Pat Narduzzi held his final press briefing of the week on Thursday and talked about Youngstown State, the transfer portal and a lot more. Here's video and a full rundown of what he said.
Narduzzi: Week Four, just trying to go 1-0 this week. And I think guys are excited about it. We need to go out and empty our tanks and go 1-0 for the week. We got a good football team coming in Youngstown State, a lot of memories back there, and should be a ball game. They got a good football team, they'll be ready to go. Coming off last week's game and they'll give us their best shot, guaranteed.
How do you guys keep your plan of attack against a team like you were talking about Monday, that likes to possess the football and slow the game down? I know West Virginia wanted to do that to you guys, but now it seems like this is gonna be a thing that you have to have to counter.
Narduzzi: Yeah, it starts with getting off the field, right? We gotta be able to stop the run. And you can't let them go three yards on first down, three yards on second down. Even though those are wins, defensively three yards on third down, let them go fourth and one again. You can't let them, so we gotta stop the run, period. And we gotta get off the field on defense. And then offensively, when you get the ball, you gotta use it, get down the field. I don't care if you score in 30 seconds or you score in an eight minute drive. We gotta possess the ball and sustain drives.
You mentioned how at the beginning of the week, or Sunday, PJ was saying, ‘Hey, coach, smile.’ Have you seen your guys kind of embrace the 24 hour rule that you impose?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I think so. I mean, as a coaching staff we all have the same message and they understand, again, we've had good practices too. So we've had, I don't think there'll be any letdown on our end. They're hoping for a letdown. There'll be no letdown.
Philosophically for you, does time of possession mean less to you than it did ten years ago?
Narduzzi: It does, Chris, I mean, it does. You can be an I-pro team and win the time of possession, you can lose it. You can spread it out and go fast. So I'm not really worried about time of possession. It's one of those things we're gonna look at and know, but it's not a life or death.
I mean, the number one thing critical to winning is turnovers and protect the ball. If you protect the ball, you have a chance. And we're plus two last weekend, you can count it plus three if you count a block punt for a touchdown, we're plus three. That's how you win football games.
Does Youngstown State’s quarterback remind you of the last two quarterbacks you played in the previous two weeks?
Narduzzi: Yeah, this guy's gonna drop back, look at his first read, and he's gonna take off running. So he's athletic, he can run, he's got wiggle. He can put his foot on the ground and change direction. So we've gotta contain him and keep him in that pocket.
Does that change your strategy as far as how you guys like to penetrate an attack? You gotta put in extra countermeasures or you just go with the capture and not kill?
Narduzzi: Kill, yeah, kill not capture. We're not ever capturing anybody. But you gotta go be aggressive. I think anytime you tell guys to slow down and keep them in there and don't let them get out, that they don't get any pass rush. We need to go after them. And obviously, we're not literally killing anybody, but it's kill or capture mode.
Your starting lineup, your roster, your starting lineup is dotted with transfers. Is that something that's just gonna be a normal thing every year?
Narduzzi: I think the portal's been good to us. We've gotten rid of things that - maybe guys that we've been able to replenish our roster the right way. So when guys leave, we're able to bring better ones in. And there's a little strategy that goes to that. And I think we've done a good job of evaluating and not bringing in the same thing we lost or less. And you can do that very easily. I mean, we're not 100% in the portal, but I'd say we're in the 80s and that's a pretty good hit. You better win those wars in the portal. You better be getting the right guys.
When does that process start for you?
Narduzzi: The recruiting office is working daily on it. I mean, we're working on it. I mean, obviously nobody's in the portal, but you're looking around and seeing what's possibly available out there.
What have you seen from Nate Matlack so far?
Narduzzi: Nate’s been solid. Obviously he started in game one, he's still starting game four. So he's done a nice job, still learning. Like a lot of our young guys are still learning what they're doing. But we've been happy with Nate and I think he's got a lot more that he can still give.
When you look at Donovan's numbers, is that a credit to him or is it more like, hey, I'd love to see some other guys in front of him and make some more tackles?
Narduzzi; With all the spread you're seeing, I mean, it's why we play quarters, right? I mean, we can play with a guy in the middle of the field and he's not gonna make any plays or put a guy down in the box. So we got extra guys in the box.
When you're playing good football teams that we played the last couple weeks, you're gonna need that extra guy. They're gonna block you. You can't defend everything with just seven guys in the box.
So that boundary safety is the guy. If we put Javon over there, he won't be having the same tackles. Donovan's a really good tackler. So it's what we did last year, it's what we did the year before. If you go back to years and years, Brandon Hill and the rest of the guys back there, that's kind of what we do. That guy's set up to make some tackles and he's kind of like an extra linebacker.
On the topic of transfers, I think we talk about why guys go into the portal, good reasons or bad reasons. Steph Hall, he's out at Youngstown State, he's starting, he's playing a lot. Aydin Henningham's another guy, he's down in Albany State. He's starting, playing a lot. I don't wanna say, this guy had a good reason or a bad reason, but are those some of the kind of like good stories about the portal, a guy who wants an opportunity to play, goes and finds it?
Narduzzi: I mean, Steph Hall's a great player. He's a hitter and he's a local kid and we love Steph. And obviously, we're gonna play him number one this week. So we'll get a chance to see Steph live. Again, there's a relationship there, we love Steph. It was a good decision, he wanted to play. He was one of those guys, we didn't wanna lose Steph. But he wanted to play and be a starter. And that wasn't gonna happen right now with what we had depth-wise in that room. So it's a good opportunity for him to go play. I mean, I think it's important. So some of those guys like that, Aydin, he wasn't gonna play, he wasn't gonna break the two deep. So it's good for Aydin to go find time. And I'm assuming, I haven't really followed him just because we don't play him. But I'm hoping he's doing a nice job up there at Albany. Aydin, a super kid. He cried and hugged me, I don't think he let go. He didn't wanna leave, but he knew to play, he had to.
The narrative across the country from fans is that coaches dread the portal. You don't dread it, do you?
Narduzzi: I don't like it. I don't like it for the guys you don't wanna lose, okay? I don't like it for the first one that went out with Jordan Addison. Those are the ones you don't like when someone can come tamper with your. It's one thing having a deep down conversation with the player about playing time and what's the best option for him. Those guys got it. But it's important for these kids to get what they need, what they want. And a guy that wants to play, that to me is important. And I'm gonna help those guys get those opportunities wherever they are.
According to these tendency reports, I've seen you guys use a higher percentage of your base 4-3-4 defense more than anyone else in college football right now. You use a seven-man box more than anyone else, not loading the box. And you guys keep two high shells, two safeties, more than anyone else. What about your defense allows you, or what's the benefit of sticking to your base as consistently you guys do to do all the complexity that you have on defense?
Narduzzi: The first thing I'd say is we know what we're doing and we know how to line it, so it's one of the reasons we can adjust it. We have so many ways of adjusting it, whether it be a front, a linebacker, a stunt, a blitz, whatever it is. To me, when you run too many fronts, okay, and too many coverages, you can never fix anything because it's like, well, we're not in that coverage or that front, so how do you know? But running a consistent front, again, that's just pre-snap. Pre-snap, we look the same. Post-snap, there's gonna be lots of changes as far as what we do. And I think it's difficult, if you talk to anybody around the country, it's difficult to - pre-snap might look good, but all the things we do after the snap is the difficult thing. But I think it's the ability to adjust from there. I mean, if you're doing too much, it's hard to adjust what you're gonna do, you're just gonna change it up. Too many people bail on their defenses because ‘it's not good versus this.’ Well, if it's not good versus this, let's fix it. What's our tweaking to make it good versus that? We know how to fix anything. Any problem we have, we know how to fix it.
Brian Flores reportedly uses a lot of concepts that you guys use here now at Minnesota as their defensive coordinator, they have the number three defense. Patrick Jones has four sacks, second most in the NFL right now. And just this past weekend, Brock Purdy was on camera crediting Brian Flores, like you guys are on crazy scheme. What is it about your defense that you think maybe people don't realize that allows it to be a simpler, faster thing that can benefit you guys?
Narduzzi: Well, when people go fast tempo, let's go - for example, when our offense is running fast, okay, when they're going fast, it's gonna put our defense most of the time in an opportunity where they better just get lined up and play base defense. So tempo offenses tend to get teams to play base and not do much because they'll screw it up, because you don't have time to adjust to it. With our defense, the way we keep it simple and we don't do too much, but we can call anything, we can call it.
We go down and play Tennessee, one of the reasons we've had success against Tennessee, they're going fast, but they're not seeing Pitt just line up in base and play quarters all day. We get worn out. We're gonna change the pass, put guys on tracks and blitz them, but they're not used to that.
Again, they don't see it coming, right? When they're going so fast, they can't see if a blitz is coming. All of a sudden, guys are running through the backfield, hitting the quarterback, and it's like, ooh. So those are the reasons why. Teams wanna go fast, we're able to do it, but we play a lot of three-deep, two-under. I don't know if there's any - that's the unique thing that we play. A lot of people play quarters and do what we do, but we play a lot of three-deep two-under, which is exotic. Jerry might call it crazy. If you knew a lot about coverage, most people play three-deep three-under. We only go two-under. We're covering 54 yards with two guys. A lot of people have stole it and tried to do it, but I don't know if they do it like we do. And, matter of fact, I shouldn't say I don't know. I know they don't, because I watch it on tape and see people do it that just don't coach it the right way. It gives us an opportunity to make plays.
But you haven't really been satisfied with the defense so far this year. What's been some of the issues?
Narduzzi: Just continue to stop the run. Again, we've been on the field a long time, too. So if you look at yards and yards per carry, you're probably not disappointed. But I just like to be dominant. I want to be number one in the country. That's what we want to be. So until we're number one in rush defense and in the ACC and in the top ten in all the categories, that's the goal. So, and we'd like to win, too. So winning's number one goal.
How have you evaluated the linebacker play and depth so far, especially without Keye Thompson in the lineup?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I look at those two linebackers, Kyle Louis outside and Rasheem Biles on the outside. Those are two electric dudes that make a lot of plays. They're making more plays than we've made at that position the last two years. Those guys are really good. And then you put that with a really smart middle linebacker that's playing the best football he's played since he's been here. I said on my radio show last night, because he's my guest - I mean, if you go back to the Kent State game, at the end of the game, when you need a play made, he blitzes off the edge, strips the ball out of that quarterback's hand. Big play, right? That kind of sealed the deal. You go to Cincinnati, he sealed the deal in the fourth quarter, blitzed through the A-gap again, hits the quarterback. Quarterback gets slammed on the ground, throws an overthrow. We punt it, and we know how that thing ended. I think our offense got the ball down, kicked a field goal.
And then you look at last week just with the big scoop and score for touchdown. So, I mean, our linebacker group right now, I don't know if we've got six or seven of them, but right now we’ve got three really, really good ones.
Gavin and Eli were saying yesterday how it's important for them this week to play a complete game as an offense. What do you think is the key to doing that this week?
Narduzzi: It’s focus and execution. It's one play at a time. We talk all the time about it. And again, your opponent has something to do with that, right? Sometimes it's not going to be pretty and look exactly the way you want it. But it's about execution. It's a game of execution, and you have to take care of the details. And if you take care of those little details, the big things happen. And again, you play 60 minutes. But you can't kill yourself with penalties and those details there. So we've gotta be locked in and everybody's gotta be on the same page.
Do you like playing an FCS game this late in the season? Does it matter to you?
Narduzzi: Doesn’t matter when, it doesn't matter when we play them. But I think it's good to have one of those on your schedule.
Would you like to be the first game?
Narduzzi: Great, but it doesn't really matter. I mean, the schedules are so hard. I mean, you hear about Wake Forest dropped somebody and picked up somebody else. I mean, scheduling is not easy. And sometimes you don't get who you want. You get who's left out there based on scheduling.
So, and then also finding that date. I'm glad I don't have to schedule. I just get to say yes or no. But trying to fill them in and move somebody if, ‘This is the only date you can do it, you can't move it. Okay, we can't take you.’ I mean, there's so many things that go into scheduling. Chris LaSala does a nice job.
Is Youngstown on any of your future schedules?
Narduzzi: I don't know. I'm focused on Youngstown this week, Jerry. I don't even know who we open up with next year. I have no idea. So, anyway, I know we play Youngstown State this week.
