Narduzzi on RBs, WRs and more
Pat Narduzzi talked running backs, receivers and more in his post-practice press briefing Thursday. Here’s a full rundown of everything he said.
Narduzzi: 11 in the books. Really, a good day. The last two practices - last Thursday and Tuesday - were just okay as you watched the tape, just kind of hit a plateau a little bit. Today we cranked it up a little bit more and had some great situations and the guys were competing. I’m looking forward to watching the tape.
You’re looking forward to Saturday too, I guess?
Narduzzi: No doubt about it. I hope the weather’s good. I don’t know if the weather’s going to break here in Pittsburgh yet or not, but hopefully we’re at Heinz Field, weather permitting. It should be a good one, fighting for the jerseys.
You talked about the run game seeming to do well; you have a lot of guys with a lot of talent - how are you going to share the football?
Narduzzi: We’ll find out. We’ll go through August and find out: who are the guys? Who’s reliable? Who’s going to get the yard? Who’s playing with good leverage? And who’s holding onto the ball and not turning it over? Darrin Hall is doing well. AJ Davis, Sibley’s had a great camp so far as well. There’s a lot of competition in the backfield.
Darrin Hall is our guy right now, without a doubt. He’s proven that every day in spring ball. But those other guys, it’s like, who’s going to be that second guy? It’s still yet to be set.
Does what happens this Saturday at Heinz Field hold more weight than what you’ll do at the spring game?
Narduzzi: It does. It’s the last real, real scrimmage where your [first-team] offensive line is with your quarterback and your tailback, so it’s one’s-on-one’s and it certainly will be the better scrimmage of the two…it certainly will be a big scrimmage and show where people are and the depth leading up to August.
What went into giving the assistant head coach title to Charlie (Partridge)? And what impact has he made in that role?
Narduzzi: Just - if you talked to anybody in that locker room - a former head coach, Charlie, he’s a guy that has really been there, done that, as far as the head coach. He’s got a way with everybody on the team. He’s not just a D-line coach. That’s really what it is. You can kind of see it, I think the kids feel it. He’s a leader, he’s a great coach and it’s something he deserves.
When you watch your offense, how often do you have to remind yourself that [Taysir Mack] is not going to be able to help you in real games until 2019?
Narduzzi: You never know. I know that transfer rule is coming out; I don’t know what’s going to happen there. I mean, you really don’t know. It’s said - even some rule changes they’ve made - you may have more headsets and some blocks downfield, there’s a lot of rules that we still don’t even know going through spring ball. They don’t vote on some things until, I want to April 6, I believe, then some stuff in June. So we’ll find out about that.
As far as Mack, though, how well is he playing? Has he been one of your better guys at that spot?
Narduzzi: He’s been playing really well. He’s going to be a wide reciver who plays a lot of fooball here and makes a lot of plays. But there are some other guys that are doing well as well. Tre Tipton’s playing well. Rafael - RaRa - is doing well, as well. So there is a lot of talent. Darian Street’s getting better every day. There’s some talent out there. So we’ll see.
So if that legislation passes, he can play this season?
Narduzzi: Yeah, as far as I know.
You’re hoping for that, I assume?
Narduzzi: Not really. I’m not hoping. For college football, I’d say I don’t want that rule. It does have - we’d get an immediate impact player for us right now, but I still would vote it down, not to not let Mack play, but for college football. It’s not about Pitt or me; it’s about, I think, what’s good for college football.
When you sat down and looked back at the quarterback decisions - putting guys in, taking guys out - how did you reflect on those decisions?
Narduzzi: It’s hard. I mean, You’re sitting at Syracuse and Max is laying on the ground; at that point right there, Kenny Pickett was on the scout for five weeks or whatever it was when we got in that Syracuse game. He hadn’t taken a rep since preseason camp in August - that’s with an offense, not with a card.
You had no regrets. I think things worked out the right way. I think Kenny’s got a lot of confidence going into 2018 and that’s really what matters. You can’t look back and say ‘What if - what if we did this or what if we did that?’ Max Browne was our best quarterback a year ago. He went down and we had to make decisions.
Do you feel like people on the outside might underestimate how much time you needed to put in to get Kenny ready?
Narduzzi: I would say so. I don’t think anybody would have wanted him to get in the huddle right after that week. It would have been tough to put that all on his shoulders, and that’s not fair to him or anybody. And that led up to really what happened against Miami, I think. So you play one game at a time and try to play the guy that gives you the best chance to win and gives everybody else a chance to be successful.
He progressed pretty quickly after the Syracuse game.
Narduzzi: He did. He’s a smart guy; it’s just a lot going on out there. It’s a lot harder than you can imagine. I just watched Ricky out there; it’s just tough - new offense and it was a new offense to Kenny as well, so there’s a lot going on. And Ricky’s going to continue to get better.
Did you say at one point that NC State basically blitzed him every play?
Narduzzi: If you watch the second half of that North Carolina State game, they blitzed just about every down. He made plays with his feet, but he probably wasn’t as prepared for it as he would have liked to be.