Pat Narduzzi talked about not knowing what to expect from Georgia Tech, how Pitt's offense will attack the Yellow Jackets' defense and a lot more during his Thursday press briefing.

Here's the full rundown of what he said.

Narduzzi: We’re here. The hay’s in the barn. It’s Thursday afternoon. I guess it is Thursday.

We had three really good days of practice. A lot of good energy and I’m excited to watch our guys go play. Been waiting for the ACC start for awhile, so we had a good week and it will be interesting to see what happens.

We’ve got a good football team coming in; I know that. They’re athletic, they run well and I think they’re really good.

You mentioned about starting ACC play. This is the second year in a row you’ve had this schedule where you get the four non-conference games in September and then it’s conference games the rest of the way. Do you like that flip of the switch like that?
Narduzzi: You know, I don’t set the schedule. We’ll play whenever. If we have two games and then ACC games, whatever. I know the SEC sometimes plays like game 11 or 12, they play a cupcake game late in the year; I’ve looked at that and I don’t know if I like that either. I guess if I had my preference, I’d like to go the preseason and then go into the ACC, I guess, if I was asked.

Two of the explosives you guys gave up last week, it looked on tape like it was Bangally Kamara who came out of his position - on the long touchdown run and the over-the-middle touchdown pass. Would you agree on those assessments and what does Bangally have to do to keep getting better?
Narduzzi: That wasn’t Bangally. It wasn’t Bangally. The big run was, really, John Morgan at left end and P.J. O’Brien are the two factors. It’s a formation to the boundary and you’d like the D-end to be a little tighter, to make that hole a little bit smaller and we’d like the safety to be a little bit better than what he was. But you live and learn. You put guys in there and expect them to make plays. John’s not used to playing a lot of field; he’s usually to the boundary. So you just kind of juggle things around a little bit.

That was one. What was the other one?

The touchdown pass that broke over the middle - the late one that they got.
Narduzzi: The late one, that was Bangally. That was Bangally, for sure, based on the formation. The pressure wasn’t as good, but yeah, Bangally could have been a lot better on that coverage, for sure. I think if he was where he needed to be and lined up, you know, different formations and different things, we don’t run a ton of that, but he could have picked it off or knocked the guy out.

What does he have to do to get better?
Narduzzi: It’s just details every play and it’s consistency. He makes good plays. That’s one play late in the game on a different route that sometimes you don’t see. You can’t practice everything, so those are all things - you can put that on the coaches, put it on him, he knows what he’s got to do. He got too much depth, too. He was just too deep. It’s a three-deep, it’s a two-under; move and go and he’s usually pretty good at that.

How willing have your receivers been to block? And how do you think they’ve done at that?
Narduzzi: They’ve done a really good job. Those big runs don’t - they don’t get sprung if those guys aren’t doing a good job. The receivers have done an outstanding job blocking and I’ve been happy with the effort and selflessness that they’ve shown there.

What’s your overall level of satisfaction with the defense so far?
Narduzzi: You know what? When you look at explosive gains, I mean, you give up a couple - three in the last three games, you win a lot of games like that. So overall, and again just with the different guys that have been on the field at different times, we’ve been a little shorthanded, I’m happy with where they are right now.

Do you think Kedon was able to continue to get settled in? Did he look more comfortable to you as the game went on last week?
Narduzzi: I think so. I think he was comfortable at the beginning of the game and as it went on. I didn’t see any discomfort out of his play. You look at it, he’s played six quarters up until last week, so he hasn’t played a lot of football in a long time. I’m happy with where he is. He’s got to get the ball out and protect himself.

After the West Virginia game, the following Monday, you said that you needed to get Jaylon Barden more involved in the offense. He hasn’t seen a whole lot in the three weeks since then. What does he need to do better to get more involved?
Narduzzi: Just be more consistent and make sure he’s taking care of the details. That’s what it comes down to. He’s a great athlete and I want him to play more. I’m hoping he had a good week of practice this week where we can get him on the field more. Let’s hope we see more Jaylon Barden. It’s just taking care of the details at practice every day and giving max effort.

As the guys start trickling back into the lineup, some of the injured guys, do you expect a dramatic improvement in the defense?
Narduzzi: You’re not happy with the defense? Why am I getting all these defensive questions?

It doesn’t matter what I think.
Narduzzi: I mean, again, it’s week by week. The games keep getting better, and as guys trickle back in, yeah, I would imagine if you have all your starters back, you’re always going to look a little bit better. We’ll get more sacks for you.

How do you guys attack Georgia Tech’s defense this week? Last week, you talked about Rhode Island backing you guys off; is there a different balance you have to go at this week?
Narduzzi: It’s take what you give. We’ll find out how they play us. That’s what you don’t know. You find out how they play you, and that’s what we’re looking for from the sideline and the press box: hey, what are they doing today? What’s their game plan? I would imagine they’re going to try to put as many guys in the box as possible. They don’t play a lot of quarters like we do, but the way to stop it is to jump into quarters, and then you give up something in the passing game. So we’ll see what they do with that defense.

Is that Frank’s mentality to take what they give us, or is that just always the way your offenses have ran here, where you’ll go based off what the matchup shows rather than, ‘This is the strength of our team; we’re going to try to impose it against the opposition’?
Narduzzi: I would think that’s how offenses are run across the country. If they have everybody lined up in the box and they don’t cover the receivers, like, we should throw it to the receivers. If, in turn, they’re doubling both receivers and they’re putting everybody out of the box, I think we’ll run the ball. So it’s all based on what you’re seeing on tape and what you’re going to see on game day. Everything is dictated off what they’re doing and how they’re playing you. Everything. That’s why we sit in the office all day and try to figure it out, and then you guess and we’ll see different stuff. They’ve got to try to stop the run. They have to. So we’ll find out what they do, how they do it. We’ve got answers for everything. You look at a call sheet, sometimes you only call half the plays, maybe not even half the plays that are on the call sheet, but you have answers for everything, based on what they do.

For as well as Izzy’s running, you’ve also gotten really strong contributions from Vincent Davis, especially over the last couple weeks. What have you seen from him that’s been able to feed off of what Izzy’s doing as a complement back?
Narduzzi: I love Vincent Davis, and I love him more and more every week that goes by. He’s so unselfish. He doesn’t care that Izzy’s getting the carries; he’ll have a big role every week and he’s got a great attitude. He’s doing things the right way, so we’ll just keep getting him involved in everything. He’ll get involved.

How do you guys practice your reps throughout a week when, say, you’re expecting one thing but a defense throws something else at you? Say they’re pressing you more and it’s the deep ball but you guys repped the run game and shorter passes; how do you adjust for that?
Narduzzi: You go back to your previous knowledge and all the things you saw and worked on during camp. You can’t work it all. We get 20 hours a week with the guys and you can’t prepare for everything. Sometimes you have to guess right. It’s the same thing on defense; we don’t know what they’re going to do. You prepare for different things. You go back. They seem to be a copycat kind of an offense, so we’ve gone through a bunch of plays from what we’ve see in the first four games of things that they might copycat. People will go, ‘Oh that worked against them, let’s put that in this week.’ We try to gauge, are they a copycat team or are they not a copycat? What did they do last year? What’s this guy done in the past when he was at Tulane or he was at Notre Dame? We look at everything.

But you’re guessing. That’s why I said, our kids have to go based on their knowledge, offensively or defensively, because you’re going to see different stuff you did not prepare for, whether it’s an opener, which you know you’re going to see more stuff then compared to a game that they’ve got five or six days to prepare for.

When you’ve watched film this season and before, what have you seen out of Jeff Sims? Is he the same guy you faced last year or how has he changed?
Narduzzi: He is. I really like him. I think he’s a talented, talented young man, and he’s starting to get older. Is this his last year or does he have another year after this? He is talented. He probably does.

You know, he’s tall, he’s long, he’s rangy, he can throw the ball. You watch him and he can throw it. He can make all the throws. And he can scramble out of the pocket. If he doesn’t like what he sees, you better be able to keep him in the pocket. So he can hurt you with his feet when he scrambles and he can hurt you with the arm, so we’ve got to change things up on him and confuse him a little bit as far as what we’re doing with him and not make it easy on him, because if he sees you in cover-three, he’s going to shoot it out there to number one and he can fire it out there and get it to him quick.

When he scrambles, does he still look downfield or does he look to run pretty quick?
Narduzzi: He looks to run. He’s going to look and if he doesn’t like it, they trust his legs and they’re telling him to go. I think he’s being coached hard that, ‘If your first read is not there where you thought you wanted to go, just take off and run.’ I think that’s what they do and it’s worked. You watch third down and long, just put it on, it’s like half he’s throwing it or he’s taking off running. There’s not a whole lot of going from here to there to there, not going to his third progression.

Their pass defense has been pretty effective so far, just about 200 yards per game so far. What makes them so effective in defending the pass?
Narduzzi: We talk scheme - they’re playing deep. Their favorite is to be cover-three. They’re going to take away the deep pass. They’ve given up some things in the run game, so if that’s what they want to continue to do, then we hope we can get our run game going. If they try to put those safeties in the box and not play so much three-deep - I mean, they’ve got guys that can cover. They play kind of a matched-up cover-three and they do a good job. They’re good in pass coverage and they’ve got athletes to play man-to-man, so they can press you up and play you.

Do you notice a different buzz in practice this week because you’ve got an ACC game?
Narduzzi: I’ve noticed it this week, for sure, there’s definitely a different little bit of a buzz. Again, is it because it’s the ACC and Georgia Tech? Or is it because it’s not Rhode Island and it’s not Western Michigan? I don’t know what that is. You wish they didn’t have that. But I’ve seen a little bit of buzz. Is it this ‘Holy cow’ buzz? No. But it’s just a little bit different.

Over the years, have you found a different attitude by the guys when you’re winning and playing well as opposed to when it’s not going well?
Narduzzi: Oh, there’s no question about it. The locker room is a lot better when you’re winning than when you’re losing. Period. That’s a for-sure. It’s always easier to practice and mentally get the guys in when you’re winning. It’s always tough after a loss. That’s when we have to go to work.

You’ve played at pretty much every conceivable time; have you found a good routine for Saturday night games?
Narduzzi: Yeah, we have a good routine, which we always have. It doesn’t matter if it’s a noon game or 7:30, 8 o’clock; we’ve got a routine that we stick with. From 7:30 to 8 o’clock, it’s a half-hour difference. We leave the hotel a little bit later. We have a routine for that and we should be all set there.

Do you try to make it the same routine home or road? Do you try to make it so it’s the exact same experience?
Narduzzi: No question about it. We do the same thing, home or road. It’s just a different hotel, maybe a different stadium we travel to, but it’s all the same.

Last year, Georgia Tech was the game when Kenny Pickett established himself as being in the Heisman race. Is there a sense that with ACC play starting, you’ve got Izzy with a lot of numbers, you’ve got Erick with a lot of interceptions, that a few guys can put themselves more on the national stage starting in conference play?
Narduzzi: I think so but, you know, you look at M.J., there’s a lot of guys. It’s an opportunity for a lot of guys to make a play. You hope it’s somebody different this week, you know? I hope Konata has 18 catches. Every week, you don’t know who the hero’s going to be. It’s not going to be the same guy every week. You hope. You hope we have more playmakers and we’re not just zeroed in on two or, ‘Hey,’ don throw the ball towards 31.’ I mean, he dropped one last week that should have been another pick-six. You’ve got to make that play.

So maybe they don’t throw it to 31 but maybe it’s Brandon Hill’s chance. They haven’t thrown a lot at him. So we’ll see. If they throw at our corners, it’s time for A.J. Woods and Marquis to step up.

Have you ever been a part of a team that had to change head coaches in the middle of a season?
Narduzzi: I have not. I’ve been fortunate enough not to be part of any of that and I don’t - I feel bad for anybody that has to go through that, to be honest with you. It’s not easy, I’m sure. But I’ve been fortunate enough in my career not to have to deal with that at all. And I don’t want to have to deal with it ever.

It’s a tough profession, isn’t it?
Narduzzi: It’s a tough profession. And it’s rough. It’s rough. And getting rougher.

I said this a long time ago: remember when they talked about the early signing day - everybody likes it, early signing day in December - we said as coaches, if you move the signing day up, coaches are going to be on a shorter leash. And I don’t think it’s great for the kids. For players to have to go through that after game three or after game four, it’s just a tough deal. I think there’s three Power Five jobs open right now in September, but that’s all attributed to the early signing period. If there was still a February signing period, I think athletic departments would think they’ve got more time to get that recruiting class together. I think that’s a part of it and it’s not good.

You guys have faced your fair share of mobile quarterbacks over the years. I remember Malik Cunningham two years ago with Louisville. How do you guys feel with the crew that you have now, how do you feel that you guys are prepared to take on guys who look to run first?
Narduzzi: We’ll find out. We haven’t had to deal with that much, depending on who’s playing on the defensive line. So we haven’t had to deal with that much. We’re going to find out tomorrow and see how we fair. But it’s a lot better when you’ve got your starters out there, I can guarantee you that.

I always say this: We have to be in kill mode, not catch mode. I think you guys have heard me talk about that before, but there’s two modes: Let’s keep him in the pocket and get a slow rush and everybody’s scared he’s going to get out. We’re not going to play scared. We’re going to go get him. He’s a big guy, he’s not easy to get down, but we have to go get him. So it’s a ‘Go get him;’ it’s not a ‘Contain him.’ I hate the contain word.

With M.J. earning some more snaps at corner and you and him at punt return last week, what has he been able to do to earn those opportunities for himself and work his way up on the depth charts?
Narduzzi: I’ve been really impressed with M.J., both special teams-wise at punt returner and at corner. We consider him a starter, period, regardless of how many reps or who’s the first guy on the field. But he’s been really good. He just keeps getting better. That’s what you want guys to do: just keep getting better every day. Since he arrived here from Kentucky, he’s been very consistent in what he’s put on tape. And the things he needs to work on, he has gotten better at every week. I’m excited with where he is. He’s got a chance to be a really good football player. And he’s got great speed, as you guys see.

What are some of those things that he’s worked on?
Narduzzi: He worked on his footwork out at corner, just the patience in his coverage when he is pressing. You think about all the press-corners we have in the NFL, he’s a guy that can run and can do it. He’s gotten more physical. When we first got him, he was not a very physical guy, as far as a killer tackler, everything like that. But now, we’ll put him into the boundary and we can blitz him if we want to and we feel like he can make that play in the box.

Those three corners getting about the same number of snaps so far?
Narduzzi: I think so, without having the numbers in front of me. But A.J., Marquis and - you know, Marquis didn’t play last week, so I would imagine the other guys got more because of that, but we’ll see.