Pat Narduzzi met the media on Friday to preview spring camp, look back at the offseason and more.

Here's a full rundown of what he said.

Narduzzi: Good to see your faces again. It seems like it’s been forever. I hope, by the end of spring ball, maybe we can do an in-person. But you look at the ACC basketball tournament, what’s going on there, we’re not out of the woods yet, as you guys know. It’s something I’ve emphasize with our kids with COVID and this pandemic that seems to keep running on and on. You hear about Ohio State shutting down, Duke shutting down this week - it’s still going. It’s still ongoing. So that’s a constant battle, as you guys know.

We just finished our Iron Works program for the winter conditioning, which Coach Stacc and his crew did a tremendous job. I think our kids made a lot of headway in their not only strength and condition, but discipline-wise, just some of the little things we’re doing in there, our kids have loved what we’re doing in that program. And again, it’s that development in the weight room this time of year that’s going to help us win games in November. I think that’s important. And we’ll have another phase after spring ball when they get into summer term one. So we’re excited about that.

Obviously spring ball, we’ve been really excited. Everybody gets excited for spring ball, but this year I think, in particular, just not having it a year ago, and probably I’ve talked to half the guys on the team, 30 or 40-minute meetings with each guy on our football team, and just the development we lost. I think about the quarterback position where Kenny was developed already but we really couldn’t find who that number-two guy was. Then you look at some of the linemen that just lost a spring, then you get into fall camp and it was kind of an abbreviated fall camp, the summer wasn’t where we wanted it to be. Just a really odd offseason. We’re hoping to have kind of a consistent offseason program, a normal offseason program, as we go.

So I think spring ball, if we can get our 15 days in, we’re going to be a lot better football program when that ends. So spring ball is coming.

Obviously Pro Day next Wednesday, we’re excited about our guys coming back to town. Some of them are here already, so we’re excited about that. I believe it will be on some type of network where you’ll be able to see.

I’m excited about our two new coaches. The first one that we hired - and we’re happy for Rob Harley in his exit to be a coordinator at Arkansas State, it’s a great opportunity for him and his family, it’s something he’s been wanting to do for a couple years and finally had that opportunity; when you have good coaches, people are going to come get them and they got a good one in Rob Harley and we got a great one in Ryan Manalac as well. I’m excited about him.

I’m excited because I’ve got so much time with him back when he played at Cincinnati and coached with us at Michigan State. It’s been an easy, easy transition, as easy as you’re going to get at the linebacker position. That was something I was looking for, if we could the right guy, is the smallest transition you can have, the better, so he fits right in with us defensively.

And receiver coach, Brennan Marion, outstanding football coach. We’re excited about everything he brings to the table, not only coaching but recruiting. He’s really clicked with our kids coming in here. Obviously a Pittsburgh native, so there’s a lot of things to like about him. And I really didn’t know him coming into this whole thing. As a coach, you keep an open mind. You heard his name early and often, and that actually turned me off; I was like, ‘Okay, I’ve had enough of this guy, he’s out.’ But I wasn’t going to be close-minded and looking at it like that, and I just kind of opened up and said, ‘We’re going to look for the best guy; I don’t care what it is - a guy that’s really pushing hard for this job or a guy that’s sitting back in his office not doing a thing.’ I think we got a great coach in Brennan and we’re excited about him as well.

Roster-wise, I’m sure you guys will have some questions about some of the newcomers, but I talked about the strength program and just some of the new guys coming in here, they’ve all done a great job. You guys have had a chance on Wednesdays to sit down with a couple of those guys and pick their brains and see what they’re all about. I’m really impressed with them. Through COVID, we’ve talked about it on Signing Day, but through COVID and all we went through, the 12 guys we have on campus are exceptional kids, workers, you love what they look like and you weren’t sure what some of them would even look like. You weren’t sure if they were going to be 5-foot-10 or 6-foot, but we really did a heck of a job recruiting those 12 guys and I’m looking forward to seeing the next 12, because we don’t know as much about them, as you guys know, so I think when you look at the whole package of those guys - outstanding group of players and you guys can ask some questions on them.

One side note: Malik Newton, who you probably have not heard from, has been medically disqualified. So that’s on the sad side of it. We had that happen, maybe four or five years ago, with George Hill and Zack Gilbert; it popped up again. I’m not going to get into what it is, but the point is, we feel bad for Malik and his family. You come midyear to college, you think you’re going to play football, and then we have some of the greatest doctors in the world here in Pittsburgh and they find out some things that are not going to allow him to play football at Pitt. So he’s a guy that will be with us, he’s on our football team, he’ll be medical’d and we’ll continue to hug him up and love him up and make sure that he gets his degree here if he chooses to stay at Pitt.

I’m interested in this concept of the super seniors.
Narduzzi: I’m interested, too.

I’m wondering if you feel there will be a correlation between a team that has a lot of these guys and success from the experience of guys that have been around for a long time. I know coaches like yourself like to have guys with a lot of experience. Is it going to help down the road in the win/loss column?
Narduzzi: I don’t know if it’s going to correlate to any success. If they were really, really, really good, they probably would have left for the NFL Draft, correct? So I think they’ll develop. I’m excited they’re all back, I can tell you that, and some of them will turn into NFL players, for sure, with another year of development. I think you look at Pat Jones and Damar Hamlin and them coming back for another year and what it did for their careers, I think they made money, and I think these 13 super seniors that we have on our football team are all good football players and they’re going to have an opportunity.

I wouldn’t it’s going to relate to any wins. You can’t say, ‘If you have 13, that counts as 13 wins;’ I wish it would. Obviously we have to stay healthy and then it takes a team to get that done. But we’re excited to have those guys back. You look at Kenny Pickett, that’s a great super senior to have back. And Phil Campbell. You can go right down the line: we’ve got a lot of good players back.

With the NCAA - back when this whole thing was announced, and I think you guys know this, maybe you don’t - but there was a thing back in the summer that everybody gets a free year. Hey, the NCAA - you know, Merry Christmas, everybody’s going to get another year. So now we have super seniors, we have seniors, we have juniors and so forth, and those don’t count toward our 85 scholarship count, as you probably know.

But in a year, that number could go from whatever in the 90’s to 85 again. So the NCAA is saying you have these super seniors, but right now, there’s no rule saying next year - let’s just say we have 12 seniors, that they are all going to have an opportunity to be super seniors. Super seniors seems like it’s a 2021 deal. As ACC coaches and coaches in every Power Five conference are working on that right now to say, ‘Hey, let’s extend this super senior thing.’ You’re giving them a year, but you’re pretty much saying you have to have your scholarships cut back down to 85, which is not fair to the kids and not fair to the coaches. They’ve become the good guys saying, ‘Hey, everybody gets a free year,’ and we become the bad guys saying, ‘Hey, wait a second. You can’t stay here.’

If I kept every super senior next year - let’s just say we have 12 next year, if I kept every one of those, there are zero scholarships for the 2022 class. I don’t know if you realize that. That can’t happen. It will just trickle down - if something doesn’t happen, it will trickle down to the high school level and there will be a lot of sad faces there.

How do you approach that recruiting class then if you don’t know the number of scholarships you’ll have available?
Narduzzi: You tell me. Maybe I’ll bring you in to be my advisor.

It’s hard. And you don’t know. Let’s take, for example, Deslin’s a senior next year. He could be a super senior. Is Deslin going to stay or go? I don’t know. So there’s a lot of questions. There’s going to be a lot of ‘I don’t knows.’ You’re trying to keep your ’22 class going and we’re going to keep recruiting and going, however there are some issues there that need to be resolved through the NCAA and the conference offices.

Is that something you’ve brought up with Heather, because I know she’s on the DI council?
Narduzzi: Yeah, we’ve talked. We’ve talked to the ACC. We’ve talked to the new commissioner. We’ve talked at every level. But it’s something that we’re trying to iron out. And there’s different proposals: the ACC’s got a proposal, the SEC’s got a proposal, so we’re just trying to figure out which one we’re going to do and if we’re going to do anything at all.

How many guys can you bring to camp? Is there a new limit?
Narduzzi: No, we don’t really know right now. Usually it’s 105. I would imagine it’s going to be at least - probably going to be your Title IX number, which for us is 115. That’s what we brought last year. I would say that’ll probably stay the same. The NCAA and the conferences gave that to us, just because you may have guys out. What they didn’t want to bring was 105 in and then school starts, bring another 10 in and have them mess with the bubble. So I would imagine we’re going to bring in as many as we’re allowed to bring in.

Since COVID looks like, by the end of summer, we’re going to be in a better place, hopefully the schedule will play out with the schedule that’s posted, and since last year was so atypical, have you changed any philosophies going into this year?
Narduzzi: Not really. I mean, we’re just hoping to have a normal year. Obviously we changed a lot of different things fundamentally, tactically and technically, as far as what we’re doing as a football team, schematically speaking. But I’m not sure what you’re talking about on the outside, but we’re staying status quo with trying to get better as a football team. I don’t know if I answered your question. I’m not sure I understood it, either.

Let me clarify that: because last year was so atypical and you still have a bit of a hybrid with these super seniors, assuming your schedule stays the same, when you look at last year, I’m just curious how you take what you saw and plan and strategize for the new season, what may have popped out to you last year that you may change going into this season?
Narduzzi: I think our plan last year was good as far as how we practiced, just how we practiced and the protocols we put in to get what we got done. We’re hoping it loosens up and things are better as we get through spring ball and get into fall camp.

With these spring practices, are you guys going full team sessions, staggered times, pods - how are you guys handling that?
Narduzzi: We’re going. We’re going. We’re going to play football. We’re still testing and our kids have done a great job. We’re going to practice like we normally do. We went in pods last year maybe two days out of all our preseason days, just in case. We changed some things, just as far as practicing almost two-platoon but all at the same time, almost servicing each other like you would in high school, so it’s an offensive period, then it’s a defensive period - we’re just servicing them when our numbers started to get low as the season wore on when we did have some issues after Georgia Tech, I guess the original Georgia Tech game, so we’re going to continue to play football. If we can’t play out there as a team, we’re not going to play. I feel like our kids are safe, I think they’re being smart on campus, they’ve proven that throughout this winter session since they got back in mid-January, and we’ve been fortunate: our kids are smart and paid attention and our coaches have done a great job of making sure they’re on top of things.

Are you guys testing three times per week during the spring?
Narduzzi: One time a week right now. We’re one time a week. It’s every Wednesday, I’ll tell you that, and we came out Wednesday clean again. So we keep moving ahead.

Obviously it stings for Malik, but what do you feel about the depth of your running backs and do you feel like you gained some traction with Vincent, especially at the end of last year?
Narduzzi: We really do. If we get into some football - really what we’re looking for is, Vince Davis is our starting tailback. Last year at this time, I think I said we’ve got some guys. Vince is our starting tailback, and everybody behind him is going after Vince. Vince is the guy. He’s proven that in the run game and the pass protection game and the passing game out of the backfield. So Vince is the guy to beat right now. And you’ve got super senior A.J. Davis that we expect to get a lot more out of than we did last year and we’ll see. And Izzy and the rest of the guys in that backfield. Daniel Carter.

Bringing in Brennan Marion, what were your impressions of the Go-Go offense and everything that he has developed in his career so far?
Narduzzi: I don’t know what the Go-Go offense is, okay? So that’s the first thing. We don’t talk - again, we hired a new receiver coach. We didn’t hire an offensive coordinator. Obviously we love him because he’s got other things he’s done, so when we get into game-planning, when we get into spring ball, as you start to get into formationally and say, ‘This is what we used to do,’ that will come as we grow as a staff offensively. But obviously he’s very creative in what he does - I think it’s a ‘two backs in the backfield,’ but I’m not sure. I’ve never asked him. It’s not something where we hired him to run a Go-Go offense; I don’t know what that is. But it might be the two-back sets, some of the stuff they did at William & Mary. They weren’t doing it at Hawaii. I watched a ton of tape of Hawaii before we hired him.

But again, he’s very creative. That’s the great thing: he’s got a creative mind that’s going to help us kind of move our offense along.

Given how abnormal last year was, does it have any carryover or set a tone for this season? Or is it more of a blank space because it was so weird with cancelled games and that kind of thing?
Narduzzi: It’s a lot that carries over. You played 11 football games. You had an opportunity to play 12 and you turned it down. We won three of the last four; I think that’s what you have to carry with you. We played some good teams at the end of the year, including a playoff team in Clemson. Two of your five losses were playoff teams; I don’t know how many teams played two playoff teams in the regular season, but we certainly did. So there’s a lot of carryover from what we did last year.

You look at the last game of the season being a win down at Georgia Tech. I think when you look at what we did, both offensively and defensively and special teams-wise, there were some great things. I think we were playing our best football as the season ended. I think that’s what we carry over: what we were doing at the end of the season, let’s carry it over and let’s get even better and develop.

And again, I think the development is key. We missed a ton of football. I don’t know if our kids even realize it, but I know our coaches realize how much, whether it’s an offensive lineman - Jason Collier moved from tight end, he’s 340 pounds right now, and I’m looking forward to seeing him get coached this spring, because he didn’t have a spring, he didn’t have the time to develop. Whether it’s a backup quarterback or an offensive line or a young defensive line, the development time is essential, and if you don’t have it, you’re losing a lot.

I know you said we’re not out of the woods yet, but is this the most optimistic you’ve felt in awhile, that you don’t have to worry as much about everything you had to deal with last year?
Narduzzi: Yeah, it’s definitely easier as a coach to know, ‘Hey, we’re going to play.’ John asked, ‘Are you going to be in pods practicing?’ No. We had three lifting groups. Put it this way: We’ve had three lifting groups all winter, so it’s not like we were lifting in groups of 10. I’ve heard of places across the country shutting the weight room down; our guys haven’t, so we’re obviously keeping the facility clean, we’re making sure our kids are doing the protocols, they’re grab-and-go lunch and get out of here and they’ve been safe when they’re back in Oakland.

So I feel much better. I don’t think there’s questions - sitting here last year about this time, we were closing things down, this building was shut down and we were back home. But I feel much better that there’s going to be a season, we know how to do it, we hope it’s not as bad as what it was, we hope everybody gets a vaccine. I think people are crazy if they don’t get a vaccine; we’re going to encourage every one of our kids, when that opportunity does arise, that they get a vaccine and try to make it even better. I think that’s going to be the key.

Do you guys envision having a spring game, and if so, how might that look?
Narduzzi: We hope it looks just like it normally does. I hope you guys are sitting in the stands or the box, wherever you are; that’s the anticipation, that we do have a spring. We’re going to get to Heinz Field three times this spring; we already set that up for Saturday scrimmages, so if you guys want to sit outside and peek through the gates, you can do that. But that final spring game, we’re hoping and praying that we’re able to have fans for that game.

Where do you see Marcus Minor fitting in? I know he’s played both guard and tackle in his career.
Narduzzi: Yeah, we’ll start him off at guard right now. He’s a big, athletic, smart kid and we’re excited about how he’s fit in with our football team right now.

I wanted to ask about the secondary. You are going to see a lot of young guys stepping up who are filling in at the end of last year, but you had Damarri Mathis who didn’t get to play last year. How has he looked? Have you talked to him, as far as getting ready for this season?
Narduzzi: Yeah, we talk to him every day. Damarri looks great. He’s ready to go and I think he’s excited. They had seven-on-seven - we’re not in there, but the rumors from the guys were that the first time, he tackled somebody. So I think he’s ready to go. They were in shorts and helmets and he’s tackling people in seven-on-seven. So he’s ready to go. He’s 100% healthy. We have to keep him that way. Obviously he’s a great football player that we missed last year and we’re excited for what he can do this season.

I can’t remember, did we talk to you since Kenny decided he was coming back?
Narduzzi: I don’t know. That was such a long time ago. Probably not. I think we tweeted stuff out. That was like one of the best recruiting gets ever. And I was teasing him and Jimmy Morrissey in my office, probably before our final game against Georgia Tech down in Atlanta, about, you know, ‘Hey Kenny, you wanted that year, we’re going to get you another year.’ He was like, ‘Yeah right, Coach,’ as he walked out the door, him and Jimmy just giggling like, ‘Yeah Coach, that ain’t happening; we’re out of here.’ So it was kind of a foregone conclusion that he was gone. Then we had conversations after that game when he was back in New Jersey and I had a lot of conversations with him and his dad, just about what he’s doing.

Kenny did a great job of contacting people across the country. Coach Whipple did a great job of contacting some of his NFL people that he trusted, Bill O’Brien for example, just, ‘What do you think? What should Kenny do?’ I think that’s a great decision by Kenny. I think he can come back and really raise his stock and become one of the top quarterbacks drafted next year.

I saw a stat that you have 14 guys on defense coming back with multiple TFL’s. Last year there was excitement because you had NFL guys; now you have productive players and more of them this year. Does that breed more enthusiasm and more encouragement this season?
Narduzzi: You know, what those guys did last year doesn’t really matter. We’ll find out how they develop this year. Those other guys that might have made plays might have been because of Rashad Weaver and Patrick Jones on one side or the other and Damar Hamlin on the hash causing a sack because of great coverage. It’s going to take 11 guys for all of those guys to make plays again. That 2020 offense or defense was in the past and we’ll move forward into ’21 and deal with the pieces that we have right now and try to make them better.