Narduzzi talks Tennessee, tempo and more on Thursday

Pat Narduzzi shared his thoughts on Tennessee, preparing for tempo offenses and a lot more during a lengthy media session Thursday. Here's a full rundown of his remarks.

Narduzzi: It’s exciting to get rolling into number two and find out how much improvement we can make from Week One to Week Two. But we’ve had a good week of practice, good preparation and I’m excited to see what we’ve got in Week Two against a really, really good football team. Tennessee will come in here and they will look the part. They’re athletic, they’re big, they’re physical, I think they’re a good football team, so we’re looking forward to it.

It was interesting in their game against Ball State - the Ball State quarterback dropped back about 40 times but they didn’t have any sacks. They had some pressures but didn’t actually get him down. What did you see when you watched it? Did he just get rid of the ball quickly?
Narduzzi: They got the ball out of their hands pretty quick. We’ll see.

Last year, Hendon Hooker used a lot of pop passes, the RPO’s to the sideline and they got a few big plays out of that. How much did you guys work on that this week?
Narduzzi: We worked on it a lot. When they did hit that, we were in a zone pressure and again, it’s those splits that are so wide that we usually don’t have that problem, but when your safeties are lined up and you’re trying to disguise and they’re in these wide splits, it’s just a long way for us to go. So we’ve got to be comfortable when they put that tight end on the line of scrimmage and know what we’ve got. We’ve got some different things to help us there, we think, but I’m sure they’ll try it again.

With the emphasis that’s been put on tempo that you guys talked about all week, how important is time of possession when you guys have the ball to give your defense a little bit of a break?
Narduzzi: It’s always important when you’re playing them. Ball State took the ball. When they won the coin toss, they said, ‘We’ll take the ball.’ They wanted to keep them off the field to start off with. Last year, we deferred and we didn’t start fast, so we’ll see what happens there with the coin toss. But we’d like to play defense first, period, but tempo - we want to keep them off the field. They’ve got one of the top-ten offenses in the country and time of possession is critical. It’s critical every week, we think, but especially if you’ve got an explosive offense.

You mentioned that Tennessee has a really, really good football team; a lot of people think that you have a really, really good football team. Is this the kind of game that, whether you win it or not can put you on the road toward elite status, special status?
Narduzzi: I think so. Again, it’s two good football teams. I wouldn’t talk about us; I just know we have a really good football team coming in here and we’ll find out what we’ve got Saturday. We’ll decide that after the game. I’ll talk to you after the game in the press conference and we’ll decide how elite or not elite we are.

I saw you had the throwback polo on Monday with the Johnny Majors Classic. What was your relationship like with Coach Majors and how special is it that you get to honor a guy with such a storied background with both schools?
Narduzzi: I mean, he’s won a national championship here. It’s Johnny Majors. I had a great relationship with him, and he was a special guy, just a great personality. I probably met him 25 times. He was always around. He came to a lot of games. I think I’ve told you in the past, maybe last year, I’ve got a video of his favorite play where I got him on the board and videoed it. I saw him at a bunch of Nike events. As a matter of fact, we were at a Nike event and he was trying to get back to Pittsburgh. I said, ‘Come with me.’ We jumped on a plane to get back here. So there’s some special moments we’ve had with Johnny Majors and he’s special.

What made him so special as a football coach and as a recruiter and everything that he was able to do at this program in the 70’s?
Narduzzi: Number one, he’s a fantastic coach, but he’s a great person, too. He had a great personality, did a great job recruiting. He had lots of scholarship numbers back in the day. I don’t know if you’ve heard those stories. The old-timers have heard. Jerry probably knows how many scholarships he had; he had about 110 scholarships.

93.
Narduzzi: 93. I think it was more than that, at least the stories he told. I never looked at the roster. And then he got a bunch of commitments and went to the chancellor and said, ‘I need more scholarships’ so they gave him, like, 20 more. It was unlimited. So he had the chancellor’s wallet, I guess.

We discussed the offensive line on Monday. How do you think they’ve responded this week?
Narduzzi: We’ll find out. They’ve had a good week, like they did a week ago, but I think sometimes you get woken up a little bit. It’s going to be a challenge for them and we’re going to challenge them. I think sometimes everybody says, ‘Oh, they’re all coming back, they’re all coming back, they’re all coming back’ - they’re feeling good, but they have to play like they’re all coming back and they came back with a purpose.

Can you or do you use the fact that you guys are underdogs as motivation with these guys?
Narduzzi: I don’t know. I don’t know if it really matters. I haven’t really addressed it. It doesn’t really matter. I mean, I feel like we’re underdogs all the time. Period. I felt like we were underdogs last week. I always feel like - I have a lot of respect, I guess, for every opponent that walks through the doors or wherever we travel. I’m always going to take that philosophy. I’m not taking anything for granted: ‘Oh, we’re playing this team, we’re playing Albany.’ It doesn’t matter. They’re good football, they’ve got players and they’re going to play their tails off, regardless of who you play. So I don’t know how players in 2022 care about the underdogs. If I tell them, are they going to be like, ‘Oh my God, we’re underdogs, we have a chance.’ I don’t know if it really matters. They need to go play.

To build off the motivation, do you think this group is any more motivated that you didn’t move up in the rankings this week? Or is that something you don’t think they paid attention to?
Narduzzi: I don’t know if they pay attention. I had no idea, so I hope they don’t know either.

Tim Banks, the defensive coordinator, they run a lot of two-high safety looks on defense. What does that do for you guys on offense? How do you approach that? Does that change your mentality on offense?
Narduzzi: No question, it changes your mentality. They play a lot of two-high, they play a lot of one-high. You guys will be able to see it from the press box when they go one-high. So they do a lot of different things. They’re going to bring both safeties down and get into cover-3 or cover-1, they want to match their safeties up on tight ends and that’s what matters. It matters everything. That’s what a quarterback is looking for, not only in our run game but our passing game. That’s everything.

I’m assuming there was a lot of simulation of that quick tempo that Tennessee likes to run with your defense. How did they respond this week to those practices and those simulations?
Narduzzi: We did good. I think we have a routine in how we practice, how we expose them to a lot of plays in a row. We’ve had an eight-play fast tempo which, you can see who can play eight plays or more. You can’t go 15-play drive; they won’t be ready for Saturday. So we expose it to them on Tuesday, a lot of plays, and then we taper back as we go to the point where, today, we’re not doing any tempo. We just want to save their legs. But they have to understand the tempo and the urgency to get lined up. You’ll see our guys - at the start of the play, get the call, once we finish that play, their job is to get to their home position. Safeties back on the hash, lined up over number two; before they even get the call, they have to get home. So you’ll watch our guys and I hope it’s clinic tape as far as how fast they get back. I tell them, you don’t rest until you get back. Maybe you don’t get a rest or they snap it in 14 seconds, maybe it’s third down and you get a 20-second break. But we’ve practiced getting home. It’s critical.

You watch Alabama, I mean, Alabama - the receiver just ran by everybody for 70 yards. The corner’s looking at the sideline and they snap the ball and go. You’ve got to get your eyes where they need to be and you have to be where you need to be. They catch a lot of people by surprise.

You’ve played against a lot of these up-tempo offense teams; does any of the preparation start in the summer?
Narduzzi: We don’t. In summer practices, we do go long drives; we’ll go 10-play drives where we’re saying, ‘You’re staying out there, even if the offense goes three-and-out.’ So yeah, we do prepare, but not with Tennessee in mind. Not with the tempo in mind.

Talking to Coach Stacc and our people, just scientifically, you can’t expose it to them all the time. But as long as they’re exposed to a long drive like that - and our offense does tempo, too, so we’ve had tempo periods - I’m not sure we snapped it that fast, though. But if your’e in shape and you train it this week and you touch on it, we should be okay.

You talked about how the deep ball didn’t really connect last week; have you seen your guys, Kedon and the guys, connect more this week? And does their fast-tempo offense weigh into how often you guys might call shots if you want to give your defense a breather?
Narduzzi: I’m not going to handcuff a coordinator and say, ‘Hey, don’t throw deep shots.’ Now it’s second-and-10 and we’re behind the sticks. To me, you can’t do that. To say, ‘Call this or don’t call this,’ they have to call as they see it and we have to read our keys and the quarterback’s got to make decisions based on what they’re giving us, period. Two-deep, one-deep, it doesn’t matter. But I’m never going to handcuff a coordinator - ‘Hey, run the ball three times in a row so we get three minutes of possession and we’re punting.’ That doesn’t make any sense. Our offensive goal is to score touchdowns and move the ball down the field, and I don’t care how they do it. Just get first downs and score.

And do you feel that Kedon and the guys have made some progress in that department?
Narduzzi: Yeah, they have. And again, it comes down to angles. A couple of those times we didn’t - like, Bub Means is coming too far and then he’s got to adjust that way; it should have been a skinnier post. It’s all of those first-time things. That’s why I said, when you look at it, it wasn’t really Kedon. It was some of the routes. Kedon was pretty good. But all of a sudden Bub’s running that post and if you see him, he had to bend back that way; should have already been on that path. We had what we wanted, we just didn’t run the route great. So we’ve made progress. Yes.

Might be a broader question, but how good can Rodney Hammond be this year?
Narduzzi: I think Rodney can be really good. I think Izzy can be really good. I think we’ve got capable backs that are good football players. They can all be capable. Vince Davis included.

As far as Izzy goes, obviously he had the big catch-and-run in the game on Thursday; what did you see from him in the ground game and what is his importance on Saturday?
Narduzzi: You know, Izzy starts the game off and sometimes it’s a little different and you don’t get the opportunities. Rodney obviously came in and felt like a hot hand and let’s go with him, but I imagine if Izzy was in those same situations, he’s going to do the same thing. That’s how much faith we’ve got in Izzy. You know, Rodney, Vince and C’Bo, for that matter. Sometimes you get the different looks and you have Jacoby helping you out a little bit to get in the end zone. It’s so different, but we feel really confident in what Izzy can do.

What do you remember about Mitch Trubisky in the 2016 North Carolina game?
Narduzzi: He’s a good football player. I remember a 17-play drive at the end where both the running backs tackled our blitzers and he was throwing it to the receiver that was here - what’s his name?

Switzer.
Narduzzi: Switzer. You know, 17-play drive and a few penalties didn’t get called. I think Hood was the tailback at the time. I remember the last drive. But he’s an accurate passer. He’s a playmaker. I think he’ll do great in the offense there. I don’t want to jinx him.

How much has Rodney grown as a person? I remember when he first got here, you told us how you gave him a pillow or something like that; he didn’t have stuff and you were like, ‘When am I getting my pillow back?’ How much have you seen him grow -
Narduzzi: He’s still got my pillow and my blanket and my comforter, the whole deal, sheets. I don’t know if he’s got his own sheets right now or if he changes every week and he’s got a spare on the side. I hope he’s - I don’t go check their dorm rooms out too often at the Bridges.

But I think he’s grown up a lot. I think every one of our kids grows up every year. I shouldn’t say every one. 98% of them do. Some of them don’t. Some may never.

Is your policy about not talking about injuries unless they’re season-ending still in effect?
Narduzzi: Yes. If they’re season-ending, I will let you know. Great question.

Last week, you came in the post-game press conference and said you weren’t happy with the play but you got out with a win. Do you think the team has responded and maybe they’ve tightened up a little bit in practice, just because the play was not spectacular but they came out with a win?
Narduzzi: No question. I think that’s what you do and that’s why you need - you can’t tell in a scrimmage but you find out in games and you see where you are and what you have to do to get better. That’s the beautiful thing about games. That’s why it’s nice to win a game and know that, ‘Okay, what do we have to fix? What do we have to be worried about on game day?’ Whether it’s talking to receivers or corners or O-linemen about their technique. You already saw it last week - ‘Hey, you did the same thing you did last week’ - after a series, we need to know that stuff so now we know what we saw, we will make sure on the sidelines, if we start seeing the same thing, it’s the same thing again, then you’ve got to put somebody else in or…

I know Coach Cignetti will not be on the phone saying Kedon’s late again, because Kedon wasn’t late with his throws. It was other things. So now we’ll be looking to that and reminding the receivers, ‘Hey, make sure you get proper depth.’

What made Trubisky good?
Narduzzi: He’s a quarterback. I mean, he’s good. Is this a Steeler press conference? I told you guys Rudolph was good, too, so I’m not saying anything. Next.

C’Bo only had one carry on Thursday; is there a specific reason for that?
Narduzzi: Again, he’s still learning the offense. When he did get that one carry, he put it on the ground a little bit there; that would be part of it. Ball security is important. But I don’t think he’ll ever fumble again.

Brandon Hill had a huge interception for you guys last year. What do you guys have to do to put your safeties and corners in position to read Hendon Hooker’s eyes?
Narduzzi: It depends on what the coverage is. We’ve got to put them in good coverage. Like I said, we’re going to be manned up out there a lot, and when you watch them, you’re going to be like - if you try to play cover-3 against these guys, it’s hard because - to have a guy in the middle of the field against these guys, he’s doing nothing. I think everybody in here can play in the middle of the field because nothing comes to you. That’s why we struggle with some of those tight ends down the middle and they were cover-3’s when we did that. So we have to be careful of doing that.

Is the Y-shoot a threat this week again?
Narduzzi: It always is with these guys.

Charlie talked on Tuesday about the job the scout team had to do with getting ready to run Tennessee’s offense - not just the scheme but the tempo. How difficult was that for them and how did they do?
Narduzzi: They did a great job. We get into a period where it’s, Charlie’s got the right side of the line, someone else has got the left side of the line, someone’s got the receivers on the left, someone’s got the receivers on the right, someone’s got the backfield and they’re not doing any coaching. We’ll watch the tape and video later just to get - I mean, our offense snapped in our fast-tempo period under 12 seconds every snap eight plays in a row. That’s incredible. They did a good job of executing, too. Now, are the linemen 310 pounds? The personnel is a little bit different, right? But they were at least able to give us the tempo and a look. So our scout team did a great job.

Is Vince going to be involved more this week?
Narduzzi: I believe so. Yeah.

Do you have a preferred kickoff time on Saturdays?
Narduzzi: 3:36. Preferred. Might be a five-minute slide, but we’ll find out.

The outside linebackers last week both made their first starts here. What did you see out of how they responded in the last week and processed what they saw Thursday night?
Narduzzi: I think they responded this week, for sure. More locked in. It’s like Bangally, I talked to him on Saturday and he was like, ‘Coach, I have to be better; I know what I have to -‘ he said, ‘Practice is different from the games.’ It’s like, ‘Yes; that’s why when we go scrimmage, we try to tell you it’s game-like.’ But different formations, different offense, we’ll see how they respond this week. But I expect to get Solomon DeShields in this week, Tylar Wiltz reps as well. We’ll find out what they have as well.

We’re going to get some different combinations in out there and we have to with the tempo. We’ve got to play more guys at that position, just because of, you’re looking at maybe 100 plays. They may run 100 plays.

Are you guys better prepared coming off a game playing a team like West Virginia compared to another team?
Narduzzi: I feel like that, but I’m not going to say they’re not prepared, because they’re going to be prepared, too. So I don’t know if it matters, but I know our guys have been in a battle this year and you find out - you know, like not having Kenny Pickett at halftime say three words compared to, ‘How are we sticking together? The ’22 team sticking together?’ I think that’s what you find out. Our guys will be resilient and they’re going to fight all the way to the end. They’re not going to go, ‘Oh, we got a blocked punt, oh, it’s over.’ They’re not going to have that attitude. You find that out about different teams, so that’s what we know about our guys: they’re going to stick with it and believe.