Pat Narduzzi wasn’t the defensive coordinator at North Illinois in 2002 when the Huskies traveled to Miami (Oh.) for a MAC matchup. And for maybe the only time, he wasn’t unhappy about it.
Miami (Oh.) was led in 2002 by a native Ohioan named Ben Roethlisberger. The big, strong kid sophomore had thrown for 400 yards during his freshman season, but when he faced off against Northern Illinois’s defense, he put together a career day.
No matter what Northern Illinois’s defense tried to do to slow up Roethlisberger, he just kept rolling. Roethlisberger finished the day with 525 yards and five total touchdowns on 41-of-61 pass attempts. Narduzzi may not have been the defensive coordinator and North Illinois may have still squeaked out a 48-41 win, but he learned a valuable lesson.
“I’m at Northern Illinois, we got to play this quarterback, No. 7,” Narduzzi said Thursday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “Ben Roethlisberger, you guys probably know who he is. He threw for 525 yards, the most yards he ever threw. We had to change the coverage up — I wasn’t the coordinator, thank God. But we changed the coverage up so many times. We said, ‘We can’t defend this guy. He’s too good, we’re gonna have to confuse him.’ All we did was confuse ourselves.”
Narduzzi didn’t have to wait long to meet Roethlisberger again either. When he took the defensive coordinator position at Miami (Oh.) a week before the start of spring practices, he was faced with the task of defending Roethlisberger in practice every day.
“I was like, ‘Am I gonna confuse him in spring ball, or am I just going to bite the bullet and our kids will have no confidence?’ So, we went out and played our base defense against him and played really, really good against him in spring every day to the point where the coach at the time wasn’t very happy.”
Narduzzi and Roethlisberger would both spend a year in Miami, Narduzzi leaving for the Cincinnati defensive coordinator position and Roethlisberger leaving for the NFL Draft. But that time together — and opposing — made a lasting impact.
Especially when it comes to dealing with North Carolina’s Drake Maye this weekend.
“That’s an old-school story, just keep it simple,” Narduzzi said. “We’ve gotta do what we do. We have some tweaks here and there for who the guys are. Josh Downs is a good football player, and (North Carolina’s) tight ends are athletics. They’ve got food football players.”
Maye, a second-year college quarterback like Roethlisberger was then, has emerged as one of the best quarterbacks in college football this season. He hasn’t thrown for 500 yards this season, but he has accumulated 2,283 yards and 24 touchdowns (just three interceptions) in seven games.
Maye has been an elite deep ball passer, throwing for 875 yards and nine touchdowns on 25-of-43 passing attempts at least 20 yards downfield. He’s been equally as proficient in attacking opposing defenses behind the line of scrimmage and in the short and intermediate game.
“We gotta go do what we do,” Narduzzi said. “I think he’s talented. Made a mistake back in 2002.”
How much more simpler is Cover4 – ManPress all downs and distances.
Duzz, question is can your offense score 27 points? With UNC offense you will probably need at least that much to win.