Narduzzi on the scrimmage, entering the final week of camp, and more

Pat Narduzzi met with the media ahead of Tuesday’s training camp practice in the South Side. The Pitt football team is now in the final week of training camp and Narduzzi discussed the scrimmage from over the weekend and some other topics as the season inches closer to starting.

Narduzzi: How we doing today? I missed you guys at the scrimmage, I don’t know where you guys were. You guys didn’t make it to the scrimmage?

We had a nice scrimmage right here at Duratz. 109 plays offensively and defensively, a little less than we did last time and 29 special teams reps. We got a lot of good punt work throughout the scrimmage, which was good. It kind of helped in that punt competition that we had, so I think we’ll talk more about that later. Good day overall, so I was happy. Our defense won the scrimmage, I know Noah was going to ask.

Questions.

What did the defense do to win the scrimmage?

Narduzzi: There’s different game plans both ways and I think offensively they tried to run the ball more than they had the previous scrimmage. They took their shots, but as I said in the first scrimmage if you don’t turn the ball over, you win the game. The offense won the game. Second scrimmage, if you don’t turn the ball over, you’re going to win the game. The offense turned the ball over and we had problems. Some turnover issues on the offensive side the ball. The defense played like they were mad about the last scrimmage. That’s always going to happen. There’s always going to be a little fight back. Like hey its our turn to win this jersey scrimmage and that’s exactly what happened.

What led to those turnovers, good pressure or some great plays in the secondary?

Narduzzi: There was some great play in the secondary, some tipped balls. MJ had one unbelievable interception, again, that’s two weeks in a row. He had like, ‘Woah’, if I was on offense I would not throw 12’s way. If you get anywhere near him, he’s like a receiver right now and he’s got a lot of confidence right now in what he’s doing. A little bit of both.

Some of your coaches said they would have a better idea of the position battles after this scrimmage. Do you feel like you’re at the point where you know who your starters will be?

Narduzzi: I think we’ve got a pretty good idea right now who those guys will be and we’ll announce that later. We actually made some jersey changes as well because things are being determined. You always worry about special teams and just getting the right numbers on the field. If you guys remember a few years back and maybe it didn’t even come out or didn’t call it, but we got warned for next week when Damar Hamlin, No. 3 and someone else wore No. 3, I forgot who it was at the time. We had two 3s for two special teams plays in a row and didn’t get called for it. They alerted us the next week they’re going to call it. Numbers are always an issue with all the retired jerseys we have. We had to change some jerseys numbers so we don’t have too many of that stuff putting Coach Powell in a bind on the sideline during special teams periods. We’re getting closer to finding out who that core group of guys that will be playing for us.

How nice was it to see Damar this weekend?

Narduzzi: That’s the only time I’ll see him all year. They could be playing here week three or four, or five or six, or ten or 12 and I wouldn’t get a chance to see him. Obviously got to see Kenny Pickett and then Dane (Jackson) and Damar. Anytime you can see your players play, I think is fun. To see those three guys, it’s always special.

How do you feel about your depth heading into the last week of camp?

Narduzzi: I feel really good. I think we’re deep, even and we did a little yesterday we call it ‘rocks period’ a show period where we show a little bit of the Wofford defense. I think we had one period of it yesterday and just looking at the depth there. It’s like Coach Cignetti said, ‘Wow this is a great rocks team here’. Like you look at the guys there and go holy cow, there are some dudes that can make some plays. And they’re going to help us, as we know, the key is how hard we practice every week. You can’t go a lot of 1s on 1s and 2s on 2s, so we’re going to have a good scout look.

Since Jerry is not here, I’ll be the guy to ask…

Narduzzi: Where is Jerry?

How do you feel about the team’s health heading into the final week and do you have any season-ending injuries to disclose?

Narduzzi: There is one, but I’ll note it later. I hate when you guys ask me injuries. I had two coaches come up from the athletic department the other day and asked how injuries were going and I said, ‘Shh, don’t talk about it’. So when other coaches come down to practice, I’ve been like we’re good right now, don’t jinx us. What do you know, a couple of periods later, we got jinxed. Don’t talk about it.

We saw some of the freshmen wide receivers on some clips on Twitter. How are they progressing and are they still right there for playing time?

Narduzzi: They are still right there. They are smart and they’re just going to keep getting better every week. It’s been impressive.

How would you rate not only Phil (Jurkovec), but Christian (Veilleux) and Nate (Yarnell) in the past scrimmage? Is there any separation between Christian and Nate?

Narduzzi: Yea. I don’t want to get into it. Obviously we threw a couple of interceptions and we had one fumble. There’s some separation, but they’re both doing well. We feel like we have three quarterbacks we can win with, I can tell you that. Phil has separated himself for sure. He’s completing 72% through team reps, which is, you know, it’s good to complete 7-on-7 reps or pass skeleton, whatever you want to call it, but Phil has done a nice job. Those other two will continue to compete.

Is that 72% throughout all of camp?

Narduzzi: That’s throughout all of camp, yep.

Is Derrick Davis continuing to take some steps?

Narduzzi: He is. He had a nice scrimmage the other day. He’s a big back and he needs to hit it up in there, at times he’s looking for that touchdown and try to make big plays. Just get the three or four they are giving you. Again, I talked about turnovers in the scrimmage, they also came down to where the offense wanted to establish the run game. That’s hard to do against our defense. Our defense continued to say don’t run it on us and that’s another reason. I think if the offense would have thrown a little bit more, maybe they would have had a little bit more success. Their goal was not to throw it, they wanted to run.

Who were the biggest reason you couldn’t run the ball?

Narduzzi: Structure No. 1 and No. 2, the linebackers, you need them all. D-Tackle, linebacker, safety if they aren’t fitting in the right spot you don’t have a good run. It’s just discipline.