Frank Cignetti is back at Pitt as the Panthers' offensive coordinator, and he met the media for the first time on Wednesday.

Here's a full rundown of what he said.

Cignetti: It’s great to be home.

I remember the last time I stood up here, I talked about what a dream come true it was, and it’s truly a dream. It’s a blessing to be here, and when Coach Narduzzi called me, man, I was just so excited to get this process moving. I can’t say enough great things about the city of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh.

What was the biggest attraction - the city, Pittsburgh, the team, everything?
Cignetti: Everything. I was born in Pittsburgh. This will be the third time I’ve coached here. My father coached here. My brother coached here under Foge and Walt and Johnny Majors. I was here with Coach Gottfried and then Coach Hackett and Dave Wannstedt. My dad was here with Coach Hart. We always consider Pittsburgh home. Family is here. My parents still live in Indiana, Pa. I have two sisters that live up there in Pine-Richland, so not only for myself but my whole family - my wife Ellen and our kids - it’s a homecoming. And growing up with Pittsburgh being the city of champions, the greatest city in America for football and Pitt is it - I mean, what an opportunity to come back here.

And then being in the ACC the last two years and seeing what an unbelievable football program that Coach Narduzzi has built here and to be able to step into a championship football program - just unbelievable. Great opportunity, professionally and personally.

You mentioned a great opportunity. What excites you the most about the potential of this offense?
Cignetti: I’ll tell you what excites me the most. Pittsburgh is a football town. When you walk in those front doors every day, man, you know football is important. It’s not like that everywhere. This is the city of champions. So from a professional level, it is just awesome to be back in a football environment, where it is really important.

And then from the outside looking in, seeing what a great job that Coach Narduzzi and the staff have done building this football program - you know, there’s a reason why they won the ACC championship, man. They’ve done a great job recruiting, they’ve done a great job coaching, so it’s also a personal challenge to try to keep it at the level it’s at and make it better.

When you consider an opportunity, though, how much do you look at the personnel you’ll be inheriting? And what did you see when you looked at this team?
Cignetti: I’m so impressed. When you watch the tape, there’s good football players here. There’s really good football players here. Just watching the tape - and I’ll be broad in this - but so impressed with the job Coach Borbely is doing with the offensive line. When you think about Pittsburgh and the history of the offensive linemen in this program, you can see the carryover of the guys in the program now. Tough, physical, very businesslike.

When you take a look at the tight ends, Coach Salem has done a great job with those guys. There’s a tight end that kind of reminds you of the old Nate Byham. That’s a good position group.

When you look at the wide receiver group, my goodness, what an unbelievable group that Coach Underwood will be stepping into.

The running backs - talented. Coach Powell has done a great job with those running backs. Very excited. We are very excited to get a run game identity going here. Not that there wasn’t one in the past, but it’s just something where you look at it and we want to get this run game going. So when I looked at the offensive line and I looked at the talent of the running backs, wow, man, really excited. Kind of like when we walked in last time with the offensive line that Tony Wise had and the running backs that David Walker had, you know, with Dion and Ray - just excited to get the run game started. In fact, that’s what we’re meeting on this afternoon: we’re going to start on the run game.

And then obviously the quarterback situation. Nick Patti is a veteran and you get a chance to coach a guy that came here from USC.

So when you look at the offensive coaches and the offensive talent, it’s very promising.

Having coached a transfer at Boston College right away and someone you had to develop a quick relationship with, how much does that help when you step in with Kedon Slovis?
Cignetti: That’s a great question, but if you look at my resume, I’ve coached a lot of places. So I’ve had a lot of experience coaching new guys, you know?

We’ve always said this: the wins and losses will come and go, but the relationships last a lifetime. Truly, if you do this thing right and well, you’re going to build trust and relationships that truly last forever. I love the opportunity to coach new players, I love the opportunity to put them in position to be successful on and off the field. As the coordinator and quarterback coach, you have to get to know your guys, not only mentally but physically - what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses - and you go through the process.

So we’ve had a good chance to watch these guys on tape, try to get a feel for what they do well, maybe things they don’t do well and stay away from. It’s just a great opportunity to coach another group of guys.

The last time you were here, you came into a program with Dorin Dickerson at tight end. He scored two touchdowns before you got here and scored 10 touchdowns with you. This year, you’re inheriting Gavin Bartholomew; what have you seen from him and things that you think he does great and things that you’re trying to pull out of him?
Cignetti: First off, Dorin was an outlier. You know, you walk in here, you see a guy that’s very talented and it was a matter of just finding the niche, and the rest is history. Bartholomew is a good football player, man. Coach Salem’s done a great job coaching him as a freshman last year. As I watched the tape, I saw some Nate Byham in him - the toughness, the physicality, a guy I think could play on the line. But then I saw some Hunter Long in him - the tight end we had two years ago at Boston College that was a third-round pick with the Dolphins.

Can’t wait to be on the field with him. I see a lot of upside. I see a guy that could probably play - you know, when you talk about tight ends, we’re going to train tight ends on the line, off the line, in both the run game and protection phase, and a guy that could probably line up at any spot to create the matchups, whether it’s linebackers, safeties or you split him out wide and you get big-on-little on corners.

In terms of what the offense was the last three years with the verbiage and the playbook and all of that stuff, how do you transition in and help the learning curve be as small as possible?
Cignetti: That’s a great question. First off, you want to build a system that makes sense to the guys. You want to have great teaching methods. You want to keep as much the same as possible and then things that you believe in that you feel you need to change, we’ll make changes. As we make changes, there’s rhymes and reasons why.

Pat said you like to mold your offense to the personnel you have.
Cignetti: Certainly.

How long does that process take?
Cignetti: You do have a foundation of an offense that you teach, and then you watch the tape like we have the last couple weeks. I’ve sat down with the staff, we’ve looked at every position, we’ve looked at the players to try to get a feel of what we can do. Because we want to be great at things. We don’t want to be good; we want to be great.

Now that’s the advantage of spring ball, too. We’re going to get a chance to go through spring ball and we might find some things that we’re really great at and we will do more of, and we might find some concepts and some plays that, ‘You know what, that doesn’t fit us really well; even though it was installed in the spring, maybe it doesn’t make training camp installation.’

The last couple years, they’ve had a running back by committee approach to the running game. Will you look to find a lead back with Izzy or Rodney Hammond, or will you still stick with the running back by committee approach?
Cignetti: Well, it’s a really good group of runners. It’s going to be competitive. Every group, there’s going to be a lot of competition out there in each room. If one guy rises and he can carry the load, then he will certainly be the guy.

A running back by committee has its advantages. It probably means you have good depth, kind of like when we had Dion and Ray, you know, Ray got his at-bats.

Time will tell. For me to stand up here and - I have no idea. But we’ll know when we play the Backyard Brawl.

Following up your previous answer, do you feel like you’re great at anything right now?
Cignetti: Well, when you look at Pitt’s offense last year, they were great. What were they great at? I can remember watching tape when I was up at B.C. saying, ‘Wow, man, Kenny Pickett’s balling. That perimeter’s balling. The offensive line is doing a great job protecting. The run game was very effective when the run game was called.’

So yeah, I think there was greatness. I think they put greatness on the field last year, and we want to continue that greatness. And there are certain things we want to improve on.

I talked to Bill Stull about the UConn game in 2009 and I wanted to ask a question about your coaching style. He threw a pick in the end zone in the first half and he thought for sure you were going to scream at him at halftime. But you didn’t. What does that say about your coaching style?
Cignetti: Well, you know, I coached Pat (Bostick) and he could probably answer the question better than me. But I learned a long time ago as a quarterback coach - and I’ve had great mentors - my father, Mike McCarthy, they said, ‘Hey look, when you’re coaching the quarterback, always try to see it through their eyes. Ask them, what did you see? That way you can understand the decision that they made.’

Football is a really tough game. Playing quarterback is very difficult. So I’ve always taken the approach as a teacher that I want to put the quarterback in a position to be successful. In practice, we’re going to be demanding; on game day, we’re going to be cool, man. We’re going to be at our coolest, because those players, especially the quarterback, they need my help. We need to communicate very well together. I want those guys to have confidence in their preparation, in their practice, to be confident when they step on the field, and I’m not going to be reactive. I’m going to give encouragement, I’m going to try to help them play their best football.

Interceptions happen. For a lot of different reasons. It’s not always the quarterback’s fault. Sometimes it’s a tipped ball, maybe a lineman gets beat; there’s different reasons. But when bad things happen, you have to learn from it and you have to move on.

The offensive coaching staff has a lot of veteran guys that have been around. Have you crossed paths with them in the past?
Cignetti: I’ll tell you what, man. I love being around these veteran coaches, because experience matters and I can tell - you walk in that room, man, Coach Narduzzi has put a great staff together. I’ve known Coach Borbely for probably 30 years; Coach Borbely and my brother coached together at Temple and Rice. So they’ve gone back. When I coached at Cal-Berkeley, I think it was ’08, we actually tried to hire Coach Borbely.

Coach Powell and myself coached together at the University of North Carolina. What a great coach, great family man. Coach Salem has an unbelievable reputation out there as a great coach, great person.

So yeah, to walk into that room and have veteran experience, what it did for me, it really felt like I was walking into an NFL offensive staff, to be honest. Guys that were veterans, guys that were experts, guys that know their craft and are great teachers and very knowledgeable.

Are you an upstairs guy?
Cignetti: I’m an upstairs guy. Cool and calm, I like to be able to see it and dial it up.

You have a great view up there, like you guys do. You see the game, you see it well, you don’t get caught up in the emotions of what’s going on.

Do you see this being a true competition with Nick and Kedon, especially with the expectation of Kedon coming in?
Cignetti: I see it as a competition in every room when a new coordinator walks in. A new set of eyes being able to evaluate every position, not only the quarterback position. But yeah, I see it as a competition. Because the bottom line is, the best players will play. You practice, you compete and the best quarterback will be the starting quarterback. And we have to find out who that is by practice and competition.

How much have you talked to Kedon and Nick about coming into this year after such an explosive year for Pitt’s offense and the offense becoming something brand new after all the success they had last year?
Cignetti: Well, we’ve moved forward. We all recognize what a great year Pitt had last year, winning an ACC championship, Kenny Pickett having a great year. We’re on to ’22. This is a new football team. This is a new offense. We’ve got to move forward. We can’t look behind. Every day we’re in here learning the offense, learning the fundamentals and the techniques, so we haven’t really discussed too much about the past. I’ve been evaluating the tape to see what we have.

I know you’ll probably focus recruiting-wise on quarterbacks, but are there certain areas or states that you’ll also hit on the recruiting trail?
Cignetti: I don’t necessarily have a definite area yet. Certainly we’ll look at the quarterbacks, and I love getting out and seeing all the offensive players. But that’s something that Coach Narduzzi and Graham (Wilbert) will talk about and see where I go.