Here is Pitt HC Pat Narduzzi’s mid-week press conference for our game against VT this weekend in Blacksburg, VA, tarted up a bit for your reading pleasure.. It is a noon start on Saturday and looks to be a rainy day.
Official Virginia Tech Week Game Notes issued by the Pitt Media Dept.
PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO: Narduzzi Virginia Tech Preview
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT (HTML LINK): Narduzzi Text Transcript
Opening Statement:
“We had a couple practices last week to focus on ourselves and become a better football team. We’re cranked up. It’s always rough on a Saturday to watch all of those games and not being able to go out and play. I think our kids are anxious to get back on the field. We’re getting ready for a great football team down at Virginia Tech.
I’ve had a chance to watch not only the TV copy of their game but also film. They played in really rainy [weather] just like we did against Akron. The quarterback did a great job for them, [Brenden] Motley, especially in the rain which is hard to do. But, they did a great job with rushing the football.
“Coach Beamer and the Narduzzi name go back to when he was a head coach at Murray State. My dad was the head coach at Youngstown State so they battled a few times. I don’t know what the overall record was back in the day but I do know that they were friends. We face a great football team in a tough place to win. It’ll be another angry environment like we faced down in Iowa City. The Panthers will be ready to go.”
On having the word “OR” after each running back on the depth chart:
“I wish it was not “OR’s.” I wish number 24 [James Conner] was back there but he’s not. So obviously it’s just a work in progress and we have to go with the hot guy. There’s always going to be some “OR’s” on the depth chart because we talk the whole week to see who it is. We’ll find out who it is and all three of them are ready to go.”
Huh, I bet Hall, Ollison and James don’t feel the same way, they may be a bit pissed but they are ready to battle it out.
On freshman running back Darrin Hall’s start at Iowa:
“I think he did a good job. He didn’t run the ball like how we wanted him to run it but it was a good front on Iowa. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy to run the ball against them. I think he did a good job.”
On what conclusions were reached following a self-scout of Pitt’s run game:
“It wasn’t good enough. Obviously we’re missing some guys up front and we’re missing a great tailback that can make people miss. There’s just a lot of guys who don’t have a lot of experience back there. We have to get better and we have to keep pushing forward. We have to run the ball more effectively. When you look at it and you evaluate yourself, you have to keep moving up front. Alex Officer and Artie Rowell have to keep moving on the three-techniques and nose tackles up front. That’s going to be key. With the aggressive front that Bud Foster has, it’s not going to get any easier as you move through the ACC. Two of their best players are those two guys inside so we focused on that last week. Hopefully we’ll see a difference come Saturday at noon.”
If not we are going to have certain offensive linemen manhandled again.
On safety Reggie Mitchell’s status:
“I think Reggie is back and ready to go. He practiced last week and I think he’s feeling better every day. So we’ll be able to utilize him if needed.”
On his impressions of first-year offensive tackle Brian O’Neill:
“He is very athletic. I think he is going to be a tremendous offensive tackle. He’s still young and learning. He’s going to continue to get better but I like what we have there with him. He pass protects better than he run-blocks. He’s still light in the tail for an offensive tackle but I like what he gives us there.
Oh yeah? Here’s your ‘light in the tail’ back at you…
When you look at Jaryd Jones-Smith being out and bringing in a guy who moved from tight end to replace him, I’m happy with what he’s done. He has a great attitude and he’s giving us everything he’s got. That’s all you can ask for.”
On if being better at pass protecting is unusual for a young lineman:
“Well when you look at why—he’s a former tight end so he has good feet. He can get in front of people and we’ll need that this week against some defensive ends. He’s very athletic and light on his feet but you have to have that power. He has tight end power but he’s on the line. That just comes with time; it doesn’t come overnight.”
On practice repetitions at quarterback:
“We’ve been changing it up a bit. Chad [Voytik] is still getting his reps in. He ran for 118 yards last season against [Virginia Tech] so hopefully we’ll get him loose this year as well.”
On if Alex Bookser is better suited at guard or tackle:
“I think he can do both. I think he’s learning both and the nice thing is he is a swing guy. You can tip your hat to him as far as mentally just being able to do that—which isn’t easy to do. He can do both. He’s a competitive guy at both of those spots.”
On how you separate QBs Chad Voytik and Nate Peterman in the competition:
“You just look at the stats and look at what they did when they’re on the field. Nathan started off [at Iowa] and threw two picks and you say ‘darn.’ One of them was in the end zone, which was a nice play by the defender. We like to keep the ball out of there but he’s trying to make a play. Then Chad came in and didn’t have a whole lot of success moving the football team down the field.
That has to be part of it—it has to be shown on the field. Is it what Nathan did or maybe what Chad didn’t do? Is it the opportunities? And we’re still going to find out. It’s still a work in progress. When you couldn’t run the ball against a good Iowa defense, you had to throw it and Nathan did a good job of finding Tyler Boyd and Scott Orndoff and the guys he needed to in situations—and converting on fourth down—when he’s out there.”
On how valuable it was playing in an environment like Iowa to prepare for this weekend:
“It makes our kids more comfortable. They enjoyed that atmosphere and embraced it. I think they’re going to enjoy it this week too.”
On if he might use the second-string quarterback early in the game:
“It might just be for a play, just to sprinkle it in here and there. We’re going to try to stay with one guy but it might be a package where it’s a play or two or three in a row.”
On if the defense has played to his expectations:
“I don’t know if that will ever happen. They never had in my opinion. They played O.K. We still need to get more four-person rush on the quarterback, which we haven’t done. They’ve been solid but we just have to keep getting better. When you’re on the field with 44 seconds left to go, I expect to step up and be tough enough to stop it and have a turnover or a pick. We didn’t do that. As a defense, you embrace the opportunity to step out on the field. We didn’t do that last week and we’re going to get that cleaned up. They are doing well.”
On if Nate Peterman’s prior relationship with Jim Chaney has helped him this season:
“I don’t think so. It was so long ago that I don’t think it played a part in it really. I think everybody gets along with Coach Chaney. He’s just a very personable guy. From the offensive line to the receivers to the tight ends, I think they all enjoy being around him. I don’t think that’s a factor.”
On his interactions with Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer:
“Just with our time down at ACC media days, he’s another legend. We got [Iowa’s] Kirk Ferentz last week and then you’ve got Frank Beamer. He’s a legendary coach that we’re playing against. He’s just a class act from everything that I understand. I’m happy to go play against him.”
On if he’d like to still be coaching when he’s in his 70’s:
“I don’t know. We’ll see. I’ll play that by ear and see how my body feels.”
On what he’s learned about himself as a head coach through three weeks:
“Nothing at all. I mean, it’s coaching. It’s no different. You guys question if you call a timeout and try to freeze the kicker. I learn from you guys. [Laughter] I don’t learn a whole lot. It’s just one day at a time.”
Try this one on for size: Tied 17-17 in the 4th quarter on the road: 4th and 1 at IOWA 42 = PITTSBURGH Penalty, delay of game (-5 Yards) to the Iowa 47. Call Dave Wannstedt and ask him how well his decision to do that turned out.
On how valuable the bye week has been for the team:
“Sometimes it helps you, sometimes it hurts you. You never know. My wife will tell you I’m miserable sitting at home because you’re watching them play and you don’t get to go play. It’s always miserable in an open week when you’re coming off of a loss because you’ve got two weeks to sit with it as opposed to a week. You want to get back to work, correct it and bring your team back. It’s been good for us fundamentally. I think it’s been good health-wise as long as we continue to stay healthy through the week of practice, so I think that will benefit us. It’ll be a long stretch of nine more games to go where you don’t get an open week. I think our kids will be fine.”
…and who said Yogi Berra’s dead?
On if he has an idea of what the rest of the ACC has looked like so far this season:
“I really don’t look at it. We’re focused on Pitt and Virginia Tech. We’ll just take it one game at a time and really focus. Once you get into ACC play you start to see where things lie. Until you start to play these guys in conference, who really knows? Who knows how all the teams are? It seems like there’s a lot of parity out there. You look around and see ACC versus the Big Ten last week or the week before when some of the non-conference games were still going on. So, we’ll find out once ACC play starts.”
On if Virginia Tech’s offense is different with Brenden Motley instead of Michael Brewer playing quarterback:
“It’s a little bit more run. Virginia Tech is averaging like 205 yards rushing and 250 passing, so they’re going to get the yards. They have 450 yards of total offense that they’re racking up, but it’s a lot of quarterback runs. I mean a ton of them. Brenden Motley took most of the snaps last week. He’s a runner. He’s a big, physical guy that can throw the ball as well. There’s a lot of play-action passing.
They’re a power run team. You’re going to see power run from about 50 different ways. They’re going to line up in empty, bring motion into the box and run some type of power. They have different ways of running it every week. They’re going to spread you out and run Frank Beamer power offense. The Beamer offense used to be to line up with two backs and run power at you, but now they’re just doing it by spreading you out with a quarterback run. We’re going to have to play physical.
We’re going to have to be sound with our gap alignments and assignments and be physical with them. If [Motley] wants to be a runner, then we have to treat him like a tailback. He’s a big load and he’s gained a lot of yards. I think he’s their leading rusher as well, or second leading rusher. He’s a guy you’ve got to stop.
…and if he wants to be a Walking Back we’re ready for that too.
It’s always tough when you’re facing a power offense and you’ve got your backers out of the box. It’s usually not the case. They run more power than I’ve seen really of any team that I’ve seen over the last seven years running it in different ways. So, they’re a big power pounding team.”
On if he expected Jordan Whitehead to be starting at safety this soon:
“I never try to put that pressure on a kid. He probably could’ve started in the first game of the season, but I didn’t want to do that to him. I told his mom the same thing. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a kid. I never envisioned him being the starting safety come week two or three, but he’s really just progressing. He’s very intelligent and, again, he’s picked up the game of football and what we’re doing defensively. He’s running with it and I know Pat Amara and Jevonte Pitts and all of those guys are still practicing hard trying to get back. I think we used them all in Iowa, and we’ll probably continue to do the same.”
On if the defensive tackles are playing physical enough:
“Little by little we are. You’ve seen Tyrique [Jarrett] in there. We’re trying to get more out of K.K. Mosley-Smith. He’s a guy that just hasn’t been practicing as well, not like he was in camp. I thought he was a force in camp and in spring ball, and last week he was back. So I told him I guess he was on a vacation here for whatever reason, but I think he’s back. It all depends on what type of offense you’re playing against as far as how physical the defensive line can get. If they’re trying to be physical in the run game then you’re trying to get off the block or try to get to the quarterback in the passing game. They’ve been solid.”
Even so they held open tryouts at the Pitt Samoan Students Center…
On what specific things Nate Peterman has done to earn the starting job:
“He’s been throwing the ball well. He’s been very accurate. I want to say that I think Coach Chaney said he was 90 percent accurate as far as where he’s putting the ball. So if you can drop back with all the different formations and pass concepts we have, to be accurate with the ball is good. It’s accuracy, really. It’s where he’s (Peterman) putting the ball and his vision, finding the open guy and putting it where it needs to be. Accuracy has got to be the one thing I’d say is good.” Here’s what he actually means…
Peterman be like this: 
and Voytik be like this: 
On if Jameel Poteat will play linebacker or running back:
“He’s a little bit of both. He’s a slash. Last week he played a little bit of linebacker just getting back in the swing of things here. This week we’ll probably get him a little bit more tailback work. We’ll keep him polished at both.”
