Pat Narduzzi met the media after Pitt's Blue-Gold Game on Saturday, and here's a full rundown of what he said.
Narduzzi: Beautiful day out there, nice and sunny. Warm. But the most important thing today, as I always say and I think I said it to you on Thursday, is that we come out of the spring game healthy and we did that today. I told you the story about Deslin (Alexandre) getting hurt a year ago; that just drives you nuts. So coming out of it healthy was the only key. Anytime someone gets hurt, it becomes even more important.
I think we got a lot of work done. I was happy with where we ended. I would have liked to see our kicking game be a little cleaner. I think anytime you switch the offensive line, that’s the hardest thing to do, so that’s always going to hurt you. But we saw enough in 14 practices to know who we are and what we can do that I’m happy.
One of the things I have to mention - I don’t think I mentioned it to you guys yet, but our strength staff and our trainers did an unbelievable job. I’ve never seen in all my years - Chris Hanks, our trainer, never saw it in all his years - we went though 15 days of practice and we got some guys banged up, but we didn’t have one soft tissue issue the entire spring. Not one hamstring, groin, nothing. That’s unbelievable. That’s a heck of a job by our strength staff and our kids obviously paying attention and doing what they need to do. But to not have one soft tissue injury the entire spring is unheard of.
What did you see out of Kedon (Slovis) and Nick (Patti) today and how they’re capping spring?
Narduzzi: You know, it’s hard to tell. It’s hard to tell with mish-moshed receivers. Jordan (Addison) didn’t play and you don’t have your normal weapons for either one of them today. We’ll go back and look at the tape. I know Nick had two nice passes - one to Konata (Mumpfield) and one to Jaden Bradley, or to Jared Wayne. I think he had two big passes, which were good to see. I don’t know who they were against on defense so you don’t know what the matchup was there so you have to go back and look at that.
But two nice passes by Nick. Obviously, Nick won the game. And then I thought Kedon was good with what he had out there. He threw some balls to Jaden Bradley and we had some drops. I think Jaylon Barden had a drop in the end zone and I think Gavin (Bartholomew) had a drop in the end zone. But I thought he was - he some of the short passing game looking pretty good. He didn’t have any deep shots, I don’t think that I can recall. But he had one pick on a three-step that I think Shayne Simon jumped in front of it and did a nice job.
How much of the offense did you leave on the shelf today?
Narduzzi: I would say a lot of it, and that’s probably why a linebacker jumps on something: because he’s maybe seen it already today or whatever. But we left a lot on the shelf. A lot.
The last few years, you had very experienced linebackers who were used to being starters in your system to help play at the speed that you’re used to. What did you see from those guys like Bangally (Kamara), like Solomon (DeShields), who are learning what it’s like in a live situation to play at that speed?
Narduzzi: Again, I’ll have to go back and watch the tape to see. They may have stopped - you know, there wasn’t many points scored, but you really have to go back. I can tell you, Solomon’s been good, Bangally’s been good, Shayne Simon has been really good. Obviously, SirVocea (Dennis) has been good playing different positions. It’s hard to tell without - it’s the same thing with quarterbacks: I don’t want to say too much or too little. We’ll know more when we watch the videotape. You’ll know more tonight on the ACC Network; maybe you can watch it and rewind it and see what happened there.
I didn’t see any big runs, for the most part, so I think the linebackers played okay. The linebackers were probably the weakness, if you had to say there was a weakness. But I’m not disappointed at all with where they are and what they’ve done this spring at all. So I think we’re going to be fine and I think you saw that today.
Daniel Carter winning the Conway Award for offense and having two touchdowns today; what did you see out of him today and throughout the spring for him to get that?
Narduzzi: To me, it’s a process and he’s just had a really good spring. Running the football when he’s gotten down to it, he’s blocking when he’s had opportunities to be the lead back for Vince (Davis) or Izzy (Abanikanda) or whoever it is. But he’s taken on that role where, a year ago, it was like, ‘Eh, blocking, being an F?’ So he’s unselfish and we appreciate that part of him. He can carry the ball, he can hurt you out of the backfield in the pass game. He can do a lot of different things. He’s been playing at a high level, which is good. He’s a hard guy to tackle. He’s 240 pounds rolling downhill.
How do you approach or how do Nick and Kedon approach the offseason from this point forward up until fall camp?
Narduzzi: I think the same way they approached it going into spring ball. It's the same thing: they just go out and try to be the best they can and just continue to go. Both of them have the new offense under their belt, they’re both trying to learn it and I think you can win with both quarterbacks right now, so it’s a good problem to have.
For someone who doesn’t know the college football offseason, what transpires over the next few months until training camp?
Narduzzi: Okay, going through the calendar here. The next two weeks, they have classes and then it will be open for those guys. They’ll go throw like they do, by themselves with no coaches around. Then a week of finals, they’ll go home for two weeks and when they come back, they’re going. They’ll have seven-on-seven, they’ll be in the weight room, they’ll be lifting, running and they’ll be running the whole offense by themselves. We’ll give them installs and they’ll go do it on their own. So that’s what will happen all the way up to August, pretty much.
You’ve talked about procedural penalties and needing to avoid those. There were some false starts here and there; how did you grade out your group there?
Narduzzi: Ah, again, just different quarterbacks and even near the end we got all five quarterbacks in there with Eli (Kosanovich) and Jake Frantl, and you’re going to have some of those with different guys calling the cadence and so forth. So I thought overall it was not a bad day; I don’t know how many penalties we had on the day, but it was typical for a spring game, I guess.
What did you think of your scholarship punter today?
Narduzzi: He was okay. I was not real happy with the one that he dropped and he didn’t know what to do with it. He’s a freshman, I guess. A 24-year old freshman. He’s had a great spring. You come into Heinz Field and you have to punt the ball, so that was not good.
Defensive line pass rush has been a big strength of the team the last few years. A lot of local guys - I saw David Green with a sack, Nahki Johnson with a sack, (Devin) Danielson with a forced fumble, Dayon Hayes with a sack as well. What were you thoughts on how the younger guys especially performed today?
Narduzzi: Dayon Hayes has really - I sat with him and his family a bit this morning, him and Nahki, both of those guys are - Dayon is one year ahead but Dayon has really played at a high level and gotten better. So we’re excited about that. And Nahki has taken that next step. The last half of spring ball, he really cranked it up a bunch. So we’ll look at the tape and find out, but I think they both played solid games today.
How did the players react to getting their rings before the game, and is that the last thing for you guys to put the title behind you and go into the offseason?
Narduzzi: It is. They were excited. I didn’t see all of their faces, but as you walked around to different tables, you could see that they were talking about it. To get that championship ring, it’s something they worked hard for, they’ve been talking about winning it, getting it and to win the championship and finally get that ring and get that reward, I think it’s something special that they’ll have and a keepsake forever and ever and ever. So they’re excited.
