Pat Narduzzi talked about Delaware, trick plays, kicking, defense and more on Thursday. Here’s the rundown of everything he said.
Narduzzi: We had a nice week of practice. I think the kids are ready to roll. We talked the other day about Delaware being a good football team that will come in ready to play, so our guys have to be ready to go mentally and physically, which I anticipate they will be. But we’ll see a lot of different stuff that I don’t think we’ve seen in the past, offensively and defensively, so we’re prepared for a lot of things. We’re prepared for tricks and anything you can possibly imagine. Prepared for Pitt Special on the other side. So we should be good.
How big of an impact has Kylan Johnson had on your defense?
Narduzzi: Obviously, a big impact. He’s started every game coming into this weekend, he’ll start again this weekend. So he’s been a big impact, and it’s kind of what we thought when we watched the little tape that we had from a year ago, just fitting into what we want. It all comes down to fit. I just thought the speed he had - if we turned him loose and not let him shuffle around, that he was going to be something special and he has to this point.
After going so long without a turnover, you guys get two takeaways against UCF. Do you hope that you can kind of build on that and get that to continue?
Narduzzi: And again, I think they’re just like sacks: they come in droves sometimes, and sometimes you go into a little drought. We expect that. We expect it to keep happening. But you never know. You could go into another drought again. So you take what they give you. The kids have tried to get them and the ball has been on the ground, whether it’s Phil Campbell with a quarterback hit and the ball just doesn’t bounce sometimes your way. I’ve been there as a defensive coordinator where you kind of - I don’t think you can go, ‘What are you guys doing?’ It just doesn’t happen sometimes, so you can’t force it. You just keep coaching them.
How would you assess your defense through four games as a whole? And a lot of fans think that this could be the best defense of the Pat Narduzzi era; do you think that that’s possible?
Narduzzi: You know, after game four, I’d say no. We still have a ways to go. We’ll find out where we finish. I think that’s when you grade a defense or an offense or a special teams unit. It’s crazy to wonder where you’d be if Keyshon Camp and Weaver were out there; you can always, you know, wonder, wonder, wonder. But they’re playing hard; we can still do a lot of things better. I can tell you that. We’re by no means, as coaches and players, perfect, so we’re looking for that perfection and we can be a lot better. Giving up big runs two weeks ago, there’s still things that we can be better at.
You said earlier about playing a smaller school - the gadget plays, do you see that a lot? Do they do a lot more than what they normally would do, these smaller schools?
Narduzzi: I think they certainly do. They’re going to do whatever it takes. They’re not coming in here, you know, just for a payday and wanting to get whooped. They’ll be ready to go. Our kids know that. They’ll do whatever it takes. They’ve got nothing to lose and I think that’s - if we had to go play the Pittsburgh Steelers, we’re gonna do some stuff, you know? Not that we’re the Pittsburgh Steelers, but they’re going to do whatever - they’ll have fake punts, they’ll have fake field goals. We have to look for it and be prepared for everything, I think. I know Bill Cubic better than Coach Ambrose there, and I just have seen, like I said, I’ve gone through - 2013, they only had 47 plays on offense, it was quite a few three-and-outs, but more than half of the game was stuff that we did not even prepare for. So I told the defense, you’re going to have half the stuff that you didn’t even see on tape that you’re going to have to prepare for; that’s just the way it’s going to be. That was Michigan State versus Illinois; what’s it going to be, Pitt-Delaware? And I think they ran everything one time. There wasn’t many repeats of plays; they would do it once and they know we’re going to talk about it on the sideline and they don’t repeat it again. So those are things we have to be prepared for. Which is har to prepare for, you’re preparing for the unknown.
If at some point the ACC goes with nine games, do you think the FCS games would start to disappear?
Narduzzi: Yeah, they would certainly disappear, which is not a good thing. I think that’s a bad thing for college football overall. I think Delaware enjoys coming up here and having their kids get up for that game. I think it’s something that’s good for college football and I think it’s a good way to start the season off, as opposed to the fourth game of the season.
How would you assess the progression of your offensive line?
Narduzzi: I think it’s made improvements. But week by week, it depends on who you play, what that front seven - you can say we ran the ball better against UCF; well, maybe their front seven wasn’t what Penn State’s was. Maybe their strength was their secondary, so, you know, we just worry about it one week at a time but I think they’re getting better. The protection’s been good. Kenny’s got confidence in the protection now, when you think about that, and we’ll just continue to progress at the run game. I think it will get better every week.
Is this a game where you can look back at what you’ve done through the first few weeks and say, ‘We really wish we would have gotten so-and-so the ball more, or this guy didn’t get as much playing time as we thought he was going to get when we came into the season,’ and try to push some of those things along in a game like this?
Narduzzi: Why? Not really. I mean, we’re not looking at getting John some more reps. You earn your reps. We’re looking to play the best players we’ve got and go out and make plays and if it’s the next man up, the next man’s got to go up and he gets a chance to play. But we’re not looking to, ‘Hey you get a little bit over here and then you can have some more here.’ We’re looking to play football and win football games. We’re not looking to, who gets this many reps? You earn your reps.
Your sack total is pretty impressive, but I could be wrong but you’re not blitzing that much, are you?
Narduzzi: Hmm…a little bit.
More than I think?
Narduzzi: More than you think, I guess. We blitz quite a bit and we’ve had a lot of third down sacks. Maybe not in our normal downs, but we’ve gotten some good four-man pressure. I haven’t added it up. I don’t even know how many we’ve got. But at the end of the year, we’ll kind of say, ‘Hey, how many four-man sacks do we have, how many five-man, how many six-man?’ But it seems like on third down, people have struggled to protect against our nickel stuff.
When Rashad got hurt, did you think that Jaylen and Deslin and Patrick Jones could fill in like they have?
Narduzzi: You don’t know. But Twyman’s been who Twyman is. He doesn’t surprise me a lick. He’s playing like the No. 1 guy inside, regardless of age. But those guys have - did I expect it? Yes. That’s what we expect. But we’ve expected it before and didn’t get it, so it’s a pleasant surprise when guys are making plays and they think they can get sacks and they’re telling me, ‘Coach, I’m getting a sack.’ Like, John Morgan said, ‘I’m getting a sack Saturday.’ So we’ll find out. I want to see John Morgan get a sack. I don’t think - does he have one yet? But he says, ‘I’m getting a sack this week.’ So he’s had the three best days of practice he’s had, and that’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking for guys to get better every day and I’m looking forward to seeing John Morgan do something Saturday. It’ll be fun.
You talked about teams not having success on third down; are you seeing it more where guys are winning one-on-one battles or it more scheme things where you’re confusing and they don’t know what’s coming?
Narduzzi: I didn’t say nobody’s moving the ball on third down. Let’s not twist that one. I just said we’re getting some sacks on third down and we’re pressuring people. But I think it’s a little bit of both. I think if it’s all scheme, you’re going to lose the scheme battle sometimes, as far as where the protection is slid. I mean, a lot of times, we’re blitzing the back - you’ll see that on tape - and if the back slides and goes the other way, you lose sometimes, so you lose some of those battles. Sometimes you just straight call it and you don’t care which side the back is. So there’s some you’re going to win - schematically if you can get it perfect as a coach, that’s great. If you can’t, then someone has got to make a play. But we’ve had a little bit of both. We’ve had guys get off of blocks and go.
When you have a kicker that’s struggling, what can you do during the week to help him out?
Narduzzi: He’s not - he was struggling; he’s not struggling anymore. So that was in the past. We’re in the future. So he’s no longer struggling. We’re going to have a great week. And we expect Kess’ - you know, it’s just like any other position, whether you’re struggling at quarterback, you’re struggling at D-tackle, you’re struggling at corner making a play on a deep ball, it’s no different, except those guys, all the spotlight’s on that. No one looks at the hold or did he kick the laces, any of those other things. You know, did the holder have to twist the ball? There’s just so many things that go into that, the details of that. How many guys in here are good golfers? So you know, if you ever had a bad day golfing, it’s very similar to the golf game. But I anticipate that we’ll - we just have to keep analyzing it, find out what he’s doing and try to fix what he’s doing. That’s our job as coaches. So if he doesn’t get it done, it ain’t just him, it’s me, it’s our entire staff not getting it done. But I think we’ve hit on some things that I feel confident that we can fix it.
You know, you can go see the golf pro and you can go get your swing fixed, but it might take you a couple weeks, too. But I anticipate it being right.
I’ve always used that as an analogy, if I’m not putting well and not I’m shot in the head. Is that similar to what kickers -
Narduzzi: Yeah. It’s similar to a quarterback, it’s similar to a running back that doesn’t make the right cuts, it’s similar to a DB if you don’t play the ball over your head. It’s half mental, it’s half physical, period. And it’s not all physical.
Tell me why now you’re starting to have packages for Nick Patti in the game?
Narduzzi: You know, Nick has shown the ability to make plays and we’d like to get Nick on the field more this weekend. We have a lot of faith in Nick Patti, so I guess we’ll stay tuned. Stay tuned.
Have you made a decision about Vincent Davis playing a fifth game?
Narduzzi: Yeah, he’s going to play a fifth game eventually, for sure. Maybe a sixth. You know, this freshman class if pretty talented and we’re not holding back. I’m not really worried about the four games; if a guy can help us, we’re going to get him on the field and let him go. There’s some of those young freshmen that are taking advantage of running down on the kickoff and being on the punt team, and it doesn’t matter what - they’re anxious and they’re willing and I think you go and play the best players we’ve got. And you try to keep guys fresh. I mean, the offense played 94 plays last week. It’s like, eventually you get worn out, so when we’re playing that many plays - we expected the defense to play 90 and they didn’t, but that’s because they got five three-and-outs. They didn’t do it to themselves. We’ve just got to take care of our players. Higher reps equal problems.
Are you changing your holder this week?
Narduzzi: Why?
I don’t know.
Narduzzi: Are you assuming there’s a holding problem?
I just thought I’d ask. You seem pretty sure that the kicking’s going to get better, like you had something in mind. Something specific.
Narduzzi: No, we’re not changing the holder. Kirk’s doing a pretty good job, I think. We’re not changing.
