Penalty Problems Aren’t Exactly New for Pitt Under Pat Narduzzi

Pitt certainly isn’t short on areas it needs to clean up this season. And the penchant for taking penalties is one that — after last weekend — needs to be taken more seriously.

Pitt actually has a very serious penalty problem this season. And it’s not something that has recently arisen under Pat Narduzzi. In the last five seasons, the Panthers have racked up 486 penalties for 4,367 yards. In that same timeline, Wake Forest (at the opposite end of the spectrum) has racked up just 303 penalties for 2,669 yards.

Pitt recorded the second-most total penalties in the ACC in four of the last five seasons, only third-to-most in 2022, and the Panthers recorded at least 86 penalties in all five of those seasons. And this season? Once pace for over 100 total penalties.

If you want to run an old-school offense that doesn’t sustain drives and doesn’t consistently put points on the board (and trot out a sometimes-leaky run defense that can be worn down the more it’s on the field), you can’t afford to average nearly nine penalties per game.

Pitt was called for 13 penalties — 101 yards worth — against Wake Forest, and Narduzzi still felt like the Panthers got the raw end of the deal.

“Well, sometimes you feel hated on … sometimes you feel like, you know, it just needed to be called both ways and sometimes you feel like it’s not as a coach,” Narduzzi said Monday at his weekly news conference.

There were some bad calls, certainly, as is the case with every football game that’s ever been played, but it’s gotten to the point where it’s impossible to say it’s an outlier. Pitt takes a lot of penalties, the most in the ACC through seven games this season, but Narduzzi still feels like it wasn’t exactly evenly called Saturday — Wake Forest was flagged four times for 36 yards.

So, Narduzzi broke down the penalties called Saturday afternoon in Winston-Salem.

“Defensively, we had four aggressive penalties and two selfish,” Narduzzi said. “You guys know what — the two we called selfish penalties. It’s just not good. Selfish. The two by Donovan, who has apologized ten times to me since the end of the game. He’s crying after the game. I mean, he didn’t mean to do it. He was pulling the guy off the pile. It was a penalty what he did. I don’t know if the second one was real. It looked like someone threw a shoulder into him, but I’m not the official. Players play, coaches coach and officials officiate. We have three defensive holdings, which again, to me it’s a go both ways. I don’t know how to officiate it. I don’t know how to coach anymore, I guess. And we had a face mask.

“Offensively we had five false starts, one, two, three, four, five false starts. Again, one we were not going to run a play on fourth down and five, okay, but a receiver covered up the tight end. The tight end, his hand down; I’m not worried about that one. You can throw that one out. We’re going to punt it and we were taking a delay of game, anyway. We were trying to get them to jump offsides. We had three offensive tackles go offsides. Two young guys, got to be better there.

“They are unforced, they are unfortunate and then there’s some aggressive ones, which we’re going to be aggressive. Just, I’ve just never seen so many of them. I don’t know what else to tell you.”

Narduzzi thinks his squad has done a good job staying focused, in the context of being perhaps over-penalized, but he lamented the way that McMillon let his emotions get the best of him. The two unsportsmanlike calls (back-t0-back and leading to an ejection) cost Pitt 21 yards. And, of course, Pitt could’ve used an extra 21 yards after the now-infamous Christian Veilleux slide.

And while Pitt is working new players, some younger underclassmen, too, into the lineup, the Panthers have passed the midway point of the season. The bye week has come and gone, there’s a new quarterback under center and Pitt’s preseason hopes have been dashed. But no matter the case, Narduzzi is disappointed by the penalties.

“It bothers me when it happens in the first game and seventh game and bothered me even more because last time I was at Notre Dame, it happened in the whatever game on a post in the middle field,” Narduzzi said. “So, it bothers me every game.”

Narduzzi, obviously, would like to have figured out what’s causing the penalties — the lapses in judgment and pre-snap errors offensively and defensively — that affected Pitt this season. But it’s not an easy fix.

“Every game is a different game on the road and different stuff is happening to you,” Narduzzi said. “People are stemming. They have got a guy clapping on the — we try to punt the ball. We clap cadence. It’s supposed to be a violation. Go back and watch, their linebacker 45, is clapping, no call. I don’t know why. But just, you know, luck of the draw, I guess.”

Narduzzi can point to luck and situation individual matchups, and there are certainly plenty of factors at play when it comes to Pitt’s penalty woes, but it comes down to coaching at the end of the day. At this point, with this level of called penalties, it’s on the coaching staff to make changes.

The issues on the line especially, the pre-snap penalties that plagued Pitt against Wake Forest and the holding calls that take away plays, are a problem. The delay of games, the formation issue and the general unpreparedness.

According to PFF, Pitt has committed 30 offensive penalties (15 from the offensive line) and 28 defensive penalties. That — somehow — has to change. But if Pitt has been consistent in one thing over the past five (almost six) years now, it’s been ranking toward the top of the conference in penalties.