Narduzzi on the scrimmage, the elements, the QBs and more
Pat Narduzzi met the media after Pitt's practice on Tuesday and talked about the Panthers' first scrimmage of spring, the development of the quarterbacks and a lot more. Here's video and a full rundown of his remarks.
Narduzzi: Beautiful day out there today. We got a great one in today. Lot of wet ball drills. You don’t often get that rain, nice cold rain - kind of went out on purpose. One of the things I was disappointed in Saturday’s scrimmage was, it was really cold out, wind chill was pretty good, maybe in the teens, and I wasn’t happy just with the, ‘Oh, we have to go outside’ kind of attitude. We talk about attitude all the time. The guys had a great attitude today and added an element with the rain that we didn’t have on Saturday.
But great scrimmage on Saturday. Defense won the scrimmage, as you may have heard. Before the scrimmage, like most scrimmages, I said it comes down to turnovers. If the offense doesn’t turn the ball over, you probably win the scrimmage. If you turn it over, it’s game-changing plays, you’ll probably lose it and even with that being said, with the turnovers that our offense did have, at the end it wasn’t like a blowout. It should have been a blowout, to be honest with you. The offense moved the ball a few times and a lot of good plays made out there on the field on both sides of the ball.
And the other thing I talked about going into it was, the focus of the day was enthusiasm. You better have energy when you play this game. You can’t play the game - you can have the greatest team in the world, but if you don’t come to play and you don’t have enthusiasm and energy, you’re going to lose, and I just thought the defense had more energy than the offense. So it’s 2-0 defense. But we got a lot of work in and a lot of teach tape. We spent all day yesterday watching the tape with the players, just to get things corrected, and we had a good spirited practice today.
What did the quarterbacks show you in the live setting?
Narduzzi: A lot of good things. We saw a lot of good plays out there. Nate was solid. Again, it’s just knowing where to go with the ball at times. Sometimes we’re not taking - it’s going out there and making a play. I’d say, with all of them, really, just throwing it to the right guy. Take the completion. It’s not like we’re looking for deep posts every time; just take what they’re giving you defensively. We talk about it a lot here on Mondays and Sundays during the season: take what they’re giving you. Sometimes I think they’re predetermined going out there and, ‘I’m going to throw it to him.’ No, you can’t just throw it to him; you’ve got to throw it to the guy you’re supposed to and create yards.
But if you don’t turn the ball over, we have a chance. That’s what we have to clean up.
Who were some of your players of the scrimmage that you thought stood out the most to you?
Narduzzi: There’s two of them sitting back here - Cruce and Braylan. Two guys - I think I warned you about what Brookins was doing last week, and he had a heck of a day. Lovelace - and Brandon George I’ll say as well, Brandon George had one of his best scrimmages he may have had here. I kind of said to him before, I was like - because I don’t watch just the linebackers; I’m watching everybody, watching 22. And I said to him, it must have been Monday morning early, like, ‘Hey, I think you played really good because I don’t remember going, what the heck is Brandon doing here?’ And I’ve had some ‘What the heck is Brandon doing here moments.’ But Brandon played really well. Lovelace playing at the Mike. Braylan can play any spot. He can play all three of them. He gives you little flashes of SirVocea Dennis at the Mike linebacker spot. And then Cruce, I think, can play the field and the boundary. So those are two guys on defense.
Nate Matlack is continuing to show progress up front. Dayon Hayes had a nice day as well. I could go on. There’s a lot of guys that played well.
Offensively, Konata Mumpfield played really good. I think Kenny Johnson had a nice day as well. I’ll tell you what, Poppi Williams, he had a couple great catches over the shoulder. He was impressive.
Running backs, no one I would say is great, but not bad. And Baer and Branson Taylor played well at the tackle spot.
With that said, are you seeing the progress you want to see out of the offense, given they’re picking up a new system?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I mean, you’re talking, that was seven days in, so you’ve got six practice days and then all of a sudden it’s time to go take the test. I think after the first scrimmage, I’m happy with where were are. Making some explosive plays; we’ve just got to clean things up, and that will happen. It’s just different rules and a lot of installs. If you’re out there watching, you’ll see we’re doing a lot on offense. Different formations. There’s stuff everywhere. So there’s a lot - they’ve got a lot in at this point, so I’m happy with where we are. And we threw more at them today. There’s more stuff in today.
It’s his second year, but how has Derrick Davis done at running back?
Narduzzi: Derrick’s done well. I think Derrick runs hard, he’s picking it up, he’s strong, he’s physical and he can catch the ball out of the backfield. So I’m happy with where he is. He’s getting his reps with the ones and it’s a work in progress still, but Derrick’s done some nice things, made some people miss out there on the field. Good.
What did you see from Jesse Anderson, along with Cruce?
Narduzzi: Jesse got a little pick-six action in. He doesn’t do everything right, but I look at where Jesse is right now compared to where he was last fall, just from an attitude and, really knowledge - I look at those two things and he’s got a great attitude, he’s got a smile on his face all the time. And his knowledge is much better. He did a nice job on the interception he did get, just playing it the right way and he is much improved. I talked about safety, how we’re older at that position with Donovan and Javon and P.J.; then you throw in Cruce doing what he’s doing, like, we’ve got - Cruce is going to get some action at the nickel back, which I think he can be a threat as a blitzer to the field, which it’s always good to have that guy. He’ll have a major role. And then Jesse, we’ll be able to rotate those guys and keep them fresh and we’ll see how Jesse progresses.
What did Dugger show you Saturday?
Narduzzi: Dugger - I think the threes had 28 plays, but he had a quarterback draw that he didn’t run. He tried to look for a pass. But Dugger did some nice things. He’s just a baby; it’s hard to say, but just him getting out there - I think I told you last week about getting out there, he’s ready to go now. He just has to keep getting better. But if it’s a lot for Nate and Christian and Eli, it’s a boatload for the rest of the guys.
Who stood out at the corner spot outside of Ryland?
Narduzzi: Ryland’s out there. Crumpley is battling. Rashad Battle is battling. Tamon has done a nice job out there as well, made some nice plays as well. Got to catch the ball on the back end at times; could have had a couple more, maybe, picks if we catch it. Those are game-changing plays. I’m probably missing somebody, but forgive me.
You mentioned played in the rain today; did anyone surprise you with their ability to do well in the rain?
Narduzzi: Well, everybody better do well. Again, it’s football. It’s played in the elements and I think overall it was a good, spirited practice where we got good work done. So I can’t pick a rain guy. Maybe the rain man. There’s no rain man today. They were all good.
No attempts to wipe the balls off today?
Narduzzi: You know what, I don’t pay attention. We’re going so fast, I didn’t pay attention. I saw Eli had the ball in his shirt. He looked like he was pregnant at one point. He was trying to protect his ball, I guess.
Kade has been here for about four months. In that time, what have you seen from him as far as how he evaluates quarterbacks on the recruiting front, how he recruits guys - what have you seen from his approach?
Narduzzi: He’s a gym rat when it comes to recruiting. He loves to recruit. Sometimes I go in the afternoon thinking they’re working on football and they’re in there watching more videotape. And he’s on Twitter a lot - like, he’s watching videos on Twitter and sending me stuff all night long.
He’s an evaluator. He’s going to watch, not just a 34-play clip of a highlight and say, ‘Oh yeah, we like this guy.’ He’s going to watch games. If we’re recruiting a quarterback, he’s going to watch every game, just about. He’s going to know everything that guy did - not just watch a short highlight and say, ‘Let’s take that guy.’ He’s going to do his homework, he’s going to be detailed and find someone that fits what he likes to do.
There was a change in the NFL rule about tackling. The hip drop, they’re calling it. I’m curious, when something that significant happens, does that change or adjust the way that you coach players up and you teach?
Narduzzi: Yeah, nobody wants to see that. I’m glad they did that. There’s things safety-wise - I imagine college football won’t be far behind. We had one in practice three or practice four that we coached up right. We don’t want to do that. I don’t want to do it in a game and hurt an opponent, and I don’t want to do it, obviously, against our guys. Even if it’s legal, I still don’t want to do it in a game. Guys get rolled up bad and it just looks ugly. I saw one that wasn’t totally that tackle, but it would probably get called in the NFL, I would imagine.
You don’t try to tackle like that; it just happens by accident. It’s just like, you don’t plan on getting hands to the face or face-masking a guy; it just happens sometimes, getting aggressive. And I don’t know if they’ll stop it. They’re going to put a penalty on it, but unfortunately guys will get hurt because it just happens by accident.
What’s your impression of the new kickoff rule in the NFL?
Narduzzi: I heard just a little bit of it. It’s different and I haven’t seen anybody else do it, so it’s hard to put my fingers on it without totally watching it and studying it. But anything for player safety. If they watched it somewhere else, I’d imagine in college football it will happen pretty soon. The way I look at it is, it’s coming to college football, probably. We should model our game after the NFL. You guys know the two-minute warning of the NFL? College football’s going to have that next year. So there’s things that - I’m on the head coaches, the AFCA head coaches rules committee, and there’s a lot of things that could change. But those are some things that, it’s just a safety thing. You think about, why are we running down the field, wasting time and running down the field and the ball is kicked out of the end zone anyway most of the time? If a kicker wants to kick it out of bounds or, excuse me, kick it out of the end zone, they can kick it out of the end zone every play. Even last year, we did some what we call ‘hang middle’ where we wanted Ben to hang it up there so we could go tag them inside the 15-yard line, get a big hit and run down there. It’s just a different ball game that we’re talking about right now. It’s safety.
Speaking of kickers -
Narduzzi: Ben Sauls was unbelievable. Ben Sauls had a great day on Saturday. Franco and Carpenter are doing a nice job, but Ben was on fire Saturday. I mean, I don’t think he knew what an upright was.
And Junko had a nice day. I would say he was probably a heck of a lot better than he was against Duke, for sure.
You guys have benefited in the last few years of having a leader on the offensive line that’s carried over and been a starter in a lot of big games. Do you have a player on your roster right now that you think has been that in spring practices to help the transition in this new offense?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I think a lot of those guys up front - it’s hard to say who it is right now. I think when we go through the summer, you really find out who those leaders are. But I would say it’s Branson Taylor right now, is the guy I would say. Ryan Baer’s awful talkative out there and Terrence Moore as well. Terrence is a guy that is going to try to lead those guys up front as well. So I would say those three guys, but we’ll find out who that alpha is as we get moving.