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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 12, 2018

Pat Narduzzi

Greensboro, North Carolina

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi. Coach, if you could please give us an opening statement, then we'll open it up for questions.

PAT NARDUZZI: Got a great matchup. For us being the first ACC game of the season, it's awful important against a great Georgia Tech football team that scores a lot of points. I don't know if anybody has ever stopped them. All you really try to do is slow down the option. They got a new defensive coordinator in Coach Woody. He's done a great job with the 3-4 installment in a short period of time. Again, creates some issues for you as far as what they do.

We'll have our hands full like we do every Saturday, but we're looking forward to having Georgia Tech up in Pittsburgh this weekend.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. I know obviously in the last game being a loss at home against Penn State, but Qadree Ollison, what he was able to do, positive to take away from a tough game?
PAT NARDUZZI: Qadree had his motor going, and usually does. I think some people's motors run hot all the time, some don't run hot at all. He's a guy that even when he wasn't in there, he was emotional, had energy on the sideline. I commented about him earlier in the week just on that behalf.

Then obviously you're talking about running guards and being productive on the field. I think it's so important to have the production off the field as much as you have on the field. But he certainly did a great job, especially in the first half. When you have 214 yards rushing, obviously Ollison did a great job, his offensive line did a great job, the quarterback did a great job of getting us in the right checks, wherever we wanted to get the football.

Those are great things. As coaches sometimes we ignore the great things, we're looking at how can we get 214 in the second half, too.

Q. He's not on the team any more, be meant so much to the team, first NFL start, continues to be, what can you say about James Conner, coaching somebody like that, then seeing him get an opportunity, here he is one of those faces going out every single week for the Steelers?
PAT NARDUZZI: James, he's in beast mode right now. I saw him in beast mode during the summer working out. We are fortunate enough to work out in the same facility. They're walking through our field right now. I can peek out my window and watch them.

He's on a mission. Always has been on a mission. Plays with a lot of passion. I couldn't be happier for that guy. He's got an opportunity. He will take full advantage of it.

I've caught a few snaps and highlights of him catching the ball in the backfield from Big Ben. If anybody stands next to Ben Roethlisberger, Ben must trust him. Ben has a lot of trust and faith in James Conner.

Q. With the new NCAA rule on kickoffs and fair catches, what were your thoughts going into the year, and how have you seen it play out?
PAT NARDUZZI: Well, there's obviously a lot of things that go with it. Sounds easier than it is, especially for our kids. We made some critical errors. Again, I say it every week, we were out there today actually just doing some drill work. It's not like you have to run a hundred sprints to do the right thing. You take it for granted sometimes as coaches. We didn't do a good job of detailing that whole thing out, what to do.

With the field position problems we had, we really shot ourselves in the foot. It was poor decision making on our part and bad coaching, in my opinion, on how we did return, how we did talk about fair catching the ball.

Obviously our returner was confused. I still think we take one to the house the first week. When you have field position at the 25 yard line, it's not so bad. There's some things where if you must have the thing, the ball is going to be dead right there. If you make a bad decision, it's never been a rule, forever and ever, you never had to worry about this. There's a learning curve to it. That curve hit us Saturday night in the second half. It will never hit us again.

Q. In general, when you're facing a team that has a noted kick returner, how do you decide is it better to kick to him and trust the unit, better to swallow the pride and kick out-of-bounds?
PAT NARDUZZI: Well, kicking out-of-bounds is awful, because that's another scenario. Kick it out-of-bounds, you get the ball at the 35. Best scenario is a recruited kicker, put it at the 25 and go.

Either way, I trust our teams. We've never had to kick the ball out-of-bounds. I think more people would say squib it or kick it away from that dude, if you could, poach it. Last year against Penn State, they kicked it to the other side, against from Qadree. Certainly you don't want to kick the ball out-of-bounds.

Q. How have you seen Kenny Pickett respond to his first real adversity as a starting quarterback this week in practice, just being around him this week?
PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, that's a great question. We won't know till Saturday. What you just said exactly is exactly, I'll be looking for, Coach Watson will be looking for. Kenny is the same dude in practice every day. Kenny is a competitor. Kenny just has to not put everything on his shoulders.

I think the very first thing I think about, he's a smart guy. He doesn't ignore what happened. He knows he tries to put it all on his shoulders. He internalized it, tried to think he got to do it all. He's gotten other guys out there that have to do their job. He has to trust them. He can't do it all. There's no quarterback, I don't care Joe Montana, none of them can do it by themselves. Certainly he can't, as well.

I don't see anything now. What I see on a Tuesday and Wednesday is exactly the same every week. You're going to get detail out of him. When the lights turn on, I tell you guys all the time about practicing in Heinz Field, what happens when the lights go on.

He started three games. He's still a puppy. He's not a veteran quarterback. Just think of where he's going to be as a senior in the pouring down rain, sloppy field conditions. We're not going to have this problem.

It was a great learning experience for him. I think we've all learned from a lot of mistakes we had as coaches and players. The key is to come back from it. I have no doubts that Kenny is going to come back from it and be better for it, too.

Q. What kind of emphasis has there been this week on cutting down on penalties, anything you can actually do to try to improve in that area?
PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, I was waiting for somebody to ask a Georgia Tech question. I don't know if everybody is ignoring Georgia Tech. These dudes are good. Their B back is out. He's excellent. Their quarterbacks are both excellent. I don't care who is in there. Paul Johnson does a great job. Their defense is scary. They have speed all over the field.

But to answer your question, what was your question again?

Q. Penalties.
PAT NARDUZZI: Every week we have penalties. If you look at the stats, uncharacteristic of us. You're going to take some aggressive penalties at times, but the false starts, those types of things, two penalties that just critically kill you. We got a 30-yard punt return, all of a sudden we got the ball at the five yardline because of a teeny block in the back. It's kind of like, Well, I can see why you called it, but really?

Those are things you can't do and win football games. Then it just backed us up again. We talk about penalties every day. We have a team meeting every day we have practice. I throw up the penalties from the day before, who had them, were they a team penalty, were they inside, where they were. We talk about them every single day.

If you look back at the stats, the last two years we have the least penalties in the ACC. That will continue. You take one game. We had one guy, Patrick Jones, make some critical third downs. Take a taking a knife, stabbing it in your chest, twisting it around. He has two where he is hitting the quarterback, and we have third down stoppers. It's a facemask or it's a late hit on the quarterback. You got to be kidding me. Threw an incomplete pass, it's first down for them again.

We shot ourselves in the to foot as much as we could. We should be the lowest penalized team in the ACC. I think we still have a chance to be that again this year.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.

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