With the Atlantic Ocean at his back, Pat Narduzzi looked happy and relaxed Monday morning while sitting on the porch of his Rhode Island vacation home.
“I feel good about everything this time of year,” Pitt’s coach told ACC Network hosts Mark Packer and Wes Durham during a live interview.
But Narduzzi has since returned to Pittsburgh to begin preparing for college football’s uncertain future.
There are tense times ahead for Narduzzi, his team and university. It’s time to start putting the Panthers back together in the midst of a pandemic that wiped out most of spring drills and threatens the very existence of the 2020 college football season. There’s talk of the ACC eliminating non-conference games and reconfiguring the schedule, but Commissioner John Swofford will wait, evaluate the situation and make no decisions until the end of July.
“I know we’re in a crazy world out there,” Narduzzi said. “We’re hoping things go in the direction we want it to go.
“Hopefully, some decisions will be made here before we get to the month of August as far as what and who.”
Narduzzi said his entire team is back on campus where players were subject to a 14-day quarantine before starting informal, voluntary drills in groups of 10. They’ll ramp it up to 25 this week and next, he said.
Narduzzi was hoping for 50 in a group, but a recent surge in covid-19 cases in Pennsylvania put the brakes on that plan, he added.
Nonetheless, Narduzzi was in a feisty mood, taking exception to ACC Network analyst E.J. Manuel’s ranking of the conference’s quarterbacks.
Manuel, a former Florida State quarterback and No. 1 draft choice of the Buffalo Bills in 2013, ranked Pitt senior Kenny Pickett No. 8 on his top 10.
“Another chip for the shoulder,” Narduzzi said. “I don’t know what video he’s watching. Kenny Pickett is an underrated guy, in my opinion. That guy is going to play a long time in the NFL. That guy’s as good as any (quarterback) that I coached.
“Sorry, E.J., I had to call you out on that one.”
Narduzzi pointed out that much of the offensive burden was thrust upon Pickett last season “because we really didn’t have a run game.”
“I’m looking forward to adding a run game to the pass game and giving Kenny a little bit of help.”
Later in the interview, Packer heaped significant praise on Pitt’s defensive line that features ends Patrick Jones II and Rashad Weaver and tackles Jaylen Twyman and Keyshon Camp.
“I’m not so sure you don’t have best defensive line in the country,” Packer told Narduzzi. “I didn’t say the ACC. I said the country.”
Narduzzi pointed out that Pitt’s line “has all the workings to be that.” But he added “how we jel together is going to be critical.”
The next several weeks will be an important bonding period after the team was apart for the better part of three months.
“I worry about just being away from each other,” Narduzzi said. “Chemistry is everything.”
Pitt is one of only three teams in the nation — defending champion LSU and USC are the others — that placed three players on the Bednarik Award preseason watch list for the best defender in the nation (Jones, Twyman and safety Paris Ford).
“Paris Ford has the juice to bring everybody together,” Narduzzi said.
With a veteran defense and a big senior class, the coach enters his sixth season at Pitt with high hopes. But he does worry “that their heads don’t get so big that they think they’re just going to line up and be there.”
“To me, you’re only as good as the last snap you took. We have a ton of talent. They have to play as a unit.
“I’ve played with lesser talent than we have out there (now) and played good defense. It’s how you play as a team.”
