took a shot at the Big …

Amid all the conversation surrounding conference realignment and the chatter about how the Big Ten and SEC are poised to dominate college football as a pair of “superconferences,” Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi recently took a shot at the Big Ten and Michigan State, where he served as the Spartans’ defensive coordinator from 2007-14.

Narduzzi’s Pitt squad and his former MSU program clashed in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl last season, with the Panthers falling to the Spartans by a score of 31-21.

“We talk about Big Ten and SEC and ACC. That was one of the best Big Ten teams last year, then let’s go to the Big Ten and win it every year. So I don’t want to hear about this Big Ten dominance and SEC dominance,” Narduzzi said on the Bazzy’s Black and Gold Banter podcast.

On Thursday at the 2022 ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte, Narduzzi was asked if he wanted to elaborate on those strong comments and explain why he felt that way.

“Not really,” Narduzzi said, laughing. “I guess it was a long summer.”

“You hear all these things during the summer about the Power 2s and all this stuff,” Narduzzi continued. “We’ll just start there. You know, we play some darn good football in the ACC, and I think people forget about it.”

Narduzzi went on to discuss the strength of the ACC and the strangeness of the 10-win season Dabo Swinney’s Clemson team posted in 2021 being perceived as a “down” year.

“I think Dabo made a comment yesterday about everybody talks about, oh, Clemson had a down year, and he is exactly right. People need to wake up,” Narduzzi said.

“How about the teams that are getting better? I think Pittsburgh is getting better, so we’ll start there. Again, any time you get — I’ve coached in the Big Ten for eight years, so I know it. I don’t know the SEC, so I’m not going to claim. I’ve never coached in the SEC, but I do know the Big Ten. I feel very confident — and, again, it’s not being arrogant. It’s just kind of knowing the landscape and knowing what we played against in the Peach Bowl, just would have liked to have our backup quarterback to play the whole game.”

“That’s just confidence,” Narduzzi added. “That’s no disrespect to the Big Ten or Michigan State. It’s just about Pitt and about the ACC.”

Narduzzi then clarified the point he was trying to make.

“I think ACC football is really, really good, and that’s really the comment there that I was trying to get across,” he said.

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Pitt Head Coach takes shot at Nebraska’s Offensive Coordinator

The Pitt coach wasn’t afraid to hold back in his critique of Nebraska Offensive Coordinator Mark Whipple.

It turns out not everyone is a fan of new Nebraska offensive coordinator Mark Whipple. On the most recent episode of “Bazzy’s Black & Gold Banter,” Pitt Panthers Head Coach Pat Narduzzi made several comments criticizing his ex-offensive coordinator, Mark Whipple. Narduzzi believed that Whipple was too stubborn to run the football and only wanted to throw, regardless of the situation.

“Our old offensive coordinator had no desire to run the ball. 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.”
The Wake Forest game he mentions was the ACC championship game, a game that Pittsburgh won 45-21. When you take a closer look at the stats, you also realize that Pat Narduzzi either has a terrible memory or an ax to grind with his former OC. Pitt did not throw the ball every down and actually ran more than they threw, with the Panther offense finishing with 38 rushing attempts to 34 passing attempts. You’ll also notice that Pitt did not average ten yards a rush but 2.9 yards a carry. So he was only off by seven yards a carry.
These comments are a far cry from the statement Narduzzi made when Whipple left.
“During his three seasons at Pitt, Mark Whipple was a great asset for our entire football program. He did a tremendous job transitioning us from a heavy run attack to one of the best passing games in the entire country.”
He doesn’t seem too upset about the playcalling in that statement, so what changed? Who knows, but the fact that Pat Narduzzi has been at Pitt since 2015 and is on his fifth offensive coordinator tells that maybe he has complicated relationships with his offensive coaches, considering he has trouble keeping any around.
The fact remains that Pitt’s offense ranked 8th nationally in total offense with 486.6 yards a game and averaged approximately 6.37 yards per play. The team went 11-3 and won the ACC, its first title under Narduzzi; so there’s no need for shots to taken at someone this many months away from his departure. If he was that unhappy with Whipple, it doesn’t matter. He’s not there anymore. There’s no reason to attack someone’s ability to perform their job properly, especially when you don’t remember any facts correctly.
Pat Narduzzi may not have been happy with Mark Whipple, but if the OC can reproduce those results in Lincoln, his current head coach will be very happy.

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Pat Narduzzi takes shot at Big Ten, Michigan State on local podcast

Pat Narduzzi took a shot at Michigan State and the Big Ten on a local Pittsburgh podcast

Most Spartan fans remember Pat Narduzzi for the fantastic years he gave East Lansing as the team’s defensive coordinator, helping bring MSU to the highest of highs during Mark Dantonio’s tenure. Narduzzi and his former school met in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl this past season, with MSU topping Pitt 31-21.

With all of the talk of conference realignment and many around the sport mentioning how the Big Ten and SEC are set to further dominate college football. In a podcast with local Pittsburgh sports host’s, Narduzzi took a shot at Michigan State and the Big Ten:

“We talk about Big Ten and SEC and ACC. That was one of the best Big Ten teams last year, then let’s go to the Big Ten and win it every year. So I don’t want to hear about this Big Ten dominance and SEC dominance,” Narduzzi said.

You can watch the full podcast here, with his Big Ten comments coming early in the podcast:

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Cory Linsner on Twitter @Cory_Linsner.

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Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi thought Saints drafted Kenny Pickett, broke bad news to Mike Tomlin

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi says he thought the Saints drafted Kenny Pickett, so he broke the bad news to Mike Tomlin, via @RossJacksonNOLA:

In the throes of the NFL draft one can imagine how hectic the night can get for a prospect. Especially when that prospect is one of the year’s top quarterbacks expecting to be taken on an action-packed Day 1. Not only can the eventful evening be a whirlwind for the player, but for the important people sharing the night with them.

That was the case for Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi when it came to the selection of quarterback Kenny Pickett. Narduzzi thought that Pickett was headed to the New Orleans Saints due to the Saints still being on the clock as the call came in to Pickett’s phone. Turns out, the Saints weren’t on the phone, the Steelers were.

“Then, my phone rings at 10:12; it’s Coach Tomlin,” Narduzzi said as he recounted the events. “And I’m like, why is Coach Tomlin calling me? So Coach Tomlin calls and he’s like, ‘Hey, did you see whose got him?’ I said. ‘Yeah, the Saints. You’re one off.’ He’s like, ‘No, we got him.’ I was like, no, I just saw — it was like we were in a movie. He was like, ‘No, we got him.’”

Draft day phone calls are a quintessential part of the experience. But they aren’t always the smoothest part of the process. Regardless of the confusion, Pickett and Narduzzi had their night made, as did the city of Pittsburgh who saw their hometown college quarterback stay home.

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Pitt coach claims Notre Dame reached out to Kenny Pickett

He’s as huggable as a cactus.

Kenny Pickett starred as Pittsburgh’s quarterback the last four seasons, turning into one of the best at the position in all of college football in 2021.

Pickett will now likely have his name called in the first round of April’s NFL draft, but could he have attended Notre Dame this past season instead of Pitt?

According to the Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi, a man who seems about as huggable as a cactus, Notre Dame reached out through the back-channels to try and get Pickett to play for the Irish ahead of the 2021 season.

Narduzzi was on ACC Radio on XM Sirius last week and made the following statement:

Is the NIL and transfer portal flawed?  No doubt about it.

Did someone tell Pickett he should transfer to Notre Dame?  Probably.

Did that someone have any actual connection to the Notre Dame football program?  I have my doubts.

Narduzzi is rivaled perhaps only by Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald when it comes to opposing coaches who spend far too much time thinking about Notre Dame and chooses to make allegations he then acts like he knows nothing about.

Notre Dame is set to play Pitt and Narduzzi again in 2023 at Notre Dame Stadium.

Related:

Notre Dame’s future football schedules and opponents

Pat Narduzzi discusses playing Tennessee in 2022

Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi discusses playing Tennessee in 2022.

Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi discussed the Panthers’ 2022 schedule Monday during the “The Huddle: 2022 Football Schedule Reveal” show on ACC Network.

Narduzzi discussed Pittsburgh’s second game of the 2022 campaign against Tennessee. The Vols are slated to play at Pittsburgh Sept. 10 in the Johnny Majors Classic at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“Tennessee will be coming up to Heinz Field and try to get a little revenge from last year,” Narduzzi said. “We watched them as they went through their season. That’s a great football team in the SEC and we’ll get to have Tennessee here in Pittsburgh.”

Pittsburgh defeated Tennessee, 41-34, at Neyland Stadium in the inaugural Johnny Majors Classic during the 2021 campaign.

The Panthers finished the 2021 campaign 11-3 (7-1 ACC) and Atlantic Coast Conference champions.

Mark Richt discusses Tennessee feeling ‘like they got it going on’ under Josh Heupel

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Pittsburgh head coach, player throw shade at Clemson

During Pittsburgh’s media availability on Monday following its 27-17 win over Clemson on Saturday, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi and cornerback Damarri Mathis were outspoken when discussing the Tigers’ 52-17 win over the Panthers in 2020. Per Johnny …

During Pittsburgh’s media availability on Monday following its 27-17 win over Clemson on Saturday, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi and cornerback Damarri Mathis were outspoken when discussing the Tigers’ 52-17 win over the Panthers in 2020.

Per Johnny McGonigal of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mathis said Clemson acted with “arrogance” last season when it didn’t take a knee in the waning moments of the blowout win at Death Valley.

Narduzzi was asked about that comment from Mathis and said “karma’s rough.”

“We try to do things with class here,” Narduzzi said. “Victory formation is a good formation, one of my favorites. It’s nice to end a ball game like that, with two minutes to go and no timeouts. Other people decide to do it a different way than what we do. But it will always come back to get you. Karma’s rough.”

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Uiagalelei reminds Pitt’s Narduzzi of one of his own

Kenny Pickett is enjoying arguably the best season of any FBS quarterback, but it wasn’t always like this for Pittsburgh’s signal caller. In his fifth season with the 23rd-ranked Panthers, Pickett has paced the ACC’s No. 2 passing offense by …

Kenny Pickett is enjoying arguably the best season of any FBS quarterback, but it wasn’t always like this for Pittsburgh’s signal caller.

In his fifth season with the 23rd-ranked Panthers, Pickett has paced the ACC’s No. 2 passing offense by completing right at 70% of his passes for 1,934 yards in six games. He’s thrown 21 touchdowns against just one interception heading into Saturday’s game against No. 24 Clemson (4-2, 3-1 ACC) at Heinz Field.

Compare those stats to Clemson’s D.J. Uiagalelei, and it’s not close. Pickett has thrown for nearly 1,000 more yards in the same number of games than Uiagalelei, who also has just four passing touchdowns and the third-lowest completion rate among starting quarterbacks in the league at 55.4%.

It reminds Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi of where his signal caller was early in his career.

“It takes time to develop a guy, OK?” Narduzzi told reporters Monday. “You look at D.J. and where he is now compared to where Kenny was as a freshman or a sophomore. There’s always going to be growing pains, and we are going to miss Kenny in a year, so it will be the same.”

Pickett has gradually developed to the level he’s performing at now. Like Uiagalelei, Pickett became Pitt’s full-time starter as a true sophomore in 2018 and completed 58% of his passes for less than 2,000 yards with just a 2-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio (12-6) that season.

He struggled with decision-making as a junior and even last season, combining to throw just eight more touchdowns (26) than interceptions (18) in those seasons combined, while his completion rate rose marginally into the low 60s. With four years of experience under his belt, Pickett has put it all together this fall.

Uiagalelei has largely stayed away from turnovers, throwing just three interceptions through six games. But while the passing yards and completion rate aren’t anything to write home about, Narduzzi said he senses more comfortability from Clemson’s quarterback watching him on film.

Last week, Uiagalelei had his most efficient game throwing the ball in nearly a month, going 21 of 34 for 181 yards and a touchdown in Clemson’s win at Syracuse. That 62% completion rate could’ve been even higher had it not been for a handful of drops by his receivers.

“It takes time to get in there,” Narduzzi said. “Every week, you see improvement, No. 1. You see (Uiagalelei) do more things. You see him evolve in some of the things they are doing. They are just getting him comfortable, and they are still finding ways to win.”

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Narduzzi talks Tigers, Tony Elliott and more

Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi spoke in length about Clemson during his press conference this week previewing the Panthers’ game against the Tigers at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Heinz Field. Narduzzi talked about Clemson offensive coordinator Tony …

Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi spoke in length about Clemson during his press conference this week previewing the Panthers’ game against the Tigers at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Heinz Field.

Narduzzi talked about Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott and his offense, defensive coordinator Brent Venables and his defense, and much more.

Here are some of the noteworthy comments from Narduzzi’s presser:

“So Clemson, you know, coming into town for the first time. Feel like they are in our division. Played them, this will be the fourth time in seven seasons. It’s like Syracuse; they are a crossover team, it seems like. Obviously a great football team, and I know they are not top in the country right now, but that doesn’t determine what kind of football team they have got. They are talented. You’re looking at I think the top scoring defense in the country. They are playing fantastic.

“Venables has got them going on defense, and offense they’re obviously missing Trevor Lawrence, I think a lot, but they still have got a ton of players on the field. Got a lot of guys that make plays that scare the heck out of you. And all it takes is one play in this series and one play in that series, and that’s all they need is explosives. They have had explosives against us before and we have to eliminate those and play great defense.

“And it will be the best challenge our offense has had all year going up against that defense. They are really good.”

Q. Tony Elliott is still the offensive coordinator there. Do you see the same schemes?

NARDUZZI: “Yeah, you see the same stuff. They do a lot of stuff. They do a great job of game plan. You are going to see binds, we are going to see crack-and-goes. We’ve seen one the last two years. I may jump off the stadium after the game if they hit another crack-and-go on us. I mean, there’s things that they consistently do through games, you kind of know. We obviously didn’t do a good job a year ago defending them. Tony does a great job. You know, I mean, they do a good job of putting the players in position to make plays, and they have got to make them. So he’s one of the best.”

Q. What makes their defense so good?

NARDUZZI: “Well, talent. It starts with talent. Schemes are schemes. But talent wins football games. Talent, you’ve got to have talent. It never comes down to the Xs and Os. It comes down to the guys out there making plays.

“And again, Brent Venables is a heck of a defensive coordinator. So he gives them that. He’s an emotional guy. They play with emotion. They play with effort. They get after it, and again, they are just well-prepared. They are smart.

“And it starts with their middle linebacker, No. 47 (James Skalski). He seems like he’s been there longer than Tre Tipton. He just continues to keep coming up, I don’t know how many more years he’s got left, but he’s the computer of their defense. He gets it going and he gets them lined up and they know what’s going on. They check a lot of things to formations, and it’s something we have to do a good job of game planning on the other side of the ball.”

Q. How do you feel your corners are playing? And D.J.—he is a guy with a big arm—is he going to test you down the field?

NARDUZZI: “He’s got a gun. He’s got a cannon arm. He’s got a quick release. He can run. We’re going to have to get him down when he does run the football. He can definitely test us down the field. They have some good schemes and they do some things to isolate you as a corner or safety. They are going to run the RPOs as good as we’ve probably seen since Western Michigan.

“So it will test our RPO defense and what we’ve learned from the past and how we can get better in the future. So he can definitely test you, throwing it deep, and I think our corners are playing okay. Damarri (Mathis) is okay, missed a sack last week. Not happy with some of the PIs that we are getting, but just got to calm down and relax and play good. But you know, that’s better than giving up touchdown passes and I think we gave up one deep pass—Marquis (Williams). These guys are big dudes. These guys are 6-3 across the board at wide out. I mean, you know, I remember walking down the sideline last year at pregame and was like, oh, my God. I mean, they are some of the most beautiful wide-outs that I’ve seen, and that’s a fact. A couple weren’t even practicing. A couple didn’t even play against us last year. We know (Justyn) Ross didn’t play last year. So they are scary. Yeah, they can test us and we are going to have to play really good at corner and that’s how they will beat us, with big plays.”

Q. I know you’re focused on this weekend, but you mentioned going down to Death Valley five years ago, a big upset. What do you remember from 2016? 

NARDUZZI: “Yeah, I remember winning. I remember (Chris) Blewitt — field goal. I remember our offense was explosive with Nathan Peterman and James Conner. Deshaun Watson was not easy at that time, either. That was another great player we played. You figure you played Trevor Lawrence twice and Deshaun Watson once and you play Venables’ defense that’s always, always good, and going to put their guys in position. We went down there and made some plays, and we have to do that at home this year this weekend. That’s what it’s going to take, an effort like that.”

–Transcript courtesy of E.J. Borghetti, Executive Associate Athletic Director/Media Relations for the Pitt Panthers

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