With 48 hours left before the opener, Pat Narduzzi spoke to the media on Thursday. Here's a full rundown of what he said.

Narduzzi: Alright, we’re here. I’ve got the Steelers outside, they’re getting ready to go. It’s a perfect Thursday today. We had a nice practice again today, we’re having a good week of practice, I think our kids are excited to get this thing started and find out what kind of football team we have. I think it’s always - there’s some anxious moments prior to the game where you just kind of want to find out what you have. You’ve played against each other for a month and you don’t know what you have, really, until you get out there and see how these guys are going to play and how they’re going to react to an empty stadium. So it’s going to be an interesting game. A lot of things change, just the whole pregame, you know, it’s going to be quiet and different. So that’s going to be the first adjustment. We haven’t had an opportunity to get into Heinz Field yet. We have some freshmen that have never stepped into Heinz Field except on their recruiting visit, so we’re looking forward to getting them in. We’ve got a little walk-through tomorrow, a rehearsal, kind of, just to look and kind of see what you’re surroundings are, so I’m looking forward to getting that thing done tomorrow.

But we’re ready to roll.

Did you watch BYU-Navy and did you have that kind of panic as a coach like, ‘Oh my God, I hope that doesn’t happen to us?’
Narduzzi: No. I watched a little bit of it, but I don’t have that panic. I kind of mentioned on my radio show - I don’t know if I mentioned it to you. Early in the whole process during practice, we had a staff member say, ‘Coach, we just have to get to the game.’ And I’m like, ‘We ain’t just getting to the game. I’m not getting to a game.’ This game is a physical game, it’s a tough game, and I understand what Ken was doing; he was trying to be safe. But there’s a way of being safe and it really comes down from UPMC. We did one, maybe two, practices where we just went out there with just half the team and practiced, the one’s and then the two’s went afterward the next day. Really, UPMC said, ‘That’s not how we play the game. The whole team is out there; we have to practice that way, and if we can’t make it to September, we can’t make it.’

So I really feel like the advice they gave us helped us in our mindset as far as how to approach this thing. So we were allowed to tackle. We were tackling a lot. We weren’t tackling donuts. I really feel bad for him, because you have that sense of safety that you want for your kids. But I feel like we were able to be a tough football team, we were able to tackle, physical, block, run hard as running backs - we didn’t tackle donuts, and we’re fortunate, but there are some teams that maybe took that avenue and maybe they learned and cranked it up in the last week after that Monday night disaster. But that won’t happen in Heinz Field.

What’s the ACC’s policy as far as what you have to release in terms of active players and inactive players when you start having to deal with guys who are positive or potential exposure? What do you have to announce or release before the game?
Narduzzi: I don’t know. That’s a great question. I’ve never said anything and that’s something, I guess, in the next 24 hours - we’re waiting on results from Wednesday’s test still, and then we’ll test again tomorrow between noon and 2 o’clock, so I don’t know. That’s a great question. It’s something I’ll be asking as soon as I walk out of here. But it’s something that I’ve wondered - how are we going to do this? I don’t talk about injuries; that’s not an injury. So I don’t know if we’ll just come out with a quick statement. I don’t know what we’ll do. I would guess we wouldn’t - I don’t really want to do it until game time, you know? I don’t want to assist gambling. Don’t you have to put your money down before the game? You can’t make a bet in the first quarter, can you?

So to me it’s one of the reasons we don’t talk injuries - we tell our kids all the time, there’s gambling, it’s legalized more than it’s ever been and we don’t want our kids gambling, we don’t want parents gambling, and I think if you know some key players are out, maybe you go, ‘Hmmm, what’s that spread again?’ But we’re not dealing with that.

You said you haven’t received the results from Wednesday’s test; how did Sunday’s go?
Narduzzi: It went good. It went real good.

Like I said, I’m not going to talk about all the results. We feel good, but it’s still scary. If we test on Friday and we have a 4 o’clock game and it’s 1 o’clock on Saturday, are we going to know? I don’t like it at all. We need some rapid testing, I think. I think it has to happen really quick or there’s going to be some anxious players. I don’t think it’s good for anybody. I don’t think it’s good. I’m going to have an ulcer after game two. I’m a worrywart. I worry about everything. This is one thing we’ve never had to worry about; now you have to worry about this.

They are going to give you results before the game starts - they’re not going to come to you at halftime and say, ‘So-and-so has a positive,’ are they?
Narduzzi: I have no idea. I sure hope not. I would hope the game would be delayed. I’m sure ESPN or the ACC Network would love that. I would hope the game would be delayed. But we can’t put anybody out there that’s going to risk anybody else’s health. Player safety has got to be the key. So I would imagine the game would be delayed.

Again, this is uncharted territory. We have no idea. There’s a lot of things I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea. These things change daily, as far as what’s going on, and there’s a lot of things to think about. I come up with new questions for the doctors at least every other day, if not every day. There’s just different stuff that goes on. It’s like, what happens if this happens? And I won’t get into details; I may get into details later with you about this, but I won’t get into details right now.

You mentioned tomorrow’s testing is between noon and 2; was that around the same time that yesterday’s testing happened? Just trying to get a timeline of how long you guys are really waiting.
Narduzzi: I’ll be saying a couple rosaries tonight.

No, Wednesday’s test was in the morning. We did it before practice. So I would say we tested Wednesday about - it’s staggered. I was the first one in at 6:30 in the morning, and then between 6:30 and 7:00, all of our staff is done, at least our coaching staff and GA’s, everybody that’s got to worry about practice. Then we put the players in there. We actually flipped our meetings so we had offense test, defense meets, and then we flipped it. So it was done probably before 8 o’clock; we still don’t have those results. That’s through BioReference in New Jersey. Friday’s test will be Mako. Again, it’s a fast turnaround, it really is.

I think Mako is out of North Carolina; they’ll zip down there and figure it out. I hope they’re right. I hope the results are right.

Did the decision between which kind of testing lab you use, is that made by the ACC or is that Pitt deciding?
Narduzzi: Mako is through the ACC. Friday’s test is an ACC test that everybody - Austin Peay will test in the hangar at Pittsburgh airport when they get here, and I guess the results, they’re going to take both of them and shoot them down, so I hope they get here early. I hope that plane’s not delayed or it could delay the results even more. There’s so many things that could change. I told Coach LaSala, we’ll drive those things down if we have to. We’ll get a GA to drive them down to North Carolina to get them there quickly so we can find out.

Each university has their own testing agency. We tagged along with the Steelers. If you drove by the Steeler building here, you’d see that there’s a lab right out in front of their building where their players test every day and we’re kind of going along with BioReference. So it’s each university for the Sunday-Wednesday test picks their company that they want to use, that they set a contract with.

How long did it take you to get Sunday’s results back?
Narduzzi: They dragged back. I don’t even know. They’re all running together. We knew Sunday - I think Sunday, we found out no later - but again, here’s the deal on Sunday. Sunday, usually we bring the kids in in the afternoon. Let’s say we play Boston College; we get back from Boston College, let’s say it’s a night game, we get back 1 in the morning. We don’t bring our kids back Sunday morning. We try to give them the afternoon, let them have the morning to go to church and do what they normally do on a Sunday. So we knew they’d be a little later on a Sunday and I think we’ll probably keep it the same. I let the kids know, I said, ‘We’ll get the results back quicker if I bring you in early Sunday morning.’ But the results had to be done by 11 am on Sunday to get to New Jersey on Sunday, and I was like, I didn’t want to change our schedule and get our kids to all come in early and not give them any time. They need - you talk about they’re student-athletes, they have a life, and I wanted to make sure we’re not waking them up early. We wake them up every morning early. Sunday’s that one morning they can sleep in. They’ll have a 9 o’clock wake-up on Saturday, so the weekends are the weekends. They’re young kids.

So we didn’t change our schedule, so they probably didn’t leave here until Monday. So we got those Tuesday afternoon, we had most of them Tuesday afternoon. We’ve tried to say, ‘Hey, this is the players bag; here’s a box, this is all the players, this is all the coaches.’ I don’t care about the coaches. I want our players to feel easy and get their results back as quickly as possible. If I have a player that texts me, ‘Coach, did you get my results yet?’ As soon as I get him, I’m personally texting kids, just so they can rest easy that they’re good. It’s anxious moments for these poor kids. It’s hard. Three times a week, they’re waiting to see if they’re good, if they’ve got the cooties. It’s not easy.

Do you feel like, even with all of this, once you get that first hit or first series, do you anticipate it to be like a normal game, at least what happens on the field?
Narduzzi: I do. And again, even the crowd, for the matter - I think the weird part will be pregame, guys like the crowd and all of that and there are recruits on the sideline, we’d have a recruiting weekend. We have no visitors. I think once the game starts, it doesn’t matter. Nobody pays attention to the crowd anyway, you know? We’ll have some crowd noise out there, just to keep something looking normal for the guys and have some music going in between plays; we’ll try to keep everything as similar as we possibly can.

With Austin Peay and the way they run the football, a lot of that forces a lot of edge players to be more patient, when you’re talking about triple-option and considering different things. What kinds of things have you worked on to prepare the front to still be aggressive but also be disciplined against that kind of run game?
Narduzzi: We’ve gone against those types of teams before in the past. I think we beat Georgia Tech three out of four years - probably should have beat them four out of four. But we just have to go to a different mode. You have to slow down a little bit. Our stances will help us, as far as how that goes. We’ll be in these little froggy-looking stances, because you don’t want to attack. The worst thing you can do is attack. You’ve got to play lateral in that game and keep linebackers clean as much as you can, so that will be the issue. But we’ve been pretty good at doing it. It’s not foreign to our coaches or our players. We did it just last year against Duke, thank God, so it’s even in that bank as well. And again, it’s a little bit different than the Georgia Tech stuff and the Duke stuff that they replicate because it’s all shotgun.

And here’s the thing I say about it: they’re not an option team, okay? They’re not Georgia Tech. They’re not an option team. So you waste time doing that, we waste time - we’ve got some good stuff for it and I feel good about our package.

How about defensively? Kordell Jackson had seven picks last year; what stands out to you about them on defense?
Narduzzi: He’s a football player. He’s a football player. He pops off the tape. He popped off the TV in their opener. You just kind of go, ‘Who’s 13?’ He’s a football player. I think he could probably play anywhere in the country, to be honest with you, and he really stands out as a football player for them.

No. 44, their D-tackle, I think it’s Josephus Smith; he’s a dude up front. He’s tough. He did not play last week, so he’s biting at the bit to get out here and again, they’re going to play their Super Bowl. This is a bowl game for them. They get three games. I let our kids know that. You guys know we’ve been in tight games. We’ve got to play a darn good football game to beat these guys. Nothing’s easy. Nothing’s given.

Is your game day speech different? You said the kids are stressed about their tests, I know we talked a lot about their parents not being able to come - is your game day speech leading up to it different?
Narduzzi: I hadn’t really thought about it yet. You’re way ahead. You’re thinking about the game day speech; it’s only Thursday at 2 o’clock, 1 o’clock. I never thought about it. But I would say it’s not going to be any different. It’s not about the parents; it’s about the guys in that room. I just have to make sure I don’t spit. I have to wear a mask and I have to make sure I don’t spit on game day because I get excited, I scream and the guys in the front row normally would get sprayed, so I have to make sure that doesn’t happen. Maybe I have to wear a big shield for that.

Miami plays tonight; how much do you pay attention to other games and watch football during the week?
Narduzzi: If it’s a later game and it’s a night that we’ve got off - this week has been a little easier than a normal week. Next week, I won’t get to watch much at all, but this week, I’ll be popping in on that game tonight, just because we were ahead on Austin Peay and we didn’t have to grind into the wee hours of the evenings. But next week it will be totally different. We’re usually - shoot, for the last 20 years, I’ve always been home on a Thursday night. I’ve always enjoyed Thursday night football. Back when I was a D-coordinator, I’d be typing up my game plan myself on my laptop and get distracted by the TV. I was always watching TV and doing game-planning. As a head coach, I’m doing other stuff: watching video, whatever it may be, watching practice tape and watching the game at the same time, so multi-tasking, I’m watching football game. Any time I’m home, my kids and my wife know that they’re putting on the game for me. I’m walking through the door and it’s on.

There are some guys on this squad that should be familiar to you guys that you’ve seen before. Damion Barber was with Penn State, I think one of their defensive linemen came from Duke, they’ve got an Ohio State D1 bounce-back at running back; is that different? You have a lot of experience with FCS-level football; is that a relatively new thing to you - you draw an FCS team and you have maybe a half-dozen former Power Five guys on that team? What’s your thoughts about that as a guy with a pretty long association with a couple FCS programs?
Narduzzi: It’s nothing new. I think there’s more of them. I think the portal, as you guys know, the last two years, I guess, there’s more guys in the portal, there’s more availability. But even when I was coaching Rhode Island, we had some - we had a kid named Travis McGuire from Massillon High School. He committed to Ohio State out of Massillon High School; he played tailback for us at Rhode Island. We had a transfer tailback, I forget his name, from Clemson. We had a kid named Ken Mastrole who was a quarterback at Maryland who was a quarterback for us at Rhode Island. That’s been going on for years and years. There was no portal. Sometimes they’d have to sit out in the old days. There wasn’t many grad transfers. So that’s been going on for years and I think you’re always trying to get a few of those if they’re somebody who can help your program.

You talked early in the week about how you wanted to see how Marquis Williams and Devin Danielson and a few other guys approach this game week as being starters. How have you seen their progress throughout all of that?
Narduzzi: They’ve done a nice job. Danielson’s been good, David Green’s been good, Tyler Bentley’s been really good and Calijah Kancey’s a guy that’s kind of an electric guy that you may watch more of him on third down, maybe not a run-stopper right now but he’s a pass-rushing specialist, kind of like Jaylen Twyman. He’s got a little bit of that twitch to him. So those guys had a good week of practice, they’ve adjusted to a game plan. It’s like I tell them, ‘Hey, you’re not playing Pittsburgh; you’re playing’ - this is game week, this is game conditions, it’s adjusting to a different offense every week, whether it’s the option or - every offense is a little bit different. Even though they’re an 11-personnel team, with three wide outs and a tight end and a running back, they’re always doing something different. So there’s always an adjustment, there’s different checks on the defensive line, there’s different things they have to listen to weekly that are different.

Obviously Jimmy gets a lot of attention in the middle, but Hargrove and Kradel - what kind of job have you seen them do and what are expectations for them on either side of Jimmy?
Narduzzi: You know what? Both Bryce and Jake have done a really good job at doing what they need to do in there. That offensive line, they call themselves ‘The hogs,’ they’re maybe the most cohesive unit on our football team. Those guys do everything together. In camp, they wear the same stinky, smelly shirt, they had a passion shirt this year and they’re into their little sign, the hogs. I won’t get into why it’s that and what it is, but their big thing has been passion; they’ve had their little motto going in camp like a bunch of skill guys.

Bryce and Jake have done a great job inside and Matt Goncalves would probably be the first guard in both spots there at this point and be able to help out for us.

On previous Thursdays, you’ve always said that the hay is in the barn, we’re ready to go. Given the truncated spring practice, the quarantine and the problems you’ve had getting the team together this summer, what’s the readiness of this team now compared to what it’s been in previous seasons on a Thursday?
Narduzzi: It’s exactly where it’s been. I don’t feel like we’re off at all. Like I said, you talked about Navy-BYU game and Ken - we’re ready. We’re ready, just like we were for any other opener. Our preparation’s been the same. As a head football coach, you have a plan as far as, ‘This is what we’re going to do.’ We had an extra week. We got the amount of practices in that we needed. We’re not short going, ‘Hey, we’re going in with only 19 practices.’ You listen to some of the things that are happening down at Tennessee and who else canceled a game this week because they didn’t have enough - was it Temple saying, ‘We don’t have enough practice days in, we gotta get more practice.’

I feel good with where we are. I feel we’re right on track. This team is as ready as they were last year and the year before and the year before. That’s a tribute to our staff, it’s a tribute to our doctors, our trainers and everybody. And it’s a major tribute to our kids of believing in what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and trusting that we’re doing things right.