Signing Day: Narduzzi breaks down the class

Pat Narduzzi broke down Pitt's 2021 recruiting class on Signing Day, and here's a full rundown of what he said.

NARDUZZI: Hope everybody's doing well. Hope everybody's staying safe out there with this big old snowstorm we got going on here. I'm going to have to get our staff out of here early today. Make sure we don't have any problems.

But welcome again. Another signing day here at Pitt and one that we're awful excited to bring these 21 guys into our class. This whole entire process has been really crazy for this entire class, for our coaches and everybody involved. It's been done a different way, and the resilience and adversity that we talk about on our football team every year, what they have had to go through, is going to make this class strong.

This class was done like that this morning. It was like bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, done. I think by 9:30 this morning, you guys can check your Tweets, it seemed like it was already done as far as just getting everybody in. Again, that just tells you what kind of class. It's not a needy class. It's a, ‘Coach, this is where we're going, let's go, I'm in.’ And then there's no turning back. And that's what I love about this class so far.

So I really love every one of these kids that's coming into this program. I wish I knew them better than I do. To me this recruiting process is going to go on and on until they get here. And when they get on campus, whether they're midyear or whether they're coming in the summer for summer school, it's going to be a constant recruiting process to really show them everything on campus because they don't know as much about the University of Pittsburgh and this staff, the facilities, as we really want them to. And again, you can look at it on Zoom, but until you know the people, and I'm big on people and relationships, I feel like I want them to know even more and you just can't get it over a Zoom call, I don't think.

So again, I want to thank all of our families, all of the players for their trust through this entire process. I think I thank all of our classes every year, but this class especially, for the trust they have had in us.

Again, I'm going to start off just thanking our staff, our entire coaching staff. Not as much the wives, except the wives for putting up with us. In the past, the wives have a big part in this recruiting because on a 48-hour weekend they would spend a lot of time with our families. Their job is going to be, I think, in the summer when they come here or even at midyear, we're going to try to bring them in when they check in to their apartments, just so they get to know the other half of our families because that's awful important.

But our coaches did a heck of a job. And this whole process started, guys, as you know, when those "Pitt is it" tweets started going out was back when we were in quarantine and we were locked in our houses and we were working 12-hour days, we were working longer hours at home than we were here because that's all we could do is watch recruiting tape and Zoom players. And it just became, I mean, we were obsessed with just recruiting because that's all we had. We didn't have our players. Obviously, we were having meetings with our players, but you didn't have them here. It was just less to deal with.

So our coaches did a heck of a job and I can't thank those guys enough. The class has a ton of variety, very versatile. We got guys that can play in a lot of different positions and you recruit them at one position and who knows what they will end up being when they get here. But we had 11 on offense. We got 10 on defense. When you talk about the big guys that, we call them the power, we have eight power guys, so it's a big, that was our highest number. We had seven skill guys when you talk receivers and DBs. And then we had just six big skills, so that was our lowest number as far as those type of athletes… big skill is a tight end/linebacker-type guy, big running backs.

So we're going to have nine mid-year enrollees, which is the most we have ever had. And you guys can check, in the last six years, but I feel like maybe, I guess last year we had quite a bit. EJ, how many did we have last year, EJ, six.

I believe it was a half dozen, Coach, yeah.
NARDUZZI: So nine is the most. We almost had 10. But it was best that the one guy just to stay and take care of family more than anything. So nine of those again, Nate Yarnell will be here midyear, quarterback; Malik Newton running back; Myles Alston, receiver; Gavin Bartholomew, tight end; Jake Renda, another tight end; and then Terrence Enos, big lineman; Terrence Rankl from Massillon; and then Nahki Johnson as well. So those are the guys that will be here mid-year.

January 19th is when our next semester starts, so we expect to get them here. Still trying to make plans on when they get here, but we're hoping to have kind of an unofficial official visit on that day. Maybe we'll even make them available to media sometime that, during those times, which I haven't talked to EJ about that. Sorry, EJ.

Again, 21 signees, 10 different states, six of them from Pennsylvania, right here in our backyard, which I'm proud of. I won't hit each one of those guys. You guys know. But six of them right in the backyard. And we always want to recruit our backyard, I'll start there. But we're also going to try to get the best. And for a COVID year for us to have a loaded Pennsylvania area was a blessing really. It would have been hard to go down to Florida or go to Alabama or Georgia and scoop up a lot of guys. So to get six right here in Pennsylvania, we didn't get the six here in Pennsylvania because it was a COVID year. We got six of the top guys in the state of Pennsylvania and we are fired up about those guys. We got four from Virginia.

And again, I'll go back. PA, let's just talk recruiting coaches and again, I told you our coaches did a great job and we do it several ways. Obviously, I'm involved in every one of these, but it starts with our area coach and in PA Cory Sanders, who's got that Philly area, and pretty much Cory Sanders and Dave Borbely have this Pittsburgh/western Pennsylvania area, so we have, really, two in that area.

And then we talk about the Virginia area, which really, Chris Beatty has that entire area and did a great job getting four out of Virginia.

We got two in Ohio. And again, in northeast Ohio, we have Archie Collins up there that was involved with Terrence Rankl over at Massillon and Tamarion… check, check, I don't have that. There's another guy we got. Did anybody catch that word right there? You did? Who caught that? You know who I'm talking about? I see you shaking your head.

I think I've heard that name before.
NARDUZZI: You know the last name or did I give it away?

Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's a pretty unique first name so.
NARDUZZI: Maybe, I mumbled through it and went fast and you couldn't hear it.So the one that you probably don't know about right now is a kid from Cincinnati, Ohio. Tamarion Crumpley has committed to us as well early this morning. He was going to do it at 1 o'clock, so we're kind of announcing at the same time. But I didn't want to mention that one until later on. Tamarion, we’re fired up to have him in this class.

Got two from Georgia. And again, really, Coach Collins, I think, is involved in both of those down there, I believe.

We got two in Michigan, which, again, I give Coach Collins a heck of a lot of credit because I didn't feel like we could get a guys out of Big Ten country up in Michigan, and he proved me wrong. So heck of a job again by Coach Collins up there.

In Maryland, we got Jaden Bradley, one there to get Andre Powell's area.

We got one from Utah, Trey Andersen, which is really Coach Salem's area. He's got everywhere. So if you're not sure what state it is, it's Salem's area.

Noah Biglow was over on the east side of Florida, and Coach Harley's got that one.

And then Jake Renda really was a New Jersey kid that Coach Salem and Coach Harley were involved in both because he's kind of a New Jersey and Florida kid at the same time.

So coaches did a heck of a job on all these guys. One of the interesting things, notes about this day is it was all done by DocuSign. There was not one fax that came in today, so I think the fax machine is officially dead. It will never be used in this program. We got through a smooth DocuSign period. So I think the COVID and all this virtual stuff has been good for us old ball coaches.

Sixteen of these signees that we had of the 21 were committed to us prior to September 1st when the season started.

Fourteen of the 21 players were on campus prior to the country pretty much shutting down in March. So we were lucky to get 14 of them there. But again, for a small period of time, and it was kind of a meet and greet more than anything.

Five of the other signees were able to visit this campus on their own. And I'll kind of mention those as we go and if I miss one, you guys can correct me. But five of them were able to get on this campus and their parents paid for those trips. They came here. They weren't able to meet with any coaches. As a matter of fact, we couldn't even follow them on FaceTime through the campus. NCAA rules, we couldn't even do that. So it's kind of like they're on their own. We gave them kind of a map of just kind of what to see, where to go on campus. So I really thank those parents for taking the time to come up here and at least see what Pittsburgh's like.

And unfortunately, there's been two young men that signed with us, you talk about trust, two young men today that signed with us have never been to Pittsburgh. So their first time on campus will be when they get here, and those two guys are Preston Lavant and Noah Biglow, Georgia and Florida natives.

And we got four WPIALs, as we've talked about, how important the state of Pennsylvania is and obviously the WPIALs. So I think we're good there.

We thanked the coaches already. And, again, I want to thank academics. You look at what we did in the past, usually we had an admissions thing and there's a lot different parts to a visit, but really this entire visit was the patience that our wives had when we were on the phones all day and Zooming from our home offices. So I thank all the wives out there and obviously our coaches. And then really Mike Farabaugh over at academics and his entire staff, and Penny Semaia over in Life Skills did a heck of a job of continuing to just kind of leave their schedule open. During that whole pandemic when they're home, it's like we got a calendar, and when is Penny available? Okay, let's lock Noah into that time. So I thank those guys.

And then, of course, Graham Wilbert and Adam Caltury, Karlo Zovko and our entire recruiting office has done an outstanding job. I think we get better and better, more detailed, every year we stay together. I appreciate all the work our recruiting office has put in that thing.

So with that, I'll go through the class here briefly and I know you probably want to ask questions. I'm going to give that to you.

Start with the offensive class. A guy that's mid-year, Nate Yarnell, big 6-foot-6, 190-pound quarterback. Did not play in his senior year, hurt just the tip of his finger and struggled with it all year. He could have probably played in the last game of the season here last weekend. The coaches chose to not play him in that game, and Tommy Mangino is the quarterback coach over there. Obviously, his dad is ‘The Big’ Mangino, as far as the old Kansas coach, and coached with my dad at Youngstown State. So we had really good in with Tommy, who was his quarterback coach and just absolutely loves him there. So just a big, strong-arm quarterback there with Nate and we're excited to get him in here in January.

The running back position, we ended up getting two. First one is Malik Newton from Lake Taylor high school in Norfolk, Virginia. Big, physical, punishing running back that I don't think our defense in the spring is going to enjoy trying to tackle this guy. He is a physical guy. We're looking forward to getting him here.

We got another make-you-miss, ton-of-wiggle guy in Rodney Hammond from Booker T. Washington high school in Virginia, as well. Another one of those Chris Beatty recruits. He's not as big as Malik, but's he's a guy that will make you miss. So we have got really a dual threat in the backfield there.

I have two receivers for you. The first one is Myles Alston, a kid from Ocean Lakes High School down in Virginia Beach. Just kind of a speedster on the edge. I think he can play anywhere inside or outside, but will give us vertical stretch on the outside. Again, did not play his senior year, as well as Malik, Rodney and Myles from that Virginia area, did not play in a senior year because football was canceled down there. But they did participate in seven-on-sevens down there and really were all in the same league. So I think they had a blast, at least being in seven-on-seven. They couldn't play a football season but were able to play in a seven-on-seven.

So Myles Alston, another mid-year guy that Kenny Pickett will be able to throw to this spring, so I'm excited about that.

The other big, long rangy, almost kind of a monster-style receiver that will go up and get the football is Jaden Bradley, a kid from Baltimore, Maryland, played for Coach McGregor over at DeMatha Catholic, one of the top high schools in the state of Maryland over there in PG County. And Jaden is a super kid that we're excited to get, and another guy that did not play his senior year. He thought about transferring to about three different high schools. I'm kind of proud that he stuck with DeMatha regardless of having a season or not. He'll get his degree from DeMatha.

Tight ends. Probably the best class of tight ends that I feel like we've signed since I've been here. Really excited about both of these guys. And we've struggled with that tight end category for a lot of reasons. There's not many of them out there, through the years, and with how few that there are, it's kind of like the full back position. Pretty soon there will be no tight ends out there. So it's a hard position to recruit to get what you want. But these two guys, I'll start off with Gavin Bartholomew, big tight end, 6-foot-4, 255-pound guy that was originally committed to Buffalo, and then Coach Salem was on him all the time, from Blue Mountain High School. And this guy plays everything. When you watch his tape, he's a quarterback. In his senior year, I think he started last five games there. He plays it all: defensive end, receiver, punter. He does it all. He's versatile point-of-attack tight end. And when I first got on the phone with him, it's like he's a 25-year-old tight end. I mean, he's got a big old beard. And he'll be here mid-year as well. So we're really excited to get both of our tight ends mid-year. That's going to give them a great advantage to help us in our run game as well as the pass game, but the much-needed run game, which, as you guys know, it's hard to have a different kind of style run game when you don't have any tight ends. That's kind of where we were most of the year when Lucas Krull went down.

So Jake Renda, tight end, 6-foot-4, 225 pounds. He's from Princeton, New Jersey but ended up being at IMG down in Florida, and just a super, super kid. He's got a ton of football reps, again, was a former quarterback for three years in high school, went to IMG. He's got a ton of Pittsburgh roots in his family, so his family is excited to be here. We ended up flipping him from Michigan State and we're excited to have two excellent, excellent tight ends in our class.

We have got four offensive linemen that we're really excited about. That starts with Terrence Rankl, probably one of the leaders of the class, leaders of his football team. I think in his years there they're 38-4 overall. He's a smart, smart offensive lineman that can play, really, three different positions up front. He can be a guard, tackle or center, so he's very multiple. And obviously from Massillon High School and Coach Nate Moore over there, so we appreciate Coach Moore in helping us land Terrence.

Kyle Fugedi, a late guy in the process, who you watch on tape and you just absolutely loved up in Michigan at Franklin High School. He’s a 6-foot-6, 270-pound guy who came to campus during this dead period, I guess if you want to call it, and was able to go around and just absolutely loved it. Decommitted from Miami of Ohio. Waited a week to think about it and then committed to us. We're excited to have him. He's a guy that can play inside or outside. He was a hockey player through his high school career, so we know he's a big, physical guy and good on his feet.

Terrence Enos, just an enormous, large is probably not the word, physical mauling-type offensive lineman that just, just moves an entire defensive line by himself. He's from Cass Tech High School up in Michigan, and Coach Wilcher is up there, a good friend of mine through all the years that I spent up there. We're fired up to have Terrence here as well. Again, a mid-year player.

Terrence Rankl, mid-year; Terrence Enos, mid-year; Fugedi, we'll get in the summer. And then the last one is Trey Andersen, who is a big offensive lineman. I know some people say he's a tight end out there in the Rivals or rankings or whatever, but we recruited him as an offensive lineman. Maybe he can sprinkle in there and help us kind of like a Grant Carrigan has in the past. But he's a big athlete. His dad played in the NFL. He was on a mission for the last two years, so he'll be a little bit older. He won't be just a 17- or 18-year-old high school player coming in. Very mature and we're excited about having him and his family out here. He, again, came out on his own. They went to a Steelers game, probably you guys saw on Twitter. Again, we had no contact with him while he was here. As a matter of fact, I knew he was here and I didn't know he was going to the Steelers game, but his dad got hooked up there and what a great opportunity when you visit Pittsburgh to be able to go to the Steelers game.

So that's the offense. Any questions on the offense? Maybe I'll open it up and the let me breathe and let you guys ask a question on anybody there.

Just to get this out of the way, I guess, Kenny Pickett announced last night that he's coming back for one more year. When did you find out? How important is that for the 2021 team and what you have going forward?
b: Yeah, as I was talking to some guys last night, he’s probably the most important recruit. I want to get back on this class right after that question, but it's a great question.

Obviously, the staff in this building was kind of rocking this morning knowing that Kenny is coming back for another year. I found out last night, sort of when you did, obviously a little bit before. Had a lot of conversations with Kenny, his dad, Ken, and Kasey, mom, really since the end of the season about what to do, how to do it. And it was not an easy decision for him because he's got an invite to go to the Senior Bowl. He can go to the Senior Bowl if he wants to. I would imagine he can go to the Combine, which those invites haven't come out yet. I don't think anybody would go to the Senior Bowl without going to the Combine. The Senior Bowl is an elite grouping of players.

So he had opportunities and he texted me last night and said, ‘Coach, I love Pittsburgh. I love this team. I'm coming back to finish what I started.’ That was his exact quote. And I texted him back and was like, ‘Kenny, that's awesome, fired up, great decision. Tomorrow's signing day, how about we hold on it and then we'll make a big a announcement on Thursday?’ And then I kind of waited for a response and I'm kind of waiting and you know how that little thing kind of spins in the text message, and he's not there, so I'm like, what's going on? So all of a sudden I get text messages and all of a sudden it pops up on the phone, Kenny is coming back for another year.

So he already released it, and I was trying to get him to hold it back. But we're fired up for the Pickett family and obviously fired up for the Pitt football family.

So I'll move on with the defense. Okay. Defensively, we got four defensive linemen. I think four exceptional defensive linemen. Obviously we lose some guys, so we're going to need reinforcements.

I'll start with Elliot Donald, Central Catholic High School. You guys know the Donald name, but this is Elliot. And Elliot's going to pave his own way here at Pitt. Obviously did not play for Central Catholic this year because of COVID-related issues, really worried about getting his family sick, his grandfather, which all is understandable, and we really respect that decision and the heart that he’s got there for his family.

But, again, probably the strongest guy on our football team to this point as far as in this class, just knowing what you know. Talked to him early this morning. He's getting ready to go over to his grandpa's house and get another lift in the basement, so I told him I wanted some video. Strong, powerful, explosive guy inside. He's gotten a lot bigger since his junior year at Central Catholic.

Dorien Ford, again, another enormous interior guy that is going to occupy a lot of space in there and plug up gaps, from Baldwin High School, 6-foot-4, 295 pounds, probably. Just a super kid, enjoyed recruiting him and we're fired up that he chose Pittsburgh.

Nahki Johnson, an explosive, athletic, edge rushing-type guy that we like to put pressure on the quarterback. It starts with a guy like him. Again, he's probably 235 pounds right now and getting bigger. He was a little bit banged up in his senior year. I think they only played about four games. We saw him a year ago. I watched him play basketball. We're excited to have him with us.

And then the last one here on the defensive line is Naquan Brown. Another Virginia Beach, Virginia high school player, played in seven-on-sevens, Ocean Lakes High School, Myles Alston's teammate. Coach Beatty stayed on him for a long time. Originally committed to LSU, as you all know, and just a really versatile athlete. I think he could be a linebacker. He's another edge rusher. He's probably about 215 pounds, but once he gets on four square meals a day, he's going to blow up and get big and explosive. I think he's got extreme athletic ability.So that's our defensive line, which we're excited about. We only had one linebacker in this class, and really only felt like we needed one linebacker. The three guys we got last year, we're really excited about. We felt, just when you look at your needs, we wanted one.

We got Preston Lavant, a downhill, physical tackle machine is really what I think he is. He's physical. He'll put his face on you. From Georgia, from Crisp County High School. So we're excited to have Preston with us. Again, one of those guys I told you earlier, had never been on campus, so I can't wait to get him up here. I'm going to personally give him a tour here.

And then we'll talk about our corners. Really wanted to load up in the secondary because of the guys we have lost. And we were shorthanded this year as well, so five total guys in the secondary, with three corners.

First one I'll talk about, because these are all alphabetically is Khalil Anderson at corner, Atlanta, Georgia, Riverview High School. I think he can play at all four different spots in the secondary. This guy, he's a ball hawk. He goes after the ball. He's a return specialist. His dad is an NFL official and has got a relationship with Mike Tomlin, so something kind of a little bit special on that end because they obviously see each other on the field, just like I know some of the ACC officials. Really, really just a super football player. Wish he was coming mid-year, but we'll have to wait on him.

Noah Biglow, again, another guy that's never been on campus. Going back to Khalil, he did come on campus. I think it was in training camp when he was here, so we were practicing and he's on campus with his mom and dad, and kind of made a tour through some of the northern schools here. I won't mention where, but he took his visits, and after that visit, probably about a week and a half later is when he committed to us. So we're excited it to get him signed this morning.

And then Noah Biglow, a guy who has not been on campus, from Wesley Chapel, Florida, Armwood-Tampa area, Armwood High School. Really a nice size corner that loves to play man-to-man. He's got great hips and uses his hands well on defense. So with what we do on defense, both those guys really can do some great things at corner for us.

And then the one that I broke the news on today that just really committed to us yesterday but, or maybe two days ago, but wanted to keep it quiet today is Tamarion Crumpley. Rangy 6-foot-1, 185-pound cornerback that will hit you. Originally was committed to Minnesota and we have been on him all season. Played for Winton Woods High School down in Cincinnati, Ohio area, led them to a 9-1 record. They played a lot of football there in Ohio this year. And we're excited to get him in Pittsburgh. So again, will come in the summer.

And then we got two big-time safeties. First one, right here from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Stephon Hall from Central Valley High School. I'm hoping he's like a Jordan Whitehead. He will hit you like a Jordan Whitehead. Very physical. He will run through you. He's not going to just tackle you. He's not going to just wrap you up. He will run through you. So we love what Coach Lyons has produced over there in the high school and we're excited to have Steph in our program.

And then the last one is Javon McIntyre, a big 6-foot, 190-pound kid, lives in Delaware, went to Imhotep High School in Philly. Again, they did not play this season at Imhotep, so he's just been lifting and running and getting ready. And this entire class and family have been through a lot as we all have, so we're excited to get some stability and bring this class here to Pittsburgh and continue to recruit them and love them up and coach them. So that's the class. Questions.

There are some high schools, and maybe not many, that have postponed football until the spring. Are any of your recruits going to play football in the spring?
NARDUZZI: Yeah, that's a good question. I think Rodney Hammond is going to play. And I don't have a list of every one of these, but Rodney is one of the ones I think may. But I would have to double-check on that. That's the only one that I can think of that may be playing this spring. But they can make up their mind whether they're going to play or not. I don't know.

And again, it's just kind of like bowl games, are they going to be playing or not? Right now they're saying they're going to be played. I knew there was going to be no [spring] season for college football. I mean, they talked about possibly playing in January. I knew there was going to be no way if we didn't get a fall season in. So some of those schools, I think, anticipated playing in September and didn't. And then thinking they're going to play in January, February or March. I don't know. So, but I think Rodney is one that may.

You okay with that him playing in the spring before he reports to Pitt about a month later?
NARDUZZI: Heck, yeah. You think we're scared? I want Rodney to go play. I think any time you sit out of this game too long… this is not basketball, okay. And I love basketball, but I could take you, Jerry, we'll take Amanda, Jim, Chris… no, Chris, you're on the other team. I'll take R.J. We can get 10 guys together and go play a basketball game. And if we did it every day, we would get better. You would definitely get better. Jerry, I could make you better, if you were on my team, because I'm going to push you, okay. But it's hard to play the game of football. You can't just go out there. Nobody plays flag football anymore. You just can't go out there and play football. You can't get in a leverage position, you can't block, you can't tackle. It just doesn't happen.

Now it may have happened back when I grew up in the '80s and you could tackle people in the front yard. But you don't have that ability. And I think any time you stay out of football for a long time, it hurts you. So any of our players that did not play -- and again, seven-on-seven gives you a little bit, but that's like basketball, in my opinion. But it's a contact sport and you can't simulate a contact sport.

So the more they can play, I'm good with it. What's the different finishing in December or finishing in March? Those kids are young. They will be ready to go. If they get banged up, they get banged up. But that's the game of football. I'm not really worried about any injuries. I want them to go play football, that's what they love to do and if that's what they want to do, let them go play.

How much did you sell the three Pittsburgh defensive linemen on playing together? And how much did they recruit each other?
NARDUZZI: They did a great job recruiting each other, for sure. I think each individual has to make a decision for themself as what's best for them. To sell them, ‘hey, can you play with him and you can play with him’… only four guys play at one time. I hate to lump guys and say, ‘you guys all do it together.’ Even though they're all friends and they're going to continue to be even better friends, they know each other. But once they get all here together, it's going to be bigger. But I like to stay away from saying, ‘it's a package deal, you guys all come together,’ and use that, because that doesn't always work out.

They got to make individual decisions for themselves for the right reasons. And it's all about making good decisions. And I try to stay away from that, at least personally I stay away from that.

This is the only time ever for a freshman class to come in where essentially every player ahead of them has redshirted. What do you tell them about opportunities and how that plays out?
NARDUZZI: Really haven't talked about it. All these guys want to come in and compete. You look at the redshirt, but the redshirt doesn't matter. It's still a group of guys that are on a depth chart. And you guys know how that depth chart is. I wish all these guys were with us last fall. We could have used them as some of those weeks that got dwindled down and we didn't have guys.

So really not worried about the depth chart. We want to get these guys in here, want to get them coached and give them an opportunity to play and we'll play as many guys that are ready to play.

This is looking like maybe the best group of WPIAL defensive linemen in decades, having all these guys in the same class. When do you remember realizing that there was kind of something special in this group coming up? I mean, you've been here since they have been in middle school.
NARDUZZI: Yeah, well we knew they were all special, put it that way. Nahki was the first one to commit to us, so he became special right away. And I think he led the charge in this entire class. So I thank him for that.

But we knew they were all special a couple years ago. We have been watching. I watched Elliot at a playoff game live a year ago, so I got a live evaluation. Not many of them did I get live evaluations. I watched Nahki play basketball. Didn't get a football evaluation on him. Then Dorien, just spent a lot of time in his high school as well with his old coach in the past and as a matter of fact, I think did I watch a football game of his one Friday night. So we have known they're special and they're all each individuals. We're just thankful that western Pennsylvania was so gifted athletically.

It seems like some of your better players in this class are on that defensive line, just like some of your better players on the team this year were on your defensive line. Do you see that becoming a calling card of this defense or something that can be part of an identity to have those really talented defensive linemen lead the way for your defense?
NARDUZZI: Like the Panther Steel Curtain or something like that, huh? I hope we have talented players at every position, because it's hard just to win with one talented position. But we'll take a calling card. I'm sure Coach Partridge takes pride in what his guys are doing. I look at Rashad Weaver and Patrick Jones leaving and know we’ve got to develop some new young guys at the defensive end position. We know Deslin is good and all that and John Morgan.

But you look at our linebacker group and we got some talented linebackers. They're going to be a year older and you look at Cam Bright, I'm excited about what he's got. Coach Harley I'm sure takes pride in that. Coach Borbely, our offensive line, I'm excited about our O-line next year. There's a lot of pieces. Some guys are a going to get sacks and some guys are going to get pancakes. Which ones do people start to gravitate towards? Nobody really sees the pancakes because they don't get many awards for pancakes, but everybody sees and hears the sacks. And obviously our linebackers are getting sacks and people see the interceptions and they see the wide open big hits. Everybody sees Jordan Addison and DJ Turner making big plays and obviously that quarterback that's making those throws.

So I hope we’ve got players at every position. I don't want to sit here and say it's a D-line world here in Pittsburgh, because it's a football world. We're in the city of Pittsburgh, it's the city of champions, That's what we're working towards and we're going to need athletes at every position.

Does Malik Newton bring something to your running game that maybe you didn't have this year?
b: It's going to be a different style, that's for sure. I mean, he's going to be more in the mode of a Darrin Hall, Qadree Ollison, James Conner, Le'Veon Bell that I was used to up north. So, yeah I think so. He's a bigger back and there's not many of them out there. The great thing is we’ve got him in spring. And Daniel Carter's kind of that bigger back, but not as tall a back. So this is a big, big guy who can run. I think he rushed for over 5,000 yards in high school. That's without his senior year, because I don't think they ran the ball in seven-on-seven.

You mentioned Newton is one of four guys that you guys got from Virginia. Do you see that as an important recruiting win within the context of the ACC with a couple of schools down there and with the job that Chris Beatty did to get four really talented guys out of that state?
NARDUZZI: Chris has got as good of contacts as any coach I've been around. I got some contacts in northeast Ohio, but there's not as many players up there, just from growing up in that area. Chris grew up in that area, spent a lot of time in that area. He’s very well respected down there.

Coaches love him. When I walk in it's like he’s got brothers as a high school coach in each one of those places.

So we trust the coaches down there. Coach Beatty's done a heck of a job in that area and those contacts help. And we knew when we hired Chris Beatty that not only was he an outstanding wide receivers coach, that he was an outstanding recruiter.

There were a couple late offers that came in for Khalil Anderson from Penn State and Miami. Were you at all worried about losing him?
NARDUZZI: Not at all. Khalil has been as solid as you could be. There was never any waiver out of Khalil Anderson or his family. It's a family of integrity. And there was never any conversations like, ‘hey, don't do that.’ Kids want to to put their offers on Twitter. We have given up on, ‘hey, don't post that.’ They want to get excited about it.

And to me, it is what it is. We're in a world of social media and they get love on social media and it makes them feel good. But Khalil… I love that guy. I appreciate his trust in us. And like I said, he never, ever wavered. Since he came up here with his parents and saw Pittsburgh and walked around on his own or drove around on his own, he has been solid as anybody in this class.

This is a different year for playing football. Also a different year for recruiting. How is it different for you this year? And of all the kids you recruited and talked to over Zoom, what's your favorite story?
NARDUZZI: You always ask me a favorite story… E.J., next year remind me to think about it for about 10 minutes favorite story, because I know you guys don't want me to think for 10 minutes.

Maybe an interesting story, off the beaten path.
NARDUZZI: Okay. Might have to call you back on that I'm going to have to text you back. Do you have anything to remind me, Graham? Because I know I tell Graham all the stories. Anything, Graham?

If I think of one, I'll shout it out.
NARDUZZI: Near the end we'll come back to that and, Graham, you and Adam can think about it. But I can't think of anything that is really going to get you all excited. It's all been Zoom. And when they come on campus, you can't see them.

So wish I had one for you. If I think of one, if Adam and Graham think of one… maybe Karlo, he’s goofy enough to figure one out. But we'll figure out something for you.

How about an easier one: Do you expect Kenny Pickett to bring some guys back that might have been leaving?
NARDUZZI: There's a chance. The most impressive thing is the kids retweet, saying, ‘that's my guy, that's my guy.’ So there's a chance that some other guys could come back, we'll see. Just like these high school players, each individual's got to make a decision for them, not for Kenny, not for me. It's for their personal reasons. So I will be sure to make sure. I don't want any regrets. I don't want someone to say, ‘well, I came back because of him.’ I want them to come back because they want to come back and they want to come back for them.

But I think Kenny can bring them back. Kenny can recruit them and I can recruit them, but I try to stay away from recruiting them. I want to educate them. I want to get what's best for them.

Kenny thought about it long and hard. I mean, long and hard. Shoot, a half hour before he texted me what I kind of read to you, him and his dad called me again and was like, ‘Coach, just a tough decision.’ I said, ‘How you doing?’ He's like, ‘I'm struggling, Coach.’ And then half hour later he wasn't struggling.

So he went back and forth about what to do. And Mark Whipple did a great job of getting feedback from NFL scouts throughout the country. I mean, all over. He was in the league and talked to a lot of people. I know Kenny talked with Peyton Manning. We're going to try to get him on a Zoom tomorrow. He reached out and did his homework. You talk about a guy doing his homework, trying to figure out, ‘where am I going to do and what can I do to improve?’ He did his homework and made a great decision for Kenny Pickett.

Is it safe to assume then that Kenny came back to work with Mark for another year?
NARDUZZI: Yeah, it's safe to say. Yeah, I would hope. He came back to work with me and Coach Beatty and E.J. and Karlo…

With this year and with recruiting when you can't go out and see these guys in person and meet them in person, what lengths have you had to go to to make sure that a guy you think is 6-foot-3 isn't going to show up and be 5-foot-11? You know what I mean? To ensure that guys are as big as they say they are, since you're not actually seeing them in person.
NARDUZZI: Yeah, that's a great question. There's a lot of things that these 21 young men don't know about us. I want them to get as much information as they can. There's a lot of things we don't know about them, so we need to continue to learn.

But the one thing I'm not worried about is how tall they are. We can go by the sizes here and people think Kenny Pickett is 6-foot-2, I read somewhere 6-foot-2… that guy is 6-foot-3 and a half. Sizes don't really matter. You look at some of the guys that play in the NFL… tell Aaron Donald that size matters, okay. So really, size doesn't matter. We love what they do on tape. We love them as people. That's really what's going to matter. I'm not going to worry and say, ‘well, God, I thought you were 5-foot-11, you're only 5-foot-10. It doesn't really matter. I mean, we get fooled by that every year. It doesn't matter. Very rarely do you go in and measure a guy.

How do you view the February signing period now? Do you expect to remain active for that period as well?
NARDUZZI: Yeah, I love the February signing period. When you look at the old February signing period, it's been a long year. I think these kids were excited to sign today the national letter of intent. It's a long process. I mean, you think about it, February, the kids came on campus, I believe. But then March was dead for the first time ever, March, April, May, June, July, August, September… you think about all the darn months that these kids have had no opportunities

What are they going to do in January? I mean, it's dead, it's cold, it's snowy, and there's no place to go. So I think that the December signing period is the absolute way to go. This is the signing day. It's not the early signing period. To me, it is the signing period.

I know the rankings are not your thing, but according to the rankings, this will be one of your better classes since you've been here at Pitt. Does it feel like that to you? Has it felt like that as you were working through this process that this had a chance to be a special class or one of the better ones that you've recruited?
NARDUZZI: You're exactly right, I'm not into all the rankings. It doesn't matter. We're going to find out who our best players are in the end in two or three years. I’m just not. It's not coach talk, or whatever. The guys that were ranked, the guys that put them in there, it's all based on who you are and who you have working for you. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense, guys. I mean, players are players. We have got to develop them. We have great character guys that are developable in themselves, and that's what it comes down to.

But this class, I don't feel any differently than I felt than last class or my first class. We always get high-quality guys that want to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh. And they have, okay. Guys that want to graduate and guys that want to play football. And our guys are going to play until the end, every game, every year. And that's what I'm looking for is tough guys that match the city of Pittsburgh.

But I don't know where the class is ranked. I don't care about four stars, it doesn't matter. There's some two stars and some three stars that are as good as any four- or five-star guy out there. So if you want to listen to rankings, it just doesn't matter. It doesn't matter when you got a top-10 class, it doesn't matter if you got a top-80 class. It doesn't matter.

You got a story for me, Graham?

Maybe the reason we had to do the Louis Riddick video that went viral? We had Karlo and Mickey driving around campus for that tour.
NARDUZZI: Oh, here's a funny story for you. Karlo gets on a Zoom to do a tour. He's got a phone. That thing's shaking around, it's the worst video ever. Yeah, it was bad. I was like, ‘we’re not doing this anymore.’ And again, we wanted to see what it looked like. We had our whole staff on Zoom as Karlo is driving around campus. And we had a driver, too. It was like there's just no way we can give tours like that. So thank God we got ahold of Louis Riddick and he did that absolutely outstanding video for us that really gave people a sense of what the city of Pittsburgh is like and obviously the University.

But yeah, Karlo, the worst Zoom. And he's a great tour guide on campus, but not with a phone on the dashboard. It was bad. I mean, it was just bad.

Because you weren't able to see a lot of these guys and you had to tell them about Pittsburgh, how important are those guys that produce those videos, to be able to show what Pittsburgh and your program is about?
NARDUZZI: Yeah, I mean Greg and Max over in our video office. Chad Bogard would like to take credit for it, joking in case Chad's listening. He didn't have anything to do with that video. But our video people did an outstanding job. It's really important. It's important when kids can visit to have video and the access to that. But then when the campus gets shut down and you're in pandemic it becomes really important. And it took awhile to make that video and Louis Riddick took a lot of time to put his time into that incredible video. So we'll use that for years to come just to get them here to see the real thing. So it's going to help us. We’ve found new innovative ways of really reaching our players and obviously Zoom and really FaceTime have been critical in this entire process.

Here's a funny story for you. If I talked to 21 guys today, probably 17 of them had no shirt on today. I wish I had a screen shot of each one of them, none of them have shirts on. I think I saw one tank top. I think Gavin had a tank top on. So it's bad when I can tell you who had one. It’s a beautiful class, good-looking dudes, I can tell you that. So we got a physical evaluation today, because they're just hanging out in the house doing homework and they got no shirts on.

Are they showing off for you?
NARDUZZI: No, that's just kind of how they hang out in December wherever they are. I don't think there was any show off. A couple of them I told them, ‘hey, we’ve got to get you in the weight room. They got this structure to them and once they get with Coach Stacchiotti, they're going to get real big and fast.

Well, we hope there's more to come with Kenny Pickett. We couldn't be more excited about Kenny coming back and it starts right there. It starts at that quarterback. It also gives our quarterbacks who didn't have a spring a year ago to develop and find out who that next guy is too.