‘Coach, Smile’: Pat Narduzzi Remains Unsatisfied Despite Big Win

If you thought that Pat Narduzzi would be happy simply because Pitt came from behind to knock off West Virginia in the 107th Backyard Brawl, you’d be severely mistaken.

A win is a win, yes, but a win alone isn’t enough for Narduzzi. Pitt enters every game with predetermined goals, and if those goals aren’t hit, the end result doesn’t hit quite the same — even in a win. The result is important, but the process may be even more important. So, how do you create an edge going forward? Just don’t smile in team meetings. That’ll do it.

“One of our DBs came up to me after our team meeting last night and said, ‘Coach, smile, we won the game.’ If that gives you any indication,” Pat Narduzzi said Monday. “That’s the first time in 10 years I’ve had a player come up to me and say, ‘Smile, we won the game.’ I wasn’t very happy.”

P.J. O’Brien Jr. got on his head coach’s case, which shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone who knows O’Brien. But if a Backyard Brawl win leaves Narduzzi searching for more, it shows exactly where his head is.

“Again, winning is great,” Narduzzi said. “That’s great, we won. Sang the fight song in the locker room. Let’s get back to what we do. There was a lot of crap on the field that I didn’t like. That’s a fact.

“That’s going to create our edge starting there ’cause again, winning is everything. We can play crappy and win the football game. Did we play the way we wanted to be, the way you’re supposed to be coached to do? Is that what we’re asking you to do? No. We got to clean it up.”

Pitt has had to stage double-digit second half comebacks against Cincinnati (21 points) and West Virginia (10 points) in back-to-back weeks. It took some serious gall to come back in both instances, relying upon Eli Holstein’s fourth quarter heroics and defensive clampdowns, and Narduzzi knows it isn’t sustainable. It can’t be expected.

“The way we won those last two games, great, found a way to win, blue-vased it, but we can’t get used to that,” Narduzzi said. “We can’t wait and think we can be comfortable, we’ll just win it in the fourth quarter. Doesn’t matter what happens in the first, second and third. That was the conversation we had last night.”

Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi September 14, 2024. Michael Longo/PSN

Pitt has won largely because of Holstein so far this season. His late-game heroics have washed out defensive struggles (especially against the run) and periods of struggle offensively. But Holstein is a second-year freshman making his fourth career start this weekend against Youngstown State.

Pitt is fortunate to have Holstein, but the Panthers would be foolish to expect perfection from a quarterback who hasn’t played a conference game.

“It doesn’t get you till it gets you,” Narduzzi said. “We don’t want to be sitting in the room going, I wish I would have played a better first quarter. We had those things conversation-wise.”

Still. Pitt is 3-0 for the first time since 2020 and has the chance to sweep non-conference play for the first time ever. That’s right, a win against Youngstown State would guarantee a 4-0 start and the first-ever undefeated non-con slate. That would be massive entering conference play.

And Narduzzi has learned a lot about his team, just about exactly what many have learned about the Panthers through the one-fourth mark of the season.

“I’ve learned that they’re going to find a way to get it done,” Narduzzi said. “Character-wise, I think there’s a major care factor in here. I think this football team has goals and aspirations of what we want to do. I told them last night, Everything you want to do is right there. You are sitting right now going into game four, trying to be 1-0 this week, it’s right there in the palm of your hand. What are you going to do? Stay in the same routine you did last week this week? All those little things.”

It’s one week at a time. So, it better be the same preparation — and execution — against Youngstown State as it was against Cincinnati or West Virginia and North Carolina or Clemson.

“We’re in a one-game season,” Narduzzi said. “I find that they’re serious about it. There’s not a laissez-faire kind of attitude at all. They’re locked in. We’ll find out. They got to be locked in every single week.”