PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO: Narduzzi YSU Preview

Opening Statement:

“It’s game week finally. It feels like it, I can tell you that. Had to go out and see Rob [Blanc, Pitt’s athletic trainer] yesterday and get some Tums. That’s normal game week for a football coach, get Tums to make yourself feel good. We obviously have a great team coming to Pittsburgh to play us, Youngstown State. We have a lot of history with them, as you guys know. Not only a great football team, but a great coach in Bo Pelini who’s been around and coached great football teams, been to the last eight bowl games with nine-win seasons for a bunch. He’s probably one of the top coaches in the country with a great staff. From the top down, just like us with Chancellor Gallagher. A great football team, with great talent.

“When you look at it, you’re going to have some Division One transfers [at YSU], some pop-ups, some guys on the rosters that we didn’t have on the two-deep, some [Power Five] transfers. You’re going to play a good football team that’s going to be amped up, ready to go without question. You get twelve [game] opportunities. They don’t give those back. We have to be prepared—great on offense, great on defense. We need to be special on special teams to come out with a victory.

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Here is the shortened version of the official Pitt vs Youngstown State University game that will be played at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh on Saturday, September 5th.  The game begins at 1:00 pm.

Here is the full .pdf of the same game notes put out by the Pitt Athletic Media  Department.  There is a ton of info here and it has been helpful to me to have a copy by my side as I watch/listen to the games.

GAME STORYLINES

PITT OPENS ITS 126TH SEASON OF INTERCOLLEGIATE FOOTBALL—AND THE PAT NARDUZZI COACHING ERA—WHEN THE PANTHERS HOST YOUNGSTOWN STATE AT HEINZ FIELD.

NARDUZZI MAKES HIS PITT DEBUT FOLLOWING AN ACCOMPLISHED EIGHT-YEAR TENURE AT MICHIGAN STATE (2007-14) AS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR. UNDER HIS DIRECTION, THE SPARTANS WERE THE ONLY TEAM TO RANK IN THE NATION’S TOP 10 IN TOTAL DEFENSE AND RUSHING DEFENSE EACH SEASON FROM 2011-14.

NARDUZZI HAS DEEP TIES TO YOUNGSTOWN AND YSU. HIS FATHER, THE LATE BILL NARDUZZI, WAS THE PENGUINS’ HEAD COACH FROM 1975-85, LEADING THEM TO TWO NCAA DIVISION II PLAYOFF APPEARANCES, INCLUDING THE 1979 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME.

PAT NARDUZZI WAS A STARTING LINEBACKER FOR HIS FATHER IN 1985, LEADING THE OHIO VALLEY CONFERENCE (OVC) IN TACKLES AS A FRESHMAN AT YSU.

YSU WILL ALSO HAVE A NEW HEAD COACH ON ITS SIDELINE IN BO PELINI, WHO SPENT THE PAST SEVEN SEASONS LEADING NEBRASKA. LIKE NARDUZZI, PELINI IS ALSO A YOUNGSTOWN NATIVE.

NARDUZZI (URSULINE) AND PELINI (CARDINAL MOONEY) STARRED AT RIVAL YOUNGSTOWN HIGH SCHOOLS. IN THEIR LAST MEETING AGAINST EACH OTHER, URSULINE ROUTED MOONEY, 35-0, IN A GAME THAT DECIDED THE 1984 STEEL VALLEY CONFERENCE TITLE.

PITT’S ADDITIONAL YOUNGSTOWN TIES INCLUDE DEFENSIVE LINE COACH TOM SIMS, WHO COACHED AT YSU FROM 2010-14.

GRADUATE ASSISTANT PHIL DECAPITO, A FORMER PENGUINS G.A. FROM 2012-14; AND FRESHMAN TAILBACK DARRIN HALL, WHO STARRED AT NEARBY AUSTINTOWN FITCH HIGH SCHOOL.

THIS WILL BE THE FOURTH ALL-TIME MEETING BETWEEN PITT AND YSU. THE PANTHERS WILL LOOK TO AVENGE A 2012 SEASON-OPENING LOSS (31-17) TO THE PENGUINS.

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Sorry, despite being a Sunday night I was out for offline activities and couldn’t do this last night.

I won’t lie. That Therran Coleman had West Virginia, Wisconsin and Arizona State among his final five choices makes his decision to come to Pitt just a little more sweeter to me.

Coleman made the announcement on local Pittsburgh TV. Not too much drama to it.

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Coach Narduzzi is going to post the official Youngstown State game two-deep roster tomorrow.  Here is what I guess, from reading other media reports, who we’ll see listed going into Saturday’s game

OFFENSE

Quarterback – Chad Voytik, Nate Peterman

Running back – James Conner, Chris James

Tight end – JP Holtz, Scott Orndoff, 

Wide receiver – Dontez Ford, Quadree Henderson (Slot Receiver)

Wide Receiver – Elijah Zeise, Zach Challingsworth

Left tackle – Adam Bisnowaty, Aaron Reese

Left guard – Dorian Johnson, John Guy

Center – Alex Officer, Gabe Roberts

Right guard – Alex Bookser, Alex Officer,

Right tackle – Brian O’Neill, ??

I’m a self-professed idiot when it comes to the OL but Rowell hasn’t practiced at all as far as I can tell so he may not go against YSU. His replacement, Alex Officer, sliding over to Center will create a starting role for newly baptized ex-TE OL rsFR Brian O’Neill.  Great! Someone who has never played on the OL in his entire football career starting in this Saturday’s game.

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Recruiting info can be nebulous, confusing and contradictory at the best of times. How about around midnight on a Saturday night?

Pittsburgh picked up a really talented PG in JUCO star Jonathan Milligan (@MiLli2uP). Will have 2 years of eligibility. Reports Tuesday.

— Jason Jordan (@JayJayUSATODAY) August 30, 2015

Jason Jordan is a sportswriter for USA Today  covering high school sports.

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This is a very long one folks; enjoy it for your weekend reading pleasure.

As we all know that in any Pitt pre-season there is nothing even remotely negative written about the team, players and the coaching staff by the local media, especially with a brand new head coach such as we now have. The only straight opinions you’ll get will be from some local bloggers and maybe a recruiting website that follows the Panthers. Keep that in mind while you read this article please and realize there is certainly some good about this team to go along with the not-so good…  like the ‘good news’ media has been feeding us all preseason.

We all have thoughts about what’s positive with Pitt in 2015; here are my thoughts about what I see and feel. Earlier in the pre-season we mentioned that we would hold off on a season W/L projection until fall camp had ended.  Now is that time and here’s mine.

We are a week until the start of the 2015 season and the real beginning of year one of ‘The Narduzzi Experiment’.  We’ve been getting camp reports, scrimmage stats, leaks about this and news about that and we have all been doing what fans always do at this point. We are wondering just how good or how bad the team in going to be this year.

Every season is a blank slate to start anew, especially with a shiny new Head Coach and his eager staff coaches. Those new additions add another layer of mystery and excitement for us when looking at what will happen over the next 12 weeks.  What it does also is add a new layer of concern, and to some fans, worry because of the unknowns with the staff.

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(Read Chas’ piece posted this morning before this one please)

It has come at last, today is the final day of the 2015 Fall Training Camp.  We’ll have one final press release regarding the practice and then we’ll get some interviews like always.  After that “Cry Havoc and let loose the dogs of speculation”

What have we learned?  I have an in-depth article in draft that will address that question.  But for now here is the latest from Pitt on Wednesday’s work the team put in (after the videos and Kickoff info).

As Chas mentioned in his latest piece, last night was the annual PITT Fan Fest held at Heinz Field.  Here are the players and Pitt families with their kids interacting on a nice Pittsburgh almost-football weather evening.

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I don’t know how I had myself convinced that college football began this evening, but I did. Way too much wishful thinking. I am very sad. No, wait. I blame it on some medication mixed with alcohol. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Justin asked a very good question regarding negative recruiting.

Is it negative recruiting to show recruits exactly what a coach said publicly? https://t.co/TvUyv8NIIo

— Justin W. (@NFLGimpy) August 26, 2015

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Fan Fest was last night, which signals the end of training camp. Practices now, are ostensibly about getting ready for the first opponent. While most of college football begins this weekend. Pitt has an extra week.

In a way this is good. As eager as I am for Pitt’s season to start. To make the trips to Pittsburgh and see my friends. It is the end of summer, and this extra weekend allowed me to avoid major screw-ups because I forgot when Pitt’s season begins and scheduled other things. For example, I don’t have to disappoint my daughter by cancelling at the last minute on a nighttime 5K we are doing this Saturday (only downside is watching college football all day without drinking).

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(From the Pitt LiveWire Practice #15 Press Release)

MULTIMEDIA: Pitt Live Wire Blog

VIDEO: Coach Pat Narduzzi

VIDEO: Defensive Line Coach Tom Sims

VIDEO: Defensive Tackle Tyrique Jarrett

VIDEO: Defensive Tackle Khaynin Mosley-Smith

Coach Pat Narduzzi

Opening statement:

“Saturday we had a nice scrimmage. We stayed pretty healthy getting through that, which is obviously always a main concern. You still hit, but you try to stay healthy. We had some big hits out there as well, but it was a good scrimmage. We got a lot done and we’ll just try to get three percent better today.”

On balancing keeping players healthy while getting them ready for the season:

“There’s some guys you need to see and there’s some guys who’ve made an impact already. You try to protect those guys, and there’s some guys who need work. There’s a fine line, but you have to go out and work. It’s just like the pros in preseason games. I mean, the guys are going to go out and you have to play. I didn’t watch the [Steelers] game, but I’m sure Ben [Roethlisberger] didn’t play the whole time. So you’re getting the guys that need to get reps and find out who your two-deep is going to be as you look at the season.”

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Pitt had its final scrimmage of camp Saturday and Rivals.com compiled the stats for that matchup between our Offense and Defense.  This is from a free article on their website and I thank them.  I also would like to remind all Pitt fans that Rivals.com does a superb job of following the team and the program, especially on its subscription service.  So, I give them credit and thanks for this type of detailed info.

No great surprises during the play really, it was a practice scrimmage with the ‘star’ players held out for the most part.  This last week of camp is for winnowing down the players until a two-deep lineup presents itself.  I think Narduzzi will announce that later this week.  Here are the stats from Saturday:

RUSHING

Qadree Ollison – 21 carries, 58 yards
George Aston – 6 carries, 19 yards
Stephen Ezekoye – 4 carries, 7 yards
Rachid Ibrahim – 1 carry, 0 yards
Nate Peterman – 3 carries, 7 yards
Chad Voytik – 2 carries, 6 yards
Darrin Hall – 1 carry, 3 yards

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Parents visiting for a week. Kids heading back to school this week. The usual chaos of the transition of activities.

How about a terrifying concept of the worst case scenario for this season?

PITT: Can technically start the season with losses to Bo Pelini, Terry Bowden, and Kirk Ferentz. Good God.

My sphincter clenched upon reading that.

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The Football Writers Association of America has been around for 75 years. They have been picking All-Americans since 1944. To honor their own existence they released their 75th Anniversary All-American Team.

A few Pitt players made the list.

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You all never answered the question I asked toward the end of the last article.  That was: “What do you as fans want to see taking place in camp, the week’s practice before the YSU opener, and then through the first game?”

Would it  be more competition at a positions?  Better play from the O or D?  Narduzzi issuing the two-deep ASAP?  Longer  videos from actual practice sessions so we can see the individual players in action?

Let’s hear your views and opinions… it doesn’t have to be limited to the above questions but anything that jumps out at you.  Make it the whole season, 2017 recruiting, Heinz Field suggestions, ticket availability, is Pitt a BB school? etc…

You get the drift.

P/S: Chaney closed the door yesterday on any starting QB changes at this time:

“Guys, here’s the deal,” he said to reporters, his voice full of conviction. “Chad is the incumbent starting quarterback, and he remains the starting quarterback at Pitt.”  The confusion may have stemmed from coach Pat Narduzzi’s reluctance earlier in the day to discuss his timetable for naming a starter.

“I haven’t thought much about it, to be honest with you,” he (Narduzzi) said.  Narduzzi has no plans to change quarterbacks, but he doesn’t want to create the impression that the previous season’s starter automatically gets the job.

That’s about what every Pitt fans save the Dark Night and UPitt figured the stance in camp would be and it’s the way things played out so far.  Let’s hope both kids shine in camp so to be ready for the season.  Keep in mind that Voytik has never been a good camp/practice player so if we keep hearing reports of him ‘not being sharp’ or ‘having an off day’ it doesn’t really mean much.  If he loses the starting position it would be after playing poorly in games, not on the practice field.

Now, the real question is whether Narduzzi will pull a DW/TG and never play the QB2 unless it is an emergency.

My gut tells me we’ll see a ‘soft’ rotation in some games where Chaney gives Peterman to get sharp in a game situation and air the ball out.  That might be predicated on big leads so lets hope that happens also.  Either way it is nice to at least feel that we have a competent back-up in place.  That wasn’t the case over the last seven years or so.

Nate Peterman’s guns (Rivals photo)

With two solid weeks until the staff and team break out of camp and start their game week preparation for YSU it’s safe to say that we are seeing some certain things shaping up.

Of course a starting lineup hasn’t been announced yet but from the various local media reports and the Pitt Media Dept’s Pitt LiveWire website we are getting some idea of a few position battles that are getting a bit hotter as the camp progresses.

Jerry DiPaola of the Trib Review has a nice Pitt Locker Room blog article on this subject a couple of days ago and we referenced it a bit in the last article.  Here are some significant battles we should keep our eyes on.  Remember – this is how things look now on defense but with a new staff and a defensive minded HC things could change pretty drastically:

Defensive End: Right now it would be Shakir Soto and Ejuan Price as the starters; transfer Allen Edwards and Rori Blair in the two deep, along with newly minted DE James Folston rotating in. Narduzzi was waxing eloquently the other day about former LB Folston and the speed he’s now bringing to the DE position.  Folston is a rsFR who has a 4.6 40 time which is pretty good for a LB/DE but I think his jump off the snap quickness is his strength and what the defensive staff likes at that end position.

As much as I’d like to think Price will stay healthy and be a big contributor I just can’t. So for me the progress of Blair is paramount.  He gained some weight after last season and is listed going into camp as 6’4″ & 240 lbs but I wonder.  he still appears thin but who knows what kind of heart and desire he has.  Sometimes the intangibles mean a lot more than height, weight or 40 time.  Let’s hope he gets back from suspensions and works his way back into a DE starter.

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