Pat Narduzzi held his final press briefing of the week on Thursday and talked mostly about Cal but also touched on the elimination of the National Letter of Intent, his role impersonating Mr. Rogers and a lot more. Here's a transcript and full video of what he said.
Narduzzi: All right, game six. We’ve had a good week of practice again. Got a really good, talented California team coming in to Acrisure State. We've got to pack the Ack, the Panther Pitt’s got to be loud and proud and give us a home field advantage. So we're expecting that from them and should be a great atmosphere Saturday.
What causes you to lose sleep about this Cal team? What concerns you the most?
Narduzzi: What concerns me, it's not the Cal team, it's about us just going out and executing. That's every week. I mean, we got to go make plays and we got to execute. We've done a good job to this point of executing 85% of the time, I guess. I mean, there's that 15% didn't make a play or - do something wrong and execute it wrong or have a mental error, but it comes down to execution.
I would say if you look at Cal overall, I mentioned it on Monday, I think they're fast, I think they have really good speed. I think their linebackers are athletic, their DBs are athletic. They lead the country in interceptions, we got to be smart with the ball. And offensively, they've got speed at the receiver spot and their running backs are really fast and their tight ends are fast. Number 10 is a really good player at tight end, so I think he's really fast. 87 is athletic as well.
Is there anything that you did in preparing for it to face Omarion Hampton that can also be applied but Jaydn not?
Narduzzi: No, I mean, they're two different guys. I mean, Hampton's a bigger guy. They say Ott’s a 210-pound guy, he doesn't look that big on tape. Eyeball him in pregame just to see how big he really is. But 210, 220, that's all, 10 pounds is a big difference. You got to tackle, either way; it doesn't matter who they are. But they're fast guys in the back. The big thing is, can you get your hands on him? Are you fast enough to run him down?
I guess the fact that you didn't need a fourth quarter comeback indicate progress?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I mean, I think every week you hope to get better. I mean, you make your biggest improvement from week one to week two, but you hope every week you get a little bit better at different things and you emphasize different stuff. But I think there's always progress,
I think, and again, you wanna win games in as many different ways as you can. You don't always want it to be the same. You wanna win different games different ways so you guys know, hey, we can do that. The nice thing is, you didn't come from behind to win it, but you were kind of, in the fourth quarter, it's a game. It's tied up at halftime, 17-17. And so you find a different way that our guys just hung in there and made enough plays at the end to win the football game.
So you wanna find different ways to win. You don't wanna do it the same way where you're always, if you're ahead in the third quarter, that's the only way you can win. I mean, that's a problem. You've never been behind. So I think it's good for me as a head coach to know that we can win in different ways, and the kids trust and believe psychologically they can win any time, and the hardest one is the major comebacks. Those are the hardest ones when we've obviously done that.
Was Saturday the most complete game that Javon has played since he started?
Narduzzi: No, Javon's had some darn good games, and again, I don't go back and look at last year, but Javon's had some really good games. And there was a reason he started last year. After the first two games, I believe, he was not a starter. No, he was a starter the whole time, matter of fact. We moved him to the field, and Donovan took over. But Donovan's a good football player, but he had one of those games, too. But he's had other ones like that.
How's Brandon done with the quarterback responsibilities on the defensive side as far as communication, getting guys where they need to be, and where, is he being where he is allowing Kyle and Rasheem and others to make plays?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I mean, I think everything starts with the middle linebacker, Brandon George. His first thing is to get them lined up, okay? That's what he does, that's what our mics do. He gets everybody lined up, he gets everything aligned properly. There's a lot more to it. The green dots help, because Coach Manalac can talk to him up until that 15 second mark. So that's made it a little bit easier as far as that goes. Again, versus these tempo teams like last week, it helps more. In the previous games, when everybody was huddling up, they're breaking the huddle with about 17 seconds and lining up, and then you're losing communication. So it doesn't help you. So the teams that go fast, like North Carolina was 43%, pretty good tempo. You're gonna have time to talk to them. And I think California will tempo, which will really help us a lot. They go fast, and we can help out the back a little bit.
Pat, you may disagree with this, but it seems like there's a perception of you that you're like a pro style offense guy, maybe not a spread offense guy. Obviously, now you're scoring a bunch of points, whatever. That is, I don't know, through what you've seen in your career, how have you evolved into having that? And what's it feel like seeing your offense be able to score, being an identifiable part of the team?
Narduzzi: Yeah, stereotypes. Stereotypes are bad, as you guys all know, right? We should not stereotype.
But the one thing I'll say to it, the last two years prior to this season, we weren't trying to not score points. Every time I bring an offensive coordinator in here, we bring them in with the intent to score points. That's what we want to do. The more, the merrier, right? I think Matt Canada, when he was here, we were explosive. I mean, matter of fact, I had to tell him to stop scoring so fast. Like at Syracuse, when we ran the same exact formation, the same exact play, and ran a reverse, and scored both of them on 70-yard runs. It was like, it was one play, and the defense is back out on the field. And we didn't have a bunch of good defensive players in that game because we were all banged up. But I think Matt Canada was really explosive. I think Whipple was explosive. And now we've got to Coach Bell. I mean, I wish I could pick them better and make you happy all the time, and not just sometimes. I'd prefer that, but sometimes we make mistakes. But the intent is always to score points.
And you're trying to mold your offense to your personnel. I mean, when Kenny left, it was like, OK, we're not going to be this slinging around, fast tempo. Let's get Kenny as many plays as possible. When he left, it was like, OK, what's our quarterback situation? We'll bring another transfer in. And we had Izzy Abanikanda in the backfield. And we did pretty good for one of the two years. I think we were explosive. I mean, Izzy was fun to watch two years ago, I guess, in 22. 23, he’s gone, and now what do you do? Now you lost, and we lost a bunch of good defensive guys. So those things go, and you wish you could be explosive every year. It's the same thing in the National Football League. It's the same thing around the country. Everybody would like to be explosive every year. And you can be if you call them right. And things work out.
Good question.
In terms of conferences, what do you think about Cal being in the ACC? Do you think it's a benefit that Cal has to travel so far?
Narduzzi: I mean, maybe it helps you a little bit, which I know helps you a little bit on one end. But next year, I guess we're going to travel far. So to me, it's kind of where college football's going. Wish they'd start to regionalize and do some of those things, but we don't want to go out there next year.
And I think it's better for them than for us. Maybe it's just my East Coast mindset. But they're coming in here playing a noon game. And next year, we'll probably go play an 8 o'clock at night game. And the game's ended at 2 o'clock in the morning. And you can't practice that. That's what I don't like, is that time change. I mean, I think this is great for Cal to come in here and play a noon game. I think that's the way you'd like it to be.
I mean, they're all awake at noon going to class, so they're good. But they play noon, 1, 2, 3, to 4 o'clock. So noon to 4 is not a bad window for them to come out here.
But we're playing a 3:30 game. What if we played, I'd like a noon start to really make it hard on them, right? I mean, what time is that in the morning? 9 AM, except it would be not bad for us if you're a morning practice team. So for us to go out there and finish the game at 2 o'clock in the morning, I think that's hard, because you can't practice it.
I'm not going to tell our guys, hey, we're practicing at 2 o'clock in the morning. Let's go. But next year, I might have a couple of really late practices, just to kind of work that a little bit, because I think you have to.
So I mean, it's about who you get to play. But when we go out there, it should be a 3:30 game. When they come out here, it should be a 3:30 game, or a night game.
I don't care. But we're not going to control that either, because the networks are going to control all those situations.
You wouldn't like three West Coast trips in the first half of the season. California has three East Coast trips in the first half of the season.
Narduzzi: Yeah, we don't have to deal with that. That's why it was OK to bring them in here. That's something they've got to deal with, right? So yeah, I would not be happy if we had to play a bunch of games out West. That would not be fun, because I think it wears you out when you go to travel to Louisville and then North Carolina. I think two years ago, just those road trips, and they were both night games, and that wore on us, I think. It wasn't a big time change. How did you think Rodney did in his first time back?
Narduzzi: A little rusty, a little rusty. He practiced just on Thursday last week. I think I lied to you guys last week. So Mack Brown didn't know he practiced. Yeah, I did it. I admitted it to him. I admitted it to him. We didn't find out as early as I told you, but I wanted them to have to go home and count the guys played for practice. So he didn't get a lot of reps last week. He was a little rusty.
I think he'll be a lot better this week, as far as what he's doing. And he's got a lot more reps this week, period. He's got three good days of practice.
With how much success Desmond has had this year, how do you kind of balance who gets in there with how impactful he’s been?
Narduzzi: That’s hard. You don't really want to take Desmond off the field, but we've got to keep him fresh. And we know Daniel Carter's a good football player. We saw that a couple weeks ago. And then Rodney. Rodney can help us. And again, keeping him fresh. So in the fourth quarter, when you really need a play, and you throw it to Desmond, or you hand it off to him, then he's got the ability at that point.
I was a little disappointed he didn't take that one to the house. He got walked down. I said, ‘I thought you had speed. Are you kidding me?’ So hopefully he's faster this week.
The national letter of intent going away, recruits will just sign aid agreements. Would you be in favor of at some point, there's not even a signing day or signing period, it’s just any time after, say September 1st of a junior year, a high school kid can just sign an aid agreement and it's done. It's over with.
Narduzzi: Yeah, I haven't followed all that, Chris. I haven't followed all the new rules, except for the days in the portal and all that stuff. But how many scholarships, how many grant aids can you sign?
Probably the same number it is now, I would assume.
Narduzzi: I have no idea why that rule changed. I have no idea of the intent. But in the old days, the purpose of a letter of intent was, OK, when I was sitting at home visit, I'd say, OK, there's two papers you're going to sign. The first one is a scholarship. This is the money part. This is the money. This says, hey, we're giving you this money. We're going to pay for your school, your room board books, tuition fees, all those things. Sign that. You'd be a knucklehead to sign the national letter of intent without signing that. Does that make sense?
National letter of intent is what binds the University of Pittsburgh to that kid and that kid to Pitt. So my question is, without knowing the insides of the rules, because I haven't looked at it, maybe you can let me know next week, because I really don't care, is can you, as a recruit, sign with three different schools and wherever you show up? That's what the letter of intent was. You could only sign one of those. And whichever, if you were a knucklehead kind of guy, which back 30 years ago, some kids would try to sign them, if you sign two letter of intents, which one do you think counts? You have to put the date and time on there. So whichever one is timed properly. That's what locked you in that, hey, he's coming to Pitt. Now, can a recruit sign three? I don't know if they can or can’t. I have no idea. I just don't know why we didn't change it. But that would be my concern with hearing that new rule.
Can a transfer do that now? Could a transfer sign an aid agreement and then back out and go somewhere else?
Narduzzi: Yes. They can sign five scholarships right now. You know, what locks a transfer into going to a certain university is, he can sign five of them. It's wherever he enters and goes to school first. So it's wherever he shows up, which is crazy. It's another. Like, we should have a letter of intent for those guys. You want to sign a scholarship, sign this national letter. That's what makes us sleep at night as coaches. No letter of intent, I don't know. I don't know what it means.
It's almost like you should have a contract or something, right?
Narduzzi: Yeah, the contracts are good. That's what a national letter of intent was, is a contract saying you're coming. We don't care about the money part of it. Sign that. That's great. If you signed a letter of intent and didn't sign a scholarship, you're coming as a walk-on for free. Appreciate you. We want contracts.
It's not the law of the land yet, but the revenue sharing with players is coming. What's your feeling on that?
Narduzzi: I think it's great. I mean, they make the university a lot of money. It's kind of like an enhanced name, image, and likeness deal. I think it's good. That's where we are. I think it's good. I just want to make sure the kids are doing the right thing with their money.
That's what I can do. Give a 17-, 18-, 19-year-old money, you wonder what they do with it. And to me, if I was a parent, I'd make sure I took their money and invested it and put it away and said, you can get it when you graduate. Get your degree. To me, that revenue share is great. Give it to them after they've graduated. Make sure they get a degree.
Do you sit down with these kids and help them, things like that?
Narduzzi: Oh, yeah. I do that a lot. I try to educate the parents of what I would do if it was my kid. I don't want my kids walking around with all that money. What are they going to do? Some will do a good job, and most of them won’t. Just like in the NFL, you guys heard of the guys in the NFL that make all that money, and they're broke. What did you do with all your money? That's an adult. That's a 25-year-old. What's a 17-, 18-year-old going to do?
I mean, the NFL has the rookie symposium or whatever. They try and teach the kids about how to. Do you feel like that should be something a school like Pitt does? Do you think it should be an NCAA program of education of how to manage these kids?
Narduzzi: Yeah, we do that. We've got the largest life skills program in the country, and we benefit from that. So our kids, we hope, you know how it is telling your kids stuff. Sometimes they listen sometimes, and sometimes they just want to go do what they want to do. They want a new car, which is the worst investment, as we all know, that you could possibly make. Go buy a new house. We sell these kids with this house. Buy a house, OK? You got a tax write-off. I mean, those are all, you don't have to buy a big house. Buy a small house. And then rent it out. Make some money, too. But our life skills does a great job.
With a team like Cal that intercepts the ball in a high clip, what does Eli need to do to continue to push the ball down the field and avoid those turnovers?
Narduzzi: Be smart with the football. I mean, good quarterback play helps. You better be really smart with the ball.
What was it like after the pick-six at UNC? What did he learn from that? What was his mindset after that?
Narduzzi: I mean, I think, what was his mindset? I didn't say, hey, how are you feeling after that? Did it feel good to you? Did you do that on purpose? I think no one's happy when they do that. But the mindset would be what happened the rest of the time after that. And I would say he fared pretty good.
He was ACC player of the week. He got all these awards. So you have to rebound from those things. It's just like life. Every day is not going to be a good day. You're just going to quit, you just go, oh, I had a bad morning today. I'm not going to work the rest of the day. No, that tells you that they know how to deal with adversity.
We try to teach them as well, talk about life skills and education, about dealing with adversity and also dealing with success. And those two things go hand-in-hand. And dealing with success is really harder than dealing with adversity, in my opinion. And so we've had success, too. We've got to deal with it. We've got to kind of put the blinders on, not listen to what everybody's saying on the outside.
It's the same when Saban talks about the rat poisoning. You've got to avoid the rat poisoning when you're having success.
Was there any difference, I mean, I know it's a new week, but was there any difference that you saw with him in practice this week after what was arguably his biggest mistake of the year?
Narduzzi: No, not at all. I mean, it's only a mistake when it costs you the win. But after the game, he's happy as can be. I haven't seen any difference. Matter of fact, he's probably, I think he gets better every week. But it would maybe sit with you a little bit if we got beat by four points. It was that pick six that hurt you. But again, we're all going to help Eli. Defense, we're going to get some fourth down stops, and we'll make it work. And then everybody's got to play better. But those things are going to happen. I mean, he's been really good with the ball. And we've got to continue to be plus four in the turnover ratio. That's where we are. I know that stat. I'm not big into stats, but plus four is good.
Keep that up. Keep getting them on defense. Keep protecting the football on offense. And those are going to happen.
There’s you guys, volleyball and both the soccer team have had a lot of success this fall in a lot of sports. What does it mean to be part of the athletic department that's had that kind of success?
Narduzzi: It’s great. I mean, I'm kind of worried about what's happening over here in the Duratz. But I'm happy for Dan Fisher and all the successes we're having on the other side of the river, I guess. It's awesome. It's great for the athletic department. And I'm happy.
Whose idea was the video, and you had to have acted in your school play in high school?
Narduzzi: OK. I don't think we had a school play at Ursuline High School. I was on the stage crew when I had to take a theater class at Rhode Island. I was on the stage crew because I wasn't going out there. So I don't do that. And it was not my idea. I just followed directions.
Our marketing team had an idea. And it's what we do. So whatever I got to do to help promote the University of Pittsburgh, I'll do it.
Did you enjoy it? You had a smile on your face at the time?
Narduzzi: You know, that's a great question. I don't know if I enjoyed it. I was kind of laughing, like, what am I doing here? This is kind of funny. And I guess Mr. Rogers laughed a lot. He smiled a lot, I guess. I don't know.
But maybe I did a good job by accident. Really, I don't like to smile.
