Pat Narduzzi held his final press briefing of the week on Thursday and talked about the matchup with SMU, how he handles disrespect as motivation and a lot more. Here's a full rundown of what he said.
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Narduzzi: Another good week of practice, getting ready to head down to Dallas. Excited about where our kids are. I think they're excited about another road game, another ACC game against a really good opponent in SMU. Getting a talented football team and looking forward to it.
Was there any strategy behind when you announced Eli last night on the radio?
Narduzzi: No, not really. I don't think I've ever announced it on a radio show. We had a staff meeting. Chris Hanks sits right there in the first chair, and I sit right where EJ's sitting. And he said he was cleared last night, 4 o'clock, 4:15 or whatever. And radio show was next, and I said, shoot, I might just get it out there with Larry.
Have you seen his demeanor in practices as far as, I don't think he's been hurt before, at least with you guys.
Narduzzi: Yeah, he's fine. I mean, I guess he was hurt in the spring. He was hurt in the spring with a hammy. He was kind of banged up all spring. So he's been great, outstanding.
You said he was wait and see. Rhett Lashlee says Kevin Jennings is questionable. As a coach, I mean, do you even pay any attention to what's said publicly, to what coaches are putting out there for the public?
Narduzzi: Not really. I mean, you hear what they're saying. People tell you what they said. Hey, he said this, but is it true? Who knows? You prepare for everybody. They got backups, we got backups. And you gotta be prepared for it either way. So you prepare.
You prepare for their backup, Stone?
Narduzzi: Always.
He’s a different kind of quarterback, isn't he?
Narduzzi: He’s different, yeah. I mean, he's not a big scrambler. I mean, Kevin scrambles, he scrambles. God bless him. He scrambles everywhere. I mean, he's dangerous with his feet. Stone is not that guy. But he's an accurate passer and won a lot of football games for them, won them a championship a year ago. So he's pretty good, too.
How much practice was Eli able to get in this week?
Narduzzi: He got in a real majority of it, so I feel pretty good with where he is.
Pat, these days, college coaches have to not only coach the team and come up with strategy, but also do personnel work. In other words, cook the meal and buy the groceries, like Bill Parcells used to say. And you've done that in the past year, you know.
Narduzzi: I’ve done it for a few years.
Well, yeah, but you did it a lot this past offseason. I'm just wondering, at what point did you embrace the concept of having to go out and find guys, you know, build the roster. Not just with high school guys, but with guys who can help you right away.
Narduzzi: Yeah, we've done that for years. I mean, I did that back at Rhode Island. We had to go out and build the roster. I mean, that's what we do as coaches. That's the strategy of what you do. It's recruiting, you know, whether it's high school kids or transfers, that process is still never changed. I mean, it's the same way. I mean, nothing changes. It's, you know, it's a quicker process. Maybe at the end of December, before school starts in January, it's a quicker process, but you gotta do your homework and make the right calls. You know, like, you know, Nick James, for example, like, you know, like that stuff happens well.
We got him, you know, shoot, I remember being in a car with Charlie Partridge somewhere, I don't even know where we were, and talking to Tom Allen about, you know, just to do your homework. But then we've been doing that for years of just, you know, calling as many people, hey, tell me about this kid. I see the tape, now tell me about who he is.
And Tom Allen raved about the kid, and guess what? Tom Allen was right, so I trust Tom Allen.
But it's different these days, isn't it?
Narduzzi: I mean, it's different with the transfer portal, there's no question. I mean, let's get on to football. We're talking about transfer portal, you know, let's get on to football here. But yeah, it's different, but every day is different. I mean, the world is different. We live in a different world. You gotta embrace whatever, you just embrace, you know, what's going on. It doesn't matter whether it's a football game, whether it's a weather in Dallas. You know, it doesn't matter what the weather's gonna be like. We gotta go play in it and prepare our kids for it.
So every day's a different day. You're checking the weather every day, looking at, you know, the recruiting landscape, you know, whatever it may be.
You guys and SMU are two of the top intercepting teams in the ACC. What do they do that's special?
Narduzzi: You know, they play fast. They put pressure on their quarterback. I think interceptors start with, you know, heating up a quarterback a little bit. But, you know, they're fast. They got good ball skills, which helps. And they keep it simple, and their guys know how to play. They play fast. It's a fast team. And, you know, again, they got a fast team that they allow to play fast.
You say it's similar to your style of play?
Narduzzi: Yes. I mean, they keep it simple and let their guys go play. I think they know what they're doing. You know, with all the transfers they have on defense, they better keep it simple. You know, some people try to, you know, junk it up. But they keep it simple. They have an identity on defense. They know what it is, and they do a good job. I would think anybody you talk to will tell you Pitt has an identity, and they do what they do. They don't change, you know, who they are week to week. I think that's what gives our guys an opportunity to go play fast. And also not worry about what they're doing, but worry about what the offense is doing.
I mean, we have our defense studying offenses, okay? Kyle Lewis is in that meeting room over there every morning at 6 o'clock. Like, I walk in there, I'm like, he's got his hood on. He's in the dark, and he's watching videotape. And, like, he lives in there. And that's one guy, at least, I see early in the morning. That's his time.
Everybody's got time, but, you know, Kyle's not in there saying, you know, Coach Manalac, on this blitz or on this, what do I do? Like, we're not busy coaching scheme during the year. We're busy coaching offense, you know, as far as the defense goes.
With those similarities between their defense and your defense, does it make it somewhat easier to prepare for, knowing that you guys go against it every day in practice?
Narduzzi: Yeah, they're not like us structurally. I mean, they're four down like we are. But coverage-wise, they're a little bit different. I mean, there's always different, you know, nuances that people are gonna have. So they're not identical to what we do. But they have an identity, and you know what they like to do. And they're gonna keep doing it, because it's been really good for them.
What do you know about the noise in this stadium? It's a 32,000 capacity stadium.
Narduzzi: Yeah, I mean, we've heard, hear it's noisy. And, and, you know, we're prepared for, you know, we're prepared for noise. You know, to me, I think it's similar to like Cincinnati, which has some good sound to it, but it's not 75,000 people. So we've played in different places. But we're prepared for the noise, and sometimes it could be the speakers. You never know what noise you're gonna get. So we're prepared for, for it to be loud. You know, it's supposed to be a good crowd, you know, weather permitting. So we're excited.
Do you get here early in the morning and Kyle is the first person you see usually, or is it different guys here and there?
Narduzzi: It’s different guys, but if I go in to see Coach Manalac, he's just a guy in there. I don't go in there every morning and, you know, look to see if he, if Kyle would show up today. But yeah, you see different people every morning. It's all, it's really, you know, coffee first, and then, you know, who do I need to see today? What's on my mind?
Outside of the big runs, big touchdown runs from Des from time to time, do you feel like the run game is where it needs to be at as of late?
Narduzzi: Not, not really. I mean, it's not where you want it to be, you know, pass game isn't either. Run defense isn't either, and pass defense isn't either. In fact, people say it's the best pass defense and we got things we can continue to get better at. So it's, you know, you're never satisfied.
But, I think, you know, last week when you look at it, you know, 46 plays, nothing's going to be what you want. I mean, just the rhythm of how an offense moves and being on the field and whether it's the first half with the interceptions or the second half with the first series of the second half is a nine and a half minute drive that, you know, just ate up a lot of clock. I'm like, nine and a half minutes, this game's about over, it's hard to score, we got 31 on the board already, so, you know, you guys can have that.
It's not Terrence Enos’ first start, but what do you say to a guy who doesn't have a ton of starting experience going into a big game like this?
Narduzzi: You know what, I don't have to say anything to it. Let me just tell you, if there's an offensive lineman that just continues to get better every day, like, you know, it's Terrence Enos. Like, I watched him practice today. You know, we have what we call an ACC championship period every day, where we go ones on ones. And I'm watching Terrence Enos get off the ball and I'm like, holy cow, this dude. Like, sometimes when you get that role, and you have control, and it's like, hey, I'm the guy, you know, he's got a different attitude right now, as opposed to preparing like the backup left tackle. He's preparing better.
I'm excited about what Terrence Enos can do for us, and, you know, again, both tackles will have - they’ve got four edge rushers that are really good. So they're gonna have their work cut out for them this week, too. So they'll have to play well.
Are they mostly getting pressure with four? Are they trying to bring extra rushers?
Narduzzi: They'll bring extra rushers. Probably a 25% blitz team. I mean, they'll bring both free safeties. So, you know, those safeties, you watch them walk up there, they're coming for a reason. So they'll bring, you know, safety blitzes. So they'll bring a little bit of everything. I'm sure they'll have something special for us.
What do you guys have the key on to create turnovers against them? Their quarterback threw three interceptions last week. Is it just sort of sticking to your plan, or are there different keys you guys have to switch up?
Narduzzi: You know, it's just, you know, we didn't plan on having, you know, five interceptions last week. You don't plan on that. It's a play, it's really about execution. And then those come, you know, but if you start to worry about like, you know, getting interceptions or I gotta turn them over, things don't work out that way and then you're missing tackles - you know, stop them from getting first downs, be good on third down. But execute every play, take one play at a time and execute. That's what it comes down to.
If the interceptions come, they come. But like to have five in a game is good, and again, SMU had six in the game. So I'm assuming that, you know, they got cleaned up this week and they'll be a lot better with protecting the ball.
I guess this is your first Saturday night primetime game of the season. Is there a little bit of different preparation for you guys, or is it Wednesday?
Narduzzi: Not really, I mean, Thursday night, Friday night, we're blind to what the day is. For us, that was really Saturday night, last Thursday night, as far as how our schedule works.
So the day doesn't matter, our guys aren't looking at the calendar going, there's an S instead of a T, or an R, or whatever you use as far as, you know, the days of the week. So, you know, it's Saturday night.
How much do you think over the last ten years you've used disrespect as a motivational tactic with the team?
Narduzzi: You know, I don't count them up, but I want our guys to play angry. I want them to play with an attitude and a chip on their shoulders all the time. So we'll find different ways to piss them off and get them angry and feel disrespected. So, I don't know.
How do you balance that though, like week to week? Because, you know, you use that, you did the disrespect thing one week, you might not hit as hard the next week, or the third week, or the fourth week. But, you know, finding different ways to motivate as a coach.
Narduzzi: Yep, exactly right.
I mean, there's different, I mean, every week's different. I mean, every week's a little bit different, and, you know, our motto for the year is prove it - that's right there. So, you know, just find a way to get it done, and prove who you are week in and week out. Because nobody cares what happened in the first seven games, okay? In the first nine weeks of the season. We're in the week ten already, and all our focus is on one game. So, you know, the motivation, you know, if you need motivated, and you need a word, Chris, you know, Chris and Chris, you know, if you need somebody to get you mad - it's about the facts of the game. There’s nothing that I'm going to say or one of our coaches is going to say that's going to get these guys revved up, ready to play.
The game in itself, going to Dallas, playing a really good SMU football team, that's all you need. Like, if you have a heartbeat, that's what you need.
There's that clip, and somebody brought it up this week. I think it might have been the Penn State game in '16, you're like, you know, they don't respect you, and they're gonna find out, you know, a big locker room speech, something like that.
Narduzzi: It worked that day, right?
Are you the kind of person who, before you walk into the locker room, you're thinking, all right, this is what I'm going to hit these guys with, or do you just walk in and open your mouth, and-
Narduzzi: Well, you always have a plan. I mean, you got a plan, I mean, you know, that’s - you know, half the head coach's job is to make sure you have a plan. What is the word of the day? What's the, you know, we have a focus every day that we're focused on, and there's always a rhyme and reason for what we do. You can say the wrong things week in and week out. So there's always, anytime I talk to a team, there's a plan.
It's a well thought-out plan of how we do it, what we do, what's said, what's not said.
You guys talked about in past games, you know, saying that Eli needs to take what's there more often, he needs to see the field. He's looking for the big play too much, and just looking back at the last game, there were a couple times that he, you know, kind of like pumped it going deep, because he realized it wasn't there, and then it kind of led to him either getting sacked, having to move around a bit.
How have you seen him take that on this week, while also dealing with injury, as far as trying to make sure he embraces that going into this game?
Narduzzi: Yeah, I mean, he knows what he has to do. I think experience is the best teacher. I mean, you can do it on, you know, the scout team every day, and again, our defensive line gives our quarterback - our rock defense gives our quarterback a great look every week and our offense a great look every week, but it's not the same.
You can't get it like a game like unless we went against our defense every day, you know, and then you wouldn't get the defensive look that you need to look at. So you find that out on game time, but that comes with experience - you can know when you say, I know this is what I have to do, then you have to go out and do it. And it has to click, and to me it happens, you know, because it becomes second nature to you.
I mean, habits are built on repetitions, and I think that's the main thing. It's reps, they may go do the same thing, it's okay. That's what, you know, that's why they call him a redshirt freshman, right? I mean, he's not a senior. You can't expect a redshirt freshman to play like a senior every day. It's just not gonna happen. Kenny Pickett didn't play like that.
Will you use a disrespect card this week?
Narduzzi: No, why would I, for what?
I think you guys are, AP-wise in history, you guys are tied for the lowest ranking of a 7-0 team in the AP.
Narduzzi: I don't look at all. I mean, I don't look at any of that. So again, those rankings don't mean anything, guys. So don't get your feelings hurt. I don't think our kids' feelings are hurt. I don't think they feel disrespected. They're not talking about it. It's about one game. And if you start thinking about other things that don't matter, you included, guys, get your heads together.
Get your minds right, and focus on the things that really matter. The things that matter is you guys call a good game on Saturday, make sure you get down there, make sure you got your raincoats, Jerry.
You worry about that and you forget your raincoat. You worry about that, you don't have your gloves. You worry about the things that you can control. And we don't control all that stuff on the outside. That's just, that's a useless time.
And you don't wanna spend your energy on useless things that don't matter. It doesn't matter. We take care of our business.
Everything will work out the way we want it to. So we'll talk, you can talk about all the disrespect and how wrong everybody was after the season, all right?
