Vukovcan: Pat Narduzzi’s Problems Go Way Beyond Putting Foot in Mouth

Man, Pat Narduzzi sure got the Pitt fan base talking Saturday night and it wasn’t even about their pitiful performance against Notre Dame.

Duzz has a bad habit of putting his foot in his mouth at press conferences due to how emotional he is and because of a lot of what he says doesn’t seem thought out.

That could have been the case last night when answering a question about how Pitt is in this position (2-6 record). His response drew the reaction of both the fans and also his players. It even forced Narduzzi to re-issue a statement no doubt because of how his players were reacting on social media.

Surprisingly, the reaction from Pitt fans has been more split than I would have thought. Half the fans are ripping Narduzzi for throwing his players under the bus, while the other half are criticizing Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pitt beat writer Noah Hiles for only originally posting part of Narduzzi’s statement and excluding the part where he says, “Again, it starts with me.”

My take is, let up on Noah, this is all on Narduzzi for a variety of reasons and is deeper than just a 5-second quote.

First of all, the part that Narduzzi says, ‘Again, it starts with me. I didn’t do a good enough job coaching today. Put it on me’. Blah, blah, blah, that’s all bullshit and coaches speak.

Any and every coach worth his salt says this after a loss. Every single coach. Just go back and check the tape. Do they really mean this? Probably not but they say it for the public perception that they’re taking accountability.

That’s certainly the case with Narduzzi and this statement. He attempted to back up his original point of the team lacking talent with the meaningless ‘starts with me’ BS.

Here’s the deeper issue, if that statement about talent is correct (and I don’t necessarily believe it is), there’s only one group to blame- Narduzzi and his coaches.

This isn’t professional sports where teams have a general manger and scouting departments, in college, it’s all on the head coach and his assistants. So, if Pitt’s roster is lacking talent, Narduzzi needs to look in the mirror because he’s the CEO.

To me, it’s astonishing that just two years from winning the ACC championship, Pitt is on its way to having their worst record since 1998. I don’t care who you lost to graduation or the NFL the previous year, they shouldn’t have fallen this much. It’s inexcusable and someone needs to address for this disaster. Throwing your players under the bus publicly is a very bad look for Narduzzi and any criticism he gets, is deserved.

Pitt is in this current situation for one of two reasons: 1) IF the talent isn’t good enough, that’s an indictment on Narduzzi and his coaches for their talent evaluation, both in high school scouting and also through the transfer portal. I’ll tell you this, if Pitt continues to struggle bringing in impact portal talent, they’re doomed. To this point, they’ve struggled mightily, which is quite concerning for the future. 2). The bigger reason for this 2-6 record might just be that this current staff isn’t capable of putting the talent that they do have in a position to succeed.

IMO, Rodney Hammond, Kenny Johnson, Che Nwabuko, Konata Mumpfield, Daejon Reynolds, Malcolm Epps, Derrick Davis and Gavin Bartholomew have had a season of eligibility thrown down the drain because of an offensive coordinator that’s incapable of doing his job anymore. Bartholomew only having 17 receptions and Hammonds only 66 carries in 8 games should be a fireable offense. Davis, Epps and Nwabuko are freak athletes, and this offense coordinator has no idea how to get them the ball.

After what we’ve witnessed the last two years at the quarterback position with Kedon Slovis, Nick Patti and Phil Jurkovec, does ANYONE have any confidence that Cignetti can properly develop Christian Veilleux, Nate Yarnell or the whomever is quarterback for Pitt in 2024?

The fact that Frank Cignetti, Jr. is still employed is inexplainable and something that Narduzzi should have to answer for.

Today will be an interesting day over at the South Side as the Pitt team meets and Narduzzi will no doubt try and explain his comments and smooth things over.

Will it work? I’m sure he’ll get a majority of the players to understand what he was saying, while some will still not appreciate what was said.

This firestorm will end publicly within the next 24-48 hours, but the true impact will be seen at the end of the season. By that I’m referring to the NCAA Transfer Portal. To his credit, aside from the loss of Jordan Addison, Narduzzi has been able to keep this program together and Pitt’s roster hasn’t really been torn apart by transfers.

Between his comment about Pitt’s talent not being good enough and the current record, this could and likely will be an active year with player movement.

The long-term question now is whether this was a one-year blip on the radar and if not, is Narduzzi and this current coaching staff capable of a rebuild?

Narduzzi got them in this position, can he get them out?