Panthers focused on self-improvement amid COVID scares

The Rooney Sports Complex has one head coach in Mike Tomlin whose team can't play this weekend because of another NFL team's COVID-19 complications, and another head coach in Pat Narduzzi who is trying to keep his student athletes from getting too distracted from the rapid changes to professional and collegiate sports that compound on each other every week.

Like the Steelers, Pitt is 3-0 and wants to stay focused on the task at hand to remain undefeated. But that's understandably more difficult when every day there's a new issue involving the pandemic. 

On Monday it was Pitt working with the Pennsylvania Health Department to allow parents to attend games at Heinz Field; Tuesday it was the first outbreak for an NFL team with the Titans; Wednesday it was the first NFL postponement of maybe a day or two; and Thursday it became the complete postponement of an NFL game for at least a few weeks.

All of that impacting a team that shares their facility with Pitt, and the reality of what can happen to football if teams aren't careful. Narduzzi took the time on Thursday to address how that reality isn't lost on his players.

"Had a really nice week of practice," Narduzzi said via Zoom on Thursday. "Guys are ready to go. Just talked to them about, 'Hey, you gotta play this game like it's our last game.' You never know when it's your last game as a coach or a player for so many reasons. You look at the Steelers and obviously they're not. It reminds you how fragile the world is right now. We're blessed to have the opportunity to get number four in this week. Just need to do the little details the right way. Should be a fun game. I think our kids are excited to get out there at Heinz Field at noon."

That fragility is something Narduzzi has talked about since the start of the season and how it's his job to make sure his players are prepared for the challenges COVID-19 brings to preparing and playing each week. Narduzzi says that even with the glaring example of an NFL team having their game postponed, the message hasn't changed from his staff to his players.

"We do that all the time," Narduzzi said when asked if he's emphasized safety even more to his players after the Steelers' postponed game. "That's the name of the game, keep them updated. I don't know if they see everything that's going on in life, whether it's Texas, Tennessee or Florida. It's my job to make sure they're informed about what's going on and how fragile this whole things is." 

Pitt's undefeated season can be derailed and subtracted from if even one player makes a mistake in contracting COVID-19 and unknowingly spreading the coronavirus among the team. It's that fragility which uses to remind his players of how quickly a team can go from being on a roll to their season having to be interrupted.

"It can be one guy," Narduzzi continued. "We don't know how Tennessee got it, now all of a sudden two more guys come down with it today. It just keeps spreading. I'm always constantly harping on the details that we wash our hands, wear our masks and keep our distances. And even when you do that, like I'm sure that Tennessee was doing that, somebody got in the bubble. Somehow, someway, whenever it was, it can happen that quickly. You can go from being very good to not very good."

But through the challenges, the reminders of their situation and the increased discipline and awareness forced on the players to be able to play through this pandemic, Narduzzi does see his players rising to the challenge as an example of them valuing the opportunity to play NCAA football.

"I don't know if it makes it more enjoyable having to worry about all the issues," Narduzzi said. "But it's caused our kids not to take things for granted. We get the opportunity to go play. I think the players, the team and the staff have realized we have to take this one day at a time and be grateful we have these opportunities to go play."

Added to the irregular stress of the pandemic are the daily concerns over the AP Poll rankings, where Pitt was ranked No. 21 last week and beat a ranked opponent in No. 24 Louisville, but dropped three spots to be ranked No. 24 this week after the poll included Big Ten and PAC-12 teams again. 

It was something that even team captain and redshirt senior safety Damar Hamlin commented on Sunday on Twitter about his disapproval of the new rankings:

But what Hamlin tweets on his own time is his business. Narduzzi says he sees none of that concern his players when they're with him or in the facility preparing for their opponent each week.

"I don't even ask about it, to be honest," Narduzzi said when asked if his players have come to him about the rankings. "I'm sure they tweet stuff, but who knows? To me it's about if you're worried about that, you better be worried about this Wolf Pack that's coming into town. When your mind goes in different directions, it's a distraction. If on Monday or Tuesday they look at it, but I really haven't felt it or heard it. From what I gathered they added more teams that hadn't played a game. You can understand why it would happen. I guess they added the new teams. I haven't even looked at it, but I'm sure they added Ohio State. But teams haven't played a game yet, which is odd, but what are you going to do?" 

Narduzzi says what the Panthers can do is take it out on their next opponent.

"It doesn't matter," Narduzzi continued. "Just win and everything takes care of itself, one game at a time. I like to play angry and pissed off, but you have to be angry at the team you're going to line across from. I like them to play with a chip, but where is the chip focused on? To me, this team is coming into our backyard at Heinz Field and want to take something away from you. Our kids have to come out and play like that."

How they play like that is to focus on the details of their own work. Instead of worrying about things they can't control, Narduzzi is more concerned about his team improving on defense at stopping third downs.

And that would require even more focus because as of Thursday, Pitt has the best third down defense in the ACC, having allowed only seven conversions on 41 attempts for a percentage of only 17 percent.

"No," Narduzzi said when asked about if he's concerned over another distraction when it comes to whether parents will attend Pitt's game against North Carolina State this Saturday at Noon at Heinz Field. "I'm worried about what we're doing on third downs and getting our defense off the field. I'm worried about scoring more when we get in the red zone. We'll let the medical professionals take care of that. When we get word, we get word. We'll just focus on what we have to do. We can't control any of that, I'm not calling anyone, I'm just worried about putting a football team on the field Saturday."

And despite his defense being the best in their conference at stopping opponents on third downs, Narduzzi put a major emphasis on the unit cleaning up things he saw on film even when they were making big plays.

"The biggest thing is when you can make plays, I look at details," Narduzzi said. "I go back and look at third down on defense. We're not as detailed as we need to be, and we're not doing things great. As good as we've been as far as the stats on third downs, we're missing details. You might not see them with the naked eye, but I see them when I watch the film. I see what we're doing well and what we're not doing well. We're getting sacks, but I see this isn't good enough or that isn't good enough, and we need to be more detailed. Sooner or later it's going to get you. The defense is pretty good. The biggest indicator was facing an explosive Louisville offense and we got eight three-and-outs out of 14 series. That's over half the time. That's a sign of good defense. When you go out there for three plays, sit on the bench and talk about it, and then do it again, and over half of your series are three-and-outs, that's pretty good." 

Despite that success, Narduzzi is pumping the message that a previous game's victories mean nothing when his defense has to go out and prove it again the next week.

"But it doesn't matter what you did last week," Narduzzi continued. "It matters what you do now. That's why I don't want to sit their and characterize the defense right now because it doesn't really matter. I've seen defenses go out there and dominate one week then make you want to throw up the next. We'll find out what we've got this week. They're trending in the right direction and playing with an attitude right now, and that's the important thing."

Leading that success is the nation's best pass rush with a dominant defensive line and an athletic linebacker group to back them up. Narduzzi's defense has given up only a single field goal when it comes to points allowed in the second half so far this year. That success he attributes to the adjustments and intensity of his defensive coordinator Randy Bates.

"Randy Bates does an outstanding job, as does our whole defensive staff," Narduzzi said in praise. "Like I've said before, I don't call any defenses, it's Randy Bates' defense. Randy's intense. The thing I love about him is he's detailed and consistent. It's not like he's worried about turnovers today and then worried about something else tomorrow. You've got to be worried about the same things every day and stay on them. That's the only way they happen. He's very similar to me in that way because he doesn't give up on stuff and he doesn't let it go. He's on it all the time and he's got a lot of energy." 

Narduzzi even went so far as to take away the responsibility of the only three points allowed in the second half by Pitt's defense from Bates and put it on himself or a special teams mistake.

"The three points we gave up was my fault because of the fake punt last week," Narduzzi said. "So it should've been zero. Put the three on me."

Helping with the defense's third down success hasn't just been the star players like redshirt seniors Patrick Jones II and Rashad Weaver who each have the second most sacks in the country with 3.5 through three games. But also depth players like redshirt freshman safety Brandon Hill.

"Brandon Hill is a football player," Narduzzi said. "If I had to pick a guy that has a not stop motor, is physical, is smart and is fun to coach, it's him. He's going to be a future great safety here. He gets to play in our Delta formation and backs up Paris Ford. We don't feel bad about putting him in any time or any place because he's a special player. He did a really nice job on third down. Obviously we've had success there. He's played well and will continue to play well for us. He's physical, he's tough, he's going to be a really great player for us."

• Narduzzi spoke about Pitt's running game continuing to be a running back by committee situation. But he did note that the current starter in sophomore Vincent Davis and freshman Israel "Izzy" Abanikanda are making strides.

"Vincent Davis and Izzy are back there," Narduzzi said about which running backs stood out in practice this week. "Daniel Carter I expect to be back and ready to roll as well. We'll work by committee and hand that ball off. I've liked where our run game is going. I've done a lot of self-scouting about what we've done in the run game whether it's when the quarterback is under center, shotgun, pistol and all those things that North Carolina State might look to find our tendencies. We've built up some tendencies, so now we'll try to break them on Saturday."

• Senior running back A.J. Davis left during the second quarter against Louisville due to an apparent shoulder injury and didn't return. But without giving too many specifics, Narduzzi did suggest his recovery had gone well and that he could be back to playing very soon.

"A.J. Davis is a lot better right now than he was this Saturday," Narduzzi said. "I'll put it that way. Expect to have him back very, very soon. Maybe this weekend? You never know."

• Narduzzi did offer specifics on another injured offensive player in redshirt junior and starting right tackle Gabe Houy. Houy had surgery during the offseason and was hurt for the Louisville game, causing legitimate inquiry as to whether his injury aggravated and lingering issues from the offseason. 

"Gabe practiced this week," Narduzzi said. "His injury had nothing to do with his off-season shoulder surgery. Gabe practiced this week and is ready to roll. None of our injuries have been season enders."

That last sentence is good news for Pitt, because senior tight end Lucas Krull and redshirt sophomore Mike linebacker Wendell Davis both suffered injuries and missed Pitt's game against Louisville. Both players also have been removed from the team's depth chart for at least this week, so it was a legitimate concern whether that meant their seasons were over.