Narduzzi on Pitt's 54-29 win over Duke

Narduzzi: A lot of good plays out there on the field today. A lot of ones that we’ve got to clean up for Thursday. That kickoff return for a touchdown. Not good. We’ll look at it. We had some missed tackles. We’ve got to cover kicks better than that, that really will drive me nuts. Overall looking at the way Kenny played, Jordan Addison, the defense played pretty good. They gave up a long one on an RPO, kind of what we call a slash-and-go. But overall when you look - it’s hard to go on the road and win football games in the ACC. That team was 3-1 at home this year. They played really good at home and not so good on the road. Road victories are big and we got a lot of guys get in there and play today. We’ll turn around and tomorrow is a Tuesday practice for our kids. We’ve got to get them in the training room, get them healthy and get back on this flight and get back home.

Make sure you guys turn your clocks back today. Happy Birthday to Sam Scarton. He was 4-for-4 on field goals. He was money and what a birthday present kicking four in a game. Those are four key kicks that extends our lead.

I’ll open it up for questions.

What changed for you guys defensively from the first quarter to the second quarter?

Narduzzi: Making plays, just changing up the defense whatever it is. They hit us on some hitches or comebacks. You feel like they’ve got your signals. Carson Van Lynn is over there staring at our signalers. We changed some things up, maybe we didn’t change it up good enough - I don’t know what it is. We got it done. You’ve got a spy on the other team and our kids found a way to get it done.

Do you think Van Lynn was actually stealing signs?

Narduzzi: I don’t know. I don’t know what he was getting. We’ve got some changes, but he’s a smart kid. You never know. You felt like it. Our kids early in the first quarter said they were calling stuff out. We’ll see. Nobody else will have inside information for the rest of the year. That’s why transfers and interconfertnce transfers are not good.

Do you feel Addison should be getting more national attention?

Narduzzi: No question about it. He’s a great football player. I think we could have hit him a couple of more times. I think he was open a few more times and we missed on some downs that we threw. We had a couple of turnovers. It’s hard to win football games on the road when your turn the ball over, but we got a couple as well. I think maybe it was even at 2-2, I don’t even know. I know Petrishen got one. I think we got a fumble. I know we got a stop on the goal line, the goal line stop. Four downs on the goal line, that’s hard to do anywhere. Our defense continues to be really really good on fourth down. You can bend a little bit, but that was a big series as well.

Without Taysir and Jaylon, how nice is it to have a guy like Jordan out there?

Narduzzi: Jordan’s special. Shocky Jacques-Louis, he had a heck of a ball game. He had some clutch catches. He was targeted seven times and caught six of them, some great catches on the sideline. So Shocky was outstanding. Appreciate all of our kids’ efforts in there. A lot of them made plays today.

You had a lot of injuries today, with a short week how concerned are you?

Narduzzi: You always get concerned. There’s bumps and bruises. The NCAA continues to let these Thursday night games and it’s not good for the health of these kids period. You’d like to get a couple of extra days to get healthy, so it’s obviously concerning. We’ve got the best doctors and trainers in the country and our kids do a good job of taking care of their bodies. It’s emphasized. We’ll have a smart week of practice and keep our guys as fresh as we can.

Do you have any updates on any of those injuries?

Narduzzi: No.

What did you think of the running back rotation and how do you think those three guys performed? Izzy only had 10 carries.

Narduzzi: It depends what you’re doing, but he got a lot of snaps out there. Izzy and Rodney are running hard and playing good and getting tough yards.

You used a lot of the unbalanced offensive line. Have you guys had a lot of success with that?

Narduzzi: We’ve had a lot of success with it the entire year and our guys continue and Coach Whipple does a great job. It’s what we do.

Johnny Petrishen had 13 tackles and another interception. What can you say about how far he’s come this season?

Narduzzi: Johnny, he’s a good football player. There’s some plays out there that weren’t so good, you called out the good ones. Johnny’s playing well, Cam Bright is playing well. I think Cam Bright had two sacks in a row. But those are two starters right there and I’m glad they’re on our team.

The running back rotation, is that Andre’s call?

Narduzzi: Yes. It’s Andre and Coach Whip and they’re going to take about it together and try to keep them fresh and let them go. We took Izzy out at the end just to keep him going. Izzy is our starting running back and we’ll keep rotating them through there.

What’s the focus this week?

Narduzzi: Be 1-0. We know we’ve got a good North Carolina football team coming here. They’re talented. Preseason favorites, got the trophy preseason - everything. They’re talented and we got to get to work. As soon as I jump on that plane I’ll be downloading North Carolina tape, probably in my locker room and the game plan starts as we get on that bus and airplane.