Pitt concluded its 2023 season with a 30-19 loss to Duke, the first time that the Blue Devils have beaten the Panthers since 2014, and it’s the worst finish to a season since 1998.
It goes without saying that the season with a complete and utter failure for Pat Narduzzi’s squad, winning just three games in a season two years removed from the best season in 40 years, and it came about largely because of one overarching problem.
Pitt averaged just a hair over 20 points per game this season, down from 41.3 in 2021 and 31.3 in 2022 to 20.2 in 2023.
There were three different quarterbacks used this season, to varying degrees of success, and the offensive line — one that cycled through different formations just about every game — wasn’t good enough. The play-calling was suspect, the development was almost non-existent and the personnel usage was baffling.
But Narduzzi isn’t going to hurry to make any changes when it comes to the coaching staff.
“We’ll digest this, watch the video and the evaluation goes year-long,” Narduzzi said following the loss. “Every game, every Sunday, every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday through Friday. We’ll just evaluate where we are and what we can do to get better. Again, it starts with the coaches. Period.”
It does start with the coaches, and the coaches were not good enough this season. Not against Duke, certainly. And while the players themselves are not without blame, it does start with the coaches putting their players in the best position to succeed.
And the individual meetings with the players will begin Monday, right after the team meeting, which is how Narduzzi and his staff have handled it since he arrived in 2015.
When it comes to what Pitt needs to do this offseason to get back to the heights it achieved under Narduzzi, aside from the obvious in finding a Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback and Biletnikoff Award-winning wide receiver, Narduzzi pointed to cornerback. The cornerbacks will lose M.J. Devonshire, A.J. Woods and Marquis Williams, and Narduzzi said there will need to be a re-tooling. But it goes much deeper than that.
There needs to be an injection of talent and depth across the board. “We’ve got a good football team, and we’ve got a lot of good players in that locker room, and we’ve got to build around them,” Narduzzi said. But it’s not the cornerbacks, or the defense as a whole, that held back Pitt this season.
It was the offense. It was the scheme, the execution and pretty much everything about Frank Cignetti Jr.’s offense.
“We’re going to look at that, and find out what it is,” Narduzzi said. “Obviously, we’ve got to score more points and we’ve got to convert in the red zone and find out what we’ve got to do. But we’ve definitely going to score more points. That’s a fact.”
I lost faith and today cemented it. I’m tired of hard headed coaches that refuse to adapt. I hope she cleans house but with that extension I don’t think it will happen.
Exactly, she really blew that decision.
What’s there to digest?
What’s there to consider?
Watch the video?????
WTF.
Clown Show.
All season he kept saying “it starts and ends with the coaches” or some BS variation of that line. Over and over and over again. The problem is he did absolutely nothing to fix it!!! It’s meaningless to say “blame me” and then not do a thing to fix the damn problems!
Narduzzi, please go home, watch the tape and go home!
You are an arrogant jagoff,.
After every loss, we hear the same thing. Blame me; coaches need to do better, watch the tape, yada, yada, yada…..There is no improvement. It took five games to make a change at QB. There is only one way to fix this mess…..clean house!
Exactly how much time do they think they have to evaluate and make changes? The portal for “coaching change transfers” opens on Dec 4th. Penn State fired their OC for only scoring 38 points per game. Only 38? I would take Yurcich in a blink. My greatest nightmare is that he’ll bring in his old buddy Matt Canada. You know, the guy from across the South Side Complex that has gotten the Steelers all the way up to 280 yards and a whopping 16 points per game! Keep your chin up, they are only 5 teams from dead last in… Read more »
No way he brings in Canada. He burnt that bridge years ago. Our special team’s lack of coaching costed us 2 games this year. OC costed us two more. They can’t even see the difference between a HS punter a D1 punter. We had a QB start the season who can’t throw a spiral or see down the field, and let him in for 4 games. Our OL thinks the higher they get, the more leverage they can obtain. Wofford’s DL dominated our OL. I knew we were in trouble after that game. So, start with getting a new OC,… Read more »
Felt the same way after Wofford. Watched the pocket collapse too many times against D2 lineman…figured it might be a long season after that.
My reaction to Narduzzi’s oh-so-very eloquent observations: utter dismay about what Us Pitt faithful have to look forward to in 2024. Good grief.
The down spiral is now in full sight. ???? is how long will it take to hit rock bottom with the clown show in charge.
Cignetti shouldn’t have been allowed to be on the plane ride back to Pitt.
ALSO, we have 3 punters on this team. How many more 15 and 20 yard punts do we need to watch before there is a change there?!? I don’t care that his name is Junko. Our return guys are constantly running backwards and hoping to get back to where they caught the ball. Special teams have been poor.
Offense has been trash for 2 years now under Cignetti and Special Teams are horrible.
2 out of 3 parts of the game are absolute garbage.
So well said. Cignetti is gone! Best Pitt FB news of the day/year.
Coaching staff failed this team and it starts at the top.
Did anyone ask him about the 2 point debacle?