Pat Narduzzi held his final press briefing of the week on Thursday and talked about Virginia Tech, the quarterback situation and a lot more. Here's the full rundown of his remarks.

Narduzzi: Going into game five already. It seems like the season’s going fast and we’ve got a really important game going down to Blacksburg and playing front of a sellout crowd, White-Out, I guess. Bring all that stuff on; our kids will be excited to play in that atmosphere.

On Monday, you said you didn’t know who your starting quarterback will be for this game. Do you know now?
Narduzzi: I’ve got a good idea.

Are you willing to share that?
Narduzzi: Nah. Jerry, you know why. We don’t know who their starting quarterback is; they’re not going to know who ours is.

You don’t know who theirs is going to be either?
Narduzzi: I don’t think so.

The first guy was hurt.
Narduzzi: He was hurt and there’s a chance he’s back. But I think Drones has played good, so I expect him.

Do you have to prepare for two different styles?
Narduzzi: You always do. Everybody has to.

But those guys are two different styles, right?
Narduzzi: A little bit. They’ll still run the Wells kid. I think he’s tough, he’s physical; he ran quarterback draws and all the quarterback counters, which they still run, I think. But maybe is it going to be less? What’s his injury? Is it a shoulder? Is it a high ankle sprain? What is it? But we do know he was warming up in Huntington last week and moving around, so he looked like he could have played. So has he been beat out? I don’t know. Or is he still a lingering injury? You don’t know. So we will prepare. We’ve got a game plan for both of them.

What jumps off the film about Drones when you watched it?
Narduzzi: Great question. He’s physical, he’s tough. I think he’s like a running back back there. Their tailbacks are 200 pounds, pretty much, 202, 205. He’s 240 maybe, 235, so he’s a powerful guy, he’s explosive, he’s got a gun on him, so I think he can make every throw. But he’s a physical guy, so I think we have to wrap him up, hit him low, I think what we call our sweep tackle. He’s a load and he’s run the ball more. I would think they’re going to run the ball with Drones more than they would with Wells, so there’s probably a more significant run game with Drones being on the field.

The last few weeks, Rodney has seen an uptick in production. Is it safe to say he’ll get another heavy workload this week?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I hope so, as long as he’s doing it right. We felt like he ran the ball well last week, so yeah, he’s going to get the workload to start off. And C’Bo’s been really good, too. I like when C’Bo is in there, too.

I don’t know if there has been more, but it feels like you’ve had more false starts through the first four games. Hearing the crowd noise behind us, you’re obviously going to be in a loud environment; have you identified some of the issues that led to some of the false starts? Do you feel like you’ve corrected some of those things?
Narduzzi: It starts with the four different lineups we’ve had. Any time there’s a change at center, you’re going to have issues. Sometimes, like last week, it’s not snapping the ball like you’re supposed to snap the ball. If you’re a tick late, guys are out of there, if you start to get in a rhythm of what it is. So that’s one of the issues, I think - it’s just the timing and everything together. You’ve got a brand new center, those things are going to happen, so we hope to eliminate them this week and we’ve worked the crowd noise like the Steelers are working here. We’ve got the crowd noise, we’ve got everything we could possibly have.

On the note of the offensive line, how would you say the run blocking has improved in recent weeks and what still needs to get better?
Narduzzi: Everything needs to get better. You’re never done. It’s the same thing with the D-line and linebackers and their fits; we’re never happy. We’re always constantly trying to get more. But it’s a gradual improvement every week. You’ve got some new guys up there with Terrence Moore playing his first game last week, he obviously has major needs. The first thing is snapping on time. That was one of the issues. We thought we were offsides on that sack that we took last week, which pinned us back and then you’re punting out of your own end zone. I thought the left tackle was offsides and they didn’t call it. I think the quarterback did, too, so that’s kind of the world we’re living in.

It seems like over the last couple weeks you’ve found ways to get Kenny Johnson the ball. Does he keep moving in the right direction? Are you guys going to keep trying to do that this week?
Narduzzi: We’re going to keep getting him the ball. I think he feels more comfortable. It’s hard as a freshman, a true freshman, and I think he’s given everybody a little bit more confidence when you watch him return that kickoff. It’s like, we just have to find more ways to get him. But it’s not just throwing it to Kenny; I think we have to find more ways to get it to Bub and Konata and Gavin and Karter Johnson and all of those guys. But it ends up being, who are they covering? It’s a bad decision by the quarterback if he throws it to a guy because he likes him or thinks he’s going to be open. You can’t think he’s going to be open; he’s either open or he’s not, and you have to go through your progression as a quarterback.

They have the best punt returner in the conference. I think he leads in average and yards. What are you guys looking to fix up on your punt coverage there to make sure another one doesn’t get taken back?
Narduzzi: A lot. I’m glad you asked that question, Noah. We’ve worked a lot of the double gunners. We’re ready this week. Just beating two men. We had not seen it coming into that game, we had not seen that coming into our game last week, and we did not attack it very well. We didn’t do a good job, and it’s a poor job coaching. You can’t work everything in a week. All you can do is take what you see on tape, and they had a totally different look. So obviously they felt like they had to do something different to stop us from covering punts. We had been good up to that point.

Again, it starts with the punt and placement of the punt, but we didn’t make good decisions at the gunner spot, but we weren’t prepared as well as we need to be, so we’ll be a lot more prepared because Virginia Tech likes to do it. They did it going into the game, so we know they’ve had practice with it, they do a good job at holding up the gunners. You know, ‘Beamer ball’ they’re good at it. I don’t know if Frank’s been around, coaching up the gunners or not, or their jammers, I should say. But they do a good job. That’s why they - they’re not a big punt block team, but they’ll come after it. I expect them to try to come after us as well, because that’s also what Beamer did. And they do a good job doubling your gunners, so we’ve got a plan here and let’s hope - it’s like everything else, that we got a little bit better from last week, because last week wasn’t good enough.

You’ve had some new bodies and guys at different positions at the linebacker spot. How do you feel like that’s graded out, especially this week with a potential mobile quarterback?
Narduzzi: Yeah, it’s been good. We’ve had Shayne in there, which has been sound and solid. Solly, I don’t want to say it’s like the offensive line, but it’s a little bit like it. You move Solomon DeShields from the Star and move him to the Money and then all of a sudden you’re bringing in a new guy at the Star, so it’s really breaking in two positions, but there’s carryover from both positions. But it’s still change, and you don’t like to go through change too much, so we’ll see where we are this week at that position. But either way, it’s another week; if we go with the same lineup that we did last week, we’ll be a week better than we were going into that game.

By all accounts, Bub had a good summer and a really good training camp. What do you think has been holding him back so far?
Narduzzi: A little bit of everything. He starts off against Cincinnati and has a great catch on the sideline; unfortunately, he’s out of bounds, right? That’s where it started there. But Bub is such a great kid. He’s so enthusiastic, he’s positive all the time, he plays - he loses 10 pounds a day. I looked at him yesterday and he’s just got sweat rolling down his legs. He’s the only one like that. This guy works his tail off and I want to see better results for him. But sometimes he rushes his work, you know? He’ll just - ‘I’m fast, so I’m going to get there’ instead of doing it with technique, so that will help him. It’s also some of the coverages they run have taken him out of it as well. So it depends on what they’re doing back there, but we have to get Bub going, because he’s a big-play threat. It all depends on what they’re giving you.

Rasheem Biles has blocked punts in back-to-back weeks. What have you seen from him on film that has allowed him to do that?
Narduzzi: You know, Rasheem’s got a little knack for it. He’s got great eye-hand coordination; I’d say that. It’s not like we’re setting everything up for him to go block it. He’s just doing it. Sometimes just guys make plays; he’s one of those playmakers and he’s going to be a great linebacker one day, too, because he did the same thing in fall camp. Sometimes he goes the wrong way, but he’s going to make a play. Once we get him coached up on defense, he’s going to be good.

But he’s just making plays. There was no call for him. We’re not calling ‘the Sheem block,’ you know? ‘Let’s get Sheem through there and go.’ He’s just making a play, so I can’t tell you it’s great coaching; players make plays. I think that goes across the board, when we talk about playmakers - coaches are supposed to put you in position to make plays and then it’s on players to make plays. We try to put them in the positions that we can, but Biles has made plays. He’s a guy that we’re not going to redshirt; we’re just going to keep playing him because he can help us on special teams. He can run down on kickoff, he can do a lot of different things. So if he’s going to help us win, we’re going to play young guys like that, because he’s got a good motor.

Charlie talked about it this week, how you guys are 39-6 in your time here when you win the turnover battle. What do you guys do to create so many opportunities to force turnovers?
Narduzzi: We’re not creating enough, okay? So whatever we did in the past, we need to get back to. So if you find out, let me know.

What do you do? You almost had one on the first play of the game last week, which could have been a gigantic momentum change and we don’t get it. We had a wrist forward. But we do a turnover circuit every day; you guys see it on Tuesdays, I think. You guys are there for most of that. We’re trying to create and we try to do the same thing during practice about getting the ball back, whether it’s interceptions or trying to cause a fumble the way they’re caused. And the same thing on offense: we’re trying to eliminate those. We have to eliminate those; to win the turnover ratio, you can’t give them up, and if you get one, you’re plus-one and you’re happy. That’s how you win football games, and that’s how you lose games if you’re minus-two like we were last week against a really good North Carolina team.

Marquis has not been targeted often this year; is that a product of his play? Is that a product of teams throwing away from him? Why do you think that is?
Narduzzi: I don’t know what it is. You’d have to go ask those other offensive coordinators. I think he’s been targeted. He told me last week he didn’t give up a catch after the game. Then I watched the tape and he did give up a catch. So I’m like, wait a second, Quis? Maybe it wasn’t when he was pressed; he wasn’t pressed on it, but when he played off, they hit a curl on him. I haven’t had a chance this week - you’re so busy, I haven’t had a chance to call him out on that, but I’ll get him now. He’ll probably be watching your news feeds, I guess, you’ll tweet it out afterwards and he’ll probably see it.

But I don’t know. He’s a good football player, but we feel good with all of those guys. Sometimes you get targets, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes it’s - I don’t know. Knock on wood, I hope he doesn’t give up any targets this week.

It seemed to me a couple times in third-and-long situations, 86 was making his way off the field and you’re going four-wide. Given his productivity and the fact that he’s the most reliable guy you’ve got, should there be any situation where he’s not involved?
Narduzzi: There shouldn’t be any situation, but if he’s coming off the field, it’s because he’s tired and he tapped out. Because I don’t think we take him out. It depends on how many plays in a row he went, but I would imagine if it’s first down, second down and third down, I don’t think he’s out on the first third down. But if it’s six or seven plays, if they do this (tap helmet), that means they pulled themselves out.

But we have great confidence in Karter Johnson as well. That guy’s made plays when he’s had opportunities. I haven’t seen Karter drop a ball yet either. So we’re not taking him out on purpose, I can tell you that.

Phil obviously looks like, if he’s available, he’s got a lot of confidence in him. How important is he, just in terms of making these guys relax?
Narduzzi: Who?

Bartholomew. Gavin.
Narduzzi: How important is he for what?

Helping them relax. If they have to throw the ball, he’s obviously been dynamic in that phase of the game.
Narduzzi: Right. You’re saying, does Gavin being out there help them?

He’s a security blanket almost.
Narduzzi: No question about it. You know who’s making those contested catches and who’s not. He’s one of those guys that is, and you certainly have to go to him. I think everybody feels good with Gavin when he’s out there.

If it is Christian, what do you think are some of the things he learned from looking back at that tape from the second half?
Narduzzi: I think there’s a lot. I think when you get your first action of ’23, you learn a lot. He’s got to get into the right checks at times, which he didn’t all the time. Those are some obvious things that we see in our room, some different alerts that he needs to be aware of, that he needs to make sure he does what we want him to do, not does his own thing out there. So we’ve got a lot of faith in Christian, and like I said, you guys think I’m like a broken record, I love Nate Yarnell, too. I’ll say it again. I wish we could play a three-quarterback system, Jerry. Maybe we’ll put that in.

Didn’t you say you weren’t going to rotate guys?
Narduzzi: I said three at the same time. Three at the same time. I didn’t say three different series. Put all three of them in there.

Three at the same time would be interesting.
Narduzzi: Yeah, it would be interesting.

What kind of week did Phil have?
Narduzzi: Phil had a good week.

Was that the best you’ve seen him play in a Pitt uniform, that first half against North Carolina?
Narduzzi: You know what, it’s been awhile since I looked at Wofford, but he was pretty good against Wofford but it was Wofford. So as far as a Power Five game, I would say that first half was really solid.

Was it just as simple as taking what’s there? What did he do well?
Narduzzi: He made good decisions with the football. That’s the first thing. It’s about decision-making. And I think he was on-target more. I think he was a little bit more comfortable, for whatever reason. He was comfortable.

Brent Pry has a relationship with Christian from when they were at Penn State together, so I was curious, when you have a quarterback and they’ve been in the same room with a coach you’re going to be facing, is there any concern going into a game or do you stick with the same game plan anyway?
Narduzzi: You know, Christian played in a different offense at Penn State, so whatever he was at Penn State, he’s different now. Whether it’s good or bad. I’m not worried about what Coach Pry thinks about Christian when he was at Penn State.