I don’t know what number of practice it was today, but we had another good one. Sunday we kind of had a small little walk-through practice and a good scrimmage on Saturday. Coming out of the scrimmage the offense got beat by two points, but after further review - the head coach blew the whistle a little too early on the quarterback. I was trying to protect the quarterback and there was a busted coverage and the offense scored, but during the scrimmage I didn’t give them that touchdown. It was actually Jaylon Barden who caught the touchdown, but after further review I had to give it to the offense and that was a touchdown. You can’t have busted coverage regardless and you can’t count on getting sack every down, so the offense really got the win in the scrimmage. It was a battle, we had a good scrimmage, I forgot to write down the number of plays we had, but probably a little less than we had last week - whatever that number was - probably 100-110 total plays and we came out of it pretty darn healthy, so that’s the main thing we come out of the second scrimmage, which is really the last scrimmage. We’ll have a rehearsal scrimmage this weekend to be prepared. We had a nice, physical Tuesday game week practice today and we’re having fun.

I have a couple of just quick updates, just roster moves and roster changes. We’ve got a new scholarship receiver we brought in, a grad transfer from the University of Maryland, a young man by the name of D.J. Turner. He’s played a lot of football at Maryland and the recruit actually begun - I got a phone call from one of my old players. I’m sure he didn’t have my number, but he had the same number he had at the University of Rhode Island, back in the day - back in the 90’s. Because I never delete any of my players. I was talking about relationships and I never delete any of my players’ numbers. I still had it a kid named Marc Hayes, one of my defensive tackles I recruited him out of DeMatha High School. He calls me and says, ‘I got a brother’ and he didn’t put his name on the phone and he says I got a brother that’s interested in transferring from Maryland.’ So I really didn’t know much, but the kid’s name is Marc Hayes and his nickname was Baby Hayes. He was a D-Tackle, good football player so D.J. Turner is his brother so that’s how the thing got started and obviously he’s a grad transfer and is immediately eligible, so we’re happy to have him.

We also put two seniors on scholarship today. The first one, Jake Zilinkis was put on scholarship. He’s had a great fall camp and some people might say, ‘Oh you gave it to him because he’s a senior’ No I didn’t give it to him. That young man earned every dime, every penny and he works his tail off. He had an unbelievable catch in the end zone in the scrimmage for a touchdown. I told it wasn’t because of that one catch, it’s all the little things he’s playing. He’s playing a little receiver, little fullback, but this guy has been outstanding for years. He’s been banged up a little bit. He came in as a quarterback from high school with his dad and really on the scout team the guy did everything. We don’t really talk much about scout team players, but this guy was a do-everything player. He played quarterback, played fullback, played tight end, played tailback, and played receiver. We needed a bigger receiver to go against and always noticed him there. He wasn’t playing on our offense, but you always noticed him - he’s just a football player. Like I said, sometimes it takes a little longer than other to get things going, but I really like where he’s at.

The other guy is John Petrishen, who came a year ago from a different school in the state and came as a walk-on and never complained like, ‘I’m a scholarship player there and I want to come as a scholarship player here’ No. So we walked-on and he’s earned a scholarship. Right now he’s the No. 2 guy behind Cam Bright at the star position and he’s getting better and I think I mentioned to a couple of weeks ago as far as as the position change. He’s really picked it up well and he gives us more athleticism at the outside linebacker position just with the fact of all the spread offenses that we see. It’s really going to help us, so there just some tidbits as far as our football team from our practice and our players. Questions?

With all the conversations with the players the past several weeks, are they planning any kind of social message for the opener?

Narduzzi: We talk all the time about situations like this and they’ll be a time and place. Again right now it’s not the time to go protest or do a movement and get out - we’re just trying to protect our bubble. We certainly have plans for something on our helmet. I think for gameday we’re a little over a week and a half out and we’re a 4:00 game time. I don’t know if that’s been announced yet, but we’ll have something for game time. But again, it’s getting close and I wish I had an answer. Just as a football team I want to be unified as a team and have one thing and one message, but we’ll have something whether it’s from the NCAA, the ACC, or Pitt if they can’t make a decision quickly. I’m a pretty good artist, I’ll draw something up for our uniforms. So that’s all we really have planned right now, but we take it day by day. We don’t have it on a calendar, but if things start to change and our kids have different ideas then I’m going to support them 100%.

Does the urgency feel like it’s there now that football is starting in a few days?

Narduzzi: Yea it does. I think you get a little wake-up call when you watch Saturday 9:00 and watched some ball. So it’s like if they’re going out then we’re going out. I really felt good for the last week to be honest with you. I really felt better since the NCAA said - I don’t want to say golden ticket, but a free year for these guys. There’s not as many question like what is going to happen if I go play two games or one game. So I think that cleared a lot of things up and made our kids feel a little bit better. Really the whole situation here in 2020 in this corona year that we have. The urgency is there. I see them at practice, I see it in meetings and we kind of gave them an introduction today so we had some Austin Peay periods today. So we did some of those periods today and we’re looking at the depth chart about kind of who they are and what they do. So preparation has begun.

Is D.J. Turner with the team now?

Narduzzi: I want to say he got here Tuesday night or Wednesday morning - I’m not sure. He practiced with us today for the first time, so I didn’t want to say anything until he was on the field. So today was his first practice, he just got into school I think 4:00 yesterday afternoon. He got enrolled, so we couldn’t do anything until he was actually enrolled in class. So he’s here and looked really good out on the field today.

Coach Beatty also coached him in the past. Coach Beatty has got such a great relationship with (Maryland coach) Coach Locksley over there, and he didn’t want to have anything to do with it. But really it ended up being with me through my man Marc Hayes, but he knows Coach Beatty’s drills and that kind of hit me out on the field that he already knows all these drills. Three years of it, he got them down. He knows his individual stuff, so it’s been a bit better of a transition just as far as being the individual and knowing how Coach Beatty coaches. The transition is easier there, but the offense is a different scheme and the play calls, formation names, and all that so he’s got to learn this offense. But after day one, I ended up going, ‘this guy is really smart’.

Can he make an impact in week one?

Narduzzi: Week one from what I saw today. I think he’ll help us right now.

Which receiver position do you have him at?

Narduzzi: X-Y-Z-P-Q….whatever. I don’t know. He can play them all I think. He’s got legs bigger than mine, I can tell you that. This dude is big.

How many years of eligibility does he have?

Narduzzi: He’s a graduate transfer. He has one season left. Coach Locksley was good, I talked to Coach Locksley and he was good and was like, ‘Listen we’re not playing and he wants to play that next year’ and Coach Locks understood like most coaches would.

What has Jake’s attitude and approach been like over the past few years?

Narduzzi: He loves football and there’s a difference between guys that like and love it. He came in and he was like a linebacker one time, he was a tight end and then he was a fullback and now he’s obviously back on the offensive side of the ball. He’s done a little bit of everything and he’s done anything for us wherever he’s needed. He loves the game of football and I anticipate him probably being a coach someday. He’s had an incredible attitude for these four years and these four camps he’s been through. It’s not been easy and not many walk-ons make it to their senior year and they kind of give up. We’re lucky to have two of them here this year, but it’s not easy to do and there’s a lot of work that goes into it and a lot of sacrifices his family has made for him to be here and do what he’s done.

You’ve had a lot of success with walk-ons. Is there something they show beyond the football field that you look for in those guys?

Narduzzi: Certainly and there’s so many other intangibles besides just that. It’s the persistence that he’s had that has kept him on the field, because he could have walked away a year ago and never got to this point. After practice he thanked me again and said, ‘this is the best day of my life’. I don’t think his parents even know, he tried to call them before practice. They’re out in Arizona now, dad retired and they moved out there and bought a home. So they may be still sleeping, bit congratulations to them as well.

What were your impressions of Austin Peay on Saturday?

Narduzzi: Obviously I think they’re very athletic. I think they fly around and play hard. Cozza. Their defensive coordinator is - he wasn’t born when I was at Yale, but my dad coached with Carm Cozza his grandfather. So I’ve known about him for a long time. We’ve exchanged phone calls and text messages through the years. Their offensive coordinator is a guy from Youngstown, Ohio, an old Struthers guy: Zetts, who was at Mississippi State prior to that as - I don’t know if it was quality control or graduate assistant. He’s done a great job on offense. They’re playing fast and they run a little bit of the triple option, which they have shown much prior to (Saturday) so obviously we had two periods on that today on trying to defend that, which is very similar to a Georgia Tech except obviously the quarterback is in a gun instead of under center. So we’ve kind of looked at some of that stuff already and game planned it. But I see an athletic, hungry, aggressive football team that’s really athletic. The roster is full of transfers, it seems they’ve got a slew of guys from Mississippi State from when Coach Zetts was there. They got an Ohio State transfer, tailback, and we’ve talked to Ohio State and they said, ‘Shoot he was our best tailback we had in his freshman year when Dobbins was there’ Snead was there, I think his last name is Snead. They said over there that they thought he was better than Dobbins. So they’re talented all over the place with a lot of skill. Don’t let FCS fool you, they’re talented and won 11 games last year and made it to the quarterfinals, so it’s a good football team.

Who is stepping up at cornerback?

Narduzzi: Quis (Marquis Williams) looks good. Quis looked like he was playing offense. He laid out and had a heckuva interception in the scrimmage, made a diving coach like a receiver would have. Quis has looked good and AJ Woods has really grown up and I’m happy with where they are. The other guy that was cross-trained and even a year ago who played both was Erick Hallet, so don’t forget about Erick Hallett as a corner. He could be a safety. We’re pretty good at safety with Paris Ford and Damar Hamlin has been outstanding as well along with Brandon Hill. So those are the guys at corner and I’ll tell you what, the kid Rashad Battle is physical. He had two hits on Saturday that was like, ‘Whoa’ and I wa standing back behind and we have noise during the scrimmage but it was like Bang! And two of them during the scrimmage and one on either sideline. He is physical, he's aggressive, and he doesn’t blink an eye and Jahvate Royal is the same thing. He’s very athletic and wait until you see how long these guys are. Unfortunatley you haven't really been able to see these guys live. Jahvante Royal is a long, tall athlete and I don’t know what they list him as but he looks like he’s 6’2” and long legs and really a great-looking guy. So those guys got a chance to play too, and they’re not like little freshmen. They act like men already.

What have you seen from Paris and Damar this camp?

Narduzzi: I mean they’re a year better. I think everybody better get better. I hope you guys are better than last year, so some people don’t get better they kind of just stay the same. You guys are supposed to laugh…come on. I think they’ve all gotten better. I’ll start with Damar, Damar has really grown into a leader. We were pushing him a year ago to be a leader, and I think in the last two weeks it has really hit him. You’ve had some leadership moments that you really haven’t seen before, whether it’s in a meeting or on the field or pre-practice. I think he gathered the whole defense up today before the first team period today and he just kind of gathered them up and I haven't seen that before. So he’s really taken that and to me that’s part of it. We really need leaders. I always say this: It’s their football team. I’m the head coach, but it’s their team, and great teams are led by the football players not the coach. If I’ve got to lead them and walk them around where they need to go then we’ve got issues. So the more leadership we’ve got - and really Damar has done that. Paris Ford, again he’s smart, athletic, aggressive. As a matter of fact I’m going to send out a video of him today. We had him mic’d up the other day and he’s just a different guy. We’ve got some new packages in for really both of them and I won’t spill the beans on that yet, but they're a year better.

How is the relationship with Kenny and D.J. Turner been in the first week?

Narduzzi: There’s no relationship built there at all. I’ve got to be honest with you. He just got here today. Really he hasn’t been in meetings, he couldn’t do anything until today. I actually introduced him to the team today, so he just got introduced to him today. He may have walked in the building and see someone and get information on classes, but no one knew who he was and nor we’re we allowed to tell anyone. So he got introduced to the team today at our 8:15 meeting and he ran out and caught some balls today so I’m sure we’ll watch tape. He tried to throw one deep ball to him today and obviously it didn’t time up well and first thing was Kenny said he has to throw to him more and feel where he’s going to be. So as a matter of fact, Kenny under threw him. He outran the ball, which is a good thing. I’m glad he didn’t overthrow him and DJ couldn’t get there. He really made DJ have to come back to the ball and the DB had a chance to break it up, but if Kenny really would have chucked it up there It would have been a touchdown.

We’re the attention to detail type error cleaned up in this second scrimmage? Do you have any concerns now that you’re ten days out?

Narduzzi: If I had a bucket of buttons of things to work on, it would be full. There’s everything. I mean we clean up some things in the scrimmage than there’s other things that need cleaned up. It’s like never-ending. It’ll be last game of the season and we’ll be trying to button things up and they’ll be more buttons to fasten. It never ends and that’s kind of what we do as coaches, just continually trying to fix, adjust, and make it better. Adjust it some more, tighten it up, and get it sewn right. The thread starts to loosen up and we got to tighten it up more. It’s just a constant, but we cleaned some things up. We looked better, that’s why he had less plays and everyday I think we get closer and closer, but there’s a lot of things we’ll have to fix after the opener as well. Just part of our job. Never ending.

What have you seen from punter so far in camp?

Narduzzi: Kirk has done an incredible job. Appreciate you asking about the specialists. Kirk has really been locked-in and as a matter of fact you asked this today. We had a punt period today and he’s really been locked-in and last year he really wasn’t locked in like he is this year. I was kind of mad at him.

Was that an injury or performance when Christodoulou was changed from the punter?

Narduzzi: That was a performance. That was me being mad at him and he wasn’t very good. He wasn’t locked-in, but he was very locked-in today. He was punting one today and he had this towel in his back pocket and it looked like he took his mom’s dishrag from her kitchen sink and put it - there’s no swag in that rag at all. He didn’t flinch and look at me like what coach? So he was locked-in and I was like did you hear me? He was like ‘I head you coach’ he was just ignoring me, so he’s locked in and punting as well as I’ve ever seen him punt. Good question.

What have you seen from the intangibles of your defense?

Narduzzi: The first thing is they’ve got confidence. They believe. From the corners to the defensive line I think there’s a belief that they can be as good as they want to be. So that’s the first thing, but a year ago going into the season did they really believe that they could do what they did? I don’t know. But kind of their motto right now is: Unfinished Business. It’s unfinished business because we still got a ways to go and we still want to be better. It doesn;’t mean you arrived. Nobody cares what you did a year ago, it’s what you do in 2020. We’ve got a lot to prove on both sides of the ball and it’s a new year. But they do have confidence and I think that’s the one thing and they’ve got confidence in who they are and what they can do. I think anytime you’ve got confidence, I think people got to watch out. Confidence can be deadly. But you know what if you don’t have confidence, it can be fatal.

There was a video that surfaced yesterday. Do you want to clarify your relationship with Matt Canada?

Narduzzi: I heard about that yesterday, I got a text message on it. Matt Canada, our relationship has never changed. I love Matt Canada. He’s an unbelievable offensive coordinator. I’m happy he’s with the black and gold next door. The guy did a tremendous job as our offensive coordinator. I didn’t want to lose him, that’s why we tried to pay him a million dollars. People make decisions. I think I was at a clinic and my point was, again I didn’t see the video I heard about the video, but I was at a clinic and somebody may have asked a question and I don’t remember how it came, but I will roll on and just kind of tell stories. And it’s just real stories with just how I feel and again it’s an opinion and an opinion only of just being patient. I had an NFL coach and I’ll even tell you who he is, a kid named Frankie Smith, a tight ends coach and guy that played at Miami of Ohio texted me yesterday. And it’s a matter of one guy taking it and everybody can look at it anyway you want. And Frankie Smith texts me yesterday and said: ‘Great point on the patience in coaching story I read. Great point, hope you’re well, and stay healthy - Frank Smith’ Everybody wants to twist words around, but I love Matt Canada. That guy is awesome and like I said the guy is going to find his path one way or another and he made a heck of a lot of money doing it. I know he wants to be a head coach and I love Matt, so I don’t think anything really further needs to be said. If Matt took that the wrong way, I sure hope he didn’t. I haven’t talked to him since, because I’m busy, he’s busy and in our world it just doesn’t matter. That's about all I’ve got on that.