DURHAM, N.C. - Pat Narduzzi had a lot to say about Pitt's run game, quarterbacks, defense and more after Saturday's win over Duke. Here's a full rundown of his remarks.
Narduzzi: Well, we make it hard. One of our keys to victory was to thrash them in the third quarter, because the third quarter’s been our nemesis this year, and we certainly didn’t do that. But we finished it off in the fourth quarter. I’m just so proud of our football team. Our kids hung in there. It wasn’t easy. We tried to make it hard, but they fought in there.
The other key to victory was being able to run the football, and I think we proved we can do that. We need to continue to do that. You take it off of Ben DiNucci’s shoulders - Ben had a heck of a good game, did some good things in his decision0making and the run game. There were some big old plays in there. Darrin Hall - you talk about a war daddy back; I can’t say enough about him.
You know, Maddox with a big interception, obviously the last interception by Whitehead was a big-time play when they’re moving it down the field - it just takes so many things. The field goal by Kessman late, being able to wipe off the first two, which were long ones to begin with, so we’re not worried about that. A big third-down stop by Saleem Brightwell. Just a lot of plays out there. And again, we weren’t as disciplined, penalty-wise, as we’d like to be. But we were able to get the win and it feels good. I think our kids are having a good time in there and they needed that, so I’m proud of them and happy for them.
A lot of things went into you guys struggling to run the ball, but today were there a lot of things that went into it for you guys to have success when it comes to the line and Darrin making some cuts?
Narduzzi: Darrin made some plays and the offensive line, you know, I credit Brian O’Neill, just ofr sticking together. He’s really leading that offensive line and talked about just wanting to run some certain plays, which we won’t talk about. It doesn’t really matter what it is. But Brian spear-headed an attitude. Brian O’Neill, you know, he’s not a captain but he’s a big-time leader in there. So I give him credit for just being vocal and speaking his mind and being a leader there.
Without getting into specifics, were there different things you did in the run game?
Narduzzi: We did a few different little things that we like to do. We won’t get into specifics.
Did Darrin have that in him all along?
Narduzzi: I have faith in all of them, guys. He ended up being the hot guy today. I knew he had it in him. I have faith in the running backs; we just have to get them in the right plays, at times, and then we have to execute. But our offensive line came out with an attitude today. We challenged them during the week that we were going to do some of this and some of that and, you know, they did it. It starts with the faith and the belief in what they wanted to do and what we did, and Darrin Hall ran his tail off.
If he’s not the ACC Player of the Week on offense or the Back of the Week, I don’t know what’s going on.
Jester’s 45-yard catch that set up the third touchdown, were you surprised they called it a catch and it stood up?
Narduzzi: No. I’m not surprised at all. The offense always gets the - when it’s simultaneous like that, the offense always gets the ball, period. It wasn’t even a question. I was wondering what Cutcliffe was talking with over there. He’s an offensive guy. He knows that. But I would argue, too, if I was him, try to maybe swing the tide his way. But I don’t even know if it was reviewable or not, but it was - and again, I didn’t mention that. Jester Weah had two big-time catches in that drive, and those were two big-time - which, we don’t do that all the time. But you have to make - big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games, and he made two gigantic catches in the one drive that sparked us.
How big of a step forward did Ben take in terms of the pre-snap, the run checks, that sort of thing?
Narduzzi: Like I said, he’s going to get better every week. And that’s all we ask him to do. You can’t be perfect the first game you start, you know down at Georgia Tech. Little by little - and you know what? He’s competing and he knows the heat’s on him, and that’s the great thing. I know you guys whine and wonder why, but you know what? When you know that the coaches don’t hesitate to put somebody in there, it makes you go prepare harder. And like I told you Thursday, I think it was, he walked off the field and I said, ‘Hey, when’s Kenny getting in the game?’ He says, ‘He’s not.’ That was his attitude and that’s what I want: a competitor. It’s him putting him in the game, not me, and that’s the attitude he had and I’m fired up for him. And he’s just going to keep getting better.
Did you guys ask him to be a little more conservative running the ball? I haven’t seen him slide as much as he did today.
Narduzzi: You know what, a little bit, maybe. When you get down to just two quarterbacks, it makes you a little tighter. But we want him to get the first down. So I’m going to have a word with him. He’s a tough son of a gun. Let’s be smart here, when it’s second down and seven and you get six-and-a-half and we have to be hanging on a third down and short, we don’t want that. So he’s tough enough. We don’t’ want him taking big-time hits, we’re not running quarterback iso’s with him where he’s getting hit. But out in space there, he can slip and fall and dive and get the first down. And maybe it’s my fault, I’m trying to protect him so I blame myself for that and he won’t be as conservative, I promise you that, the next game.
So not using Kenny, that was a matter of Ben doing enough for you, you thought he was playing well enough?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I thought he was playing well enough. I mean, zero turnovers. He did a good job with the ball and made good decisions. He threw a couple away - I wish he would’ve thrown one more away, I think we took a sack where we didn’t want to - and he scrambled when he should, maybe he could’ve had one or two in there. So, he protected the football and made good decisions. There was no reason to.
What happened to Maddox?
Narduzzi: We don’t talk injuries. He got hurt.
How did you feel the secondary played without him, not just replacing him as a four-year starter but also your veteran leader back there?
Narduzzi: We played OK. I think it was two weeks in a row we gave up a post when we gotta post help. Jordan Whitehead’s in the middle of the field that one time when 3 caught that post. I mean, if you’d said they’re throwing a post, I’d say put ‘em in man-3, but he stuttered down on it, it was a little play-action pass and he broke up, then he tried to bail and it was too late. I mean, you can’t do that. You gotta make sure the pass is not going yet. They got us on a T-shoot, which is a structure, I call it, but really we gave ‘em two plays in the third quarter defensively that were really gimmes, and made it close I guess. One was structured a T-shoot where we blitzed a guy. We don’t usually, we knew some things about what they did, and they did something they hadn’t shown.
Other than a couple big plays how’d you think you guys played defensively
Narduzzi: In the first half, really good. Shoot, what was the score at the half, 7 or whatever to 10? Played well at the half, then the second half we’re giving up some passing yardage, Maddox goes down, we got banged up, we got dehydrated, we had some guys cramping up out there. So we were OK, but we were down some guys. I mean, we walked into the game feeling really good about our depth in the secondary, we walk out of the game going ‘Holy cow, we gotta count on some young guys right now.’
Did you see something different from Hall in practice this week? I don’t think he had more than 13 carries in a game this year.
Narduzzi: He was the starter last week, but no, it wasn’t necessarily anything this week. The last two weeks, we felt like he’s been hitting it up in there hard, and we gave him the opportunity. He ran with it.
Is it nice to see that atmosphere in the locker room after what’s happened the last couple weeks especially?
Narduzzi: Yeah, there’s no question about it. It’s good to have that celebration in there, put some smiles on our kids’ faces, and it’s not easy. Our kids work so hard every day. We still had details left on the field. I’ll give you an example. Saleem Brightwell, before the half, on a quarterback draw, just runs the wrong path. I love him to death, but he’s giving me chest pains. But it’s just a young guy in there looking at you like [wide-eyed]. And he ran it right all week in practice, but it would’ve been a sack. The quarterback runs and gets a first down, they end up missing a field goal where I think Bookser got the block on the field goal before the half, but just little things, and we’ll continue to get better every week, I think. I don’t think there’s any question about that.
What is it about Darrin that let him sort of stay with it? He got passed by a younger player last year for more reps, there were some opportunities where other guys got the chance and he didn’t, but he’s stuck with it.
Narduzzi: I think this is good for his confidence, number one. And he’s running hard lately. I don’t know what it is, but you talk about adversity, he’s been back and forth. He’s a kid that doesn’t say anything. He’s the nicest kid in the world, Austintown Fitch Youngstown boy, doesn’t say a word and every day just goes out and works. He’s not a high-maintenance guy. He’s low-maintenance, as low as you get, and I couldn’t be happier for a guy who just shuts his mouth, does his job, and when the opportunity arose, really the last two weeks, he’s had that opportunity to go out there and be the guy.
