Pat Narduzzi spoke before Pittsburgh media via Zoom on Tuesday, clarifying some controversial comments he made at a 2019 coaches' clinic about former Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Canada. The comments came from a video posted from The SEC Podcast, where Narduzzi could be seen making obvious references to Canada's career.
"I had an offensive coordinator," Narduzzi said before an audience. "I won't even mention his name. At Pitt, he spent eight months with me and left to go take one of those big jobs for 1.2 million dollars. I told him, 'I don't think you want to go.' He said, 'It's a lot of money.' I got him a million at our place. Which is just crazy, like are you sh***ing me? Really? I don't even think he was worth a million. He wasn't even that good. I told him it was stupid to go. I said, 'you go there and you're starting your whole career over again. You stay here for another year, have a good year, and I'll send you out of here as a head coach.' No patience. Have patience in the profession."
You can watch the full video here:
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi does a number here on Matt Canada.
— that SEC podcast (@thatSECpodcast) August 31, 2020
Canada left Pitt for LSU but as we all know, that didn’t last very longpic.twitter.com/uBn7UW6QSt
Narduzzi's comments in the video about how the coach he mentioned was fired within a year and had three jobs in three years was a definite reference to Canada who coached at Pitt in 2016, LSU in 2017 and Maryland in 2018 before not coaching at any university in 2019.
The comments were a clear shot at Canada, who in one season got Pitt's offense to be the second-highest scoring offense in the ACC in 2017, averaging 40.9 points per game. That rate was better than the eventual national champion Clemson Tigers who were led by Deshaun Watson at quarterback.
"Matt Canada, our relationship has never changed," Narduzzi said Tuesday. "I love Matt Canada. He's an unbelievable offensive coordinator. I'm happy he's with the black and gold next door. The guy did a tremendous job as our offensive coordinator. I didn't want to lose him. That's why I tried to pay him a million dollars. People make decisions. I didn't see the video, but from I heard it sounded like it was at a clinic. I just remember somebody asked a question and I just rolled on and told a story. To me, it's real stories and just how I feel. It's an opinion only about being patient."
Narduzzi continued his explanation of the comment, clarifying that the Raiders' current tight end coach, Frank Smith, agreed with his point in the video.
"I had an NFL coach, a kid named Frank Smith, tight ends coach who coached at Miami Ohio texted me yesterday that he enjoyed my point about patience. Anybody can look at it any way you want. Everybody wants to twist words around. I love Matt Canada, the guy's awesome. But like I said, the guy is going to find his path one way or another and make a lot of money doing it. I know he wants to be a head coach and I love Matt. If Matt took it the wrong way, I hope he didn't. I haven't talked to him since because we're busy. In our world that doesn't matter."
Whether or not someone else twisted Narduzzi's words, his comments were plain in the video.
Saying that Canada should've never left is one thing. But saying he wasn't good enough to earn the offer that you admit your program made for him to stay comes off disingenuous at best. Especially when in that season, Pitt's ranking as the No. 2 offense in the ACC was followed with being ranked 13th in 2017, 12th in 2018 and 13th in 2019.
Maybe Narduzzi holds a big regret that he couldn't convince Canada to stay and believes Pitt could've been a much better team with his schematics on offense. But even if that's the case, making comments joking about the career of a former employee whose department thrived under his watch does not come off as the most professional.