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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 17, 2018

Pat Narduzzi

Greensboro, North Carolina

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

Coach, please give us an opening statement, then we'll take questions.

PAT NARDUZZI: Obviously coming off a tight, disappointing loss to Notre Dame at Notre Dame, our kids I thought played their tails off in that football game. We're in what we're call a bye week, open week. We call it catch-up week. Catch up on your academics, health, fundamentals, catch up on video study for Duke, which is our next opponent a week from this Saturday.

With that I'll open it up for questions.

Q. Sitting here in your bye week at 3-4, how would you evaluate the way the first half of your season has gone compared to your pre-season expectations?
PAT NARDUZZI: Pre-season expectations, I don't know whose expectations they are. We don't really go on pre-season expectations because you never know. I get that question all the time. Hey, what are you going to do? You have goals, aspirations, then you take them one at a time.

I think when you look at our first seven games, we've had one of the toughest schedules in the country period. That's been the case. I thought we fought like crazy last week. Right now it's all about the ACC. We have five games to go. We can really do some great things here at the end of the year. We have to play at our best. Five great teams with Duke, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, then finish up with Miami. Those are five great opportunities.

Right now we're 2-1 in the ACC. That's really what we're focused on. We went out last week and we played to win, had an opportunity. One way or another, one thing or another, we didn't finish that up.

But I was happy with the way our guys competed against probably or third top-10 team at that point. Top five in the country, whatever they were. Now they're in the top four. We played head-to-head with them. We gave them all they wanted.

You get evaluated week by week. I was happy with the way the defense played. Special teams we were solid, besides not executing on a fake punt. Offensively, again, against I think a really good Notre Dame defense, played okay. We didn't finish drives with field goals. If you finish those drives, we're all sitting here in Pittsburgh happy as can be. Whether it's putting it through the upright or finishing those drives with touchdowns.

Q. You mentioned the ACC play. Sitting at 2-1, in control of your own destiny, is that a good feeling for your guys right now?
PAT NARDUZZI: I think it is. Again, we're not looking at the 2-1. We're looking at right now we're 0-0. We have to play our tails off against Duke in a week. Time to prepare mentally and physically to get that done. It's a good place you're in because that's where we are. That's what we're focused on, is the ACC.

The great thing is there's no more non-conference games, out of our system, out of our way. Each one of these games is really, really important. We control our own destiny right right now. If we do what we need to do, we can be right where we need to be. That's the name of the game. All of our focus is being on 1-0 in another week and a half and trying to beat Duke here at home.

Q. You mentioned catching up on fundamentals, academics, and health. What is the one biggest and most specific benefit, immediate benefit, you're going to have by being off this week?
PAT NARDUZZI: I think if I had to pick, athletic director the chancellor asked me, When do you want your bye week? I would tell you after game seven. Game six is probably a little bit late, but I think it's a perfect time to have it. I think it's a chance to have your kids take a deep breath and look at where you are, then we're in the final five-game stretch of the ACC right now. This is a perfect time after Notre Dame, a physical game, to give our kids a little bit of a break.

They had really Sunday, Monday, Tuesday off as far as not running into each other on the field. They lifted, obviously had things to do academically. We're going to practice for a couple days here, just finished up one day, one more tomorrow. We're going to give them off till Monday, then come back together and have great preparation for Duke.

Q. Do you expect to get some guys back?
PAT NARDUZZI: You are the injury dude. You know, I don't know. I'm going to go to church tonight, hope we do. Maybe I have to hit the late night mass every night this week and hope we do. If we don't, next man up, we're going to keep going. We're relatively healthy right now. We'll kind of move on from there.

Q. Enjoy your week off.
PAT NARDUZZI: There is no week off (laughter).

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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