Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi spoke on Wednesday at ACC Media Days.
Opening Statement:
Good afternoon, everybody. I can't see anybody out there, those lights are bright. Again, good afternoon. We are excited at the University of Pittsburgh to be here today. It's, again, the start of the 2025 season. We bring in a healthy, fresh, energized football team that has a ton of optimism going into this '25 season. We returned a lot of great players on our football team, I think, number one.
“Number two, I think we bring back an entire coaching staff of ten guys. That doesn't happen all the time. So to have our entire coaching staff back at Pitt, we're excited.
“It's a heck of a conference. Commissioner's done a great job. I'm blessed to be going into my 11th season at Pitt under the leadership of our chancellor and our Athletic Director, Allen Greene. They've been outstanding. We look forward to an incredible season and being back here in Charlotte come December.”
On how he’s addressing the Transfer Portal, NIL and all the new changes to college football:
”It's a 24/7 job here nowadays. It's a little different than when I arrived in Pittsburgh in 2015. I think there's so many other options on the board as far as what you're doing, how you're doing it. That's why you surround yourself with incredible staff. That's why I'm so fortunate to have Joan Gabel there to help guide from above and Allen Greene and everybody in our athletic department helping you, like, hey, we've got suggestions. You've got tools.
“A head football coach without an offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator or special teams coordinator isn't very good. You can't do it by yourself. We have tools. All the things, the different circumstances that happen in college football, I think, number one, we're working towards a better path in college football. I think we're on the mend a little bit. I think the House settlement, the revenue sharing is a better model. We get everything else under control, I feel good.
“Again, my job is to coach. Ultimately in the end, I want to coach these guys. This is where I have fun, and that remains my job. I tell the guys all the time, I feel like I'm the Mike Tomlin on the other side of the building. I want to be a football coach. I don't want to be in administrative. If I wanted to be administrative, I'd go be an AD. I want to be a football coach. I've got other people to do some of the things I don't want to do. I know what I want to do. I want to coach football, have relationships with my players, and I want to have fun. And that's where the fun begins.”
On the mentality he wants his team to develop in 2025:
”The overall goal is to win a championship. Our guys break down on ACC champs every day. I said yesterday, hey, when we break down on that, it's July, we're a week away from camp opening up, like, you'd better mean it. Just don't say it to say it, it's say it to mean it.
“In the last ten years, there's only been three teams to win an ACC Championship, and we're one of them. That's the goal every single year. I thought we could do it last year. I thought we could do it the year before, and I think we can do it now. We have a talented football team. Most of our weapons are back. We did not lose anybody that we wanted to keep in the transfer portal. We've enhanced our roster.
“We stay healthy, I think we have an opportunity to win a championship, period. That's the goal. When we win a championship, I tell the players all the time, we're going to the playoffs. That's your only guaranteed way of getting in the playoffs. I don't care, 12, 15, 18; it doesn't matter. You win an ACC Championship, we're in the playoffs, and that's where the fun begins.”
On being on the record that he wants to play West Virginia and Penn State every year:
”Yes. We'll stick with West Virginia today because they're on our schedule and we get to play them Game 3 on 9/13. I think with the way the college landscape is going, the conferences have kind of exploded, and we've got teams from the West Coast that are in the Atlantic Coast Conference. I think those regional rivalry games are critical.
“Our players look forward to playing West Virginia every year. That's a rivalry game that will end after this year. I think maybe three years it picks back up. So we do have a four-game stretch. If you guys have any power to see if we can get them in the next three years, we're willing to make some movements in our schedule and try to get that done. I would love to play them every year.
“To have at least one rivalry game, which is West Virginia right now, we'd love to have them on. Again, that's what the game is all about. Those regional rivalries, it brings fans in. The fans love it. Our players love it. It's intense. There's no love lost. That's what it's all about. That's college football.”
On what he’d like to see changed on the college football calendar:
”I was going to see if we could get 13 months a year. That would help. That would keep us from having to make changes anywhere else. 13 months, wouldn't that be great? We could really spread things out.
“June might be the worst month of the year. It used to be a pretty good month, then you add in camps all over the place, camps on your campus. You throw in the possibility of having three or four official visit weekends. We also like to coach, too, and we like to have workouts with our players and be around them and go watch them in the weight room. That doesn't happen anymore like it used to. There was times we used to go stand down in the weight room and watch our guys for an hour. Our head DB coach would go down there and watch them and talk to them and just have fun with them.
“It doesn't happen like it used to be. Thank God, we have an incredible strength staff to take care of that and be with our players every day.”
On quarterback Eli Holstein and his defense:
”The defense is not okay yet. We still have a long way to go. Got that, Kyle? We can make improvements in every phase of our game. There's three phases -- offense, defense, and special teams -- that are important. We've got to take care of the inches better and finish a lot of different things.
“Going back to the first part of the question, Eli Holstein had a great off-season. He had an incredible summer with our football team. He went through all of spring ball, got 15 days in. I can't tell you he was completely healthy. He was still banged up from an injury during the season. Took him a little longer than we hoped. But he is back, 224 pounds, ripped up.
“We're excited about round two with him. We didn't expect -- last year, I sat at this podium talking about a different guy and did not expect him to take the reins like he did a year ago. He is the ultimate competitor.
“I think, when game day comes around, that's his deal. Then when it comes down to fourth quarter when the game's on the line, that's a guy you want taking every snap and touching that ball when it counts. We've got a ton of respect for him. There's pressures on him.
“Again, I think year two with him under center or maybe behind center, I should say -- we don't go under center very often. But with him back there, it's going to be even better. We're excited about the future with him, and we're excited about the other guys in that room, as well. We've got a couple of really good football players behind him. Mason Heintschel and Cole Gonzalez are two guys that are going to be competing, as well, in that room.”
On having elite linebacker play throughout the years at Pitt:
”We have two All-Americans up here today, and one of them is an All-American linebacker, Kyle Louis. On the other side of the field with him is Rasheem Biles; Heem, nickname. And then in the middle, Braylan Lovelace. So those three might be the three best linebackers -- I'll say that, the three best linebackers in the country on the field at the same time. They'll be on the field every down.
“They don't come off the field on third down. We don't take one of our linebackers out on third down and put a DB in there and go nickel. We take out a D-lineman. We're not taking any of those linebackers off the field. Matter of fact, we may play with five or six linebackers this year. That linebacker corps, Coach Manalac's done a great job of not only recruiting but developing those guys.
“When you look at our linebacking crew, you look at the development, but I also think it's partly schemed. Some of the things we do, like when Kyle Louis goes to the field, we're going to blitz them. A lot of times with a field linebacker, we're going to find different ways to blitz them. I don't care if there's three open out there, we're going to blitz them this year. So we're going to find different ways to bring him into pressures.
“It's the aggressiveness of our defense, the opportunity to let those guys' instincts take over in a game. We're not a gap-oriented team, per se. A lot of defenses are, hey, I've got the A gap. I've got to stay in the A gap. We're in an attack front up front, and our linebackers are going to find the hole.
“Kyle Louis, you've seen him take a couple interceptions and run with the ball. He's as good as any tailback in the country, as well. He has a great ability to key the football, find the hole, and hit the guy with the ball. That ability to loosen up and just let those guys have free reins to go find the ball and find a hole, not necessarily -- I don't care if our linebackers know what gaps are. Some may not know what an A gap, B gap, C gap, or D gap is, but we want Kyle Louis to go to the ball. The ball is the main thing.
“We're aggressive with what we do, whether it's in base defense or with our pressures. We've not only had -- I'll throw this out there. We've not only had just linebackers get drafted, whether it's SirVocea Dennis, but we've had guys drafted. In my ten years, we've had 31 guys drafted. In the last five years, we've had 20 guys drafted. My first five, just 11.
“Then as we continue to recruit and develop our players, we've had 20 in the last two years, and 17 of those guys have been high school players, not transfers. Only three transfers have come in and gone off to the NFL. Again, that transfer number will probably go up because the portal has become increasingly more effective for us and for everybody in the country.
“So I think we've developed NFL talent more than anybody in the country. To me, that's a tribute to our players, their buy-in to what we do, our scheme, and again, our assistant coaches developing our players fundamentally and giving them an opportunity to make plays.”
On having Bill Belichick in the ACC:
”Is this a Pitt question, or is this a North Carolina question? Bill Belichick, one of the greatest coaches to ever coach the game. Won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots. I've enjoyed conversations with him, whether it be at Amelia Island or in Zoom calls with ACC coaches. He's a tremendous football coach, really smart.
“Again, he adds a lot of flavor and excitement to the ACC. When you look at Bill Belichick coming to the Atlantic Coast Conference, it just tells you how attractive our conference is.”
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