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Narduzzi: 'Our seniors deserved this one'

Pitt Head Coach Pat Narduzzi met with the media following his team’s 42-16 win over Miami on Saturday. Here is a complete rundown of everything Narduzzi had to say.

Narduzzi: Alright guys, that was a long time coming beating Miami. We’ve come close a few times. A few years ago I think they had like 207 yards and we gave up a post at the end on a play where they did something they shouldn’t have done and last year that safety that wasn’t to be. This was great for our kids. They wanted this one bad. Our seniors wanted this one bad and our kids played really good. Offensively it was clicking on all cylinders: the run game, the pass game. Kedon was outstanding. That’s kind of what we feel like we can get every week out of him.

Defensively, again started off with those turnovers. Unfortunately we didn’t score with them, but really changed the game early with that. Went through three quarterbacks on the other side. The kids just played well. Fired up for our seniors and we’ll wait a week and find out next Sunday where we’re going bowling.

Questions.

How proud of you of them for finishing November strong and posting an 8-win season?

Narduzzi: That’s we do. My coaches, my hats goes off to my coaches and our players. Our coaches do a great job of coaching. We talk about consistency. We didn’t coach this game, this week, Thanksgiving week, it doesn’t matter any differently than we did the opener against West Virginia. We just stayed consistent and we grind and work our tails off and our kids just continue to get better and believe. We had a couple of rough games there. Like I said this team should be a 10-1 football team really, if we don’t turn the ball over. We just had some things not go our way. We have a good football team and we have a great staff and couldn’t be happier for our kids. Our seniors deserved this one and I’m happy for that locker room.

Do you feel like this was your most complete win of the season?

Narduzzi: I would think this one was. I mean that’s a good football team out there. I don’t care what their record is. You go out there and look what they look like. They’ve got some great players. They didn’t play like our guys played. We played better than they did, but they’ve got a lot of talent on that football field, both sides of the ball. Our kids showed up and played like I thought they should, could.

Javon McIntyre got the first interception of his career. What does it mean to see young guys stepping up late in the season and making big plays?

Narduzzi: Javon got sick a couple of weeks ago. He was in the hospital. I don’t think anybody knows and he lost about 15 pounds and didn’t play so good a week ago. He came back. He’s a good football player. He’s one of the future guys that will be making plays. I mean Dayon Hayes had a great game out there, I think three sacks. And I haven’t seen any stats here from Miami, but I’m happy for all of our guys. Young guys making plays and we’re just developing those young guys and they are going to be our old guys pretty soon.

What have you seen from Tylar Wiltz’s development throughout the season?

Narduzzi: Yea I mean Tylar is a good football player. That was a really good get out of the transfer portal and he’s such a great kid. I mean he’s not a problem at all and matter of fact, Bangally (Kamara) last week and I give Bangally…talk about being unselfish. Tylar was a senior and Bangally was supposed to start and he said, ‘I want him to start’ and gave the start up and said, ‘I want Tylar’. And that’s what Tylar, he’s come right in from the day he got here and just kind of bonded with our football team and our kids and I’m happy for what he’s done. He’s had fun doing it too.

Jared Wayne just completed the 11th 1,000-yard receiving season in program history. Can you just talk about how he stepped up for your football team this year?

Narduzzi: He stepped up in a big way and he had a great game today. I mean besides that fumble there near the end, which he’s got to tuck it away. Just some of the big catches he had early on some of those RPOs that we hadn’t done for a few weeks. We kind of laid off of them for a while and kind of surprised them with some of those. But Jared was money today catching the ball and Kedon put it right where it needed to be as well.

You went from Drexel to Kradel at center midway through the game. What prompted that?

Narduzzi: He had a couple of crappy snaps and coaches learn. The last time he had some crappy snaps was Western Michigan two years ago and I told Borbs, ‘I said hey if he’s having one of those days let’s get him out of there’ and I think Kradel came in and he’s got soggy butt, OK. We’ve got to get him depends because his butt is soaked and Kedon’s got his hands up underneath there. So we’ve got some soggy butt problems as well. So we had some snaps under center that were issues as well. I just told Borbs that I wasn’t taking any chances and we’re not having any snaps going over. And Owen’s had a great year and so has Kradel. We knew Kradel could do it and Owen is so tough he’s not going to say anything if he’s hurting. He had some pec issues in that Western Michigan game two years ago and it cost us and I just wasn’t going to let that happen again.

You had two punt returners back tonight. What inspired that?

Narduzzi: Their punter inspired that. He would Rugby and if he reads to the right and you run to the right he’s kicking it to the left and the ball is rolling 60 or 70 yards. That was a good punt team today, so we had to put two back there just to secure the ball. We didn’t and we put two back there and we muffed the ball one time with Vince. But putting two back there helps us protect the field position.

Izzy officially has the ACC rushing title. Another strong day for him. He has nine 100-yard games this year. What do you think contributes towards his consistency?

Narduzzi: Izzy is a football player. I mean he’s got great speed, got great vision, and he’s tough and strong. He gets a lot of yards on his own. Obviously the offensive line did a great job for him all year and you don’t do it by yourself. The tight ends, the receivers had some great blocks as well. Izzy is a football player.

Did you feel the need to step up your style a bit in Miami?

Narduzzi: You know what, you want to know the truth? My daughter and my wife pick out my suits and they said you’ve just got to reach up and get the collared shirt up there and I got to Miami and we’re on the bus and I said, ‘I don’t think I picked out a dress shirt’ because usually I’ve got my tie and tie clip. So my daughter did a little shopping this morning and got me a shirt that went a little casual.

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