Narduzzi: 'Point the finger at me' over N.C. State loss

On Monday Pitt began preparing for its Saturday 4 p.m. game against Boston College at Alumni Stadium after the team's first loss of the season to North Carolina State Saturday and being dropped from the Associated Press Top 25 Poll Sunday.

Pat Narduzzi said that his players took the loss hard, and that its the most mature response he's seen in a loss from college players in his time coaching.

"It's been a tough 24 hours and we put the chapter to sleep last night as a team," Narduzzi said Monday. "We watched the tape and looked at all the mistakes we made. You have a loss like that and you have to learn from it. Across my 30 years of coaching, I don't know if I'm seen take a loss that maturely. Last night I was in a team meeting where they were as quiet as I've seen. That tells me it hurts. That's what you want as a coach."

The Panthers dropped to 3-1 on the season, 2-1 in ACC, just after beating No. 24 Louisville the week prior, which was their first win over a ranked ACC opponent since beating No. 23 Virginia in November of 2018. Narduzzi says that disappointment caused a different response to losses he's seen his players have to other losses in past seasons.

"For years I would hop on a bus after a loss and they're clowning around," Narduzzi said. "As a coach this is our life. But with players they can go back to normal life. But this loss really hit our kids in the stomach. Sometimes you need a wake up call to figure out what's real and what's fake and who you should listen to so that you don't let outside noise affect you. But I think our guys learned from it. They're focused and locked in so I like where we are after that loss. If a loss can be good for you, I think this could be good for us. We'll see how we respond because that'll be the key for us in practice. Form our history, we always respond and that's what I expect. We have great senior leadership on both sides of the ball."

Historically under Narduzzi Pitt has been so-so following midseason losses. His Panthers are 14-12 in the week following a loss that didn't end the season. But 2019 was the best year Pitt's had responding to losses with a 4-1 record in the subsequent games.

When asked how he could tell how serious his players were taking Saturday's loss, Narduzzi said it was because he could see the same anger in them that he feels himself after disappointments. 

"Because I know I feel," Narduzzi said when asked how he knew how his players felt. "You get pissed off. You're pissed about what happened. Like I said, I get mad when they don't get mad and they're laughing and giggling. It's important to those guys for our senior leadership and our captains. They're locked into business and it's a good thing because they care. If they don't care and they're all laughing and giggling I'll walk in and ask them, 'do you know what just happened 24 hours ago?' But that's the age we're in. Kids let it go quickly and adults don't because it's our life. It's what we love to do and what our passion is to go out, coach and win. Our kids want to win."

Speaking more about his captains, Narduzzi doubled down about their leadership in getting the team focused on Boston College and took responsibility for Pitt's failures against N.C. State.

"I talk to captains usually Monday. We'll text back and forth, I don't always have a captain meeting but I want to hear they're feel of the team because we've got good leadership. They were locked in and they understand how many sacrifices they've made this year with the pandemic they're in. They're thinking 'we're doing all this and we can't go out and play like that. It comes down to getting their mind right and I obviously didn't do a great job of getting them mentally prepared to come in and play that football. Sometimes you have to learn by fire and I think that's what happened."

The most specific observation Narduzzi gave in Pitt's lack of preparation was how the team committed five offsides penalties in the first half against N.C. State and how that disrupted the aggressive pass rush Pitt's defense has relied upon in its first three wins. The Panthers only recorded two sacks against N.C. State, a season low.

"Probably because we were undisciplined early," Narduzzi said why Pitt's pass rush wasn't effective against N.C. State. "We did a poor job preparing our kids for the double-clap cadence. We hadn't seen a lot of it going and we did a poor job and we'll never let that happen again. Clap or not, hard count or not, we've got to work it every week. Our kids have been so used to taking off and going and they slowed us down. Too many critical errors and pre-snap penalties. That slowed us down and they got the ball out quick. I told you Devin Leary's a good football player and a good quarterback. I knew early in the week he was going to be their man. North Carolina State is going to win a lot of football games this year."

When it came to Pitt's three pass interference penalties, Narduzzi seemed more defensive of his players and critical of the ACC officials and Pitt's own coaching.

"I have no idea," Narduzzi said when asked about how Pitt can adjust to the pass interference penalties called against them Saturday. "I"m confused there. It's hard to play defense if they aren't going to call things both ways. We'll just have to coach them better and lean on them and do a better job physically. We're capable, we've done it before and we'll go back to it again. We'll have to play a lot tighter in our coverage from what it was last week. We're going to have to play the No. 1 receiver a lot better after getting pushed off on last week. We're going to have to fight into that and coach the heck out of that this week. That happened a few years back with Virginia Tech when they came in on a Thursday night and we saw it. We're going to see a lot more push off and catch the ball the rest of the season. We'll coach it and get better at that. Throw that on the coaches' plays as far as what could've gone better."

The other place Narduzzi emphasized where Pitt must seriously improve is in its run game that only gained 92 yards on 37 carries for a 2.5 average, with quarterback Kenny Pickett tying with running back Vincent Davis to lead the team with 40 rushing yards.

"We've been playing 3-down football teams the past couple weeks and that'll change against a 4-down team in Boston College," Narduzzi said about defensive fronts his offensive line has faced. "We didn't get much movement up front. What's the reason? I don't know, but I think our O-line played average or below average. We out-rushed them, which is funny when you look at North Carolina State getting second in the ACC in rushing average. There are some good things going on but we've got to finish and give those other guys some credit. They had a good scheme and a nose tackle who's 245 lbs. probably. We just played average up front so if we keep playing average we won't run the ball very well and that all starts up front. On the O-line and the D-line if you're going to run or stop the run you better win up front. We've got to get more movement. We were on the right guys most of the time but we've got to move the line of scrimmage."

Pitt's best success on the ground came in the second half when Mark Whipple dialed up more passing plays. Davis would have two runs that gained nine and 15 yards in the fourth quarter, which made up more than half of his total in the game. Narduzzi said using the pass to set up the run was something Pitt could do, but wouldn't commit to that being a staple of his offense moving forward.

"If we're not running the ball well, we're going to go the pass and that'll set up our run game," Narduzzi said. "Either one could set it up. Last year our pass game set up our run game. If our O-line isn't knocking them off the ball and there's nothing to go to then we'll go to what's working. I want first downs and touchdowns. I don't care, run it, pass it, get it in the end zone. I evaluate game by game. Our identity is that we scored 29 points which I hope would be enough to win a football game. Blame me, if I don't go for it on fourth and one and we kick a field goal maybe we win the game. Maybe that changes it but I felt like we should get it in with four chances at the one. I may be a stubborn head coach but if I didn't go for it on fourth and one you guys would yell at me for not going for it so either way you lose. We expect to score touchdowns."

Pickett led the Panthers with two rushing touchdowns that came on quarterback sneaks, but Narduzzi also mentioned Pickett's willingness to run as an asset and something that needs to be pulled back upon.

"Kenny's a tough kid," Narduzzi said of his quarterback. "He wants the ball. Matter of fact, Kenny pulled a couple zone reads he wasn't supposed to trying to make a play. That's wrong. Those are the little things and details he's got to read and not just say I'm going to be the hero. But Kenny's a tough guy and you do want the ball in his hands. We've got no regrets. Kenny's tough and you worry about the late shots he's taken. We had a late hit on the quarterback but it was one step and I don't even know how to coach that."

Narduzzi did praise Pickett for his performance with his 22 completions on 39 attempts for 411 yards, a career best, and a touchdown pass.

"I'm happy with the way Kenny played Saturday and played well enough to win," Narduzzi said. "Maybe he best game this year so far. The pass protection was great by the O-line as well. We pass protected pretty darn well, Kenny threw it well and receivers caught the ball most of the time but we're not perfect. Nor are those guys who played on Sunday as I saw dropped balls as I walked in and out of my office."

For Pitt to bounce back this week, Narduzzi will have to reenergize his defense's pass rush and find some consistent element of success for his team. But he made sure to take responsibility for neither his offense or defense finding any consistency against N.C. State.

"Our job is to score more points than the opponent and we've done that a good part of the time and there's sometimes we don't but so has everyone else in the country," Narduzzi said about how his coaches will help his players rebound. "It's a team game, we've got to play well in all three phases, I'll tell you that. There's no finger-pointing over here, you guys can point fingers if you want. This is the guy right here, if you want to point the finger, point it at me."

• Pitt announced a Noon kickoff time for its October 17th game against Miami at Hard Rock Stadium:

• Pitt's transfer receiver from Maryland, D.J. Turner, was named ACC receiver of the week after taking eight catches for 186 yards:

• Narduzzi did offer praise for his special teams unit, led by kicker Alex Kessman making all three of his field goal attempts.

"I thought special teams played good enough to win with the kicking of Alex Kessman and punting of Kirk Christodoulou," Narduzzi said. "There were a lot of bright spots with young guys contributing on special teams. Guys like Rashad Battle who I've praised."

• When asked about how his players will approach their first road trip when they face Boston College this Saturday, Narduzzi downplayed the challenge and praised Pitt's COVID-19 testing from MAKO Medical.

"It is what it is," Narduzzi said about the team's first road game. "I think our kids enjoy going on the road to a different atmosphere. It's not like we have to deal with any crowd noise. Field is the same size and it's playing the game of football. The biggest challenge is traveling with the pandemic going on. You've got two hour flights and you're wearing it the entire time during the game. Chancellor [Patrick D. Gallagher] said something today in a head coaches meeting that I thought was really good. He said it took 50 years to learn about the importance of a seat belt. Now we've got cars beeping at you until you put your seat belt on, maybe you need a beeping device to remind you of your mask. We've got to wear our masks for two hours on the flight. We've stayed in our bubble but I don't know how the flights work, so we've got to pretend like everyone's got COVID-19 to protect ourselves."

"It will be wherever's most convenient," Narduzzi continued when asked about where Pitt will get tested before its first road game. "MAKO's done an incredible job and eliminated a lot of stresses. The results are coming back whether it's a Sunday's test, a Wednesday test or a Friday test where you're not every day on edge. Back in camp it was like seven days a week and you couldn't catch your breath. But MAKO has been incredible as far as how they operate, the diligence they get our results back and the quality of that company. The place where we'll get tested will be right here in our facility in the morning, then by the time we get there we'll have results in the evening. We're using MAKO for all three weekly tests now."