Pat Narduzzi met the media on Thursday and talked about Western Michigan, New Hampshire, defending RPOs and a lot more.

Here's the full rundown of what he said.

Narduzzi: Again, very impressed with the week of practice we’ve had. We talk a lot around here about attitude, effort, toughness and knowledge, and the kids have that. They know what they’re doing and this Saturday we need to go out and execute. That’s the thing I’ve harped on: it’s about executing. You can’t make critical mistakes and shoot yourself in the foot against anybody in the country or you won’t end up on the right side of the win column. So we’ve had a good week and I can’t wait to watch our guys go play Saturday at noon.

Do you see a time when Power Five schools won’t play FCS schools anymore?
Narduzzi: Yeah, there could be a time that that comes. I don’t think it’s great for some of the I-AA’s or FCS, I don’t think it’s great for them. I think they need it, I think it’s good for college football. However, if they go to 12-team playoffs and all of that talk goes, if the conferences become larger, I think that’s a possibility for sure where you get to a 10-game conference schedule. But I’m not worried about that right now.

I know you’re not worried about stuff like that, but how would your Rhode Island team have done against a Power Five school?
Narduzzi: We’ll find out in a couple years maybe, I don’t know.

No, the one you played for.

Narduzzi: Back then? I haven’t watched them for awhile. I think I mentioned this to somebody, New Hampshire’s a good football team; they’re capable of beating anybody on any given day. I always felt this when I played there, I felt this when I coached there for sure because I was at Miami of Ohio and then left there as the receiver coach to go be the D-line coach - it is good football. To me, in the Midwest you have - in the state of Ohio, you’ve got Kent State, Toledo, Akron, Ohio U., Miami, there’s so many Mid-American Conference schools in the Midwest.

Up east, there’s B.C., there’s Rutgers and there’s a lot of people up there, so there are kids that get lost up there. To me, that whole conference, when you think about James Madison and Delaware, two of the bigger schools, the better schools in that conference, in that area, those are like Mid-American Conference schools, in my opinion. There’s no MAC schools up there. It used to be UMass and they got out of the MAC; to me, I thought that was a slam dunk for UMass and they got out.

But there’s really good football up there. They’re everywhere: it doesn’t matter if it’s Florida, Texas, or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - there’s good football players everywhere. There’s small pockets of good players up there, and New Hampshire’s got quite a few of them.

In your experience at AA as a player and a coach, how much do these guys get up for an opportunity against an FBS or Power Five opponent?
Narduzzi: They will get up. They get to come play at Heinz Field. They will be excited to come in here. And we will get their best shot, for sure, just like we got UMass’s best shot, I think, and we got Western Michigan’s best shot. You’re going to get people’s best shots, period. Those are the things that you have to prepare for.

They’ve turned it over a bit and Randy told us earlier this week that was one of the emphases in practice.

Narduzzi: It’s always the emphasis.
What can you do more? How can you emphasize it more?
Narduzzi: You can’t emphasize it any more; you have to go out and execute. It’s part of the execution. Haba had a chance to get one. In practice sometimes you see a dropped interception, and it’s like, ‘That’s the play of the game right there.’ You have to make those interceptions. You can’t drop them. You only get so many opportunities.

Actually, when you look at the turnover ratio, they have been pretty good with the ball. They’ve been recipients of a lot of them. You look at some of their tight games this season, they’ve won the turnover ratio in their three games and their 3-0 start. They have not lost it. The quarterback’s been good with the ball, they haven’t put it on the ground very much and they’ve won games because they’ve won the turnover ratio, so we have to make sure we secure the ball and don’t make those mistakes, and we have to make sure defensively we try to get them. That was the difference in the Tennessee game and those are differences in every game: if a team can go through and come into Heinz Field and not turn the ball over, they’ve got a chance to win. And if we turn it over, we’ve got a chance to lose.

Phil Campbell talked to us about you guys wanting to improve on third-down defense. How much of a focus do you put on situational football to improve your chances in those spots?
Narduzzi: We do every week. We haven’t changed what we do. Third down is important. This week we had two what we call ‘ACC periods.’ Tuesday we had an ACC period, kind of a P-and-10 ‘play ball’ - it was a five-play set, one’s vs. one’s and it’s really starting fast, let’s go, and our offense went right down the field. That’s what I want to see Saturday.

On the other side of it, third down - what we call money down - we just had a period of that one’s on one’s, trying to give the offense and the defense similar looks to what they may see on game day based on what similar defenses we have.

So it’s always a focus. It doesn’t matter what happens on first or second down; third down is pretty important, whether it’s third-and-short, third-and-medium, third-and-long.

Along those lines when you talk about third down, it seems like you always used in your third down package five defensive backs with an extra safety. This year it looks like you’re bringing in a fourth linebacker. Is that just a change this year? Is it because Petrishen used to be a safety? What went into that?
Narduzzi: It’s a change for this year. We’re always going to try to put our best 11 players on the field. That’s what it comes down to. Rashad Battle’s gotten really good at it. I think Rashad Battle could be really good. He’s our backup Star right now. But John’s just been good. He’s a good blitzer. I think sometimes when you get a nickel back in there, sometimes he might be a good cover guy, not as good a blitzer. Johnny’s got the ability to be a really good cover guy for the underneath stuff that you’re asking him to do, and there’s a lot of knowledge that carries over from base defense to the third-down package. So he’s been good in that package and obviously he’ll be gone next year, and I would almost guarantee it will be a DB next year.

I think Rashad Battle has the ability to blitz as well. Being able to blitz that guy from the field is a major advantage. If he’s not a good blitzer, you tend not to blitz that guy because he’s not one of the best guys to get to the quarterback. When you have Phil Campbell on one side and John Petrishen on the other, it’s a little bit different.

You mentioned time of possession on Monday. Your offense is scoring a lot of points; is it too much to ask them to score 44 points and have the ball more too?
Narduzzi: If you look historically back through who we’ve been as an offense, we pretty much win the time of possession whether we run it or pass it. I’ve never been around too many passing teams that throw the ball like we do that still win the time of possession, dink you down the field and win the time of possession. So that was a weird game where we just scored quickly and needed to get the ball back and we didn’t.

I’ll tell you an old story. Gene DeFilippo was my dad’s offensive coordinator years ago when they played Delaware in 1979 at home with Brunner as the quarterback and I think it was Keith Snoddy for us and Brunner for Delaware. We lost the game and Gene DeFilippo always tells the story, ‘I’ll never forget when your dad told me, don’t score so fast.’ My dad told him not to score so fast; two seconds later, we score and then Delaware got the last possession, went down and scored and won the game.

What are you going to do? I want them to score. I don’t care how fast or how slow it is. Just get in the end zone.

You haven’t told Coach Whip not to score so fast?
Narduzzi: No. No. I don’t want to do that.

You’ve talked about the running game and making that better, but you guys are a top-10 offense right now with the way you’re scoring. How do you keep that pace but also work to improve that while the passing game is this good?
Narduzzi: We have to execute. We have to execute. It’s like, when I watch the video tape and I see one guy - all it takes is one guy not to block his guy, and that’s the thing about offense. You can talk about the O-line, you can talk about tight ends, you can talk about receivers down the field, but you have to all be in sync together. You can’t turn a guy loose. So the key is to get a hat on a hat, get your blocks. You’re accountable to each other. We all have to play for each other and we all have to make those blocks or it does not work.

It’s the same thing on defense. Everybody can do their job except one guy, and you’ve got a big play. That’s why I started off saying it’s about execution. We know what to do, we’ve got a lot of good players and I’ve got a lot of trust and faith in our kids. So execute, and we have to be together. It takes 11.

With how senior your offensive line is with so many guys with experience, are you surprised three games in that you aren’t clicking the way you should be?
Narduzzi: A little bit in the run game, yeah. I’m a little surprised. That’s football and there’s always going to be a surprising thing, so we just have to get better at it. And we will.

Which look did you like on the offensive line better - the one that started the game or the one that ended the game?
Narduzzi: I like the ones that score touchdowns. I don’t like the three-and-out start. I like touchdowns and the guys that are out there scoring touchdowns.

How did Kradel do at center?
Narduzzi: He did good. He did good. He’s gotten a lot of reps at that position, so we have faith if we have to put him in there at that position.
20 or so years ago, back in 1999, you were calling plays for Rhode Island against New Hampshire. New Hampshire’s offensive coordinator at the time was Chip Kelly. What was that game like and what was that experience like of going against that offense in the early stages?
Narduzzi: That was a long time ago. I haven’t thought about it. They had Jerry Azumah and I couldn’t tell you what they ran. As a matter of fact, I think they had a Steeler there, Kreider? Didn’t he play for the Steelers? Dan Kreider, big fullback, he was a dude. Like I said, there’s two right there: Azumah played for the Chicago Bears for a long time. He was maybe an early draft choice. He was fast.

At that time, Chip Kelly wasn’t really as fast as he was. That tempo was after he left New Hampshire and went to Oregon. But they were still talented and very creative. He’s always been a creative guy. Sean was part of that staff as well. They do a great job coaching.

You said you quit guessing of knowing during the week whether the team was ready. Will you do anything different Saturday? What’s the message right before kick? Do you change anything up?
Narduzzi: The message is, there’s got to be a lot of energy. That was the message last week as well. Do you have that same energy? If you don’t have the energy, you better have the execution. If you have energy and execution, it’s going to be a heck of a day. So we have to bring our A game every Saturday. We’ve got to learn how to do that consistently. That’s what good football teams do. Championship teams bring energy, bring emotion, they play with passion and they execute at the same time.

Have you seen your Eagle committee kind of up the energy this week to kind of push the younger guys?
Narduzzi: Again, the energy’s been there. During the week, you don’t notice it. There’s not a lot of hooting and hollering during practice; they’re focused and locked in. It’s just different when you’re going against scout teams every day and then you have to go out and play the real guys. You can’t go one’s on one’s; neither one of us will get a good look at what we’re doing. Sl the energy has been good during practice, but game days are different, too.

What have you thought of the kicking game through three games in all three elements: punt, kick, kickoff?
Narduzzi: It’s been probably average, at best, in my opinion. We’ve missed two extra points, looking at the field goal team; had a blocked punt, which comes down to just executing. There should be none of those. Kirk was inconsistent. Kirk’s been good for two weeks, but anytime you get a blocked punt, you start to thinking. What is Kirk worried about? ‘Is Richie going to block for me? If Richie doesn’t do his job, we’ve got issues.’ So he started thinking and, same thing, everybody’s got to do their job and Kirk’s got to go out and worry about punting. I expect to see a Ray Guy type punt out of him this week, as far as the punting game goes.

And then kickoff, we’ve been solid, I think. We’ve got some young guys on there that are getting better. Kickoff return, we’ve had our stumbles in Tennessee and overcame them in that game and we’ve got some different returners back there. I still think Barden will be really good, just the big game was maybe a little bit too much for him. We’ll just continue to get better, I think.

Are you pleased with Sam in the placekicking?
Narduzzi: I don’t like missed extra points but he’s been good on the field goals, so we’ll continue to adjust and get better. He’s had a good week this week, and again, what happens at Heinz Field when the lights go on is the key. We’ll kick as we need to.

You like that fair catch rule on kickoffs, don’t you?
Narduzzi: Not really. I really think, when you think about it, the fair catch, it depends on where the ball is kicked to, depends on where your return is. You look at the NFL and I don’t know what the percentage of returns in the NFL are, but if there’s going to be a lot of these and the kicker is kicking in the end zone at least half the time, then we’re wasting time. Let’s just put the ball at the 25 and play football. However, when you look at the NFL when they don’t get a five-yard running start and they’re not getting down there as quick, there’s been probably more returns in the NFL, I think.

They always handcuff the defense, the guys who have to tackle someone, because everybody wants to see running and RPO’s and they want to see kickoff returns.

I know we’ve asked you about Lucas but it’s now three games in a row with a touchdown. How much more is there - are there still improvements in his game, still rust that he’s knocking off?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I don’t know if I’d call it rust, but just the complete player. I like what he’s doing in the passing game; I’d still like to see more in the run game. I’d still like to see him be dominant and finish blocks, you know, have a couple pancake blocks. That, to me, is when he becomes dominant. He’s doing a good job of catching some tough passes. He’s a big, big target and he’s been a nice weapon for Kenny.

Last week you said that Izzy had a problem on Wednesday but he was great on Thursday and then he didn’t play on Saturday. How did his week go this week?
Narduzzi: The week went good. Izzy had a day of practice he didn’t make because he was sick, so you’re still dealing with that stuff. No Covid or anything like that. So he just missed a day of practice and you felt like as the game went, you felt like you were playing from behind and you just wanted to go with your big dog. But I expect to rotate those guys heavily this week and I expect Izzy to get his opportunities to show what he’s got.

When you have a game like you did with your defense where it seemed like they were able to exploit some things, how much do you worry about other teams trying to use that as a blueprint going forward?
Narduzzi: You know, you’re busy practicing New Hampshire’s offense and all the things they do - and they do a lot, probably six or seven personnel groupings - and then you’re working stuff that hurt you the week before to get better at it. That’s all part of the - every week, if you put it on tape and show a weakness at something, then you’re going to see it the next week. And I will go back to that quarterback, he was on fire. I watch some other guys do it during the week, whether it’s Clemson or anybody else on video that I watched, he was on fire. You have to give those guys credit and we have to adjust better and we have to take care of it. And we will.

But that’s part of the weekly schedule, ‘We’re going to take this hour and look at things we did wrong and how other teams could exploit it?’
Narduzzi: Yeah, you self-scout yourself. It’s not an hour a day; it’s Sunday. You’re looking at it and going, ‘Okay, we know we’re going to see this again.’ That little RPO - we call it a slash route, it’s kind of halfway between a slant and a skinny post - it’s like en vogue right now, it’s the new thing. We used to see a lot of what we called jet routes, speed outs, but we’re seeing inside cuts and outside cuts, which makes it a little bit harder. So we just have to clean it up. We know it’s a weakness and that’s our job to fix the weakness. And we will fix that.

And like I said, Hallett, he’s on it; it’s a catch and tackle. Then what happens is, guys start to go, ‘What’s going on? What’s going on?’ So then now they start running up the field thinking, ‘I gotta get pressure on the quarterback so he can’t do that,’ but it’s an RPO and then all of a sudden you let runs go out.

But we all have to play together. We can’t have one guy play the pass and then a run’s popping. Anytime you let an offense be two-dimensional, you’ve got problems. That’s why I always stressed, since I’ve gotten here and since I’ve gotten into coaching, you better stop the run. When someone is two-dimensional like they were last week, you’re going to have problems. So we better stop the run.