Well, here is Coach Narduzzi’s first personnel discipline test… or at least the first that we know of.  Chas posted the basics, this article will look at the issue from the administrative side.

Old news by now but reports came out stating that on early Saturday morning at 2:35 a.m. our 20 year old star WR Tyler Boyd was stopped while driving and placed under arrest.  Here is the quoted Borough of Jefferson Hills affidavit on the case as researched and posted by Dean Kovacevic on his sports blog:

Your affiant, Sergeant John O’Leary, is a police officer employed by the Borough of Jefferson Hills. On June 12, 2015, at approximately 0235 hours, affiant was traveling north on SR885 in a marked patrol unit and observed a dark green black Ford Fusion bearing PA registration (I’m redacting this) traveling south on SR885 enter the northbound lane of travel and pass the vehicle ahead of it as that vehicle was turning right onto Wray Large Road. The lane change was made within an intersection immediately after the crest of a hill and the operator of the Fusion did not signal the lane change.

Affiant effectuated a traffic stop in the 100 block of SR885 and identified the operator as Tyler Boyd per his PA photo driver’s license. In conversation with Boyd regarding the violations, affiant smelled the moderate odor of an alcoholic beverage about Boyd and asked how much alcohol he had consumed this evening. Boyd said he had “two shots” but did not start drinking until after the NBA Finals game he was watching on television ended. He estimated this time to be approximately 0100 hours.

Affiant determined Boyd to be only (note: I’m guessing he said “20 years old” here) and administered a PBT that was positive for alcohol. Boyd was placed under arrest for DUI (Minor) having been deemed to be under the influence of alcohol to a degree he was unfit to safely operate a motor vehicle.

That is the nuts and bolts of it. It is pretty basic really.

Had it been anyone other than a person who lives in a media lime light such as athletes, entertainers, politicians, etc… we would never have known about it. However, Boyd is smack in the middle of that spotlight due to his immense talent and immense worth to the PITT Panther football team.

At first glance it is easy to look at this situation and brush it off as something kids foolishly do, and it certainly is something that probably millions of underage college students have done since higher education started.  No bad attitude, no violence, no crime being committed against others, just a kid making a very stupid decision.

But because of that high visibility and the fact that this is PITT’s new Head Coach Pat Narduzzi’s first incident of this type he has to deal with that he’ll have to administer discipline on a student athlete it separates a bit from other incidents of this kind.  Add to that the fact that Narduzzi is in his first head coaching job and that makes what he’s faced with doing a new experience for him.

This is when Narduzzi will set a precedent on what type of level of adherence to the university’s internal standards and regulations and to the external local civil laws he’ll demand of his charges.  Not an easy or nice situation to be in soon after being hired.

Also, because of the program’s ups and downs of the last six years other situations like this will be discussed and whatever measures are levied by the head coach will be compared to our past head coaches.  Just as subjects like football operations, the games themselves, recruiting, etc. that are purely football related are compared through the eras of other head coaches it will be natural to do that here sooner or later.

An aspect of this case that is a relief, at least for us fans and others outside looking in, is that the crime itself is relatively benign and no one was affected or harmed other than the player himself and, perhaps in the reflection of this incident, the PITT football program just a bit.

For right now the questions are how should Narduzzi handle this, how will he handle this and how this incident can be used as a teaching moment for Boyd’s teammates and future PITT recruits? Regardless if we agree with what he finally does or not the decision made by Narduzzi is going to set a tone for the program.

Like anything else in sports people’s opinions are all over the map on what he should do.  I’ve read people suggesting answers from making Boyd run the steps at Heinz field to a two game suspension in the beginning of the season (YSU and Akron).  (Unfortunately, based on past PITT performances with those two teams winning the games might be a bit tricky without Boyd.)

Both ideas are pretty far apart in seriousness and personally I hope Narduzzi finds a medium in between that all concerned can live with.  So, let’s take a minute and look at the situation dispassionately so we can see the trees inside the forest.

There are really two different disciplinarian issues involved in this.  The civil laws and the local judicial system’s application of those this is one. The civil authorities will execute their responsibilities hopefully with no regard one way or another in Boyd’s status as a star player.  Again hopefully, there will be no formal charges.

Regardless that is completely separate from what the University of Pittsburgh’s responsibilities are here. What is awarded (or not) by the civil system should not have any effect on what the University does in applying its own internal discipline.  PITT has its own policies and has to work inside those.

In my mind it is early enough in the year to levy a suspension for either a week or two of fall camp, or not starting or playing in the first quarter of the YSU game.  Something along those lines, but I’d lean toward the lesser and softer punishment if I was in his shoes given what we know right now.  Had this incident happened in the fall after the season began Narduzzi’s hands would be tied a bit as his options would narrow down to something to do with Boyd’s participation in a game.

For anyone else on the PITT roster, with the exception of Boyd and Conner, sitting out any part of a fall camp could mean the difference in what position that player would hold on the depth chart coming out of the camp.

The punishment of taking a start away from a player may sound like no big deal but these kids also get compared by how many ‘games started’  they have in their college career and especially how many consecutive starts they had.  It means a bit more for the reputation if a player can say he started every game since he was a true freshman.

All this adds up to the fact that Narduzzi is going to have to set a disciplinarian precedent for his time at PITT with his decision on Boyd’s predicament and will have to keep along those lines as other issues crop up.

So, do something formal, not so punitive that it affects Boyd’s football or student path, and let the rest of the team know he (Narduzzi) is serious about the ramifications of players breaking the law and what his reactions are going to be toward it.

In Other Notes:

The Trib has an article by Rob Rossi asking if Narduzzi may ‘have the right stuff“.  His opening paragraph addresses what he thinks is Job One for the new  head coach…

The new football coach at Pittsburgh’s university has to win games, certainly more than he loses. Definitely more than for just one season. And probably, eventually, at least one in January.  But even if he pushes Pitt to prominence, Pat Narduzzi won’t automatically qualify as The Right Guy.

He must do more than win games.  The Right Guy will convince Pittsburgh to embrace Pitt football.

That might sound obvious but it hasn’t really been done for decades.  I can’t say that even under Majors and Sherrill did the citizens of Pittsburgh ’embrace’ PITT football.  It is a huge task and one that will necessitate a HC who stays longer than three or four years… and who consistently wins games and the occasional championship.  Narduzzi may be the one but I can’t shake the feeling that PITT football will always be a way point for head coaches to establish themselves and then move onto bigger stages.

Sticking with the Trib, Kevin Gorman has an article that talks about the history and relevance of the annual Big 33 game. Since PITT has Big 33 alumni on our roster all the time this is pretty interesting.

Here is this week’s Rivals.com’s Chris Peake’s podcast.   In his continuing series of podcasts Chris is addressing a different position of the team and a different opponent on the ’15 schedule each week. This week he starts off talking about the OL and if it will be as good as advertised.  He also has a blogger from the University of Virginia on to discuss that upcoming match.

He aslo talks about what Issac Bennet’s life was like on the streets of Tulsa, OK when he was involved in drugs and the life that came with that. Bennett changed his life around during his senior year in HS; religion played a big part in that, but it was a tenuous position not to slip backward.

Bennett said that without the scholarship offer from Todd Graham to play at PITT he’d have been right back into that life and that his four years at PITT left him changed as completed as a better man. Chris Peake will have an article on him on his Pantherlair website which might be behind a paywall.

As I have said before, if you are a PITT fan who wants all the info and opinions you can get then taking an hour to listen to these podcasts, past podcasts are available also,  is a great way to get that PITT Football fix.

BTW – Chris Peak updated the ‘commitment dates” that were missing from Macvitte and Butler’s listing on Rivals after that confusion about verbals the other day.