Pitt football head coach Pat Narduzzi met the media prior to Wednesday's practice and talked about a slow practice on Tuesday, what he has seen from the defensive depth, when he'll name a starter and more.
Here's the full rundown of what he said.
Narduzzi: We had an okay day yesterday. I was kind of a little disappointed. Again, I relate it to having a good Saturday and everybody’s feeling good about themselves and the head coach says, ‘Hey, you did a nice job guys, good job, good work.’ Then they come out yesterday and just sloppy, not as much details and focus as I wanted, but we’ll crank it up today and get it right.
After something like that, do you pull a couple leaders aside and say -
Narduzzi: No, I pull the whole team aside and say, ‘Come on, let’s go.’ And then the leaders will take it from there, I think. So I don’t have to pull them individually; I think they get it.
What do one of those speeches sound like?
Narduzzi: I don’t know.
Was it everybody or mainly some of the younger guys?
Narduzzi: A little bit of everything. It’s a team, right? It’s everybody. It’s just a little lack of focus and everybody feels themselves every once in awhile and I wasn’t fired up about it.
Is that a typical ebb and flow of camp, where you have days like that and see how guys respond?
Narduzzi: Yeah, it happens. There’s no question about it. Everyday’s not going to be perfect. We’d like it to. We’ve just got to fight through it and push through it. And it’s them watching the tape afterwards, realizing like, ‘Yeah, Coach is right.’ And then we fix it the next day. That’s what we do. We’re the fixers.
We talked to Cory yesterday and he was saying he thought his safeties were as deep as they’ve been since he got here. Do you agree with that and how excited are you about those younger guys behind Brandon and Erick?
Narduzzi: Yeah, Brandon and Erick are obvious, but then you look at Javon MacIntyre, P.J. O’Brien’s playing really well, Steph Hall didn’t do anything in the spring and he flies around, he’ll hit the heck out of you. He loves to hit. I’m going to forget somebody, but there’s maybe one more. But yeah, we are as deep as we’ve been there. We want to stay healthy, but we’ve got some guys that can go in there and play.
And Jud. I forgot about Jud. Jud didn’t go in the spring as well. So Judson Tallandier’s been good as well. Really good.
How have you seen Bangally Kamara step up this year and step into the role of being one of the younger guys that you will ask a lot more of in the roles where you had fifth and sixth-year seniors last year?
Narduzzi: Right. Bangally has really stepped up. Very, very impressed with what he has done, not only the interception the other day - just his physicality, the ability to rush the quarterback and create havoc in the backfield. He’s got that. We’ve got to keep him focused all the time, but he’s going to be a good football player for us.
Have you see Ryan settle in as a position coach with those guys and get to establish himself a little bit more with different practices that they got used to?
Narduzzi: Yeah, no question about it. Time heals everything and makes everything better, and we certainly had a good thing going last year. But I think second year, third year, it’s always going to keep getting better.
What does that experience in the back allow you to do as a play-caller? How does that impact things that you’re able to do?
Narduzzi: It does, but you don’t want to over-coach it and create things that don’t need to be done. We want to be sound back there. I’m from a simple but complex system: keep things simple and our guys can go play fast. You can have great athletes back there, but if you confuse the heck out of them, all of a sudden you look like bad coaches and bad players. That’s what we’ve been able to do: keep it simple enough where our guys can play fast and look athletic, as opposed to, be really athletic but man, they look slow because they don’t know what to do.
In the short time that Coach Underwood has been here, what’s he been able to do to transform that wide receiver room?
Narduzzi: We’ll find out September 1st, right? He hasn’t gone through a season like Coach Manalac has, so we’re going to find out what it looks like on game day, and it should be fun to watch.
How has Jared emerged as a leader in the wide receiver room?
Narduzzi: You know, Jared has been a leader all summer. He’s been a little bit banged up through camp, but he’ll be obviously ready to go. He’s had a good camp so far when he’s been out there; we want to make sure we keep him healthy. But he has led that group, for sure.
You’ve said this and a lot of guys have echoed it: last season’s behind you, you’re not tying this year’s success to last year. But you guys also learned some important lessons, especially guys like Erick Hallett in coverage and how to respond to different situations. How do you tie keeping those lessons that were learned while also staying focused on this year with the way that you’ve set that tone?
Narduzzi: I think it’s just, you know, it’s a new team. We’ve got new players and kind of reiterating every day, every week and every practice that this is all based on what you’re going to do. We’ve got faith, we’ve got belief in what we have been and what we want to do and what our goals are, but it’s going to take daily work to get that thing done and it’s a new football team. Even though 85% of our football team is back from a championship a year ago, you still have to have new leaders emerge and guys step up, and that’s something I’m looking for.
Someone asked me awhile back when you’re going to announce your starting quarterback, and I said, ‘What time is kickoff September 1st?’ My question to you is, what’s the disadvantage for a defensive coordinator in not knowing who the quarterback is, and do you have a timetable?
Narduzzi: I don’t really have a timetable. I don’t think it will be September 1st, so you’ll be wrong there, Jerry, which rarely happens for you, because you’re usually right on the nail there. But we’ll name it when it’s time and…we’ll name it when it’s time to go.
What’s the advantage of keeping them in suspense?
Narduzzi: I think one of the advantages would be, if it’s an athletic guy or a not-athletic guy, depending on - just, it’s not knowing. We’re going to go back and watch J.T. Daniels, every pass, he’s ever thrown at USC and Georgia, so you go back and look at different stuff. How deep do you go? What are you looking at?
To make them work harder, in other words?
Narduzzi: Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. Or maybe they don’t work hard at all. I don’t know. Who knows?
