PITTSBURGH — Neal Brown didn’t agree with Pat Narduzzi following a 38-34 loss in the Backyard Brawl.
Narduzzi made a comment to ESPN on the field at Acrisure Stadium following the Pitt win, and the quote made it back to Brown during his press conference.
“Some of the calls we got — late hit out of bounds, they catch a ball with a hands in the face and I’ve never seen anything like it, you know? Wow,” Narduzzi told ESPN after the game. “We beat West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl, and we beat the officials, too, in one game.”
Brown fired back at Narduzzi during his postgame presser.
“Yeah, I think that’s bullshit,” Brown said. “I thought the officials — we can say what we want to, but the officials. I’m not real pleased with them either, but I don’t know about that. You’ll never hear me blame the officials or anything, like, I disagree with calls, but it’s a really hard game to officiate. …
“I’m not pleased with the officials either. I feel his pain on that, but I don’t necessarily think they beat them. We’re the one that got a long touchdown called back.”
Pitt was flagged 12 times for 112 yards while West Virginia was flagged seven times for 67 yards. There were some questionable calls on both sides of the ball, but the game wasn’t decided by the officials. It was decided by the Panthers’ fourth quarter comeback.
Pitt erased a 10-point deficit with just under five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. West Virginia wasn’t able to stop Eli Holstein and the Pitt offense after limiting the Panthers to just four yards in the second half prior.
A 1-yard touchdown dive by Derrick Davis Jr. with just over 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter, with Holstein on the sideline after having his helmet ripped off, clinched the massive win for the Panthers.
I don’t think Neil Brown will have to worry about Big 12 officials next year. Unless he ends up as a coordinator in the league.
Shaddup Neal. Go collect your buyout, dork.
H2P.
Neal Brown is just wrong. The non call on the offensive pass interference face mask was one of the most blatant and obvious penalties of all time not to be called by that Big 12 officiating crew.
Dude may as well have gouged Gandy’s eyes out and tossed them in the corner of the end zone it was so obvious.
If Neal Brown wants a long touchdown tell him to teach his tackles not to hold. Sour grapes Brown.
I think the NCAA needs to look at loss of helmet. If an opponent blatantly removes the helmet, I think that should become a personal foul with an auto first down and 15 yards.
I agree.
I got two words for Coach Brown….bye bye
Dear neal,
Get on the bus, don’t worry what the opposing coach has to say, and just worry about starting to pack your house. The team you coach just blew a 10 point lead with about 4.30 to go in the 4th quarter. I really don’t think your fans are happy about your coaching.
Have a nice night
Can Ben Sauls punt?
They had all offseason to address the punting and they did not. It makes no sense.
Not sure why that we brought up in this thread through.
You are 100% wrong on that.They brought a kid in from the JUCO’s. The bigger problem is that the current punter is related to a former assistant. I don’t think Narduzzi wants to pi$$ the grandfather off. This is the only reason I can think why he is still punting
You could go pick a drunk fan from the tailgate and they could punt better than Nepo-Boy.
I think the most comical part of Neal Brown labeling what Narduzzi said as bullsh-t is the fact that Brown went on to say that officiating is hard and then proceeded to talk at length about how he didn’t think his offensive lineman held on their long pass play.
Neal Brown thinks criticism of officials is bullsh-t and then he goes on at length describing how the officiating screwed his offensive lineman. 😂
I’m just really tired of all the “targeting” calls. If you watch other games across the country, there are tons of possible “targeting” plays never called or reviewed. It’s like they “target” Pitt on every tackle to see if the Pitt player’s helmet was even close to the head or neck. I get there needs to be safety rules, but the refs are definitely “targeting’ Pitt.
Great win!
H2P!!!
Brown had to defend the Big 12 referees. If he didn’t, then I could see “missed” calls in conference.
WVU gets jobbed by the BIG 12 referees all the time in Big 12 conference play.
It is like the ACC officials with Pitt and making sure the tobacco road ACC originals get all the calls.
Hey skip, please stop. If you have watched Pitt the last 5-6 years, you would see that the ACC officials are the worst officials in college football. I do not say that as a Pitt fan, but as a fan of college football.
C mon pat your team Leeds the league in penaltys every year
Neal Brown just coached his last Brawl so his opinion doesn’t really matter. Dust off that resume’ son.
Duzzi needs to focus on correcting his bad coaching decisions such as going for it on 4th down at the 50 which gave WV a field goal going into the half. Without the late game heroics, that would have been the difference in the game.
Expect that was Cade Bell’s call with Duzz supporting him.
The offensive play calling is definitely coach Bell’s responsibility, but a decision like that has to be the head coach’s responsibility. With a lead and momentum, why play like you’re behind.
Couldn’t agree more. Punt it away and go in with the lead at halftime. No need to get greedy there in what everyone knew would be a close game.
I agree with Brown in this regard–a huge win and Nard says something ridiculously stupid. Really dumb comments. Refs generally dislike Narduzzi already, and now you made it worse. You invite a target on your back by criticizing officials.. Really bad form. But I think Narduzzi is an idiot on a good day…..
Narduzzi is a good coach (not a great coach), a good coach and a good guy, he is just too emotional after games. He did the same thing two years ago telling Scott Van Pelt ESPN disrespected Pitt. He is just too emotional after games and can’t help himself so maybe it’s time Pitt helps him and has an assistant coach take those interviews. Coach K did it for years and years and although his reasons were different, it may not be a bad idea to pull the plug on Duzz taking on field postgame interviews. Let an assistant handle… Read more »