Pat Narduzzi addressed the media ahead of Pitt’s Wednesday practice. Pitt’s final day of training camp is tomorrow, before the team moves into game week. See what the Panthers’ head coach had to say.

Narduzzi: Practice No. 18 today. Another good one yesterday, solid practice. Nothing crazy, mostly thud which you see they’re out in shells today, no pants on - trying to get them fresh, get them back.

We’ve got one addition to our roster today. It’s been in the works for a couple days here, but another graduate transfer in - John Petrishen has stepped in, an old Central Catholic player, which you guys probably know. So we’re happy to have him here, he’s got two years left of eligibility. I think he’ll be a great addition to our football team.

He has to sit out a year, right?

PN: No, he’s a graduate transfer. He’s a graduate transfer with two to go, kind of like a (Nathan) Peterman grad transfer with two years to go. Obviously he’s graduated, so he’s eligible immediately. He’s got a lot of ways to go knowledge wise.

Will he start off on scholarship?

PN: He’s starting off as a football player, how about that? You guys always want to talk money, and injuries with Jerry. He’s a football player. I don’t want to categorize him as anything, he’s a football player. He’s a guy that we offered out of high school, and we tried to get him. We didn’t get him, but we got him back and hopefully he can have a great career here the last two years.

What kind of immediate impact can he make not only in the safety room, but also on special teams?

PN: We’ll find out; I just sat down and talked with him. I haven’t seen him run around here, so we’ll get him out here today and see what he does. He’ll just have a helmet on today, he’s got to go a couple days without gear and get cleared physicals and all that and make sure he’s smooth.

Is he a free or strong (safety)?

PN: I don’t know, he might be a D-Tackle, who knows? We’ll find out when we see more of him. We haven’t seen him for four years now, so we’ll find out.

You said you recruited him, was there a relationship already established? Did it just pick up where it left off?

PN: It kind of picks up, you know these kids. It’s funny, we were talking and he said, ‘I didn’t think you would remember that.’ Like you don’t forget home visits and visits. I asked him how his dad’s car business is going and he, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you’d remember that.’ Those things never end, you know these kids, whether you’re playing against them or they are playing for you. You don’t not remember home visits and all those sorts of things.

Did you pick his brain at all about week three?

PN: Not really. We’ve got video tape.

Did he reach out to you guys, or did you reach out to him?

PN: He reached out to us, he wanted to come back home. He’s fired up.

Speaking of safeties, we talked to Cory (Sanders) yesterday. Those three guys - Damar, Paris, and Stocker. Do you feel like you have three starters?

PN: I do. I mean I feel comfortable with all three of those guys getting in the game. There will be times when we have to take them out and talk to them about what just happened to them. I mean, period. It’s nice to have a guy that can go in for you. Having three is a lot better than having two because you take a guy out and it’s like, ‘Oh god you’ve got to get right back in.’ We feel comfortable with all three of those guys.

Is Amir (Watts) becoming a leader on that line?

PN: Slowly, yea. I think Amir has always been a leader, guys follow Amir, whether he’s a captain or Eagles in our leadership council. He’s always been a leader, so Amir’s got a strong personality.

How much is Paris Ford infectious with his energy?

PN: He is. I think we’ll see more of it on gameday. We try to control it, but sometimes he’s doing crazy things back there too. But no, Paris is awesome. I love that kid, he’s got a lot of emotion and it’s fun to watch him on gamedays.

Talking about Vincent Davis yesterday, I think you slipped in ‘puppy.’ Is that his nickname?

PN: No, it’s probably one of my terms for the puppy dogs. There’s dogs that will bite you hard and you’ve got to watch out, and there’s puppy dogs that will just nibble on you. No it’s just young guys - it’s rookies. I just call them puppies, they probably don’t like that. I’m glad you clarified that, but his nickname is not the puppy dog, but maybe we can give him that.

Is the knowledge and attention to detail catching up to Paris Ford?

PN: It’s catching up, there’s no question about it that guy has come so far when you look at where he was last year. His knowledge is so much better. Like I said, I probably told you this in the spring, there’s no way he could have played safety a year ago because there’s so many things he’s got to do back there. Now he’s equipped, but when we start to narrow things down for game plan wise, he’ll be even better. He’s strong in that manner.

Did Rashad Weaver have the surgery?

PN: Oh yea.

Didn’t they hear anything, I heard he wasn’t going to have it..

PN: God I think there was some tweets or instagrams. Maybe you’re not on Instagram, but he was laying in a hospital. I’ll get EJ to get you up to date, especially when it comes to injuries I don’t know how you missed it.