Narduzzi wraps up spring camp

Pat Narduzzi held his final post-practice press briefing of the spring on Thursday, and here’s a full rundown of everything he said.

Narduzzi: You guys have any questions?

Injuries.
Narduzzi: Injuries…14 practices in and we’re ready for the spring game. I think the kids are excited; you saw that in the draft yesterday. We’re pretty healthy right now. The main thing is to come out of the spring game healthy. We’re going to our summer conditioning probably about as healthy as you can possibly be. We’ve got some guys dinged up but nothing serious and we want to keep it that way.

What did you learn about your team over the course of 14 practices?
Narduzzi: What have we learned? You know, nothing I didn’t know. I can’t say I learned anything. I just learned how they work together and I think we’re a more mature team. We’ve got a bigger senior group. I think we’ve got great leadership right now. It seems like Bookser has really emerged as a leader. Will he be a captain? I don’t know. Our kids vote for captains. But Alex Bookser has really grown up a lot from where he was three years ago when I got here to where he is today; he’s just a different guy on and off the field.

We’ve got a team that’s together, you know? They enjoy being with each other. They enjoy working hard. They take coaching and I think that’s all you can ask for.

Are any of those wide receivers starting to separate?
Narduzzi: Not really. It’s a banged-up group right now. Aaron Mathews is banged up. Ra-Ra’s a little banged up. Tre Tipton’s a little banged up, So we’ve got to get those guys healthy. Nothing major, but just banged up to the point where you don’t see the emerging - that’s why Taysir is the number-one guy taken: because he’s stayed healthy and he’s been productive, and that’s what you see. The production out of him.

We’re going to be fine there.

How surprised were you that Pickett was the number-one guy taken overall?
Narduzzi: You know, I think everybody’s got a lot of faith in that guy. You think about what happened to Miami, it doesn’t shock me. But then you watch Ricky out here today and the guys will rally around him, too. He had a nice two-minute drive down here where I don’t think he threw an incompletion. Now, we didn’t have a live rush either, so we let him throw it. The D-line was just kind of stepping to it, and near the end when they started getting close to the end zone, they started getting fired up and saying, ‘Wait a second, Coach; we would have sacked him there.’ But he’s got a great arm. Every day, Ricky gets better and that’s the impressive thing about him. So I’m looking forward to watching both of those quarterbacks operate the offense.

How has it been working with Randy Bates?
Narduzzi It’s been awesome. It really is. It’s refreshing and, again, we had a great relationship in the past with Josh Conklin, but it’s just different. It’s almost a freshness. Conklin did a great job but Bates is just a different guy. I think our kids have enjoyed it; you can talk to them more about that. But just as a football guy, he’s very similar to who I am, he cares about the details and it’s been a great marriage so far.

Over these past few weeks, what have you seen from your D-line and your D-ends?
Narduzzi: The big thing is, it’s another year under Charlie Partridge, and I think he’s a great fundamental teacher. The next thing is the depth. When you looked at the draft yesterday - I don’t know how you guys analyzed it; I don’t read anything about the analyzing of the draft - but you saw the offensive guys come off the board real quick. I think the key to a good draft in the spring game is knowing where your depth is; it’s not drafting the best player necessarily unless it’s a quarterback, of course. I think you saw a lot of the offensive guys getting drafted because maybe there’s a difference between a number-one guy at a position, more of a drop-off, and defensively, there are some guys that - when you look at the D-line, for example, there’s depth there, which is going to give us an opportunity to keep guys fresh and play more guys. I think anytime you’re fresh and you have guys that there’s not a drop-off when they get in a game, that can help you in your pass rush and stopping the run.

How much does having an experienced group of linebackers, the veterans that you have, how much can that give the guys up front more freedom to attack?
Narduzzi: It starts with Quintin Wirginis. He’s just a difference-maker, guys. He’s a different guy in there. I love Saleem Brightwell and Saleem’s going to be another good linebacker for us; Saleem’s fighting right now to be a 1 and he’s a great player, too. But I feel like Wirginis is a different guy. He really is. He’s special. He can play at the next level. So we have a middle linebacker that I think - if he stays healthy, which has been a little bit of a problem - can be really special inside.

As far as the D-linemen taking more risks and feeling like they can do that because they have linebackers behind them that can fix it. How much does that work together?
Narduzzi: That’s really our defense. That really hasn’t changed. But it’s the guys that will fix it and make right - it’s the guy making a play, that if I’m out of my gap, there’s faith and trust that the guy behind will make it. I think that’s just working together for awhile and Coach Partridge understanding what our linebackers are being coached and how we work together as a staff.

Really, Coach Bates has brought that. I can’t be in the defensive meeting all the time, so Coach Bates has the same philosophy as I do, as far as how to - again, former linebacker coach, I think that helps. You know, Coach Conklin was a DB guy more than a linebacker guy, so it’s like, when I’m not there, the same things are getting emphasized and I think that’s really where you hear about the D-line and the linebackers and even the safeties fixing the linebackers. I think they all work together. Talk about three layers of the defense: the D-line, the linebackers - there’s a reason we don’t line them all up in one line, because nobody can fix everybody. If everybody lined up on the line of scrimmage - the reason linebackers line up at five yards is to fix the D-line and the safeties are lined up at 10 yards to fix the linebackers. I think that’s how it’s all pieced together.

What about the secondary? How have they progressed?
Narduzzi: I think it’s a deep group down there, or back there, I should say, that’s worked good together. You feel like there are four or five corners and five safeties that can all go in the game and play. They got their feet wet last year, most of them. We graduated Whitehead and Maddox - if you want to say he graduated, Jordan - so there’s a lot of depth back there with those guys even gone, two of our best players back there. But they’ve gelled well together. Coach Sanders and Coach Collins have done a great job mentoring them through the spring.

What have you seen from Kenny Pickett this spring as far as being a guy that’s a leader and in charge of the offense?
Narduzzi: I think it’s mainly the confidence in him knowing that he is the guy to move forward. I think you go into this post-spring ball where it’s his offense and his team, as far as it goes. A quarterback better be a leader, and I think what you see mostly is the confidence that he has in what he’s doing and also the confidence our football team has in him.

With Weaver, what’s the biggest difference you’ve seen from him this spring compared to where he was at the end of last season?
Narduzzi: He’s come a long way in a couple years. It comes down to confidence and knowing what you’re doing. You sit there and sit in meetings and you feel like you know what you’re doing, but every year, there’s a reason we practice and meet and focus on the details. He has more knowledge of what he’s really doing and how it works. Obviously he’s bigger and he’s faster and he’s stronger, but he’s also more confident and sure of what he’s doing. I think that’s probably the main thing. Confidence is big. The more confidence you have - sometimes there’s a difference between knowing exactly what you’re doing but being able to do it really fast, and he’s now playing really fast. There’s not big questions about, ‘Oh, I thought I was supposed to be here,’ and there’s a lot of things that go on offensively that you have to deal with as a defensive end, and he understands it. So he’s playing at a higher level and faster.

He said he doesn’t the veggie tray at all. He wants the steak and lobster.
Narduzzi: That’s good. See, our cooks are so good. I mean, Kevin -

Do they make them up there?
Narduzzi: Oh yeah. I’m learning as a head coach. Kevin does it and it’s been a steak-and-lobster/hot-dogs-and-beans, but the cooking that they do over there is incredible. I can’t tell you how - that’s a major tool that we have that I don’t think anybody else in the country has. He’s made them too good. So I’ve got to switch it. They like the beans and the hot dogs. As a matter of fact, we try to eat healthy here and that’s kind of unhealthy, I guess, a little bit. So they wanted that, so I was like, ‘Well, they’re not getting what they want.’ You lose, you’re going to pay and you’re going to eat more veggies. I think they’ll be a little bit more miserable eating some veggies. So I guess we’re still working on the menu.

For the fans that come out on Saturday, what are they going to see from your team?
Narduzzi: I think they’re going to see some different players out there. Whether it’s the two quarterbacks - I mean, everybody saw Kenny against Miami, but where is he now? They’re going to see another quarterback in Ricky Town, who I think is going to be a really good player. He just keeps getting better. But they’re going to see new faces all over the field, really, and I hope they see them play at a high rate. They’ll be mixed up; there will be some strengths and weaknesses out of both teams, so it won’t be as clean as we want. But the important thing is to have fun that day.