Monday wasn’t an ideal day for Pat Narduzzi as he lost two players from his football program.
The Panthers didn’t just lose two names on the roster; they lost players that had big roles on the offense.
At his weekly press conference, Narduzzi announced that starting left tackle Carter Warren, one of Pitt’s 2022 team captains, would be sidelined for the season with an unspecified injury. Later that night, in a move that was a surprise to many people outside the program, sophomore wide receiver Jaden Bradley announced on Twitter his intentions to transfer.
This news caught many by surprise because Bradley’s role and presence in Pitt’s offense seemed to be expanding weekly.
The million-dollar question is why would Bradley transfer right now? The sophomore from Maryland has appeared in every game so a redshirt season isn’t available to him.
Since this news broke Monday night, the popular answer from Pitt fans on Twitter, Facebook and messages boards is that Bradley left because of the big change in Pitt’s offensive philosophy under Frank Cignetti, Jr.
While that sounds reasonable, that’s not what happened in this particular case.
The bottom line is that it appears this was a mutual decision, and that Bradley may have just worn out his welcome at Pitt.
Keep in mind, Narduzzi’s team motto of “We Not Me”.
Sources tells Pittsburgh Sports Now that this is something that’s been festering for some time and things got to the point where it was best for both sides that Bradley moved on from Pitt. PSN was not given one specific incident, but the staff had enough, and while it’s being officially termed a transfer, this was a mutual split.
The initial hope probably was for Bradley to make it through the season and then move on afterward, but that timeline was moved up to Monday.
Pitt’s Class of 2023 currently has four wide receivers in it, which was done with the internal feeling that Bradley would be gone after this season. The Panthers also signed two wide receivers last year in Addison Copeland and Che Nwabuko, so the position has numbers, but it’ll be very young and inexperienced.
Jared Wayne, Konata Mumpfield, Bub Means, Jaylon Barden and Myles Alson are also all scheduled to return next season but in today’s world of college football, like we learned yesterday with Bradley, nothing is certain.
Sometimes things just don’t work out. Best wishes to the young man. No doubt we will hear about him in the future.
Nice spin by Duzz, but I can’t believe even he would tell a player that has that much potential that it’s best to move on. He would have had to do something pretty egregious for this to happen imo.
From what I read elsewhere, this came as no surprise to people supposedly ‘in the know”. Bradley was said to be a premadonna and they actually praised Duz for letting the kid transfer rather than releasing him from the team.
Prima Donna is quite different than PreMadonna. PreMadonna is 1957 and earlier.
Duzz doesn’t have to “let” anyone transfer. They are free to do that without his permission.
It is the difference between being fired or being allowed to resign. Narduzzi let the kid resign instead of firing him.
The point being, Duz reportedly wanted Bradley gone and gave the kid the opportunity to transfer instead of getting kicked off the team.
Cignetti (i.e. Cavanaugh 2.0) is well documented. Run the ball, play-action, etc. It should be no surprise. He’ll have a 1500 Yard Rusher and 2500 Yard Passer. The 4000+ Yard Passer approach of Last Season has sailed to Nebraska for $825k instead of $475k here, not becaue of Scheme.
Have not idea why Narduzzi is destroying the PITT football program. In today’s game you need a passing attack. The coach is destroying everything built during the past three years. Cignetti needs to watch out. What was the name of the OC fired for running the ball too much before hiring Whipple?
Well Duzz is what he is. He is never going to change, very stubborn. Just like when he will stay in man and get lit up all game, refusing to adapt. Pickett saved his job
Would you want to be a WR in this offense?