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PAT NARDUZZI: Almost game day. I almost forgot I had a phone call today. I was in a different meeting here. But a little odd to have it the day before the game, our teleconference.But we're excited to have Virginia Tech come into Heinz Field in Pittsburgh tomorrow. We have obviously a great opportunity on our home field here to play a great football team that is getting better and better every week that we see them, and they looked explosive and dominant last week against Miami. We're looking forward to it.

How important is it to get off to a fast start to kind of make things a little bit more difficult for Bud Foster so he's not able to blitz as often? I know that's kind of what they did against Miami when they got ahead early.
PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, you know, I don't know if we've got to get off to a fast start and a strong finish. I think a 60-minute game, I'm not sure if the fast start or the great finish matters. I think the only thing that really matters is that W.

For so many years Virginia Tech under Frank Beamer was known as a team that had outstanding special teams units. What have you seen so far from this season, and when you look at a team on film, what things stand out to you that tell you, that's a well-coached special teams unit?
PAT NARDUZZI: You know what, they play fast in everything they do. I don't think they're real complex as far as what they do, and I think Coach Beamer did a great job of instilling special teams. Everybody thinks of what they did with their all blocked punts and field goals, and they've continued to block field goals and punts to be honest with you. But I think that's kind of the makeup. I think when the team they've got there, when they came to Virginia Tech, that was part of the legacy, I guess, of Virginia Tech. So you still see them playing very fast on special teams. They're putting the best players out there, and they give great effort, so I think that's what you see out of all the special teams units.

With the extra time to prepare with the bye week, have you put any extra special teams work in?
PAT NARDUZZI: No doubt about it, with extra practices -- usually on Thursday we work on every special team, and then on a normal Tuesday, we work two phases and field goal, and then on Wednesday we work two phases, as well, with no field goal. So really three, I guess, on a Tuesday. But with those extra days we were able to have extra practices on those phases.

Virginia Tech's running game, their running backs have been a little hit or miss this year, but they employ their quarterback Jerod Evans as a runner pretty effectively. He's certainly a big guy and tough to bring down. As a defense how do you kind of attack an offense that has a QB that's able to run like that with such a physical style?
PAT NARDUZZI: You know what, we play our regular defense. We've been pretty successful wherever I've been defensively, and I don't run the defense or make a call, but structurally I think we're set up to defend that 11th guy, that quarterback, and Evans is a big 6'4", 240-pound guy to tackle. He's physical, and he's got a great arm, and he can make all the throws.

But it presents a challenge, it really does. But one thing we are fortunate is I think we're a good run defense. I think our guys understand where they fit in their fits. What we've got to do is hang on and cover Ford and Hodges in the passing game, and to me the players of the game will be those corners. If they can hang on to those edge guys and do what we need them to do out there and control Phillips in the slot receiver spot, then I think we've got an opportunity to be able to stop the run. If we don't hang up there, then we've got to take a guy out of the box, and then we've got problems.

Where have you seen Nathan Peterman grow the most this season for you guys?
PAT NARDUZZI: I think you've continued to see him grow from last year to this year, but really the last couple weeks I've seen him grow a little bit more on 3rd down. He's made some plays in the passing game. He makes a lot of great checks at the line of scrimmage in the run game. But he's made some nice 3rd down throws that we've needed him to make all year, and really the last couple weeks he's done that and hit some -- whether it's a just to wee on 3rd and 3, he's just made some of those throws. When you play a great team like Virginia Tech, one of the top defenses in the country, he's got to make some throws. He's got to put the ball right where it needs to be, and him being accurate with where he puts that ball, he's made good decisions, now he's got to make good decisions and really be accurate like he has the last couple weeks.

Not a team this season has really slowed your run game much with maybe the exception of opening week. How concerning is the Hokies' run defense to you, and what do you see that makes them so effective?
PAT NARDUZZI: Well, I mean, I think the thing that makes it so concerning is they're the best defense we've faced this year, and with Nigel Williams and Woody Baron and Ken, Vinny at the defensive end spots and Motu at the middle linebacker spot, they've got a great front seven. They've got a well-tackling secondary. We're going to have to make some people miss. We'll have some one-on-one opportunities on the edgy think with some of our stuff, but they're very athletic and they know what to do structurally in their defense, so it'll be a major challenge for sure, and that's what makes us tick is our run game, and if we don't get our run game going against this great defense, then we'll have problems.

They'll have everybody -- if you watch, just count, because I know you'll be at the game, count how close they are to the line of scrimmage but they'll have 11 guys within five yards of the line of scrimmage, and that's what we've worked and practiced all week, and we're going to have to make some plays in some tight quarters.

In your long career you've dealt with a lot of physicians and doctors and surgeons. How does Freddie Fu rank among those guys that you've dealt with, and how helpful has he been to your program?
PAT NARDUZZI: You know, Jerry is an unbelievable asset for everybody at the University of Pittsburgh for sure. I don't work with him on a daily basis. He's like the guru, and I know any time we have a question about somebody on our football team, we're able to bounce things off of him, have him go see Freddie Fu, and he's one of the best in the world. I don't know if I'd even say in the United States. I mean, he's ranked up there, and I'm not a guy to rank doctors, but I haven't had a surgery by him yet, and I hope I don't have to have one, but he's top of the line.

Syracuse gets off a play every 20 seconds, fast offense. You guys have them in a few weeks, but its games have been long, pushing four hours. What are your thoughts on those long games nationally? Will you prepare differently for a game that might push 3:30, four hours because of the no-huddle, and this could be back at your time in Rhode Island, Michigan State, or as recently as this year?
PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, we're facing another one of those teams this week in Virginia Tech with the fast tempo, and I know when we have Syracuse here that we'll be facing the same fast tempo, throwing the ball down the field. We faced Baylor and Oregon state in the past, and I know the tempo that we'll see tonight, and I know the tempo we'll see when we do play Syracuse. Obviously we're locked into Virginia Tech for tomorrow's game, but we definitely practiced different towards it. You have to. We're going to have three huddles running at our defense when we get to that week just like we did this week. We had three huddles going at them just to make it worse than it is.

We're going to up-down them in between plays just to get them tired. You run a play, and while the scout team guys are getting the next play ready to go and get being out of the huddle as fast as they can, we're getting our guys back to the home position doing two or three up-downs just to make them feel like they just got gassed and they've got to react and read their keys for the next play.