MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Pat Narduzzi was firm in his support of Phil Jurkovec after last weekend’s debacle, and he remained true to his quarterback after another against West Virginia.
After completing just 8-of-20 pass attempts (40%) for 81 yards and three interceptions in an embarrassing loss to West Virginia Saturday night, Narduzzi — once again — said he didn’t even think of switching quarterbacks.
“We’ve got a lot of faith in Phil, and you gotta give defenses credit,” Narduzzi said in his postgame press conference. “Took the opening drive, and you get down to the 3-yard line, you gotta score touchdowns. And you don’t.”
Pitt looked listless against West Virginia throughout much of the Backyard Brawl, with screen passes skipping across the turf and deep balls into triple coverage winding up in the arms of WVU defenders, and it came as Narduzzi said that — while he’ll have to watch the tape — he thought the pass protection was improved from a week ago.
Jurkovec is in the midst of a two-week stretch in which he’s completed 18-of-52 pass attempts for 260 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions. With losses to the two Big 12 teams projected to finish last and second-to-last by the Big 12 media.
When it comes to throwing three picks against WVU, and a general disregard for attempting to push the football downfield, Narduzzi said that the Mountaineers’ defense played a lot of off-coverage, the corners playing soft and taking away deep balls.
“We gotta go back and look at the gameplan, look at how we’re doing it and fix it,” Narduzzi said.
On the heels of back-to-back poor performances, Narduzzi said that Pitt does have confidence in Christian Veilleux. And Nate Yarnell. But he wasn’t considering either of them.
“You guys are fast and want to pull the plug on somebody,” Narduzzi said. “That’s not how we do it. I’m a positive guy, try to stay positive and you start dumping people whether it’s a corner, a tackle or a quarterback, it’s not good for you. So, we’ll look at the tape, and it’s never one person. I know you guys want to point the finger at one person, and it’s not, so we all had a part in it. It starts with the game plan and we’ll get it right.”
Narduzzi said he was happy with the game plan going into the game against West Virginia but “obviously not” happy with how the game turned out. So, it’s back to the film room. And back to Jurkovec against North Carolina next week?
“I’m gonna watch the tape, but I believe so, yes.”
Nobody ever learns anything the SECOND time that the mule kicks him in the head. This is 2 years in a row
Arrogant Jerk-0-vec. I can see this guy is not very good at his job.
Coach is way off here.
Jurkovec is also not very smart.
I’m starting to think Slovis wasn’t the problem last year…
Slovis was 13 of 25 with two touchdowns. BYU was very lucky to win. Two fumbles by Aransas led to short fields for BYU. Arkansas had 200 more yards of offense in the loss.
Oh what I would do for 13 completions in a game this year ! LOL
If he is this stubborn that he sacrifices the season out of loyalty to a kid that rejected him twice he has to go. Jurkovec is a bust, his mechanics are terrible, he’s too big and slow now, gaining the weight appears to be a huge mistake, he can’t make anyone miss and he can’t run ’em over. I have stayed off the OC has to go bandwagon but I’m on now. DBs played off and took away the deep ball yet we can’t make ’em pay with three step drop routes? Stubborn to the point of insanity.
Hoping HC is just putting on a good positive vibe so he doesnt bury #5 publicly. Slovis looking like Joe Montana now compared to #5.
So how bad does a QB need to be to get pulled from a game Pat? He could not have been worse. Keep sticking with that blind loyalty let’s see how far that gets you. Slovis part 2.
If he starts #5 the next game, after 52 years of being a die hard Pitt fan, IM DONE watching! This is total insanity watching a guy who can’t even complete screens. I’ve seen some pretty bad QBs at Pitt over the last half century, but I really think this guy is the worst of them all!
H2P!!!
NC is going to destroy this team next week.
I honestly don’t know how this team can win any of the remaining games.
Does Narduzzi think the fans are STUPID to believe his BS….
He doesn’t care
He’s going to be loyal to a guy that finally agrees to play for him, after 5 years, for one last shot at what? The NFL? Not a chance. A chance to finally win? Not a chance. Jurkovec is one guy on a squad of 85. There are plenty of upperclassmen on this team that have committed to the program from day 1. There are a lot of 18 year old freshmen that committed to this program from the beginning of their college careers. His responsibility to to EVERY player on this team, and if that means benching your carpetbagger,… Read more »
Spot on! Well said!
Not watching another game until Phil is out! Boo this man! Time to hang it up Phil
Look the kids bad we know that … but this goes way beyond that like I said earlier in another conversation, they have recruited poorly at wide receiver, and D backs, but it looks like they have recruited poorly across-the-board…and there pro offense needs to be used by the pros not a bunch of low talented college kids
I will not be attending Saturday night. Thanks, Pat.
go ahead and watch that tape, hope you have a puke bag with you and a bottle of pepto
Phil is a bum…he bounced a 5 yard swing pass amongst other glaring misses. He can’t throw a football and is very slow. Duzz and his stubbornness have ruined this season. If you look back at my posts I knew this would be bad after all the graduations. You can’t build a program by constantly trolling the transfer market for other’s castoffs and busts. That’s not only Phil but McMillon, etc.
Christian has eligibility so play him. 4 wins at the most anyway, and he can’t be worse. Cig is also a relic that should be stripped of play calling.
You are actually right as much as I wish you were wrong . Kudos in seeing it without rose colored glasses. The cupboard is empty. Cignetti is terrible running a high school offense. He should be dismissed completely. The schedule is not in their favor and they will lose 8 or 9 games if all goes well. They could lose out if nothing changes.
Agree with the “castoff” QB comment but definitely not with lopping in McMillon. McMillon has been the top performer on the Defense.
8 for 20 passing, 3 interceptions that led to 10 opponent points, QBR 10.3 Are you really going to start Jurkovec again?! With no passing success, WVU was able to concentrate their players to stop the run. You’re going to have to have a qb that can complete passes while dodging rushers. You know Jurkovec can’t do that.
Lyke and Narduzzi have betrayed the players , fans, staff and university. They have allowed a con man Frank Cignetti destroy this team. They let this con man put the blame on Slovis last year.
Narduzzi should be fired for being conned by Cignetti and allowing Cig to ruin a formally good team. Narduzzi is OBVIOUSLY incompetent or he is too much of a pussy to fire Cignetti.
Th problem is right in front of you Pat. The problem is Cignetti. He has conned you.
Beacause of this, no one wants to play for you Pat.
That WVU defense was poorly ranked nationally in EVERY pass category. In the 120’s bad of 135 teams. They’ll be regularly torched for 35 to 50+ points a game once they start playing the Spread Offenses of the Big 12. But against a Cigs offense and a horrendous QB and WR’s they were just grand.
Jurkovec is an absolute bum and should be replaced. That said, Duzz won’t pull that trigger. Maybe he thinks he’s scoring brownie points with the players by showing loyalty to his starter. If Jurk starts the remainder of the year, it’s very likely that Duzz will lose the rest of the team. Players know what their teammates can and cannot do and if they see Narduzzi trot Jurk out despite his obvious flaws then why should they give a crap? One point to add. IF (and that’s a very big IF) Narduzzi does bench Phil whoever takes over better be… Read more »
Does Cignetti know something about Narduzzi that gives Cig a psychological dominance over Duzz?
Or is Duzz just this blind and stupid?
Or is Duzz a pussy?
Jerk0vec sucks!!! I was one of the people not very excited about his transfer. His 3rd team in 4 years. I wish the coach had commitment issues like Phil seems to have. This has been embarrassing
Jurkovec is an arrogant punk. Pitt wasn’t good enough for him for five years and was the last stop on the block for him. He burns bridges wherever he goes (posting about Notre Dame years after he left because he couldn’t cut it there), and has burned bridges here and it’s only mid September. He has nothing to be arrogant about which is a result of people in his circle telling him how good he is. He’s not even likeable. His football IQ is poor and if you listen to his press conferences, his overall IQ is even worse. Bench… Read more »
Where’s Whipple? Please find him, kidnap him and bring him back to Pitt.