Pitt held its first practice in El Paso on Monday, and here's what Pat Narduzzi said to local media after the session.
First impressions of the field, of the weather, of the training facility?
Narduzzi: Well, you look like you’ve got a big sweatshirt, like you’re cold out here. This is beautiful out here today, I can tell you that.
Obviously, Eastwood High School, beautiful setting for practice, really detailed out. Coaches were out here as well, for their staff. Again, the hospitality, like always, is outstanding. And I’m going to add to the hospitality, yesterday afternoon, we had a couple guys get delayed on our flights, they got stuck in Dallas. Joe Golding, the head basketball coach for Texas-El Paso college here in town, the University of Texas-El Paso - him and his wife and child, they picked up and took our three guys and drove them, because the flight was delayed, to get them here for practice. They got here late last night, and I just want to give a shoutout to those guys. It just goes back to the hospitality. It was a great job by Joe and we appreciate it.
Have you ever heard of Joe Golding or met him before?
Narduzzi: No. Not until last night when I heard he was - they kind of bumped into each other at the rental car, they were all in the same position, flights were canceled and it’s a blessing.
I know you guys were practicing before you left Pittsburgh, but what were your impressions of the first practice here?
Narduzzi: I think we had a good practice. Got off a flight yesterday, a lot of these guys were traveling, yesterday was a travel day, so just to get them back in it, we didn’t go crazy out here running around. We’re going to - we have a big game coming up and we’re going to be fresh. We talk about being fresh all the time, so our guys will be fresh and ready to roll.
Have you made a decision who you might start at quarterback?
Narduzzi: Yeah, Nick Patti will start at quarterback, most likely, and we expect both of them to play. We’ll just kind of play it by ear and see how it goes.
How did you feel that the guys did after the Christmas break?
Narduzzi: I feel great. Our kids are mature enough. We gave them a break. Some people don’t give their guys a break to go home for the holidays, so our guys were home with their families and then they came out here, they were fresh, they had a lot of enthusiasm and good recall. It was only four days. Our guys are smart; that’s why they go to the University of Pittsburgh - academics.
Obviously replacing Izzy is not an easy task, but for Rodney, how are you hoping he can give you some semblance of what Izzy does?
Narduzzi: Well, if you were back in Pittsburgh at the beginning of the season and through preseason camp in August, we had Izzy and we had this other guy name Rodney Hammond, number six, and he’s a really good football player. He got hurt against West Virginia, kind of split from there, so we’ve got a lot of trust in him. We’ve got Vince Davis as well and C’Bo, so we’ve got plenty of guys in that backfield. It was a strong point for us coming into the season, so we feel really good with those guys.
Can you talk about Nick Patti and what he brings with experience from playing in the bowl game last year?
Narduzzi: Yeah, he played for two series in the bowl game last year. He was a competitor. He dove for a touchdown, hit the pylon, broke his collarbone. So this is his shot again. He finished the second half of Tennessee on one leg. The one thing I’ll tell you about Nick is, he is tough. He’s a competitor, he’s a smart football player and he’s a team guy. Our guys will play for him. He’s probably our best leader at the quarterback position and our guys really like playing for Nick.
Winning the last four games, does that give the team confidence?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I think so. I think our team is confident coming in. But like I tell our guys: it doesn’t matter what happened the last time we went out against Miami or the week before against Duke or the game before that. It’s all about this week and how we prepare and how we come out and detail this game out.
In terms of what you’ll face in UCLA with Charbonnet and Dorian Thompson-Robinson, is there somebody you might compare them to that you’ve seen this year?
Narduzzi: I think DTR kind of reminds me of Louisville’s quarterback, Cunningham. Malik Cunningham, that’s kind of who he reminds me of. He’s athletic, he can sling it, he’s a leader, he’s tough. You can see he plays with a lot of swag. He likes to hurdle you. He’s a football player and you can see, he loves to play the game, so I would compare him to him.
Charbonnet, he kind of reminds me of - I know he wears No. 24, but he’s a big, tough, physical back. He’s a bruiser. He’ll run you down. He’ll run through you. He kind of reminds me of James Conner, our tailback playing with the Arizona Cardinals.
Your top receiver, Jared Wayne, had a pretty good season. Can you talk about him a little bit?
Narduzzi: Yeah, Jared Wayne came into the season as a guy that wanted to be the guy, and he was the guy. He did everything he wanted to do in ’22 and he needs to finish strong with another great game against UCLA.
