Narduzzi: 'Nice team win today'

Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi met with the media following his team’s 37-7 win over Virginia on Saturday. The win moved Pitt to 6-4 on the season. Here is a complete rundown of everything he had to say.

Narduzzi Nice team win today again. I thought our defense played outstanding again. I thought our offense moved the ball well. We missed a couple shots today, just underthrowing a couple of them that were probably touchdowns. We got to make those. We ran the ball well on offense, missed a couple shots but running it like we are we're going to have those shots when those safeties are getting down in the box. We got to find a way to hit those. And then just way too many penalties on offense today. Just drive killers. We continued in the second half with some nitpicking holding calls for whatever it's worth. We'll look at the tape. We got to be better, we just can't kill the drives with penalties. But I'm happy for our kids and getting another win in November.

When a team starts off a game with two interceptions, how does that change the vibe, plan, everything?

Narduzzi: “I would imagine if we were on the other side, it wouldn't change us too much. We'd just kind of stick with the game plan. I mean, it's not a great way to start for anybody, I guarantee you that. But it's great execution by our defense. Two zone pressures, two slightly different zone pressures that we did. We thought they might possibly come out and do what they did on that first play. We had a great defensive call. Coach [Randy] Bates did a great job and called a pressure that we normally call all the time and it was executed properly. I think it made [Brennan] Armstrong think a little bit, at least for the first half and maybe even the third quarter. Then he started to get hot and throwing some good balls. But again, great performance and that's how you start fast on defense.”

Have you ever seen a defense start a game with back-to-back interceptions?

Narduzzi: No. I’ve seen some first-play pick sixes, but not two in a row. That was a great way to start the game. Great plays by both of those guys.

What did you like from your pass rush today?

Narduzzi: It was kind of a follow up from last week. Coach [Charlie] Partridge yelled at his guys and said, ‘You guys play better when I scream at you and yell at you.’ So great job by the D-line. I think they probably had six of the eight [sacks]. And we're getting four-man pressure. It's like I tell the officials all day and even on one of their scrambles late in the fourth quarter, there's two holding calls that don't get called. Guys are getting tackled. I tell the officials everyday they can't block eight [Calijah Kancey] and they can't block eighty-seven [Habakkuk Baldonado]. They can't block them. Kancey was unbelievable.

This is your first game with no turnovers since Rhode Island. You’ve talked about that a lot. How big is that to protect the football?

Narduzzi: We’d probably be getting for the ACC Championship if we don’t turn the ball over. We’ve got a pretty good football team, but if you turn the ball over you’re going to get beat up. We were still in some of those games, but it’s details and I don’t know if our kids have noticed, but I haven’t talked about turnovers in two weeks. I stopped using the word turnover because we were focusing on it too much maybe and had it in their heads. So we did a nice job of ignoring and talking about turnovers.

Armstrong has been their most effective runner, and he only had two positive rushes today. How did you contain and bother him?

Narduzzi: Well I think those first two plays bothered him a lot. Our guys did a pretty good job and we’ve got a pretty good D-Line and the linebackers were doing their job. It takes eleven out there doing their jobs and the corners are pressed out there and there’s no free access. He just didn’t have that much room to throw, I guess.

What has Bub Means been able to do in recent weeks to make a name for himself?

Narduzzi: We missed a big one last week. We missed a big one, and he’s open and we’ve just got to make the shot. But Bub has been consistent all year. He got hurt in pregame at Louisville which could have been a big game. Bub is such an unselfish guy. I think back to camp in the first scrimmage he didn’t even have a catch and he doesn’t care. He’s like, ‘I don’t care’. He’s so unselfish. Last week he didn’t have a catch, and Konata has six or Jared has six, and sometimes they come in droves like that and I was happy for him. In that first long pass that 3 by 1, it went exactly how it was supposed to go. It was great play by him on that post route.

Aside from penalties, would you say this is your team’s first complete game of the season?

Narduzzi: Yea, but you can’t get rid of the penalties. You’d like to score more points and you have to score more points, but we were aided by 14 (from the defense) which made it a little bit easier, but I’d still like to see more points put up there.

What did you see from your O-Line today?

Narduzzi: I think OK. I think I told Owen it was like his first spring ball today, first scrimmage. He was OK, I think he had one holding, got beat and wrapped up. But I think there was some rustiness and he’ll get better as he gets going.

What was working so well for Kancey today?

Narduzzi: He was rolling with some great athletic ability. He’s so twitchy, and again he’s been good all year. I told you, he was the MVP of the North Carolina game for North Carolina’s victory, but he’s been like that all year whether he gets tackled, held…he’s hard to block.

You’ve had a lot of great defensive linemen here and at Michigan State, where does Kancey rank?

Narduzzi: As a D-Tackle, No. 1 without a question. I didn’t get a chance to coach Aaron Donald, but he’s one of those guys. I think everyone thinks they’ve got an Aaron Donald, but he truly is one of those guys that is hard to block.

You are bowl eligible for the fifth year in a row, what does that mean to your program?

Narduzzi: It doesn’t mean anything. It means we’ve got one more game against Duke, a much improved Duke. Coach Elko is doing a great job. But our focus is on Duke and not worried about being bowl eligible. That was not our goal going in. We figured we’d get there. If you go through that locker room nobody was celebrating like, ‘Oh yay we’re bowl eligible’. We want to go undefeated in November and that starts going 1-0 next week against Duke.

What did you see the play Morgan got ejected on?

Narduzzi: I saw that they threw a flag on number 51 (Furnish). I think there was some different language used out there that John [Morgan III] didn't take very well. He's got to keep his composure and let the officials take care of it. He threw a punch and he deserved to be ejected, period. You can't retaliate. I say it all the time, players play, coaches coach, and officials officiate. They made the right call calling a flag on 51, their starting center, and then we retaliated, which again is just not very smart. It'll cost you, it can cost you.