I hope Cam Johnson can stay healthy, he might be my new favorite player.

Pat Narduzzi Press Conference

Duke Week

PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO: Narduzzi Duke Preview

PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT (HTML LINK): Narduzzi Text Transcript

Opening Statement:

“Here we go again, right? It’s good to see you all again. We’re coming off a tough loss and we put it to rest last night with our kids. Two [losses] in a row and we have a little losing streak going. Notre Dame was obviously a good football team so give them credit. We didn’t play as well as we needed to and we need to clean things up. We have three ACC games left and that’s really where our focus is. I kind of mentioned it going into the game that Notre Dame was a big game, but remember, they’re not part of our conference. I tried to make them play loose and go but, we have to give them credit.

We’re focusing on Duke, another really great football team. They’re very solid and Coach [David] Cutcliffe is a heck of a football coach. He really has them playing well—probably not as well as he wanted them to last week. You know North Carolina is a team that is [ranked] as well. But, they ran and passed for a lot of yards and they’re very good on offense and defense. Our kids have to play a lot better than they did last week to go on the road and beat Duke.”

On Duke’s defense against UNC:

“I know what North Carolina has—it’s a big [Duke] rivalry with them. I haven’t watched that entire game, I was watching cut-ups of it. When you have some guys out of place, they [UNC] make you do some things you don’t want to do, it’s not easy to defend. They have speed and they have position—that’s why they’re undefeated in the conference. They’re a good football team and that didn’t surprise me.”

On things he picks up on watching defensive line film and the unit’s fundamentals:

“Do you have an hour? There’s all kinds of stuff. Some of their footwork is just not where it needs to be, some of the little checks that the guys are making and aren’t getting them. But just looking at the D-line footwork: sometimes we made what we call a take move where they go from this gap to that gap, and he’s supposed to take a nice short step because they’re moving towards him. If you take too big of a step, you go two gaps and that becomes a problem; now you have two open gaps. So there’s little things like that we need to clean up. I can go on and on but that’s one of them. Just your pure footwork, zone plays where defensive ends are working out instead of in. Maybe you could have had a pass rush but not necessarily for the run. We want to stop that run.

I just guess more footwork and leverage if I could name a few things without getting into a coaching clinic here. But, just plain leverage and them being firm at the point of attack. I can be nit-picky and go crazy in there. It’ll get me fired up.”

On how challenging it is to correct those issues in-season:

“It’s not easy, it just comes down to fundamentals. You can do them right in practice, and then go out in a game and things happen. All of a sudden they get a run on you and sometimes you see a guy where they’re trying to overcompensate. It is alignments and all little things that the guys have to do right. They’re still learning. It takes a while to get everyone on the same page.

I’m talking coaches and players. It’s those little things that I think our guys are still trying to figure out because every week you can have all these different defenses, and as simple as we think we are, there’s a bunch of different offensive formations, backward sets and ways of blocking you that they have. You have to adjust to them all. You don’t have much time either. They line up and Duke will be probably a little bit faster than what North Carolina was.

North Carolina was a fast-tempo offense coming into our game. We really slowed it down and looked to the sidelines to get them in a good call. Duke has shown some pretty rapid snaps once the play is over, they’re snapping somewhere between eight and 12 seconds. If you put on enough tape and watch it, when the chain gang hasn’t set the chain yet and they’re running a play, you know you’re seeing a fast tempo offense. Duke is really speeding it up.”

On if the defense was more fundamentally sound against earlier opponents compared to the last two games:

“It’s different offenses really. I think different offenses are really going to steer you a different way, but I would say in Virginia Tech we did do some of those things. As the season goes on, guys have to pay more attention to it. There’s going to be things people see on tape and say, ‘Hey, let’s do this. Let’s do that.’ Some little things that got us in Syracuse, didn’t get us there because of another problem. You know? That’s the way of football.

That’s not something that’s just happening here, you see that every year no matter where you’ve been, where someone is trying to take advantage of this or see that. We corrected some of the Syracuse things, then something else comes up. It’s all based on the people too. It’s all based on who that tight end is, who that back is, where they lined their zone at, whatever it may be is what we try to do.”

On if these past two losses against Top 25 teams are measuring sticks:

“No doubt about it. I told them last week we’ll find out if we measure up. Obviously we don’t. We saw some deficiencies in spots where we need to get better at. We’ll address that in recruiting. Just watch Jordan Whitehead go make some plays. I’m not sure if I said it last week, but we watched the highlight tape of some of the great plays that Pitt has had against Notre Dame through the years. The thing I kept seeing was tailbacks making plays and making people miss.

You have to have a guy back there who can be a playmaker. When you watch what Jordan did, it’s not some of the power game that he has but more so the speed and ability where he can hit a small hole and get vertical and get in the end zone. Those are the things we need. We can’t wear Jordan out because he’s a defensive player and that has a lot of pounding. You definitely see those measures.”

On if Jordan Whitehead could move to offense full-time:

“No. I think he’s a great player on defense, too. He’s made a ton of plays back there and if we don’t have him back there then I wonder what the yardage and points looks like. He’s a guy that I think can do a little bit of both—a lot of defense and a little bit of offense because I still have a lot of faith in Qadree [Ollison], Chris [James] and Darrin [Hall] and the quality of those guys to go get the tough yards. It’s a change-up.”

On what prompted the staff to finally play Whitehead on offense:

“We made the decision last week when I told Coach [Jim] Chaney, ‘You got him.’ Of course Coach Chaney was like, ‘Huh? I do? Really?’ But he’s been begging for him and earlier in the season we just couldn’t afford to do it. He had so much he needed to learn on defense. But at this point, I think he knows what he is doing on defense. He has a pretty good grasp of what he has to do back there. We had some reps up in camp where we put him in there. It’s been a slow process but again, we’re focusing him on getting good at one thing and then instead of watering it down, I think he can do everything well. I think that’s key.”

On concerns about the physical toll playing offense would take on Whitehead:

“It is [a concern of mine]. I think a safety is a little bit different of a guy than a receiver. Safeties are contact players anyway, not to say that receivers are not contact players. They block a little bit but they don’t come down and smack you in the hole. Jordan had a couple nice tackles on Saturday but he’s a physical player compared to a receiver. He’s more like a tailback safety as opposed to a wide receiver/cornerback. A different animal I’d say.”

On the season and staff being judged on the result of these last three games and if that’s a fair evaluation:

“Well, we’re going to get judged on every game. Ultimately, you’re going to be judged on the last game you have. Is it fair? I mean, you guys can judge any way you want. We have to internally look at where we are, what we did, how we did it, and how can we do it better. Then move on to the next process. We evaluate ourselves every day. We evaluate ourselves every Sunday when we sit as a staff and figure out where and how are we, what are we doing, and what can we do better to get there. To me, you’re going to be judged on the last three games, no question about it. That’s the nature of the beast. I guess.”

On if he is pleased or displeased with the progress right now:

“About right in the middle. I’m not pleased, I’ll never be pleased unless we’re undefeated at the end of the season. But, I‘ll never be pleased. I can’t say I’m disappointed because our kids play their tails off and they never quit. I’ll be disappointed if they shut it down. They show all the way until the end. Our guys are continuing to play and I think a couple of our guys got tired on defense at times with the tackling and I put that on us as coaches. We need to sub them out and get a fresher guy in there and it’s on us. Our kids have too much pride that they don’t want to tap out and say, ‘Coach, I need a blow.’

They just want to tough it out which I told them it’s not smart to do that. If you get exhausted and play your tail off for five or six plays, and you need a blow? Get out of there and we’ll have another guy come in. I think that becomes mistaken because they’re trying to be tough guys [which is what we’re trying to preach] but you also have to be smart. You have to be smart to go, ‘Hey, I think that guy that backs me up can come in and give more than I’m giving right now.’”

On worries about a player like Whitehead playing both offense and defense:

“You have to be worried about it. You have to be worried about what you’re doing with that guy but you know, we have Reggie Mitchell back now, so that gives us a little bit of help [at safety] and Pat Amara. So we have some guys that can step in.”

On if Terrish Webb, Pat Amara Jr., and Reggie Mitchell can cross-train to the strong safety position:

“Absolutely.”

On who stands out from that group:

“I think they’re all about the same. I think probably Pat Amara is the guy who has played a little bit more of both. Reggie moved back into the field spot. But we’ll see how practice is this week.”

On how to address some of his team’s deficiencies:

“Again, if you go back and watch the tape like I have, and you watch—I don’t know if you guys noticed this—we put Avonte Maddox on their best receiver. Avonte usually plays the boundary. We put him into field, which is where Will [Fuller] lined up most of the time. We put Lafayette [Pitts] in the boundary and really it was a good match up. It was smart for us to do. But even when you watch the plays that Avonte got beat on, I’d do it all over again. I wouldn’t change a thing. I’d put him there because I have a lot of faith in him. We just have to play with better technique. Will Fuller is a smart football player and a very good football player. I’m talking blocking-wise, too. You see some of the little things he does with his blocking, he’s a complete guy because he finishes blocks, too.

When you watch them run down the field side-by-side, I don’t think I saw Avonte not be right where he needed to be. We have to win more at the line of scrimmage and play with a little bit better technique. Don’t open up the gate, you know? There were times [Maddox] just said, ‘Here you go,’ and let [Fuller] run up the field. You can’t do that. He was able to catch up to him and get on his hip, but technique is where it comes.

“We’re going to try and get our matchups and we have to make plays. I mean, it comes down to making plays. As you watch the tape offensively and defensively, I think we had six or seven drops on offense, and defensively we had guys that were in a position to make plays—whether Avonte has that ball in the end zone, he came off the field and said, ‘Coach, I had that ball,’ on the fade. He’s right there, but does he make it or not? I think they called a touchdown before they could even see who had the ball. But you have to make plays out there.

Whether it’s a tackle, a sack—which we did get some hits on the quarterback but not as hard as we’d like to—but we did make a few plays where we missed a lot. Our job as coaches, if they run a screen to Will Fuller and we have guys right there, well we have to make a play. It’s not like you’re going, ‘Where is everybody at?’ We have guys there, but we need to finish the play and make it. Sometimes that’s easier said than done when you have an athlete like [Fuller].”

On Duke’s running game:

“Duke has a great running game. Up front, they’re physical, they play with good technique and leverage. They’re well-coached. Coach [John] Latina has the O-line and [is the] run game coordinator. They’ve been doing it for a while. They have continuity on the staff and they know what they’re doing. They’re very similar to North Carolina, very similar to the Notre Dame type of run game. Obviously there’s different guys running and blocking and a different quarterback, but they like to run the football. From what we’ve seen on tape, they’re going to continue to run the football from the tape I’ve seen.

Our guys are going to have to step up and do things and we have to clean up the details. That’s the great thing about coming back. We’re going to see really three weeks in a row the same type of spread offense, tight end in the back field, lining up in trips, lining up in two-by-two’s where our guys are going to have an opportunity to do the same things over and fix problems we had. That’s why it’s so critical. We spent probably an hour-and-a-half to two hours just watching tape of the previous game just to clean up the problems we had so the players understand. Watching that tape and cleaning up the last game is important.”

On if watching previous game tape can interfere with this week’s preparation:

“No. The cleaning up is preparation for the next game, without a doubt. If it was preparation for a Thursday game maybe we wouldn’t watch as much, but there’s no better tool than watching game tape. None.”

On the running back rotation:

“I think we’re mixing and matching what each guy does, trying to get guys on the field. They all can do it all. They can do it all, but is it as good as you need it to be? Well find out in the next three weeks. I think they’ve all gotten better. I can tell you that. I think Chris James has gotten better, Qadree [Ollison] has gotten better. Darrin [Hall] hasn’t gotten as many reps. I’d say he’s hit a little bit of a [freshman] wall here late in the year. We’ll be okay.”

On what adjustments can be made with the offense when there are mistakes:

“Slap them on the butt and say, ‘Get it going, let’s go, make a play.’ I don’t know. Just have to stay with them. It’s game day and it happens.”

On quarterback Nate Peterman’s performance against Notre Dame:

“When you look at it, he wasn’t as accurate as he’s been. He could’ve put some balls in some better spots. All along what’s the difference? He’s really been accurate. He wasn’t as accurate Saturday as he’s shown. That was part of it. If he puts it out a little bit in front of him here or there, or a little lower there, then he probably would’ve had a little more success. But nobody’s perfect.”

On his team’s emotional response from two straight losses:

“We’ll find out tomorrow when we get up and get ready for practice to see what the mentality is. But they were good in the weight room yesterday. They know they have three guaranteed games left and we’ll take it one at a time.”

On if strength coach Dave Andrews is his personal “get-back” coach:

“He is my get-back. He’s got my back. My wife said, ‘I’m glad Coach Andrews is next to you when you’re talking to those people out there on the field. I’m glad he’s standing next to you to make sure you’re safe.’ So, he’s like my bodyguard. He likes to do that.”

On if he finds himself more involved in the game now as a head coach than he did last year:

“Well, yeah. If you’re on the sidelines for four quarters, you’re more involved in the game itself. When you’re up in the box you’re kind of in a bubble up there. I always tried to open the window, but we had some coaches that would get cold late in November and they wanted the windows closed. I’m like, ‘You’ve got to get them all open.’ Open up the windows. I don’t care if it’s ten degrees out. I get to be out in the weather now.”

On if he ever tries to calm himself down:

“Oh yeah. Sometimes, yeah. Just so I don’t have a heart attack.”

On defensive end Ejuan Price:

“He’s important. I talked last night when all those seniors are sitting in the front rows here. Seniors have to play great their senior year, and to see Ejuan step up and make a few plays…”

“I mean, he hadn’t played for two years and there are some things he still needs to clean up, but he does a lot of good things. He gets to the quarterback at times and sometimes he’s not there as quickly because he’s doing other stuff that we don’t want him to do. He makes plays. It’s important. He’s a Woodland Hills guy that hasn’t had a lot of opportunities through his career here. We’re affording him that opportunity and I think he’s having fun. He’s always got a smile on his face.”

On if Ejuan Price can get a sixth year of eligibility:
“If he wants one, yeah we’ve talked about it. You don’t do it until after the season is over, but we’ll try. And I think he wants one, he told me he’d like to come back. That means he can sit in the front row two years in a row. So we’ll see how that goes.”

Obviously I’ll still comment because I can do that in short 3 minute bursts.

@Justin—We need a new thread. Time for “Know Your Enemy”

H2P

Guess they must not have read the Blather!

I think HCPN motivates the troops to bring home a W this weekend.

If we lose and UNC wins, then we are out of the running for the Coastal title.

We win vs Duke and the Coastal title is still in sight.

Defeat Duke in Durham.

HTP!

6’9 Johnathan Williams 9.7 ppg 7.1 rpg
6’10 Kyle Wiltjer 16.8 ppg 6.2 rpg
6’11 Domantas Sabonis, son of Arvydas, 9.7 ppg 7.1 rpg
7’1 Przemek Karnowski 10.9 ppg 5.8 rpg
7.1 Ryan Edwards coming off a RS

I’m hoping for a respectable performance, win or lose. Those five giants will dwarf our front court.

Run & gun may win it for us.

Wait – don’t we play Slog Ball?

Emel- yes St Francis does have a football team. When I was 12 or so I went to a game with a friend who had a brother who played there. So few people attended they had my friend and I hold the yard markers. It had the atmosphere of a junior high game.

Yes Chaney sucks. His most used formation, 2 TE’s an H-back, a fullback, a tailback, and 1 WR’s going in motion is archaic. It’s 3 yards and a cloud of dust. Chaney blames his players for not enough explosive plays. The field is 50 yards wide Mr Chaney, when you only use a 1/3 of that the defence follows suit. The only way your getting explosive plays out of that formation is to hand the runner a stick of dynamite. 3 yrs at Tennessee, 2 years at Arkansas, let’s keep the countdown going 1 year at Pitt.

Narduzzi’s presser mentions coaching a couple times, but mostly player deficiencies.

Hard to recover when a team comes out of the gate and embarrasses you.

I think the coaches need to take a little pressure off the kids and put it on their own shoulders.

No flea flicker question by the press, gutless.

Well we are going to see if Ododa & Maia can play with the big boys for sure.

The Zags aren’t Gannon.

Good story about the Red Flashes.

I will give credit to Chubbs for getting Boyd in the backfield as I and a couple others suggested. And Whitehead too.

Now you have to create plays to get those two in….space…where they just have to get one defender to miss and they’re off to the races.

Since Chaney said he’s like to throw to the RB’s, I like to see some passes to Boyd and Whitehead, out of the backfield, trying to get a matchup mismatch on a much slower defender.

Also I know this won’t happen, but this would be a neat formation.

Have a full house backfield, three abreast in the shotgun formation with….Peterman, Voytik and Boyd. You could then snap it to either of the three and run all sorts of crazy plays from that.

We still haven’t put a full ‘best’ O and ‘best’ D together. If we can do that I think we could beat anyone on our schedule including Iowa, NC and ND… because I don’t think their players are all that much better save maybe ND’s kids.

I think that regardless of the final W/L tally at the end of the season – Narduzzi has to take a good look at how his staff approached this first season.

Again, not real impressed with Chaney’s game planning and in-game play calling.

I hear Narduzzi talk about the coaches doing a better job all the time. He’s answering the questions he’s asked.

I also don’t really see how ND came out the game and embarrassed us.

We dropped a ball in the endzone that should have made it 7-7 midway thrugh the first quarter and and threw a first down INT in ND’s endzone on that could have made it 14-14 two series later.

Instead we kicked an FG and had a turnover.

The UNC game was tied 3-3 after the first quarter and we could have been up 10-3 except for drops. How is THAT coming out the gate and getting embarrassed?

ND scored on their first series in 1 minute 11 seconds. UNC on their first drive of the second qtr scored on 5 plays with 87 yds. Syracuse 2 plays 75 yds, GT 3 plays 75 yds.

All I am saying is coaching shares the responsibility. Saying we will recruit to fix the problems is an unnecessary slap at the players, saying to ask Coach Chaney why he benched Ollison is not good leadership. He is the boss, the buck stops with him. I have not heard him take any personal responsibility, other than to say we are working to get better.

A coach should never admit publicly that they have better players than us, even when true.

Not saying he is “not my fault Walt” and these thing may be just blips in the learning process. But if he is asking others to fess up and learn from their mistakes so should he.

I disagree with playing Maddox one on one with Fuller.

The only reason you call it a dropped ball, was because it was Boyd. The interception was thrown into double coverage.

I think they have given up on the running game way to soon in games and obviously do not practice it enough.

Forty-two passes vs UNC was wrong, and can’t simply be blamed on Chaney, Narduzzi is the boss, Chaney works for him.

It is just my opinion. I hope they all do better, players and coaches, starting on Saturday. If they don’t Narduzzi should step up and take his share of responsibility.

It is not enough to say his players have to get better, he needs to say “I have to get better”

Not saying he is right for doing it … but I wouldn’t doubt one bit that it is exactly what he telling these recruits

Needs a couple more O-linemen in the pipeline too.

Lot of empties in Blacksburg. I think there may have been more GT fans there than Hokie fans. That’s what happens when you lose.

PITT please be respectable against the Zags.

had to look that one up.

I actually went to the earlier version of Woodland Hills—Churchill Area. Our football team sucked.

H2P

As an avid college football fan (I say that because I realize there may be a few Blatherites may just follow the Pitt games, and the rest of CF casually) it’s true all over the country.

First off, this is not an excuse for the yellow seats at Heinz not being filled. That is embarrassing, no doubt.

But yes, even in the SEC. Kentucky, Vandy, Arkansas, every year after the first game or so, 1/2 empty stadiums.

Any team you pick on the wrong side of 6-6 at the very least, you’ll see empty seats.

Even the great and powerful Gators of Florida. Had about 4 or 5 years of so so football, and even a losing season, guess what

there were several games during their losing year that the upper decks of Florida Field were practically empty.

Same thing with pro sports. Never see it on tv, but Jacksonville, Houston, Miami, Buffalo etc. etc. when losing, half empty stadiums.

(I guess Buff and Mia are doing ok this year?)

I think losing is the major problem, but there is a secondary issue going on also, even when teams are doing so-so or ok.

Cable tv, warm home, warm lazy boy, snacks 15 feet away no lines, restroom 15 feet away, no lines. People are getting more comfortable just staying home.

Guilty myself. Got offered a couple Penguin tickets last week, great seats, blue line I believe.

I made up an excuse. Just wanted to get home from work and relax. Enjoyed the game on my couch and watched Hogan’s Heroes afterwards!!! LOL

A place Sinatra, Dino and Sammy would have felt at home. Wonder if it is still there??

Beulah Road I believe???

While I really like Narduzzi, some of you with the hero worship are setting him up for the major fail.

He and We, have a long hard road ahead of us. Have you looked at our list of verbals? Have you looked at our schedule for next year? Have you looked at the rest of our schedule for this year? Have you looked at the empty yellow seats?

While I really hope that Narduzzi is the Man, there is an huge pile of work to do, and many major hurdles to overcome.

A win tomorrow would be very large.

*fingers crossed emoji*

I can attest that the Fountain Room was still there in 1997 because I had my wedding reception there, not sure about today though. Did a quick google on it but didn’t see any current info.

I played at ‘Wolverena’ back in the early 80s when it was Turtle Creek’s home field (before the merger). Turtle Creek was one of the teams the ‘Warriors’ (prob wouldn’t be PC now) of Lawrenceville Catholic actually beat consistently.

12-0, National Championship, whatever.

They are never going away. We don’t have the alumni numbers nor the fan base for a 65K seat stadium, or maybe it’s 70K now with the additional seating added?

We just don’t.

PSU, Notre Dame, WVU, ya sure. Maybe a big game with Florida State or Clemson, ok, or a big national team that is scheduled ok.

But, for the other 4 or 5 games a year, we’re getting 35-45K at best.

Youngstown, Syracuse, Boston College, Virginia, UNC, next year Villavova, Marshall??

Some can rewrite history and stack numbers and fudge numbers, but I was there for every single game in the 1970’s.

Nothing has changed. It’s still the same.

It’s almost eerie.

At Pitt stadium. PSU, ND, WVU, yes, sold out.

There was never 60K to watch Syracuse or Army.

Heinz Field upper decks, are the end zone seatings of Pitt Stadium, even during the glory years.

Pitt Stadium, besides PSU, ND, WVU were almost the same every single week.

Both sidelines pretty much full, both end zones very sparse. If a decent team came in you might get some people in the end zone where the hospital helicopter used to come in a land. What was that, South endzone??

That’s it.

not that The Pete was built (love that place), it was always that his answer to the football question was a 65K seat pro stadium.

What was/is the answer?? I don’t know, I don’t get paid $600,000 plus??? a year to have that answer.

Maybe to have re-done Pitt Stadium and maybe easier to find a place for The Pete on campus somewhere else? I have no idea.

Play Penn State, Notre Dame and WVU twice a year at home I guess.

LOL

But, project your mind out 20 years…………

then slowly reel it back in over an imaginary Pitt football schedule,

can you ever see a 55K-65K full Heinz Field over the course of a full 6-7 home game season in the future?

In your mind??

Nope. Yellow seat embarrassment is here to stay no matter what Pitt does.

Damn shame. Cringe worthy everythime I go to a game.

Real cringe worthy on tv I’m sure.

I do think winning and developing rivalries in the ACC will improve attendance overall.

Hah, yeah the Fountain Room and yeah Beulah Road. I think that it is gone. And, you are right about the clientele. Kind of a spillover place from Churchill Country Club and Penn Hills.

When are we getting a new thread? Justin, save us.

H2P

We are getting way off topic here. But, while we wait for a new thread—being a National Historic Landmark is irrelevant if an owner of a property wishes to demolish or significantly remodel it. The structure is only “protected” if easements have been placed on it, which usually happens because of some sort of tax credits.

H2P

I’m not bitchin’ about an on campus stadium or anything like that.

I’m not even bitching about attendance and I’m not comparing our attendance to anyone.

We are who we are. We’re a smaller enrollment, therefore, not as many alumni, throw in a pro sports city,

40K is who we are. I’m proud of those 40K.

However, I can’t let the yellow seat thing go.

It stares me in the face every time I walk through the gate.

Haven’t seen a home game on tv in awhile, but from family and friends, it’s even worse when the camera’s catch it.

Why not some sort of dark blue tarps, maybe they
spell out Hail to Pitt.

Maybe for instance, even just the three or four
sections on both ends, both sides.

Leave the middle open.

Make it a little more confining???

dont feel bad, i thought pitt was playing va tech again! lol.