Narduzzi on Duke, the scout team, goals and more

Narduzzi: Alright. Duke week. We’ve had a nice week of practice. I wanted to get outside today but there was snow all over the field out there and we couldn’t get out there. We got out on Tuesday and ended up being in on Wednesday and Thursday, so I was a little disappointed because it was perfect temperatures today. Our kids actually wanted to go out, too. It was 30 degrees and 13 mile an hour winds, which is about what it will be on Saturday afternoon.

We’re ready to roll and we have a couple more days of prep, but we’re good.

We talked to Kedon earlier this week and he was talking about how, after he got hurt in the Tennessee game, it took a little while for him to get back in the flow of the offense. I was thinking about how the Rhode Island game was his first game back and you guys threw a lot of screens and high-percentage passes -
Narduzzi: We ran it a lot.

And ran it a lot. Do you think that game might have been an opportunity to try to get some of that flow back, use it as a chance to get the passing game going before you jump into the ACC?
Narduzzi: You know, we can look back and - what game was that? Game four? Whatever it was. We can look back and say that. I don’t know if it really matters. We wanted to keep him protected and run the football. I didn’t want him to get hit again and I know Coach Cignetti didn’t either. So whatever. It’s a long time ago. We’re into Duke week.

Speaking of Duke, they’re the No. 2 rushing offense in the ACC, their quarterback gets out and you guys have made it a point to get better against rushing quarterbacks. I asked the same question last week and you guys did a better job against Brennan Armstrong; have you seen your guys take considerable steps to make sure that’s not a problem anymore?
Narduzzi: I think so, but it’s week by week. Nobody cares what they did last week. Duke’s not going to worry about that. They’re going to play their game. They’re going to hope - they may check more than other teams that we see, so if they see pressure coming, we’ve got to do a good job disguising and not showing them stuff. But they do a good job. If they see something coming over here, they’re going to go over there. If they see it coming from over there, they’re going to check it, they’re going to get themselves into a screen, they’re going to do something. They’ll have their plan. They’ll have their, ‘We’re running this play, and if we get this look, we’re running this play.’ That’s why their average snap time is like 31 seconds here in the five-game breakdown that we’ve got on them.

So it doesn’t matter. We’re going to find out what they’ve got this week, and we’ve got to stop the quarterback, for sure. He’s the key. Their tailbacks are good. And I think their staff does a great job putting them in position to be successful running the football.

How do you practice for teams that do a lot of those checks like that?
Narduzzi: We just have to be sound versus everything. If we blitz from the left side, then we have to be good versus whatever they do. It doesn’t matter; we have to execute, we have to know what’s happening - first, we have to make sure we don’t jump offsides, which we’ve worked on. The multiple clapping we’ll see this week.

Is there a particular unit that has done well against the quarterback runs? Your ends, your outside linebackers?
Narduzzi: Need them all. We need them all. He had two good quarterback - Leonard against us, he had two good quarterback keepers against us last year, one in mop-up duty at the end of the game but one for 10 yards early on a keeper where the tight end kind of avoids and he’s got a blocker for him on a zone-read keep, but he’s got a - we call it a void, a tight end that’s going to block downfield on a safety. So we’ve worked a lot on that. We’ve got some different stuff to help ourselves there.

They’ve only given up 14 sacks; are they max-protecting a lot?
Narduzzi: I wouldn’t say they’re max-protecting; they just get the ball out. They know where to go. Leonard knows where to go with the ball. We’ve seen teams with a lot more max protection than they do, so they’re not keeping that tight end in. Even when you go to third down, they’re going to line up and most of the time they’re spread out. They’re going to be in four-detached, the tight end is going to be out of the box and running a route. They do a good job of finding grass and knowing where to go with the football. They aren’t really worried about protection; they’re going to get the ball out and try to beat you with the ball.

Calijah was telling us how he draws inspiration from Aaron Donald, both being six-foot, around 280, using their size to beat people. What do you see from him that’s like, he finds all these other ways to win, despite offensive guards and tackles being five inches taller than him?
Narduzzi: Calijah is one of those guys - and I’ve watched enough Aaron Donald, whether it’s the Super Bowl, Aaron Donald plays with an attitude and so does Calijah Kancey. There’s an attitude about those two guys, and I don’t want to compare Calijah to Aaron Donald; Aaron Donald is Aaron Donald. You have to do what Aaron Donald’s done at the next level to be Aaron Donald, so let’s not confuse things here. But Calijah’s got the ability to be like that guy. I can’t compare what Calijah’s doing right now in his junior year here at Pitt compared to what Aaron Donald did; I just can’t even compare those. Aaron Donald is Aaron Donald. But Calijah is just, he’s explosive, he’s like one of those - I don’t even think he wrestled down there in Miami, but he could be an unbelievable wrestler because he’s quick, he knows how to use his hands, he plays with great leverage and he just knows how to get off of people. He uses his hands so well.

Can you develop attitude, or do you have to be born with that?
Narduzzi: You can develop it, too. We coach attitude every day. It’s nice to have it before you get here. He is just - he is positive every day, and nothing gets him down. You can rip him and he just keeps coming back for more. He wants more from that, like, ‘Rip me again.’ He just feeds off of everything he possibly can. Nothing is a negative for that guy. He’s special.

How important is finishing strong to making sure that the perception of the program is that eight wins, nine wins is the floor now, as opposed to taking a step back to something a little bit less?
Narduzzi: I think college football, every year is a little bit different. You lose a couple good players and maybe more than a couple good players. You have to work at it every year. There is nothing given in this game. Perception is perception. There’s perception and reality, and the reality is, every year is a different year. We’re not drafting guys. You have to hit on recruits, you have to get some good players, you have to have playmakers and you have to make plays.

So I’m not worried about the perception. I’m worried about winning the next game and looking good and feeling good and knowing what we have coming back and all of those things. Perception, you can never worry about perception. I really don’t worry about that.

Did Larry Fitzgerald speak to the team the other day?
Narduzzi: We talked. He talked to the receivers. I didn’t break practice to pull him up, because he came in the middle and he was hustling out as well. He was there about 40 minutes. But he didn’t come - I want Larry to continue to come back, but if I put a bunch of pressure and say, ‘I need you to talk over here, I need you to go over here,’ you know, I don’t want to wear Larry out. I try to respect.

He wanted to come watch Pitt football. That’s what I wanted him to do, to kind of be relaxed. I think Tiquan Underwood and him have a relationship, so Coach Underwood brought him up, brought the receivers over which, if I was the receiver coach, I probably would, too.

What was his message to the receivers?
Narduzzi: I wasn’t there. It was a field goal period. The receivers aren’t on field goal period. I was watching Ben Sauls put them through the uprights.

You guys are 8-1 since the start of 2020 in the month of November. Is there something about you guys that you start to figure things out late in the year that has helped with your success in that month? Or is that just coincidence?
Narduzzi: I don’t know. We like to finish strong. That’s nice. I didn’t know that record. You said 8-1 in November since when?

Since the start of 2020.
Narduzzi: Okay. I mean, I don’t know. Maybe we were good in the COVID year. I don’t know. Just play hard and finish. I don’t know. Maybe we play bad teams in November. We certainly don’t have one this week.

In 2020, that was the month you guys rallied after your rough October stretch. Last year, that was the month that you guys pushed through and got the Coastal Division. This year, you guys rebounded from another rough October, figuring things out and you have a chance to finish with eight wins before bowl season. It seems like you guys are able to learn from lessons and adapt.
Narduzzi: I hope so. That’s what we preach. It’s execution and details. And our guys get it. They know. We just have to take care of our details on Saturday. But I don’t know if there’s any secret recipe. We’re not doing any November recipe or anything.

You have probably seen some teams fizzle out at this time of year. This team, from I understand, is still practicing hard and engaged. What keeps these guys -
Narduzzi: I had to rip them. I had to rip them after Tuesday’s practice, by the way. We had a good practice, but the scout team was not as good as I needed it to be. They came out and killed it on Wednesday and pushed our guys. But there’s no fizzling out. That’s a coach’s job. We’re going to play hard and practice hard, but these are - you’ve got 115, a lot of teenagers out there, you just have to continue to stay on them. If you just let it happen, you’re letting it happen, and I’m not going to let it happen. So that’s me to stay on top of that and get them cranked up and ready to go. But we don’t fizzle out.

What do you do to stay on top of that?
Narduzzi: Love them up and keep them motivated. Give them something to go play for and practice. I don’t know. Just be me, I guess. I don’t know. I can’t tell you.

When you played and it was cold outside, did you ever say to yourself, I wish I didn’t have practice today?
Narduzzi: No. That doesn’t matter. I wanted to go out today bad. LaSala had to talk me off the wall, but I wanted to go out. I said, ‘We’re going out for two out of three days. We’re going out.’ There was no snow up in Wexford today. I came down here and looked at the fields and I’m like, ‘What the heck is going on?’ Someone messed up the party today.

You stay on guys, but the longer you’ve been here, have you had those conversations less because the program is being built?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I think so. Probably yes. I remember having to get them cranked up a little bit more and maybe getting a player to go talk. Early, I had to get players to come up in front of the team, maybe on a Wednesday or Thursday morning, just to get them fired up, get them cranked up a little bit. I haven’t had to do that. I haven’t had to pull that thing out of my back pocket, just to get them cranked up. I used to bring Alex Bookser up. Bookser used to get up in front of the team and get them cranked up. I thought about doing it, but we haven’t had to do it, so to your point, our guys are pretty locked in. They know they have to go to work every day. They all have goals to get better. We give them a goal sheet every week, like, what do you want to do this week? Maybe that’s something I haven’t talked about much. Every week we have a goal card for each player that they have to show me in a Tuesday morning meeting like, ‘What are you doing this week to be better?’ And I’m not just talking football; I’m talking, in the classroom, in life, you know, call your mother twice this week instead of once last week, whatever it may be. Put your five or six goals down that you want to accomplish this week, so just goal-oriented, and our kids have done a good job. I haven’t had to do much.

What was on Kedon’s board this week?
Narduzzi: I don’t go look at the cards. Come on, man.

That being said, we’re at the point of the season now where, would you like to see him build more momentum?
Narduzzi: I would like them all.

I know, but he plays a pretty important position, and it’s hard to go a month without throwing a touchdown pass in college football, unless you play for, like, Army.
Narduzzi: Well, we’re kind of like Army a little bit. We’re running the ball pretty good. You guys keep going back to last year when we were throwing it every down - when your run game is good, you’re not going to throw as many touchdown passes. When Izzy is rushing for 20-some touchdowns, at least somebody’s getting in the end zone.

I understand. If he wins games, quarterbacks are ultimately judged on wins -
Narduzzi: I would surely like to see more touchdowns. But I didn’t look to see if he said, ‘I want to throw three touchdown passes this week.’ I didn’t look to see, but I’m sure he would like to throw touchdown passes, too. And maybe we will this week.

Who’s the guy who gets the team cranked up? You said Bookser used to do it.
Narduzzi: SirVocea, Brandon Hill on defense. Offensively, Carter Warren was always a guy that could do it. Let me see, who else on offense? Offense is different. Jared Wayne, I would say, is one of those guys. And probably Kradel. Marcus Minor. We have a few of them.

When they do that, do they raise their voice?
Narduzzi: Yeah, they raise their voice.

You said you were hard on the scout team on Tuesday; it’s hard to be on the scout team, isn’t it?
Narduzzi: You have to get your motor going every day. I told them, ‘If the offense wants to come out and go through the motions and you let them go through the motions’ - we have a couple guys that will stir things up. Elliot Donald last year was always in the backfield. There’s got to be a fight every once in awhile. If there’s not a fight, then we have problems. There’s got to be a fight, because that means the offense is getting mad or the defense is getting mad at the offensive guys for going too hard. There’s no brother-in-law going on. You know what the brother-in-law is. Don’t brother-in-law it out there?

If there’s a gap between scrums, will you go up to a scout team kid and say, ‘Hey, start some stuff?’
Narduzzi: We’ve been known to do that, yeah. Yeah, we have.

Have there been any lately? This week, last week?
Narduzzi: You know what, Aden Thomas is a guy that’s always getting after it a little bit. He’s a walk-on that I think is going to play some football here. He’s always causing some problems up front. Nahki Johnson will cause some issues. The secondary, I had to get after them.

Everything is related on what you see on the field and how those guys, how hard they play. I look at some holding calls we’ve gotten on the edge with receivers, I go back and watch and I rip the secondary about getting off of blocks. If you don’t get off a block, I go up and block you and you go, ‘Well, I had my guy.’ But if you don’t try to rip off, we need to coach it on tape. If you just get blocked, that doesn’t help us any. We need to coach the receivers to make sure they keep their hands inside and block the right way and all of the details.

How have you seen Bangally Kamara and Solomon DeShields grow this year as a pair in what you’ve asked of them?
Narduzzi: They’re going to be really good. I think they’ve had a really solid year for us. There’s the ups and downs; in practice, probably more ups and downs in practice that you have to get after. But just that consistency every day. But I’ve been happy with the growth they’ve had this year. They’re going to be two good ones on the outside.

I talked to Kenny Pickett yesterday about Calijah, and he said he could tell pretty early on that he was going to be a problem and that he wasn’t on scout team for long.
Narduzzi: He was on scout for a little bit. There were periods he would go down there. But I can remember him - I can picture it, now that you say that.

Because you want to get a certain element from your scout team, are there sometimes kids who have maybe earned a promotion to the second team or whatever, but you’re like, ‘I kind of need him in this group because he brings something out that we need the other side of the ball to get?’
Narduzzi: Yeah, we will rotate guys down there. To your point there, we’re going to rotate guys. Nahki Johnson is a guy that, if he’s doing a good job down there, it’s talked about in here and we’re moving him down to get him some more reps down there and see the difference. So there are guys we’re constantly moving up and down, trying to - it also motivates them. ‘Hey, we’re going to have you down period two’ - the second team period, I should say, and let them see what they’ve got. So we use that. If you’re bad down there, you’ll never come down with the defense or the offense.