Narduzzi: 'Again, it starts with me'

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi met with the media following his team’s 58-7 loss to Notre Dame on Saturday. The Panthers ninth year head coach has now guided his team to a 2-6 start, the program’s worst since 1998. Here is a complete rundown of everything he had to say in the press briefing.

Narduzzi: Number one, Notre Dame is a good football team. We saw them two weeks ago against USC and they are big, physical, and athletic. I think we came out in the first half and played a solid first half. You’re down 17 and miss a field goal and get two picks defensively and you thought they were going you’re way. You didn’t move the ball as well as you obviously need to win a football game. Just a lot of plays out there we missed. Special teams, we start off with a punt return for a touchdown. Byron Floyd, a long snapper, has got a great chance of making a play and does what we ask him to do and he didn’t clean it up and didn’t get any help. I think we missed a tackle there, not exactly sure who. I know Byron was the first one there. In the first half, we give up seven points on a punt return. Our defense played solid. The defense was on the field way too long, another 10+ minutes in the time of possession ratio. And then we turned it over in the second half with four interceptions, you muff a punt inside the five-yard line, but you’re just trying to make a play and trying to make something happen and it turns the other way and you can’t. You gave up two touchdowns on special teams today, so give them credit, but we didn’t make enough plays.

Obviously the team is going through a tough situation right now. We’re not playing as good and got a lot of young football players out there. We’ll stick together as a football team and lock back in. We’ve got another great Florida State coming in and we’ve got to gather together and get going.

You said this isn’t a great situation you’re team is going through, why do you think that is?

Narduzzi: Well, I mean when you lose like you lost today and had a tough one last week, why is it? I’ll go back, as a football coach you lose a lot of good players from a year ago and you think as a coach you’re going to replace them and obviously we haven’t. Again, it starts with me. I didn’t do a good enough job coaching today. Put it on me and we’ve got to make plays. It just comes down to making plays and doing a better job coaching.

What is it about the road that has been so tough for this team?

Narduzzi: It ain’t the road. I’m not going to blame the road. It’s not the road at all, it just happens to be on the road. Christian started off the game pretty good, just some errant passes and some bad decisions, I guess. But it had nothing to do with the road, it has to do with us executing, us coaching, and making plays. In the second half we had way too many missed tackles, and you’ve got to give them credit. They’ve got a big, physical offensive line and we didn’t make the plays we needed to.

You failed to score off of two turnovers, what do you think led to that lack of execution off the opportunities?

Narduzzi: I’ll just go back to the first play of the game, we get sacked. There’s a crossing route and if you go back and watch it he’s wide open and he doesn’t see it. Again, there’s some big dudes in front of you and there’s a lot of thing sharpening out there. It’s just one thing after another and it snowballs a little bit, but we’ve got to make plays. They do a good job on defense. Give them credit. They beat down Southern Cal two weeks ago, had an open week, and had two weeks to prepare for us and were fresh.

You mentioned the missed tackles a couple of times and that’s been a problem all season, what do you need to do to get better there?

Narduzzi: Estime is a good back. He’s physical and they’re rotating three or four backs in there and give them credit. A couple of times there are some fit problems, playing a lot of young linebackers in there as well. I thought we did a good job. I don’t know what the rushing stats were at halftime, but we did a good job there and either just got worn out. We’ll see, I don’t think there were a whole lot of adjustments on their side. They didn’t do anything different, we just didn’t tackle as well. It’s mostly on the edge. I know the first touchdown was a crack replace and we didn’t get off of it fast enough. I’m not sure exactly why. The corner says he came in and took the guy and din’t know if it was a crack or he was running a crossing route and they got us there. We’ll see the fit on that. It’s just little things here and there, a play here or there, both offensively, defensively, and certainly special teams.

What do you think needs to be addressed to fix these fourth down problems?

Narduzzi: The coverage was good, the protection was good all game. Last season it was more punter issues and dropping snaps and we have not done that this year. It’s just a different way. Again, our coverage was good. I didn’t see exactly where the location of the hunt was. It probably wasn’t great, but it wasn’t awful. It’s not the reason. We’ve got guys there to make the tackle and it’s the same thing on kickoff return late where we got guys there to make a tackle and we overrun the ball and just take some bad angles. Sometimes good players do that to you.

Does part of that come with having to play a lot of freshmen?

Narduzzi: No doubt about. Jordan Bass is getting a lot of reps out there. Biles was out there today. We’ve got a bunch of young linemen out there playing. I thought Brandon George played really well today. He was physical and got a nice pick, so we’ll see exactly what it was. We’re playing a lot of young guys and again, nobody cares. That’s no excuse, but we’ve got to grow up. We’ve got four games to go and we’re going to come back and work on Florida State.

It feels like the Pitt offense and defense as two separate teams, what are you going to tell the team to start working together?

Narduzzi: We’ll stick together. We are one team. I can promise you that and those guys are together in there if you could walk through the locker room and see how they treat each other. It’s not that the offense didn’t put the effort in. They’re trying. It’s a good football team and they are together, I can promise you that. They are together and they will stay together.

What did you make of some of the instances where Christian and some of the receivers n to being in sync?

Narduzzi: You see a couple of them out there and I don’t know if it’s exactly the routes and the quarterback just throwing it where it’s not supposed to be. We’ll see the details there and probably have a better answer on Monday. We had opportunities.

You often talk about taking what the defense gives you. I think early in the second half your running backs only had six touches. Were they taking away the run from you guys or were you hoping to run it more?

Narduzzi: Up front, no one has really run the ball on them too much on them. They are pretty stout up front. They pay man free and got some guys up front and we had new offensive linemen in there. Terrence Enos getting his first start, I think he had like five plays going into it. We thought our best chance was to try to throw the ball against them and get first downs that way. We tried a little bit option so you saw a little bit of the option out there and some of you may have saw that on Tuesday in practice. Running ball up inside on these guys was something that, it’s something you guys would whine if we did that. I think there would have been bigger three and outs if we tried to run inside.

I saw you had a moment with C’Bo after the game. Are you willing to share what was said there?

Narduzzi: I love C’Bo and I love everybody in that locker room, I can tell you that. We wanted to pull him out of the game and I didn’t want him getting hurt. He would not come out. He said, ‘I’m going coach, I’m not coming out’ and I just said, ‘if you had gotten hurt I would have whooped you’, but I probably would have gotten my butt whooped. I just didn’t want him to get hurt because it was late in the game and it was not worth it. If he had gotten hurt at the end I would have shaken my head and said, ‘Coach Powell, why is he still in there?’ And he said, ‘Coach he won’t come out’. I just thanked him for his efforts. That’s who we got. They’re trying hard and I don’t fault their effort. We’ve got to do a better job coaching and we’ve got to find a way to muster some first downs early. Way too many three and outs early and it’s hard to win a football game when you don’t score. Nate Yarnell came in and made a couple of nice throws. We turned some loose for Nate and Karter Johnson had a nice catch and it was a great throw by Nate Yarnell. It was good him coming in relief and taking Christian. It was great to see Christian, a team guy, rooting him on on the sideline as well.

With a good team like Florida State coming in, does it help you press forward a little easier?

Narduzzi: I don’t know if it matters who we play or who it’s gonna be. You’re going to fast forward because you’ll put the tape on and I think they whooped somebody real bad too. They’ve got a great football team so we’ve got to come ready to go, regather, and get healthy and fix some bumps and bruises we got today and come back. I don’t think it’ll matter who we play, but we certainly got a great Florida State football team.

Was Nate coming in just about him getting reps?

Narduzzi: It’s about getting him reps and seeing what he’s got. He’s a good football player and we’ve got a lot of faith in him as well. It was just an opportunity to get Christian out of there and sit-down and watch a little bit. Christian is not bench. It was just a matter of giving Nate a shot to show what he’s got.