It’s not that Pat Narduzzi and Kade Bell disagree, it’s just that the two envision slightly different paths that Pitt takes to the same end result against West Virginia.
The end result, of course, is a win. Narduzzi wants to win. Bell wants to win. They’re working in tandem. But where Narduzzi doesn’t care how quickly Pitt starts, Bell really, really wants to come out hot.
Bell has done well through two weeks, leading Pitt to 41.5 points per game and 534 yards per game, both of which are among the best in the ACC through two games this season. It’s one thing to beat up Kent State and stage a miraculous comeback against Cincinnati, it’s another to do the same against West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl.
It’s about making sure Eli Holstein is comfortable in his third — and by far the biggest — start of his career. Bell wants to put Holstein in the best position possible.
“We just gotta be prepared to make adjustments and get him comfortable early in the game,” Bell said Wednesday after practice. “And as long as we get him going and start fast, I really want to start fast this week, and hopefully if do that, we’ll have momentum. We just gotta hold onto the momentum. My dad always told me you can’t get the momentum back; once you get it, you gotta hold on as long as you can. And I think if we do that, we’ll have a good shot.”
Holstein wasn’t very good in the first half against Cincinnati, but as Pat Narduzzi pointed out, Pitt still moved the ball — especially on the first drive. If not for a wrong route (and poor throw from Holstein), maybe it’s a different story.
But it took three quarters to really get the offense going against Cincinnati.
Narduzzi isn’t necessarily worried about a fast start offensively. Pitt led Kent State by 14 early in the season opener and didn’t score its first touchdown against Cincinnati until late in the third quarter. It’s not about how you start, it’s how you finish.
“I had a leadership council meeting this morning, and I was asking, ‘Hey, what do we have to do?’ And they were saying start fast,” Narduzzi said Thursday during his weekly presser. “Again, psychologically, if I tell our guys, ‘Hey, we gotta start fast,’ and we go three and out in our first series, what are our kids going to be thinking? What are they thinking? Well, they’re kinda like, ‘Oh, my god, we failed. We went three and out, we lost.’
“To me, it’s like, we want to start fast. Everybody knows that, but I don’t need to focus on that. But I don’t need to focus on that, we need to go play and execute for 60 and to me, the fast start, it’s how you finish. And how you play every play and put ‘em behind you.”
Bell is going to call an aggressive game. He wants to grab the momentum early and not look back, but of course, it doesn’t always play out that way.
Narduzzi just wants his squad to go out and play its game. He wants to play fast and hit the ground running against West Virginia, but he isn’t so much worried about a first drive touchdown or forced turnover as he is playing a solid game.
If Pitt is going to upset West Virginia in the Brawl, it will take a 60-minute team effort. A fast start may set the Panthers off on the right foot, but it isn’t the end all, be all. The coaches will make adjustments, the players will make plays and the Panthers will either outlast the Mountaineers or they won’t.
It won’t be decided in the first five minutes, but those first five minutes could certainly set the tone.
fast or slow … move the sticks, hold on to the ball and score points. play solid D, avoid big plays. it’s hard to compare the 2 because of their schedule differences to date. PSU game has skewed ‘neers stats. they may be better than we think. it should be a tough game. let’s get the W. H2P !