Pat Narduzzi talked about pressure, Duke's running game and a lot more on Thursday. Here's the full transcript of what he said.

Narduzzi: Thursday’s here, Friday’s coming. We get to travel tomorrow down to Durham, North Carolina, and I think our kids are excited. We had a good week of practice, preparation’s been good and I’m looking forward to seeing how we match up against the Duke Blue Devils.

What do you know about Taysir and Barden?
Narduzzi: I would say, they are very, very questionable for this weekend. That’s what I would say.

Do you expect them to be ready before the end of the year?
Narduzzi: There’s a possibility, yes.

Duke runs the ball really effectively but you guys have stopped the run a lot this year. What kind of things do you say to your run defense or do you even need to say anything to your run defense about this could be a proving week stopping a big back like Durant?
Narduzzi: He’s a great back, one of the top in the country. I think he’s an NFL tailback. He reads the plays really well, he hugs the inside zones to the point where you overrun it; we had one of those last week where we overran it and we didn’t get downhill, so it’s kind of a double-edge, it’s really bad when you do that.

But he’s a good tailback, so we have to stop the run. They like to run the ball first. They’ll have their RPO’s off of the run, of course, so you get in that double edge, ‘which one do you want to stop?’ And the more guys we put in the box, the better chance we have of continuing to be a really good run-stopping defense. But there are times we’ll have to take our chances and keep a guy out of the box, so you play that game. It’s a guessing game. But the tailback is good enough to beat you all by himself, so we have to be careful. Again, as a defensive guy, you better stop the run, take it out of 21’s hands and let the quarterback throw it and see what happens.

Are his receptions check-downs or are they looking for him?
Narduzzi: They’re looking for him. They’ll run him on wheel routes out of the backfield, into the boundary mainly. But they love T-shoots; they hit us a few years ago on a T-shoot, which Miami didn’t last week. We shut those down, which, last year they hit us - well, I don’t know if they hit us on T-shoots but the Y-shoots up the middle. But versus some of the things we do, they’ll try to check and get some of their tailback down the middle on wheels routes. He’s a great player and we have to know where 21 is all the time in the passing game and the run game. Not a whole lot of check-downs but he will check it down to him.

Was Wendell’s decision a surprise? Did you have any indication that was coming?
Narduzzi: A surprise, but in today’s day and age with the portal and other opportunities and you’re graduating and you’re trying to make early decisions so maybe you can get your name out there a little early, which is smart in a way. But it’s always surprising. I think our culture here is really good, but this is what the NCAA has created and that’s where we are. I wish him luck and it’s part of the game nowadays. You can’t ever look back at yourself and say, ‘What did we do?’ You have to just look forward and play the next guy.

For most of the season, SirVocea has seen time in the middle and outside; does it take away your opportunity to play him outside now?
Narduzzi: No, not really. We’ll do both. We have a lot of faith in Brandon George as well and Chase Pine’s right there as well. So we’ve got plenty of guys who can play the middle linebacker position.

What have you seen from Brandon George? He’s done a lot of special teams; how has he grown in the last year?
Narduzzi: Brandon just continues to get better, I think. He’s a football player. He’s a throwback, he can do a lot of different things. He’s been outstanding on special teams. Whenever you give him a role, he gets it done. That’s why we have faith that he can do the linebacker stuff, too.

The guys behind Taysir Mack and Jaylon Barden, in terms of the trust Kenny has in them -
Narduzzi: He’s got a lot of trust. I mean, you’ve got Jared Wayne, who has played a lot. And in the slot, we can move anybody in there. We expect to play 3 a lot.

What have you seen out of Bradley?
Narduzzi: Jaden’s been - he’s a gamer. I shouldn’t say he’s a gamer; he practices really well, too. When he’s on the field in between the white lines, he’s a football player. He studies the game. That guy’s going to be a future star. We’ve been excited about him all year. He played four or five plays last week and he’s a guy that’s going to be in the game quite a bit. We feel good with him, he knows what he’s doing and we like what we see out of Jaden.

Jake Kradel was telling us this week that he and Gabe Houy were talking about how, when they were third-stringers, they worked their way up to get to where they’re at. Do you use them or is that a good example to show guys that, if you come in and work, you’ll get the opportunity?
Narduzzi: I think that’s - we use that all year. It’s about patience; some people have patience and some people don’t. Everybody wants to wave the magic wand and have instant success. We’d all like to, you know? But it takes time to do whatever you do. It doesn’t matter what profession it is. I didn’t become a head coach overnight. You have to take your lumps and do your job and be a G.A. and go through the - it’s just like anything, but it’s the patience it takes to wait your turn.

Generally speaking, if you know early in the week before your first practice that a key guy on the other team isn’t going to play, how does it affect your approach to practice and your approach to the game?
Narduzzi: It depends on how good that guy is, number one. And it depends on what you know about the backup. If you think the backup stinks, it can change your preparation. But if the backup is just as good or better, then it should not be a problem. I think that’s what you look at.

Coaches generally wouldn’t want to get that information out early in the week.
Narduzzi: I don’t know. I don’t know if it matters. You’re looking at the players and whether you do know something or don’t know something, you still have to prepare for both of those guys anyway, whoever it is, whether it’s a quarterback, wideout…corner, it doesn’t matter. You still prepare for the other guys.

How much of a role does SirVocea and some of your other off-ball linebacker guys flowing around this week with the run fits in the offense you’re going to face, how much does that role increase with that presence out there?
Narduzzi: You know, every week it’s the same problem. We went down to Georgia Tech and Gibbs - he’s a great back, too; he didn’t have a great day, for whatever reason. Is that him? Maybe he didn’t feel good. Maybe we were good. You don’t ever know what the reason was. But I think he had 10 carries for minus-10 yards and he’s a guy, he’s still a guy. I think that guy is a great tailback. I told you that on a Thursday or a Monday or whatever day I told you. But it’s the same. Our focus doesn’t change as far as, ‘Hey, this week we’ve got a good tailback so let’s have good run fits today.’ That’s how we practice. That’s what we do everyday. It can’t be a, ‘Hey, we better learn how to fit it this week.’ We know how to fit it. That’s a natural. But you have to dissect, ‘Hey, what else are we stopping?’ And we try to just tweak things every week based on what we’re seeing and how we’re doing it.

Kenny was telling us yesterday that how tight-knit the team is kind of sets itself up for playing on the road in those kinds of environments, but also with what’s at stake over the next four games in the ACC. In terms of how this team is set up, how do you view that?
Narduzzi: View what?

How this team is prepared for not just Duke but the stretch run here in the ACC.
Narduzzi: I think we’re very well-prepared. It’s what we’ve worked for, for over a year. I guess, 11 months, it’s what we prepare for - these opportunities. But again, it’s not about the next four, it’s about this one. Because if you overlook the one, the fourth one doesn’t matter. They don’t matter. So it’s about this one game and I don’t look any further than that.

Kenny told you what you like, that the team is tight-knit, we stick together, we keep playing and we take them one at a time. So that’s what you do.

How has David Cutcliffe changed at all in your experience with him as a coach? Has he changed his approach at all? What kind of a coach is he?
Narduzzi: He’s a great coach. He’s an offensive coach. I look at their offense ranked 25th or 26th in the country in total offense - they’re good. They have a great rushing game. All good coaches are doing what they do well. They run the football really well, they’ve got a great tailback and they’re putting the ball in his hands, which is where you want the ball. We put the ball in Kenny’s hands, because him and Jordan are two guys - Izzy and the rest of our tailbacks - you’re going to put the ball in the guys’ hands that you feel like are going to make plays. So I’d say he’s really smart by handing it off to 21.

I think he’s a heck of a coach. I don’t know all the inner workings of how he’s changed through the years; I just know he’s a good coach. They’re very detailed. I don’t care if it’s an onside kick you’re worried about - you just watch some of the things. They have smart players. Smart players are able to do more things on the field. Some of the different fake punts you worry about, fake field goals, they do a lot of different things on their kickoff team to maybe gain a possession.

I think Coach Cut’ likes the ball in his hands and he’s always going to try to gain a possession, so we’re ready for every one of the onside kicks they’ve tried throughout the years. They tried a fake punt down there against us a couple years ago that was unsuccessful on a fourth-and-7 pass, the tight end kind of wheeled out and Dane Jackson made a nice play. So there’s all those things - to me, that’s smart, and the smarter your players are and when you’ve got good coaches like Coach Cutcliffe, you can have more of those little things in during the week. Sometimes it’s hard to put that in. Like, how much is information overload for your kids? They weren’t worried about that. They’ve got smart kids and they do a great job.

Phil Campbell told us during the week that there’s more of a playoff type of urgency right now with the team knowing that the margin of error is a lot slimmer after the loss to Miami. Has there been a different message as far as how you guys have struggled against the pass in those two losses?
Narduzzi: No, there’s been no extra message. To me, ‘pressure’ is a bad word. Pressure is when you’re not prepared. There’s good stress and bad stress; pressure is bad stress. Stress is - everybody has stress - but pressure - you know, there is no pressure. There’s one game and you can’t play like there’s pressure. Pressure’s not good.

So I’ll have a talk with Phil. I’m glad you told me that. EJ didn’t tell me any of that, nothing about pressure and stress. I don’t watch those interviews, but it’s always good to get the insight. So I’ll talk to Phil. There’s no pressure. There’s no playoff. No one’s talking about, like, ‘It’s do or die.’ To me, let’s go out and play one game, worry about one game. That’s what we try to focus on. We don’t want to go off-script.

That’s an old Chuck Noll quote: ‘You only feel pressure if you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.’
Narduzzi: Yeah, I mean pressure is when you’re not prepared. You guys have all taken those tests. When you have a math test and you have’t studied for it, that’s pressure. When you walk in that classroom and you sit down and teacher has that growl on his face and you don’t know what you’re doing and the teacher asks you when you go in there, ‘You ready to go?’ And you’re like, ‘Yeah…’ And you’re not ready to go, that’s an issue.

But when you’re prepared, when you prepare out there, you prepare off the field, you watch the tape, there’s no pressure there. I think that’s the key, and that’s what we do to make sure our kids understand. So I’m going to hit up Phil, call him when I leave here today.

On the field and off the field, how have you seen Haba grow over the years?
Narduzzi: He’s grown up a lot. He’s matured. He’s like one of the old men on that defensive side of the ball. He was just a baby a couple years ago and he just continued to learn. I think Patrick Jones and Rashad Weaver have been good for him. That guy is in here like Patrick Jones, and those guys learn. They see the older guys and what they did before them, and we know our older guys are always the leaders on our football team, but Haba has watched those other two and now he’s in there. I walk by that D-line room at 9 o’clock at night and I look in there, I’m thinking it’s Coach Partridge sitting there at the computer and it’s Haba in there watching tape. That’s a beautiful thing to see, how he’s matured. That’s important. He knows what’s going on, he’s a smart football player and that helps.

I think you’ve played almost every stadium in the ACC; is Duke the farthest walk from the locker room to the field?
Narduzzi: Absolutely. Absolutely.

And it changes all your pre-game timing. It rushes your kids. I mean, you have to leave a little bit earlier, so you have less time at halftime. Your halftime, it becomes shorter because you have to get in there - we timed it: it’s a three-minute in, three-minute out. That’s six minutes from halftime. So six less minutes of any adjustments that you’re trying to make at halftime on offense or defense or special teams, for that matter. So it steals from your halftime. I think they should hold their team out on the field until we get in the locker room. It’s just not a fair deal. Not real excited about that walk.

And I like to walk, but on a Sunday afternoon in the fall, kick the leaves, when you have an open week. We’ll have a brisk walk. We’ll try to turn it into two-and-a-half minutes. Coach LaSala will have a stopwatch so we know exactly what it’s going to take. How good do we walk this week?

Do you hope to give the running game a chance to gain more traction this week?
Narduzzi: Hope so. It depends on what the score is. If it’s 21-7, you know, we’ll look at it and play it by ear. Coach Whip makes those calls and he’s done a hell of a job all year and I expect him to continue to do a great job and we’ll let him do his thing. Get in the end zone, score and win. That’s all I care about. Doesn’t matter how you do it.