Narduzzi on bowl prep, freshmen, redshirts and more

Pat Narduzzi talked about Stanford, bowl practices, freshmen, redshirts and more on Thursday. Here’s the full rundown of what he said.

Narduzzi: We’ve gotten three good days of practice in this week. A lot of the game plan - I would say probably 70% of the game plan is in for Stanford. We still have some stuff that we’ll end up doing and just adding to it because you have extra time to do some different stuff, so we’ll continue to add to the game plan. We’re obviously playing a great Stanford game. I think Costello the quarterback and the defense is nasty, I mean, they have a lot of good players. They have some guys that are draft-eligible, some all-conference players that are making decisions, I know. But their backups have played a ton as well. We know Love has been hurt most of the season and has not been up to par to begin with. So they’ve got guys that have played a lot of football. It’s not like you don’t have tape and you’re wondering who you’re playing against. They’re there and they’ve played a lot because they’ve been probably a little banged up through the year, for whatever reason.

So big, physical athletic football team. Obviously David Shaw is a great football coach. I’m on the ethics committee with him with the AFCA, so I get to spend extra time with him and he’s just another super individual that you love to go play with classy guys. So this will be a great opportunity to go play a really good Stanford team.

Has that and recruiting been your focus or have you spent any time reviewing the season, looking back and assessing what you guys did this year?
Narduzzi: A little bit of both. We’ve got computers and iPads and we get to bring them, so every airplane I’m on, you get to flip your - you download it to your iPad, there’s a process and you get whatever you really want to watch. So we went back and self-scouted some things, just like we do in an open week, which we did before the Notre Dame game, and you get to see what you’re doing and maybe see some tendencies that you don’t have time during the season to really focus on. You hope you don’t build them by accident, but there’s some things that pop up. So we’ve been in the process of doing that and we’ll have still more time to correct those things.

Our GA’s when we’re on the road - like, Tim Cooper, for example, one of our quality control coaches, went back and broke down our offense in defensive terminology trying to look for stuff and vice versa, James Patton did the same thing. So we’ve had those guys back - we’re on the road for two weeks, ‘Hey, finish up your Stanford breakdown, now break down us in the other terminology’ so I can look and see what I see from how we break it down, because everybody does it a little bit differently.

We’ve done a great job of self-scouting as well as obviously looking at what Stanford does.

As you’ve gone through that, then, how do you assess Kenny’s development and how Shawn has worked with him throughout the season?
Narduzzi: It’s like, when you look at the passing game from the last couple weeks or whatever it may be and you look and you kind of go, ‘Ugh,’ you have to kind of put it in perspective as far as, is it the protection? Is it the receivers? Is it the quarterback? Is it the play-calling? There’s so many different variations and things you can look at. Is it the guys you were playing against? I hate to say, ‘This is bad stuff based on who we played.’ I think we played two of the better defenses we’ve played all year. They certainly are - if they aren’t in the rankings one of the top-10 defenses in the country, they certainly are personnel-wise. Maybe they didn’t play so good together but they’ve got dudes. But Stanford’s got the same type of guys. They’re big and physical and athletic on defense.

So we’re looking at all of those factors and finding out what we have to do. But we have to get it fixed. Can we get it fixed in time for the bowl game? We’ll find out. But that’s our goal.

You mentioned Love being out and they have a lineman who’s maybe not going to play. Maybe not underclassmen looking at the Draft, but have you had any conversations with any players about that trend in college football with the bowl games and deciding what to do?
Narduzzi: Currently, you live and learn, and with this new age of college football and that process, we’ve certainly got to get our young guys ready to go, just in case, which is just part of that development we talk about all the time anyway. But I’m currently, which I’ve never had time to do - last year we obviously didn’t get into this situation or have this situation and had time - but I’m currently meeting with all the seniors this week, just trying to sit down with them, you know, ‘What are you thinking? Academically, where are you?’ And most guys have graduated already so that’s pretty easy.

Just finding out where they are academically, where they’re thinking about training, what their plan is, what all-star game are you playing in, did you sign up for that one yet, you better get signed up before your spot is gone, all of those different things. So I’m sitting down with them to find out what they’re thinking because I don’t want to be surprised either.

But right now you’re expecting to have everyone?
Narduzzi: Expect to have everybody.

Nobody else, no underclassmen are going to miss the game for any particular reason?
Narduzzi: I sure hope not.

Are any of the guys that were banged up throughout the year trying to get back into pads for this game?
Narduzzi: Is there anybody banged up trying to get back? I don’t think, you know, knock on wood, we were pretty healthy throughout the year. Wirginis would be the one guy to jump up and down, but I wouldn’t do that to him. He runs around like he could, our doctors and therapists have done a great job.

After the Clemson game, you threw out the fact that you were trying to get another year for Kenny. Is that a possibility?
Narduzzi: I’m always going to do that, but I don’t think we can apply for that until he gets near. But I’m going to continue to try to do that, and I’ll throw Damar Hamlin in there. Same thing: the guy played four games. If you go back to it, he had to play because Avonte Maddox wanted to go in the game and he had a dislocated elbow, and just like I wouldn’t push Keyshon Camp to come back or Jimmy Morrissey or anybody, Damar Hamlin had to go out there just because I felt - I mean, Maddox said, ‘Coach, I’ll go in.’ He was like, you know, with a half-arm; I’m like, ‘I’m not doing that to you.’ So Damar had to play for that reason and it’s a shame and I think the NCAA will listen. I sure hope they do. Those are two guys I’d like to get - that rule is why it’s set for. I don’t understand why those guys wouldn’t be.

But you have to wait until their senior year.
Narduzzi: I think you have to. You can talk to Dustin up in Compliance, but I think you - kind of like getting ‘Juan Price a sixth year back, we couldn’t apply for that until he was finished, so I’m assuming it’s the same. But we’ll address that after the season, see what our timetable is.

This time of year, coaches will experiment with position moves; have you looked at any or do you have any guys who are moving positions?
Narduzzi: Not yet. There’s no slam dunks. There’s about three or four that we’ve thought about, but you kind of want to wait until you’ve got your recruiting class before you do too much of that, so you see who’s where and where do you need a guy. But there’s a couple that we have in mind. We’ll figure that out. But no scholarship guys right now have changed positions.

Paris Ford’s playing time was limited later in the season; do you think he’s going to play a little more in this game?
Narduzzi: I mean, it was limited all year, just trying to get him mentally ready. He is a football player, I’m just telling you. Last week, it might have been Monday or Tuesday, this guy’s got two turnovers. He’s a guy that makes plays. But he’s got to be sound, because I don’t want to be sitting in front of these bright lights and cameras after the game feeling bad because, you know, we made mistakes that we can’t do in a game. It’s one thing if it’s physical, it’s one thing if it’s mental.

But he’s going to be a great football player. I’ve said that all along. He will be. We’ve actually got Paris working some safety right now, so that’s maybe a position change, but really, not anything far from what our thoughts were with him. Playing corner for as long as he has, has helped him understand what he has to do at safety. He’s learning it and he’s been making some plays at safety. So we’ll see how close he can get and see what the practice tape looks like.

Other than Darian Street, have you guys had anyone leave at the semester break?
Narduzzi: Yes we have. We had one other guy leave that is Ricky Town. I thought maybe you guys knew that. Ricky’s going to go back - I think he’s got a few more classes to graduate. He’s a great kid, I appreciate everything he did for this football team. We needed Ricky when he came, and I appreciate his trust coming here. So he’s left - academically, finished off the semester, taking care of some personal things back home with the fire out there in California, their family went through a lot out there. So he just thought, ‘Coach, I had enough.’ And he’s a super kid. I love that guy. And we wish him all the best.

Is he going to transfer?
Narduzzi: No, he’s going to finish up his degree, take care of his family and get into life.

When you were talking about Paris, he was a guy you talked about shining on the scout team his freshman year; who stood out this year? Any guys jump out from the freshmen this year?
Narduzzi: Good question. There were a lot. I hate to not mention somebody. Really, when you look at John Morgan, who ended up playing a little bit at the end of the year, him and Haba have done an excellent job all year of scout team. They’re going to be two defensive ends. Tyler Bentley and David Green are going to be excellent inside. We already know Devin’s moved up maybe a little bit ahead of those guys, maybe that much. It’s not like there’s a drastic difference between any of those guys.

Linebacker-wise, a young guy that’s stood out - I’m trying to think if there’s anybody down there that has stood out. Nobody that I can talk about right now. Erick Hallett has done a nice job. Judson has done a nice job. Two guys that aren’t playing.

Offensively, Nick Patti’s done an incredible job. That’s guy’s gotten hit, whacked - he kind of reminds me of Kirk Cousins a little bit as a young kid, he’s got a quick release, he makes plays on the scout field, he’s helped our defense every week play better.

Cameron O’Neil, receiver from Alabama, has done a nice job of developing on the scout field, making plays. Kaymar Mimes has also done a nice at the tight end position. O-line, you know, Blake’s done a good job; it’s hard with the O-line, they don’t get to make as many plays. And Jake Kradel - I’ve probably mentioned every freshman. I’m happy with all of them. They’re all going to develop. They’re all getting better. But you notice those guys every day because you watch the tape and Jake’s done a nice job as well.

In the backfield, Mychale has done a solid job but he’s played a little bit of both.

Have you coached against David Shaw?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I have. He’s a great coach. We played him in the Rose Bowl in 2013.

When you looked at your self-scout, is one of the things you looked at those four games for the freshmen and how you used them and how did you feel as far as that goes?
Narduzzi: I love that rule. I love being able to use it. You’ve got some guys that have exhausted their four games and you’re done with. You saw enough out of V’Lique that you said, ‘Forget the four; he’s going to end up playing seven games.’ And that’s great. That’s kind of what you do: you’ve got four games to show me what you’ve got. I’ve said that from the very beginning: if you blow it up and you go, we’re going to give you some more. So we were able to give him a little bit more.

I love the rule and even in special teams trying to get matchups - even in the championship game, we were able to use Haba Baldonado and John Morgan in that game. Just if it’s playing three plays, they got a chance to play in that game and they’ve at least played in a game, so I think it’s a great opportunity.

Isn’t the concern about that rule a little overrated? Because even if you use a guy, he still has three years to play for you?
Narduzzi: I’d like to have them for - to me, if they’re good enough - like I told V’Lique, you know, V’Lique had that situation where, ‘Hey, I might want to stop after four and not play anymore.’ I said, ‘Hey, who knows when you’re going to use that redshirt year?’ So there is that point.

Like, V’Lique played four games and it was like ‘Okay, what do you want to do?’ He said, ‘I don’t know, maybe I should just sit down.’ I was like, ‘Listen, I think you can help us win. But next year, you could come out in camp and hurt a knee, twist an elbow up and now that’s your redshirt year.’

I’m not worried about it. If a guy is making an impact in our offense or our defense or special teams, for that matter, if we need them out there to win, to me, it’s best to play because you never know in those next three years - the key is those next three years, you never know what God’s got in store for you. You never know when something’s going to come up. Eventually something comes up in a four or five-year career.

I always tell this story. I had a kid named Frank Ferrara, played for me at Rhode Island. Started in his first year, started in his second year, his third year he was a starting D-end. Fourth year, he starts - on the 13th play of the game against Maine, I’ll never forget, he breaks his leg. Well, that’s his redshirt year. He never redshirted. He comes back in his fifth year and ended up playing five years with the Giants.

Those things happen.

Do you send the players home now for Christmas?
Narduzzi: We’ve got practice tomorrow. I think the schedule works out really well. But tomorrow we’ll practice in the morning again, we’ll go through some bowl things and some meetings, and then they’ll be free until the day after Christmas when we fly out. Anybody within an hour-and-a-half radius of the city of Pittsburgh or campus will come back here and we’ll charter down to El Paso. Anybody that flew back to Ohio or Maryland or Virginia, wherever it may be, Maine, is going to fly direct to El Paso and meet us there, just so they can spend the maximum amount of time. So they’ll have four days with their families for the holidays and then after the bowl game we’ll fly them back home. That’s their round trip that we’re allowed to pay for. So they’ll get Christmas and then they’ll come back on the 7th so they’ll have a little time after the new year.