	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 3, 2018

Pat Narduzzi

Greensboro, North Carolina

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi.

COACH NARDUZZI: Great to be with you here today. We're getting ready for really a great Syracuse football team. I'm not sure if they were in the Top 25 last week or not. But went down to Death Valley and played an incredible game against Clemson. Really, you know, played good in all three phases. I think it's a great football team.

Dino Babers does an incredible job. It's a 4-1 team coming into Pittsburgh, and we know they're going to give us everything we can handle. We've had two good days of practice, another one tomorrow, and we're looking forward to getting back home and getting back to work.

Q. This matchup, last time obviously in Pittsburgh played out more like a basketball game, 76-61. Just what you can say about Syracuse's improvement that you've seen on film since that last trip to Pittsburgh and how you've improved as well? And how this should be more defense, so to speak, in this game than in the past?
COACH NARDUZZI: Yeah, we sure hope so. You never know what game is going to carry for you. I think that was the last game of the season, 2016. I know we were banged up a little bit defensively. Hope it gets more back to a game like it was last year when we went up to Syracuse, it was more of a battle defensively.

But Syracuse is an improved football team. I'm not going to speak for who we are, but I like the football team we've got. We've got to come to play.

We've had a couple of tough losses. Hard to evaluate where we are. Let somebody else do that. But we try to just look at our guys every day and say where are we; it's a daily evaluation.

But I like the football team that we've got right now. I think we're getting better. I think we've gotten beat by, you know, three points to a North Carolina football team. And we've taken two tough losses to two top 12 teams, I guess, in the country. So our schedule is brutal.

And Syracuse is another brutal team coming in here. I think they're really good, like I said, in all three phases. As good a special teams program as you're going to see, and I've got a lot of respect for Dino Babers.

Q. And in terms of this rivalry, this rivalry throughout history has found a way to stay alive and stayed alive in the Big East, and then moved forward to stay alive in the ACC. Just what you can say about rivalry games like this and what these games mean to college football.
COACH NARDUZZI: Rivalry games are huge. And Syracuse is certainly one of those old Big East rival games. And one of the reasons we play them every year is a team that's a little bit more emotion when you play them. They'll be cranked up. The Panthers will be cranked up. And I think those regional rivalries are huge.

Q. If I can take you back to your prep for Georgia Tech, they have home jerseys that are kind of hard to read. I was curious if you remember having some trouble picking out numbers and so forth when you were trying to get ready for him?
COACH NARDUZZI: You know, you're talking the white jerseys with the light gold numbers is what I'm guessing? Yeah, they're tough. They're tough. You just gotta find the guy with the ball, that's the tough part is finding the guy with the ball.

But they are hard. They are hard -- I'm not sure, I think the NCAA has some regulations, and supposedly they checked the jerseys prior to the season. I'm not going to speak on Paul's jerseys.

I just know he's got some good football players and put up 63 last week. And people had troubles finding the jersey with the guy, with the ball in his hand. Is there something further you'd like to know? They are hard to see. Yeah, we watch game tape.

Q. When you're watching the Alcorn State tape, did you have trouble getting ready for (indiscernible)?
COACH NARDUZZI: Yeah, when you watch a TV copy, sometimes maybe you don't get as good a look as we do. We're going to get two views of it -- we're going to see a sideline-wide and sometimes you've got to look tighter to say what jersey number is that guy, because even their formations -- because they usually have their two wings, their basic spread formation, the only guys you don't get a really good look at is the two guys outside.

But as long as you get a look at, one time at the jersey, you can pretty much tell body types who they are. The guy that's got the white socks or the guy that's got the towel.

You start to identify -- you should try watching high school tape and trying to find the jersey number. We're used to looking for jersey numbers trying to find guys.

Q. What's kind of your evaluation of the state of your secondary as you get ready for this passing attack this week?
COACH NARDUZZI: You look at it, and like I tell our guys we had two picks last week that I thought were unbelievable. We had some good coverage last week. They hit us on a couple of play-action passes. Again a fast, athletic, Central Florida team with tempo that we'll see this weekend.

We've got to be prepared -- we worked a lot more motion this week. I like how Dane Jackson is playing right now. And Jason Pinnock had a great game last week. We've got hit on some big plays, and when you look at pass defense I think the biggest play of the day was really a check down where we didn't have great pass rush and they hit the check down route and kind of got one of our outside backers turned around.

Some of our DBs have played awful well on the back end, and some people obviously have struggled to stop them. And it's a two-headed monster with these teams that can spread you out and run it and throw it. I think it's happening across the country, happening in the NFL, more points being scored.

I like some of the things we did. I like Dane Jackson's coverage last week. My big thing is put your guys in position to make plays, and then we gotta make plays.

And Dane did last week and had a holding call that was unfortunate at the same time where he gets a pick. And those are all questionable, as you know. But I've been happy with some of the coverage we've had. Even when you give up a ball it's like -- the other guys are on scholarship, too, so you can only do so much and you've got to make plays.

Q. Just interested in your impressions of Qadree Ollison, what he's contributed to your team throughout this season and the last two years you've been with him?
COACH NARDUZZI: I've been with him actually four seasons now. He came in and I've been with him for a long time. Qadree Ollison is a class act, number one. Let's forget what he's done on the field as a football player and start off where, again, it's even more important, is what type of person he is. He's a team guy. He's an unselfish guy.

Like most of our kids, have grown up with some adversity. He had a tough situation happen to him last year, and he didn't flinch a lick, with the passing of his brother. You just talk about a kid that in the four years I've been around him, every year he matures. And you can see the growth from him.

He's a great student. You see the growth there obviously, and graduating and all that. But he's just a super person. And he's a leader of our football team. He's not a captain, but there's times he steps up, when he talks, people are listening.

On the field as a football player, he's playing fast, he's playing at a high level. We talk to our guys all the time about seniors their playing football. And we have a bunch of seniors right now that are playing their best football. They really are.

Regardless of a win/loss record, Qadree Ollison is playing his tail off and doing things at a high level. I love that kid. He's not only a tailback but he plays a lot of special teams for us. He's our personal protector on punt team. He's very detailed in a lot of things in his work. And we're fortunate to have Qadree Ollison as part of this program and a Pitt grad.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297