Michigan State has announced that it will fire head coach Mel Tucker for cause as early as next week, which means the University will not have to buy out Tucker’s hefty contract, and an attractive Power Five vacancy is about to open.
There will be a number of names linked to the Big Ten gig in East Lansing, Michigan over the next few weeks, and one of those certainly will be Pat Narduzzi. It’s already begun.
Narduzzi spent seven seasons at Michigan State, working under long-time head coach Mark Dantonio as the defensive coordinator. He built one of the top defenses in the Big Ten, earning the Broyles Award for the top assistant coach in college football in 2013 for his efforts, and he’s spoken highly of his time in East Lansing.
It makes sense that he’s linked to Michigan State considering the previous relationship. And The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman did just that, linking Narduzzi to Michigan as a “wild-card” option:
“The 57-year-old was a superb DC and brought plenty of edge to MSU,” Feldman wrote. “He’s been really solid in almost a decade running Pitt’s program and has had consecutive Top 25 seasons the last two years, going 20-7. Would he want to go back to East Lansing? I’m not sure about that. He has a good job in a great city, but he has been there a long time, and the Big Ten has a lot more stability than the ACC.”
Narduzzi is in the midst of his ninth season in Pittsburgh, with a 63-42 (41-25 ACC) record and the 2021 ACC championship to show for it. It’s been a poor start to the 2023 season for Narduzzi and Pitt, but there’s no denying the stability that he’s brought to the program over the last decade. And he’s currently under contract in Pittsburgh until 2030.
Michigan State will likely go through an extensive search before hiring its next head coach, and it will be able to offer very lucrative contracts, but Narduzzi doesn’t appear to be itching for an exit at this point.
Go
Narduzzi should go. Please take Cignetti with you.
MSU AD would never allow that. And I would think Dantonio would advise against it too!
Maybe Cigs can down to Morganhole….he luvs it down there.
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass…
For the sake of almost always having a consistent top-10 Defense, when weighing all factors, it’s far better for Narduzzi to remain at Pitt. That is, only if he can recruit, and retain, a top offensive coordinator since the team can be quite good if the latter issue is successfully addressed. If so, I can tolerate his stubbornness and arrogance annoyance.
I would agree, but his stubbornness and arrogance are the reasons he cannot recruit, and retain, a top offensive coordinator.
Calling this “Boo City” might be an indicator as to where his head is.
he’ll go i think, it’s been awhile and the big 10 is on the rise
MSU will have more attractive candidates than the Nard dawg. He’s proven that he’s an average head coach, but could make a great DC.
If Nardo just identified as something…that checked a few boxes….he’d be in like Flynn.
Article mentions former HC Dantonio of MSU but fails to say MSU brought him in now to help in the coaching…and most importantly the next HC selection process. And Nodoze was his boy there as DC, when they had their best seasons outside of 2015
He’d get to play Penn State more often.
Just don’t hire JMU’s HC as a replacement, he could keep the OC.
With the addition of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington to the likes of Penn St. , Michigan and Ohio St., MSU will be a middle of the pack team every year, winning 5-8 ganes depending on how the schedule shakes out.
Any chance of getting Capel to switch sports and go to East Lansing? Or maybe he can be a video coordinator for Izzo
He’s only brought stability because Pitt hasn’t fired him.
Has Narduzzi had some success at Pitt? Yes.
Has he done it the right way? Yes.
Family culture? Yes.
Do his players love playing for him? Yes.
His recruiting has improved a little bit.
But for every big win there’s 2-3 to teams he shouldn’t lose to. But what trumps all of that, at the end of the day it’s his PRIDE, EGO, and STUBBORNNESS that overrides all the good. That is why he has to go.
Other than the obvious QB situation, he could start by telling his team and in particular defensive players that nobody ever won a football game by dancing and talking.
Make 1 play and it’s a dance off 🕺 a
“Yeah, yeah, yeah bro.”
“It’s lit cuh”
“That’s what it is”
Next play… give up a big play.
And then we repeat… make 1 play and it’s back to a Dancing with the Stars audition.
Name a college football program where that doesn’t happen.
The only person spreading that rumor is his agent
My biggest concern is that we keep the CP. In whatever position we need to to keep him. Make him the head coach if need be, but a ton of the momentum for pitt has come from his recruiting and coaching the dline. I will say that despite his stubbornness, narduzzi still gets the secondary players ready for the nfl, but Charlie has to stay no matter what.
I can only pray that MSU is that stupid. Of course, they signed Tucker to a $9M per year contract so they’ve established their stupidity credentials.
While I would like to see Narduzzi go, this article is all fake news.
Narduzzi has not been named as a possible candidate by anyone.
All the names being floated about are young guys on the rise, not old retreads
MSU is not taking Tarduzzi. No way in hell. He cant win in the ACC let alone the BigTen.