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Pat Narduzzi talked about the heat, receivers and more before practice Wednesday morning.
NARDUZZI: We’ve got another beautiful day here. We’ve picked some great weather for camp. The last two days - I guess you’d say yesterday and today, two really good hot days. 87, 88 degrees out. Yesterday was a melter. We had a great practice yesterday, a tough practice. You talk about toughness; we did a 10-play drive that you could see who could go 10 and who couldn’t. We saw a lot of things there - who was going to melt in the heat, especially with a 10-play drive. We had some good periods yesterday and I’m excited about where we are there.
IS THAT 10-PLAY DRIVE SOMETHING NEW OR HAVE YOU DONE IT IN THE PAST?
NARDUZZI: No, we’ve done it in the past. I just didn’t tell you guys. So I figured I’d tell you today.
IS THAT A TEST FOR THOSE YOUNG DEFENSIVE LINEMEN?
NARDUZZI: It’s a test for everybody, you know? I think you have to progress to it. I don’t think you go out first day and do it. I think it’s something that, once you learn how to carry your pads and you get out there, you have to sustain a drive offensively and defensively. There are going to be long drives defensively. We want our offense to be out there for 12, 15-play drives, and we’ll probably do a 12-to-15-play drive next week, just to keep them out there. And it doesn’t matter if you don’t get a first down; we’re pretending like it’s - if you go three-and-out on offense, we’re going to keep the drive going and they’re going to go.
WHICH RECEIVERS BEHIND JESTER AND QUADREE HAVE REALLY STOOD OUT TO YOU SO FAR IN CAMP?
NARDUZZI: Really, you look at Lopes - you know, Ra-Ra has done a great job. He works his tail off. He’s been very, very consistent. Maybe the most consistent of all. Maurice Ffrench has done a nice job. Those are the guys that stand out to me. Those are probably the top four at this point.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF DABO’S IDEA OF HOLDING JOINT PRACTICES WITH ANOTHER TEAM?
NARDUZZI: I don’t know anything about that.
HE SAID THAT MIGHT BE - NOT REALLY AN EXHIBITION GAME, BUT JUST BRINGING ANOTHER TEAM IN AND WORKING WITH THEM RATHER THAN YOUR OWN GUYS.
NARDUZZI: I’m okay with it, bringing Duquesne over here or whoever. Let’s bring Robert Morris over. I think it’d be great. It’d be nice to have a preseason game like the NFL.
IF YOU DID SOMETHING LIKE THAT, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’D HAVE TO HOLD BACK TOO MUCH?
NARDUZZI: I think the game comes down to fundamentals to begin with. So it’s not about the scheme. Everybody always thinks it’s all scheme. It’s not all scheme. It’s about fundamentals. Fundamentals wins games. Offensively, defensively, special teams. We focus on the fundamentals.
Just to go out and hit somebody different - that’s the toughest thing, you come out of preseason, how do you look? Oh, we look great against each other. What’s that matter? We have an opponent on September 2nd; how do we match up against them? How do we match up against somebody else? I think after practice 17, 18, our guys will be sick of hitting each other. I think that, for sure. So it’s nice to get some new meat out there.
HOW HAVE YOU SEEN JESTER DEVELOP, NOT JUST AS A RECEIVER BUT AS A LEADER, THE OFF-FIELD STUFF?
NARDUZZI: He’s maybe progressed more off the field than he has on the field. He could tell you that. We’ve been going through some leadership stuff at night - (DISRUPTION DUE TO SHANE ROY FALLING DOWN WHILE RUNNING TO THE FIELD) - Where was I?
JESTER.
NARDUZZI: Jester. Some of our leadership stuff in the evening, he’s done an unbelievable job. But the other night he mentioned to the team, just, ‘I’ve come a long way off the field.’ When we first got here, he was probably one of the grumpiest, moodiest guys to coach. It’s like, you know, what happened to this guy? Now he’s totally, totally different, as far as his attitude off the field. So he’s come a long, long way off the field.
DO YOU HAVE CERTAIN CORNERBACKS WORKING WITH CERTAIN RECEIVERS TO TRY TO SHARPEN THEM UP?
NARDUZZI: No. They have to work against all kinds of different types. The one thing, if it’s one-on-ones, we tell guys, don’t go in there - if that guy’s not a challenge for you, don’t go against him; let someone else. Just because you’re the next guy up, don’t go against; that’s about the only matchup. Otherwise, it’s just, you know, go play football. You’re going to have different guys you have to cover and everybody’s got a little different release, so you want to get a bunch of different types.
JESTER’S OBVIOUSLY BIG AND HE’S FAST, BUT A COUPLE PLAYERS HAVE MENTIONED HOW STRONG HE IS. IS THAT MAYBE AN OVERLOOKED OR UNDERRATED PART OF HIS GAME?
NARDUZZI: I don’t think it’s overlooked. Some of the NFL scouts that are out here like his size and his physicalness. You know he’s fast and he’s got ball skills, but then when you look at the physical type of receiver he can be - just like when you look at Dontez Ford the other night with Detroit. Physical wins. And the bigger those wideouts get and more physical they get, the bigger those corners better get. That’s where you have those mismatches.
HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO WATCH ANY OF YOUR FORMER GUYS IN THEIR PRESEASON GAMES?
NARDUZZI: We show our guys every night if we can. If we’ve got games, we show it to them. But I haven’t had a chance to watch a whole game. I wish I did.
