Narduzzi on Rhode Island, recruiting and the importance of details

Pat Narduzzi talked about Rhode Island, recruiting, the importance of details and a lot more.

Here's the full rundown of what he said.

Narduzzi: We’re ready. Good week of practice. Really good week of practice. I think our guys, you know, are looking at this game in a mature way. Slovis is ready to roll. Nate Yarnell is ready to roll. Nick Patti is ready to roll. So we’ll see what happens out there and we’re looking forward to a good game.

Your outside linebackers, week one to week three, what have you seen out of that group overall? Progress? Improvement?
Narduzzi: Certainly progress. A lot of progress. Which I think happens with game experience. As I told you, I think, a week ago, Bangally was like, ‘The game is a lot different than practice.’ Which it is. It’s faster, you can’t emulate the speed and you have to learn how to practice as fast as you can and make quick decisions on what you see.

But the one thing that’s happened is, we’ve got depth. We feel like the two starters, Bangally and Shayne Simon are really good, and we are not afraid at all to put Solomon DeShields and Tylar Wiltz in there, Brandon George and even Nick Lapi. So we’ll get a mixture and we’ll keep them fresh and we feel confident that they can go in there and we’re not going to lose much at all.

Talking about depth, is this a game you look at and hope to get those rotational guys even more reps?
Narduzzi: If you’re fortunate enough. We don’t ever plan on that - like, ‘Hey, this is what’s going to happen.’ Rhode Island will come in here, they’ll be ready to go and we’ve got to be ready. If that happens, that happens; if it doesn’t - we’ve been in games, I showed them the list of all the I-AA opponents, you know, we had Youngstown State in overtime, we played Delaware tight with a backup quarterback, Nick Patti, back in the day. The last two years, Austin Peay and New Hampshire last year, we took care of business the way you’re supposed to, and I think in ’20 and ’21 we had two pretty good football teams like we have now. So we’ll see what happens.

Jaden Bradley is a guy who has flashed potential; what have you seen from him this year and do you anticipate him getting more looks as the season goes throughout?
Narduzzi: Yeah, we’ll get Jaden more looks and more opportunities; just need consistency out of him. He wasn’t as consistent as he needed to be last week, and probably half the coach’s fault as well as his fault. He’s a guy who claims to know all of these positions - ‘I know X, I know Z, I know the F’ - he knows them on a piece of paper, but to go out there and execute them fast and with detail, you know, not good enough. So we thought he was a guy who could play all three; this week, we’ve just said, ‘Hey listen, you’re going to know one and you’re going to be really good at one, and then we’ll slowly’ - I said, ‘Right now, we think you’re the jack of all, master of none.’ I said, ‘We have to master one position and then we’ll gradually get you something else.’

But he’s a smart kid, he’s got great football IQ, but when it goes fast and you need the details, they haven’t been there. We expect to get that this weekend and onward as we go through the season.

That’s stuff you learn as a coach. I think Coach Underwood is just continuing to learn every week about who his guys are, what they need, what they don’t need.

Izzy took 31 carries last week and has run for over 100 in the last two; is there any thought to shortening up his workload this week or giving him a lighter workload?
Narduzzi: No. You know, I’ve been around some great tailbacks. I mean, Le’Veon Bell, I think he carried the ball 40 times and Le’Veon Bell was never asking for a break. So that’s what he’s got to get used to, and we think he can handle it.

You guys have eight sacks, which isn’t bad, but you guys are used to getting 50 in a season. What have you seen from your pass rush so far this year?
Narduzzi: You know, we’ve missed a lot. I bet you we missed three last week. John Morgan comes inside twice, three times probably, and he gets so anxious and he’s so quick-twitch that he thinks he can just beat them. We have to play within the framework, but I bet we have as many missed tackles in the backfield for sacks as we do sacks. They get anxious, they want to go make plays but you have to smart about how you do it, so we’ll get it cleaned up. We’ve put pressure on the quarterback, we’ve hit him a lot, whoever it’s been, but we have to be more detailed. We let the quarterback get out of the pocket and we’re just giving them away. Even on the one pass Salopek had last week where he threw it down our sideline maybe for a 15-yard gain, it should have been a sack. We let him get out of the pocket and then we put our coverage in jeopardy when we do that, based on that coverage we were in that down.

We’re giving them away, and we have to stop giving them away.

Is part of that your off-ball linebackers figuring out the chemistry? A lot of times you guys would have Phil, John and those guys bring the contain at the right moment; is that just pacing and chemistry at that point?
Narduzzi: It all depends on what the coverage is. It depends on what coverage we’re in, and I don’t think the ‘backers have been bad as far as being secondary contain. I think they’ve been pretty good. I haven’t seen that. It’s more of those, you know, those guys just paying attention to details and not getting - just like receivers rushing a route, these D-ends are rushing it. And the ball is getting out quicker. People know that we’ve been pretty good sacking the quarterback, so they’re going to get the ball out quick, which should be good for our coverage as well if they have to throw it quick.

How would you evaluate your kicker’s efforts against Western Michigan and this week in practice?
Narduzzi: Again, first of all, Ben has been outstanding kicking the ball on kickoffs. He’s been a little bit inconsistent in games; I think he’s missed three in the last two games. He kicks a 46-yarder or 48-yarder and then misses a smaller chip shot one; we expect more consistency and I think we’ll get it. And then when you look at practice this week, he has kicked 12 balls and he’s been 100%. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a kicker go 100% in practice. As a matter of fact, he went 5-for-5 today with the wind blowing 13, 14, 15, I don’t know, 20 miles an hour today. He was playing the wind and the ball was going like this; it was unbelievable and he put them all through. So it was a good day and we know Heinz can get a little windy as well.

Or Acrisure.

How do you coach missed sacks out of your guys? What do you have to do to get them to be under control and make the tackle?
Narduzzi: It’s not a matter of - last week, it wasn’t a matter of being under control and just grabbing and missing. It was a matter of getting up to the depth of the quarterback. John took a couple chances - he loves to get to the quarterback, and he’s countering at three yards; well, the quarterback’s at six, seven yards. You have to get up to that depth and counter first. So just telling them to relax and the sacks will come. They get so anxious, they want to get more - just like you, you want more, obviously with the sack total. You want more, you just have to be patient.

They have to be patient. Take what’s given to them. Don’t just try to make a play and really mess up everybody else.

I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I feel like you didn’t use the Delta as much in third down situations where maybe you would have. Third-and-6, 7 even 10, you seemed to stay in your base defense a decent amount. Was that just Western Michigan and trying to adjust to them?
Narduzzi: It’s all based on what they’re doing. Are they going to run it or pass it? If we think there’s a chance of running it, we’d rather be in base. So it comes down to, we call it sequencing; if it’s third-and-6 and they’re in two-down territory where we know there’s a possibility based on the breakdown and what we feel they’re doing, then we’re going to play a good run defense. We think our base four-down is good versus the run and the pass; we don’t feel like it’s not good. And when it gets down to a third down-and-long, very few times will we not be in some type of sub-package on third down and extra long or long. But it all depends on where the ball is on the field, so we do a lot based on field position and what they’re doing on field position. So it comes down to what the opponent is doing.

Solomon DeShields had a sack out of the Delta late in the game. Can a play like that, a player’s first big play, be a catalyst or a jumping-off point now that he has the experience of making a play?
Narduzzi: No question. He missed one earlier in the year - I forget which game it was, maybe Tennessee or West Virginia, he missed one and he was upset about it. He couldn’t wait to get one. So he was waiting. I think you have to miss one sometimes just to get one, so it’s a learning experience. I think Bangally missed one as well. So those new young guys are learning throughout these first three or four weeks.

How much of a coach’s game day week is taken up by recruiting?
Narduzzi: We talk recruiting every staff meeting when we get in here as a staff, so there’s always something, whether it’s visitors that are coming this weekend or phone calls, we go through who we’ve talked to this week. I couldn’t tell you the hours. Today we spent time evaluating prospects that are either coming this weekend or new guys that our recruiting office has dug up that we want to get an evaluation on, a written evaluation on.

Communication with recruits is key to maintaining those relationships. Do you have almost like a quota for how often the coaches contact the recruits?
Narduzzi: We don’t have any quotas. We’re only allowed one phone call per week. We can text a kid and our coaches get extra phone calls by saying, ‘Just call me’ or ‘Call me at 5 o’clock today’ or ‘What time’s good for you?’ So we get extra phone calls in that way, where the kids are calling us. But we’re allowed one a week, and we have it split up who we’re calling every week, so I know exactly who I’m calling, Coach Borbely knows he’s calling somebody - it’s really pretty organized.

Are text messages unlimited?
Narduzzi: Yes.

Do you have an ace communicator? A certain guy on the staff that you prefer to talk to certain guys?
Narduzzi: No, I think you always want to split it up, whether it’s an offensive coordinator getting ahold of an offensive player, defensive coordinator getting ahold of a player, the head coach is trying to touch everybody - I’m not just calling the same guy. You share the love and you want to make sure there’s never just one guy that’s always in constant communication with the player. That happens sometimes and then all of a sudden that coach leaves and you’ve lost everything. So you want to have multiple people getting in touch with these guys and feel like they’ve got a relationship with more than just one guy.

How much of those tactics have you always had or are things that you’ve learned while you were here?
Narduzzi: All stuff that we’ve always had. I think it’s stuff you do through the years. Nothing different that we’re doing in year eight compared to year one.

Do you get surprised much in recruiting? A kid commits to you or commits to another school - when was the last time you said, ‘I didn’t see that coming?’ Or do you usually have a pretty good feel for it?
Narduzzi: I have a pretty good feel. We’re not sitting around waiting on the 23rd of, say, September. We’re not waiting around. We have an idea of what’s going on. It’s pretty good communication.

I know Coach Griffin won’t be here this weekend, but any plans to catch up with some old friends from Rhode Island before the game?
Narduzzi: No, not before the game. Maybe after the game if they wait outside the locker room. But we’ve got things to do. First thing after a game, I want to go see my family. That’s summertime if you’re going to see somebody. It’s just hard. It’s hard. Once I get done with you guys, I’ll be the last guy out of the locker room; most of the people are gone after that.

It’s tough. You just don’t have time. There’s a lot of people that say, ‘Hey, I want to come by the office tomorrow’ and I’m like, ‘No, you’re not.’ There’s no time.

Andre Powell talked to us about -
Narduzzi: My abs?

Yes, he did talk to us about your abs.
Narduzzi: EJ told me that yesterday. Thanks Andre. He never had the abs. He was the same.

I laughed with him today. That was funny. That was quick, too. He was really quick with that.

He was, but I wanted to ask you about the running concepts. He talked about how it’s a little different this year because Frank has worked in a lot of concepts that are the same in the style of the run but they differ because there’s so many different alignments and formations. How have you seen that translate for your guys up front and in the backfield as far as processing that and working that formation to formation?
Narduzzi: They’ve done a great job. We’ve got different ways of getting it. We have plays where we don’t have to check it; we call it and we’re going to run it and go. But you need to have those in your run game if you want to be a successful run game. We have not had that here the last three years. It was, call it, we’re running to the right and if they have three guys blitzing off that edge, it’s a bad play and everybody’s looking at us like, what’s wrong with the run game? Well…

I haven’t said that in the past, but we have more tools to make sure we’re getting in a good run play and not in a bad one. Same thing in the pass game as well.

Marquis Williams was also talking to us about how you guys had certain keys to alert on the bubble screens that Western Michigan had. That was something they used against you guys last year and you guys took it away. How much have you seen guys like Marquis and guys that have been around, with their film study, take away things that they saw last year as problems in you guys’ defense?
Narduzzi: I think they always have tools and the secondary can take care of those things. It’s always tough. That’s why I like playing teams more than once. If you look at just playing Tennessee twice - or really, playing Central Florida twice and then Tennessee and what they do, how they do it, you always have better keys when you’re playing someone more than just once. Rhode Island is another one of those teams, you don’t know what they’re going to come out - what’s their plan versus our defense, our pressure, whatever it may be, you don’t know how they’re going to react, so if you play Rhode Island a second time, you’re always going to have more answers. ‘Okay, if they do this, now we know what they’re seeing.’

But it’s hard. You’re watching tape against - we had a five-game breakdown and you’re watching games this year, you’re watching Elon from 2021 and you just don’t know how they’re going to - all of these other defenses are different from what we are. Every defense is different, so they’ll have their plan and then we’ll have to adjust to it as we go. Sometimes the details can’t be worked out in the middle of a game; it’s just too much and you’re afraid to tweak it to the point where you give up something big otherwise.

Tim Salem has talked about coming in here on Saturday night after a game and starting work on the next opponent. Is that unusual for your staff? Do you have Saturday night meetings?
Narduzzi: I haven’t seen him in here on a Saturday. Tim’s always got some interesting things. But we all have computers and iPads and we grade our tape from home, so there’s no sense to come in Saturday after a game.

It’s not mandatory. I go home. I go home, for sure. That’s why I like a noon game. I actually will see my family this week. I didn’t see them at 3 o’clock in the morning when I got home last week.

On top of abs, Andre also talked to us about how you were always active, building closets and doing stuff all the time. As far as your mentality - he talked about how you mind is always working. How does that translate from when you were younger to now as a head coach, an experienced head coach, and you have to shift that to other head duties?
Narduzzi: I think that’s what - it’s amazing, I think that’s what a head coach has got to do. He can’t just be looking at life through a straw and not seeing the big picture and everything that goes on. Like, after practice, I’ve got so many recordings on my recorder on my phone, just little things I see out there. Sometimes the guys are like, ‘How did you see that?’ But that’s kind of what you do. It’s the same thing you did as a defensive coordinator or a linebacker coach: you’re just trying to - it’s the details. It’s the details in everything we do, whether it’s recruiting or a practice, meetings, whatever it may be. It’s all those little things that matter, I think.

Is it even - just walking around the building, are you always looking for things that can be better?
Narduzzi: Ask (Chris) LaSala. Ask LaSala. Like, things I see. I walk by that team picture and the bottom right-hand corner is not - you know, the team picture, they changed it twice and every time, I’m like, ‘It still doesn’t look good. Fix that.’

What does the building look like? It’s just everything. What’s the appearance of the building? I mean, everything makes a difference. It doesn’t matter whether recruits are here or not. The details matter in everything, and that’s kind of maybe OCD, I don’t know. I’ve got issues, probably. Someone would probably say I need to go see a doctor.

Are you like that when you’re away from the facility, too? Or do you kind of just turn it off when you go home?
Narduzzi: No, it’s the same thing at home. I probably drive people nuts there. The first thing I said Sunday morning when I got up, I saw our bocce court had some weeds in it, and I was like, ‘Patrick, will you go pull those weeds this weekend?’ It just annoys me to see that weeds are in the bocce court. I might be able to play some bocce Saturday after the game. I want to make sure it doesn’t have any weeds. I don’t want to be pulling weeds after the game.