Vukovcan: Narduzzi Deserves Credit for Pitt’s 3-0 Start

Duzz, Duzz, Duzz.

Pat Narduzzi is one of those coaches that as a fan or even segments of the media, you either love or hate. There’s no in between.

His brash personality and comments, which have no filter, is the reason for all of this.

The latest example of this was his Narduzzi’s postgame comments following Pitt’s memorable comeback on Saturday in the Backyard Brawl.

“Some of the calls we got — late hit out of bounds, they catch a ball with a hand 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.”

That’s classic Pat Narduzzi and there have been plenty of those type comments over his 10 years as Pitt head coach.

As the saying goes, you love him if he’s on your team and hate him if he’s the opponent.

Strangely though, the relationship between Narduzzi and Panther fans has been odds.

Because of their passion and desire to have a program that they can be proud and brag about, Pitt fan’s opinion of Narduzzi seems to change yearly, despite him doing a good job during his tenure.

The 58-year-old has brought stability to the program as well as an unquestioned passion for his job. Has he been perfect? No. Has he made some bad hires? Yes. Has he made questionable lineup decisions? But you can ask those questions about any coach and the answers will be the same.

All I know is that he’s been loyal to the program, has strengthened the Pitt football brand by getting a number of players to the NFL and included in his career 68-50 record are two appearances in the ACC Championship game.

Despite this, over the offseason, there were whispers about Narduzzi being on the hotseat, which were complete BS and the national media trying to come up with names to fill a ‘Hot Seat’ story.

That being said, Narduzzi isn’t stupid and knew that things had to change with his program, and he had to adjust as a coach and specifically his offense.

Because of this, Pitt has started 3-0 and Narduzzi deserves some credit. Some will disagree with this and say they were easy changes but that’s not true because Narduzzi had to completely go against things he’s believed in his entire football coaching career.

Firing Frank Cignetti as offensive coordinator was the easy thing to do, anyone that watched Pitt the last couple of years saw that had to happen. However, Narduzzi’s vision on how to move forward has changed Pitt football in a good way for the foreseeable future.

If things continue the way they’re going, the hiring of Kade Bell will go down as one of the best offseason coaching moves in college football.

If Bell isn’t the offensive coordinator, Pitt’s current record wouldn’t be 3-0 and in-all-likelihood, they’re 1-2 with a long, unsuccessful season ahead.

Bell’s modern, fast-paced offense allows Pitt to still be in a game and win it despite trailing by double-digits in the 4th quarter like they did against Cincinnati and West Virginia.

Looking at the big picture, the exciting thing for Pitt is the type of recruit they’re going to be able to attract because of this fun offense. What quarterback and skill position player wouldn’t want to play in something like this?

While Bell is going to get credit, which he rightly deserves, so does Narduzzi for being open to such a drastic change at this stage of his coaching career. We all know the type of offense Narduzzi prefers to have so he still has to be getting used to and still uneasy about watching the 2024 Pitt offense, knowing the negative impact it could have on his defense if it isn’t successful.

Bell’s impact is obvious but the biggest reason for the Panthers being undefeated and, on their way, to being 4-0 is redshirt freshman Eli Holstein.

It’s only three games and I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but it sure looks as though Pitt has their next great quarterback.

Although no one is talking about it, Narduzzi deserves some credit in this situation.

Why?

Throughout the offseason and for much of camp, it seemed to be a foregone conclusion that Nate Yarnell would be Pitt’s starting quarterback.

To further that point, Narduzzi chose Yarnell as one of three Pitt players to represent the team at ACC Media Day. That distinction is usually done for starters.

But as we all know now, that didn’t happen, and Holstein is the talk of the town.

I say credit Narduzzi because making that decision couldn’t have been easy, but he showed the willingness to make a tough decision and trusted his eyes instead of maybe his heart. Yarnell is a great kid, a talented player and has been 100% loyal to Pitt.

Honestly, I’m not sure Narduzzi would’ve made the same decision say 3 or 4 years ago. Once again, a sign that he’s now flexible and open to change.

One other thing that Narduzzi and Pitt’s 412 Alliance/NIL team deserve credit for is their aggressiveness and talent evaluation of the talent portal this past off-season. They didn’t wait around for other teams to get involved, spotted who they wanted and got the deal done.

They spotted Holstein VERY early in the process and sold him and his family on Pitt. Being able to get that 4-star quarterback from Alabama could turn out to be a program changer.

Bell probably deserves a bit more credit because of having coached him but bringing in running back Desmond Reid has been one of the top moves of the off-season. When it first happened, critics were complaining that Bell was just bringing in one of his former players and that Reid wasn’t a Power Four type player.

Those people have obviously changed their tune after seeing Reid’s talent.

Even the most optimistic Pitt fan couldn’t have predicted this type of start and because of it, expectations for the season have completely changed.

No of this would be possible without Narduzzi showing the willingness to change. Give credit where credit is due. Nice job Duzz.