Narduzzi: 'It's my ultimate goal to be at Pitt'
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It took a little more than six minutes for the topic to come up.
Pat Narduzzi’s Signing Day press conference on Wednesday started off being about just that: National Letter of Intent Signing Day and the two recruits Pitt added in the second signing period. And the first question Narduzzi took from the gathered press after his opening statement was about those recruits as well.
But the second question Narduzzi faced was a departure from recruiting; instead, it was about Tuesday’s news that Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio had resigned.
Dantonio was a direct mentor for Narduzzi and had him on his staff at Cincinnati and Michigan State for a period covering 11 years, and his resignation immediately started speculation about Narduzzi being a possible replacement.
Six minutes into his Signing Day press conference, Narduzzi was asked about that speculation and his possible interest in the job.
More than four minutes later, Narduzzi offered this affirmation of his current position:
“It's my ultimate goal to be here at Pitt,” he said. “That's where I want to be: here at Pitt. I came here to get a job done and we're just going to continue to move forward.
“Again, we couldn't be in a better situation here at the University of Pittsburgh. I mean, we really couldn't. I'm blessed to be the head coach here and count my blessings every day. That's kind of the way it is.
“I hope I answered that question.”
Narduzzi did answer the question - eventually. But in the four minutes between the question being asked and the answer finally emerging, Pitt’s sixth-year head coach talked at length about the decisions that recruits, players and coaches face.
And it was that preamble, a seeming indication that Narduzzi viewed the Michigan State situation as a decision to make, which prompted a follow-up question:
Would you like to squash those rumors?
“I thought I just did; maybe I did it in a bad way,” Narduzzi said. “The rumors - squash them, whatever you want to call it. That’s why I said, I’ve got decisions to make, too, and I’m here at Pitt and I want to be here at Pitt and that’s where I’m going to be. Pretty simple. I thought I answered it. Sorry, it must have been confusing.”
While it seemed “pretty simple” on Wednesday afternoon, there doesn’t appear to have been that clarity 24 hours earlier. Pitt Director of Athletics Heather Lyke said that she spoke with Narduzzi over the phone on Tuesday night, as did Chancellor Patrick Gallagher and several members of the University Board of Trustees. But the situation doesn’t seem to have been resolved at that point.
“You know, the reality is, you have to sleep on things in life,” Lyke said. “So, yeah, I felt, you know, he - these are decisions, career, family life decisions you don’t make in an hour. So we talked and met again this morning.”
Even Narduzzi acknowledged there was a decision to make, explaining that it was much easier to summarily dismiss interest that came from Rutgers last fall. Michigan State, where Narduzzi enjoyed considerable success and ultimately built his reputation as a coach, was a tougher option to decline.
“You know how much success you had at another place and you enjoyed it, too; if you didn't enjoy it, you wouldn't have stayed there for eight years,” he said. “There's always that pull. Like I said, it's not an easy decision. It's not easy for Jaylen Twyman to say, ‘I'm not leaving, I'm staying’.
“When it comes down to it, it's about the people. I know what I'm dealing with here at Pitt. I know every day when I call up Heather Lyke and say, ‘How about this?’ She's going to say, ‘We'll get it done.’ I just know that. I don't know that about anyplace else in the country like it know it here.
“Maybe I didn't know it when Heather got here, but I certainly knew it about a month after she got here that she's real. And the same with the chancellor.”
While Narduzzi may have been considering his options, he did offer some clarity to certain parties. As rumors and speculation were circling on Tuesday, kicker prospect Ben Sauls, who had committed to Pitt with an intention to sign on Wednesday, reached out.
“I get a text yesterday about 4, 4:30, I don't even know what time it was,” Narduzzi said Wednesday. “‘Hey Coach, do you have a second to talk?’ It's from Ben. I'm like, ‘Oh, shoot.’
“So I call him, and as I call him, I'm listening, it's ringing, ringing, ringing. And then as I got on the phone, I said, ‘Ben, I'm going to FaceTime you.’ As old as I am, you can push the FaceTime thing, you hit that little thing and then all of a sudden it goes from talking to him to FaceTiming him. So I FaceTimed him because I wanted him to look me in the eyes and know, ‘Hey, I want you to see me. I don't want to just hear you.’ I wanted him to see who I was.
“Again, just talked to him about what the situation was. He asked me flat blank what you’re asking, like, ‘Hey, what's going on?’ And obviously he signed today.”
Narduzzi left a gap in his recounting of the conversation, but Sauls told Panther-Lair.com that there was plenty of certainty in the discussion.
“His message to me was that it was all rumors and he wasn’t going anywhere,” Sauls said. “He said he’s at Pitt to win a national championship.”
And ultimately, that was Narduzzi’s message on Wednesday. Before questions about Michigan State wound down and eventually gave way to more recruiting talk, Narduzzi was asked if his goal is to one day become a head coach in the NFL, and he responded by dropping the word most associated with recruiting:
Committed.
“I want to win championships here. That's our goal. We've got a great football team coming back. Don't underestimate that. I'm excited about our players. Our players are committed and their head coach is committed.”