All right. Nice win for our guys last Friday night. Seems like it was a month ago because you're so engulfed in the next game already. Our guys did some nice things last week really in all three phases. You take probably 10 plays out of that game, and it's probably an easier win than it appeared at the end when we're sitting in a four-minute offense. AJ Davis runs a three-yard run on a third-and-two to ice the game, get into victory formation. Syracuse is good football team. When you go back, they never quit. We knew that the week before against North Carolina State, they came storming back. We did some things in all three phrases that prevented ourselves from really knocking them out earlier, which you could look at it two different ways. We obviously as coaches and players are always going to make mistakes. Nobody's perfect. Looking back, in the last 10 games in the Dome, it's not an easy place to play, period. In the last 10 games there, only two teams that have walked into that Dome this year and last year have won games, us and Clemson. So it's not an easy place to play. It's nice to get out of there with a win and move on to the next.

We obviously face an explosive football team in Miami that will be coming in here probably pretty angry from maybe not playing as well as they would like to. Manny Diaz will definitely get those guys cranked up. We know they're as talented as any football team in the country. They have skill all over the place. Manny is getting more involved in the defense. That shows. Dan Enos is their offensive coordinator that I have a lot of relationships with. We worked together at Cincinnati, worked together at Michigan State together before he took the head job at Central Michigan, moved on from there, was at Arkansas, Alabama, then Miami. He's got a great pedigree. Again, an outstanding offensive coordinator and play-caller. It's a new offense for them down there as well. That's all things that go with the territory there. Talented football team across the board. Questions.

Shocky Jacques-Louis has been playing well. What does he bring to your offense?

Narduzzi: Shocky can take the top off the coverage, I think. He's a tough kid. I'm glad he's finally 100% healthy. But he can run. He made some nice catches, caught a crossing route, got whacked and held onto it. Great to see. He's explosive on some of the outside runs we've done with him when we've handed off to him all season. He's had opportunities to make plays. It's good for his confidence. We need him here on this final stretch of the season.

What did you learn from playing Miami last year? Any carryover?

Narduzzi: Obviously the defense, there's a lot of carryover. Manny is heavily involved in the defense. I don't want to say he's calling it, because I don't know that. I don't get to look at the sideline. We'll find out Saturday. But you see carryover there. Offensively, they're different obviously. They're different. N'Kosi Perry is a guy that played us last year. Jarren Williams, the other quarterback that has been banged up, got in the game the other night. Expect him to be healthy. Not sure which one we'll see. They do different things with both of them. Almost two different game plans depending on who is in there. DeeJay Dallas and their running backs are talented, run physical, run hard. That's something we'll have to prepare for.

What did you learn about protecting the quarterback against Miami?

Narduzzi: Protect the quarterback. We learned you better protect the quarterback. We didn't protect him early in the Syracuse game at all. I was not happy on the sideline about letting our quarterback get hit. We have to protect Kenny. We didn't do it early. We did it later on, which was good. Our guys got their feet wet, kind of got a feel for it. I thought we kept him pretty clean for as many times as we threw the ball.

Do you think you deserve to be ranked?

Narduzzi: I don't vote. I don't really care. There's a lot of pre-season people that were in the top 25, and they're not there anymore. Our goal is to be there at the end of the season. That's when you want to be ranked. In the middle of the season, it doesn't matter. Pre-season rankings don't matter. It's post-season rankings that matter. We're ranked at 1-0 last week. This week we'd like to be 1-0 as well. That's the ranking I'm worried about, what that win column looks like and preparing our kids weekly for the challenges ahead.

Does the Miami name still carry as that marquee name with your team? It's been so long since they've been really at the top.

Narduzzi: I think they were No. 2 in the country just a couple years ago coming to Heinz Field, the last time they stepped on our field. When you say such a long time ago... They're still a really good football team that has a ton of talent with a bunch of four- and five-star football players on their team. We don't have many. If that tells you anything, we don't have a chance because they're talented. We'll have to come out and play our best. Manny Diaz will have them prepared, ready to go. Like I said, I don't care about what they're ranked, doesn't matter. I don't care what we're ranked. It's a good football team. Miami historically, traditionally is a great football team. That's who you're playing. You're playing that team right there. That's recognized all over the world.

Whenever you have a big halftime lead, how do you find a way to put a team away

Narduzzi: You've got to execute, got to execute. There's three third-down drops. Aaron [Mathews] has one, Nakia [Griffin-Stewart] has one. You knock people out when you convert. When you don't, you don't. Then you give the other team momentum. It's a game of momentum changes. We gave up a big play on defense. We're in cover three, corner kind of bites down on what he thought was a stutter, then you get beat over the top in cover three. If you know peewee football, you stay deeper than the deepest is what they say. We were in the safest coverage you could possibly be in… and we weren't. You just give them momentum… 94 yards, coming-out situation. The coming-out situation before that we go three-and-out, get the ball to our offense at the 39-yard line, score seven points. We need to stop them on third down. You're feeling pretty good at that point until someone runs right past your corner. Nobody is perfect. Again, those are all learning situations. You learn from those things. Your offense gets an opportunity to go run the football and run the clock out and get in a four-minute situation. As a coach, if you said, 'you're guaranteed the win,' I would say like in a scrimmage, 'let's go with a four-minute at the end and see if we can execute, get the game finished.' We were able to do that. No one asked me if I wanted to do that; they didn't guarantee the win. It keeps you on edge. You get a four-hour game, you might as well be on edge for four hours. Makes it fun (joking).

From a blocking standpoint, did your running game make progress?

Narduzzi: It did. There was some progress in there. Again, the progress will have to increase this week with Shaq Quarterman in there and Pinckney. There are different style guys up front this week. We're going to have to be even more physical up front and create some seams for our tailbacks.

Since that Miami game two years ago, besides Clemson, you have been maybe the second best team in the conference. Did that moment signal any sort of attitude shift?

Narduzzi: I don't think so. I didn't see it. The season was over. We regrouped. It was a good win. The kids played good. That's long gone. So is their victory last season down there in Miami. I don't know.

How much does the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the Coastal Division help you prepare your team and keep the players focused on each game?

Narduzzi: It really doesn't matter. All that stuff, you look at it because you're looking at a piece of paper and going 'look at the Coastal!' Look at Wisconsin in the Big Ten, got beat by Illinois. Anyone can beat anyone on any given day. I'm not worried about what anyone else is doing. We've got to do our job and prepare and focus on one team this week. You say that's coach speak and all that. It's a fact. If our guys start looking at the standings, results… it just doesn't matter, really doesn't. I don't want our kids getting caught up in it. You don't have to ask them any questions about that this week. It just doesn't matter, the standings or anything else.

How do you evaluate a team like Miami that can look so different on a weekly basis when you guys have at least been sort of consistent?

Narduzzi: We looked good in the first half, crappy in the second half. Some guys look good in one game, maybe not the next game, I guess. It's the world we're living in. Again, go back to a great Wisconsin team, what they looked like in one game and what they looked like in another. Is that something Illinois did or something Wisconsin did? Is it something we did in the first half or something Syracuse did in the second half? It's a game of emotions. You better come ready to play for 60 minutes or you're going to have a problem. Every team in the ACC, Big Ten, SEC, same exact thing. Look at Georgia a couple weeks ago, getting beat by South Carolina. It's the world we're in. It's a game of emotion. You better have your mind right going into the game or your mind will be real wrong after the game.

What do you attribute some of those second-half struggles to in the past two games?

Narduzzi: I was going to ask you. Did you notice anything? You never know, man. I take all the advice I can get (smiling). It comes down to execution. Do our guys get lackadaisical thinking we're up? I don't know. Last year, were we up very often at halftime? Maybe it's a different thing playing with a lead. This week, I went in and didn't say a word about 0-0. Week before, I said, 'it's 0-0, we're starting fresh, let's go out and play!' This week, I ain't saying anything about 0-0. I'm going to let it go, not talk about it. Again, it's all about going out and making plays and doing the right thing. There's so many things the offense and the defense can do to you. If you lose your focus, you lose the play. If you lose that play, you might lose the next play. You have to refocus, stay focused for 60 minutes and execute. It comes down to execution. It's a game of execution. There are 11 guys out there. If one guy does the wrong thing... On the big pass, Paris Ford is coming through untouched; nobody touched him. If we can get back to where we're supposed to, the quarterback goes, 'I might throw a pick here.' Then he is going to get hit in the mouth, maybe get downed in the end zone. If 10 guys do a good job and one guy doesn't, it's not good. If one guy drops the pass on third down, your punt team is coming out or your field goal team. That's not what you want. That's not how you knock people out.

You're on a four-game winning streak. How big would a five-game winning streak be?

Narduzzi: It will be big to be 1-0 this week and beat them. We'll think about it maybe on Sunday. Nobody cares. I say this every week, I tell our kids that nobody cares what you did the week before. If you want to live on your laurels from the week before, you've got some issues. We're going to have a great Tuesday. Last week we had kind of an average Tuesday practice. We're going to have a really good Tuesday. That's my goal: have a great Tuesday practice. Then I'll worry about Wednesday. The big thing is to get our guys locked into Tuesday, have the best Tuesday we can have, which will hopefully propel us to get the results you want on Saturday at noon.

Is it important to be balanced offensively or does it matter how you get it done?

Narduzzi: I've told Whip that I don't care how you score or how you move the sticks. We win the time of possession by throwing the football. That usually doesn't happen. We're completing a lot of passes, moving the sticks down the field. That's the most important thing. I don't care if we don't run it the rest of the year, as long as we win and are moving the ball and scoring touchdowns. That's going to be the most important thing. It doesn't matter how it gets done. Do I want to be balanced? Yes. I think it makes both phases better. It keeps the defense off track. I think we have to be balanced to win a championship and have a chance to talk in those terms. But week by week, whatever it takes to get it done.

With the pass-rush, how much of your success is from schematics and how much is just guys doing their one job on a specific play?

Narduzzi: You know what, a coach would tell you it's all about the players. We've got some guys up front that are just playing relentless. I just see the pockets collapsing. A couple of those, you see the pocket get collapsed. That's when everybody is doing the right thing. I think that's what it comes down to, everybody doing their job. We've got players up front. That's what it comes down to. You can have great pass-rushers that do what they want to do instead of what they're coached to. Our kids are doing what they're supposed to do on the rush, for sure.

Being around these kids as much as you are, are they focused individuals away from football?

Narduzzi: They're focused. Sometimes you've got to wake them up in here. Sometimes they're focused on their phones. My team meetings, I say, 'put your phones down, put them away. I don't want them on your lap.' It's getting them focused to start off with. When you talk about spending so much time with them, we'll get them in a team meeting at 7:30 tomorrow, but by 11:30, they're gone. You count those hours. We don't have them for very long. What are they doing up on campus? We're trying to make sure they go to class. This is not NFL football. It's making sure they're going to class, getting study hall hours in. We're thinking about coaching, teaching, schematics down here, then also getting emails from academics on what they're doing there, what they're doing in life skills, community service, all the other things that they're trying to juggle and we're trying to juggle as coaches.

Do you hear about how they're doing on campus?

Narduzzi: Academically, we get a lot of feedback, yeah. That's part of the job. For us to be a successful football program, we have to keep our guys in school, keep them going to class, study hall. It's all part of it. It's not just the focus in here, what they're doing here and on the practice field. That's like half my job, being consistent with the punishment or the training they get to make sure they are going to class. Yeah, it all goes together. If you have no discipline up there, you'll probably have none up here either.

Are there ever problems with those things?

Narduzzi: Yeah. There's always the big pass or tripping and falling on that inside zone. There's always those (making an analogy). I'm not going to talk about their academics. There are fumbles. We fumble the ball time sometimes there, too. Sometimes we get beat deep. But you're trying to keep 115 guys doing the right things.

You talked about wanting to put teams away, but your team isn't making mistakes once games get tight this season. Can teams develop a sense of calmness after being in those situation over and over?

Narduzzi: It does. It does. We've been in tight games. Some people aren't in tight games. We have been. We put ourselves there. Like I said, it's a nice thing. It's nice to be in a four-minute at the end when you know the pressure is on. In practice, you try to create those situations like a four-minute drill, two-minute drill. We had a two-minute drill before the end of the half, great drill. It's nice to be able to be put in those and still win the football game.

How much do you think the first four weeks have helped you guys get to where you are now?

Narduzzi: That's why you build your schedule a little bit. Sometimes you're not battle-tested. You can blow some people out, but you don't get into the battles you want to near the end and learn how to finish. I think every game is a learning opportunity for our kids. Whether it's a blow-out win or a tight win or a tight loss. They're all learning situations. It's why we come in on Sundays and review the tape, talk about the situations, talk about the keys to victory, things that are important to winning the game and why you win, why you lose. Even when you win, you're looking at the things you did bad to make sure that, 'hey, you screw these things up next week, you might have one of those big Ls.' That's why we coach. That's why we teach. That's why we have meetings.

You have a lot of Florida players on the team. Is it extra motivation for them to play Miami?

Narduzzi: I would imagine, it always is. There's always that little edge, playing with a chip on your shoulder if you're from that area. They're coming up to your house. Certainly. I don't care who you play. Whether you're from New York or New Jersey, playing Syracuse. Or you're from Miami, playing in that area. There's always some type of edge. I hope guys find motivation to play particular teams every week.