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Pat Narduzzi met the media prior to Saturday’s practice, and here’s a full rundown of everything he said.
Narduzzi: Practice number two. We had a good evening, good meetings with our kids yesterday. I think you always find out in practice one where you are as a football team, where you came out of the summer, and practice two, really, is my favorite, because you get to see a little bit more. You see how much little improvement they can make. Between the first game and the second game, you make improvement; I think between the first practice and second practice you see really who they are. I think there are nerves. I think our kids get nervous on day one, even from yesterday in pass skelly, we didn’t catch the ball very well offensively. Then all of a sudden - even as ‘team’ went on, we made some great catches. So I think today we’re going to have a fantastic practice and I’m excited to watch it.
You talked about catching passes; who are you looking for to stand out among the receivers?
Narduzzi: Everybody. I don’t expect anybody - I don’t have favorites. I want guys that are going to make plays, that Coach Watson and our quarterbacks can count on making a catch. I think that’s up to them to decide. I don’t decide who those guys are. I think you guys have some names and we know who’s got talent, but you have to show it. I think our whole team will find out who those guys are.
Yesterday was the first day you got to see Will Gragg run around and do football stuff.
Narduzzi: It really was. We’ve seen him in drills but then to see - it’s amazing what happens when just a helmet goes on; you see different things. We had little bits and pieces going through some conditioning drills. But yeah, we did get to see Will. I was just kind of impressed.
The one thing that stood out about Will Gragg was just his route-running; I mean, the guy can push the field and it’s different from maybe some of the other guys. So I really think, off what I saw day one, that he’s going to really help us in the passing game.
How did you connect with him? You’ve said before you’re not out scouring the grad transfer market and there’s usually a connection; how did you hear about him?
Narduzzi: There was really no connection. I mean, we’re out there scouring - I guess now there’s going to be a new website that will help - but we knew where our needs are, we know what we would like to get out there, and it’s a matter of, ‘Okay, there’s a name; let’s watch the videotape and find out if we want to get in contact with him.’ And that’s just one of them; I mean, I can tell you, there’s another ten that we got in contact with or at least heard about and said, ‘Hey, that guy maybe could be a good fit, let’s watch the tape.’ Then you watch the tape and you’re going, ‘Eh, we don’t need that.’
So Will was a guy that we targeted. We loved what we saw. And you know what? Forget what he does in pass skelly - that kid has been an unbelievable kid since he’s been here. I just love his attitude. I love how he - he’s fit right in, just like Stefano has with our football team.
When you talk about the jump from day one to day two, is that most pronounced with the first-year guys, the guys out of high school?
Narduzzi: Yeah. I think the older guys, for sure. But there will be improvement out of those younger guys, and sometimes it gets worse. Sometimes you throw another install and you throw more coverage and more formations at them offensively and all of a sudden they’re like, ‘Wooo.’ So we’ll find out who hits that wall, as we’ve talked before.
Did you feel like you needed another pass-catching option at tight end?
Narduzzi: We just thought we needed another tight end that could come make plays. He’s a guy that - it doesn’t matter, pass-catching, run-blocking, just tight end, period. It didn’t matter what it was. We were just interested in another tight end that we thought could make an impact. We thought like maybe it was a positon of weakness coming in. The strong survive out there, so there are guys out there that are doing a good job and then some guys will look around and say, ‘Wow, why is that guy here?’ and kind of go, ‘Wooo, he’s pretty good.’
How did Kaymar end up being the freshman who moved?
Narduzzi: We had a little tryout. Again, we weren’t here as coaches. We had Kenny and the quarterbacks take them out there and work with some of those defensive ends, and he just showed he had the natural, I guess, athletic ability, natural tendency to be at tight end. He runs good routes. He understands what’s going on. And from recruiting his brother - I’ll put this out here for Shilique, who’s out with the Raiders.
Shilique was never a good enough athlete to be a tight end. I told Kaymar that he definitely is a better athlete than his brother, who I enjoyed coaching up at Michigan State. So if Shilique’s listening out there, his brother’s getting an opportunity to do something that he - Shilique always wanted to play tight end, so it’s kind of funny how that goes.
