UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 4, 2023

Pat Narduzzi

Press Conference

Florida State-24, Pitt-7

PAT NARDUZZI: First thing I'll say is just proud of the effort our kids gave out there today. They played their tails off. We made way too many mistakes.

When you look at it, it's more of what we -- the same thing as last week. More of what we did, not what they did. We shoot ourselves in the foot at times with penalties, 11 penalties. Maybe only one or two on defense.

Our defense played their tails off. They're on the field for 35 minutes, so we lost the time of possession by ten minutes again today.

It's hard to win football games when you only put 7 points on the board. We gave up 13 points. You know, you're talking about a 20 to 24 game with the No. 4 team in the country on the field, and we just didn't play clean enough, disciplined enough do overcome those things.

But you look at two minutes before the half, we an opportunity to kick a field goal, and we get a holding call, which Branson had a nice tackle, and it sounds like he threw him to the ground. I don't know what happened, but unnecessary.

Then, in the second half we got a penalty on the sideline when our quarterback got hit late cutting out of bounds. Whatever, guys were talking. I've never seen a penalty called on the sideline when there's 40 guys on the sideline, but you have to overcome all those things. You have to shut your mouth and play the game of football.

Like I said, it starts with me. Obviously didn't coach good enough this week to get it done. We'll regroup. We have three games to go, three winnable games. We played two really good football teams the last two weeks, top 15 programs, we've been inches away from making some things happen, and we didn't get it done, but it's on me.

Questions.

Q. Any clarification about what Gavin said to the officials?

PAT NARDUZZI: Gavin didn't say anything to the officials. So they were talking about happy birthday or something. I don't know what, but it wasn't one person. It wasn't Gavin.

I think maybe that's who they called it on, but just chippy like on any sideline. I've never seen it called before. I don't get it. I've seen a lot of things.

Q. Any explanation for why it was called?

PAT NARDUZZI: No.

Q. In explanation from the officials from what looked like a face mask on the fumble in the end zone?

PAT NARDUZZI: I didn't get any explanation.

Q. Can you explain the role and how that decision came to be because it looked like he was out of bounds when he recovered the ball as well.

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, I didn't see it close enough to say that, but they went and reviewed it. I'm sure they saw the face mask that they missed. Critical point in the game. Offense did a good job moving down.

Like I said, we gave up two field goals and 7 points on that play. Players play. Coaches coach, and officials officiate. Whatever they say goes.

Q. You've got a fighting effort after considering what happened last Saturday. How pleased were you with your team's effort put forward from Monday through today in the totality?

PAT NARDUZZI: The same thing should have happened last week. Again, our defense continued to fight and gave up that big run, which makes me sick, and whatever it was. We got bounced out of a B-gap, and popped us on that one.

But I thought we did a pretty solid on job. I don't know what the run yards were. Looks like they had 138, but they had probably 70 yards on that one run. Just have to keep plugging away, and it can't happen. We've got to be better there.

Q. Is Christian your quarterback going forward, Pat?

PAT NARDUZZI: Right now he is, Jerry. Again, Christian made some plays. He got pressure. He got sacked three times. All those things. We can continue to talk, but Christian, he threw one pick today, and it was not a good one, but...

Q. What do you think led to your team's struggles on third downs?

PAT NARDUZZI: Without rewinding, you look at we're 0 for 11 on third down. We didn't convert.

Obviously you give Florida State credit. There's a reason they're No. 4 in the country. They played good third down defense. When you look at it, probably too long of third down conversions.

I mean, any time you're behind the sticks and it's third and 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 32, whatever it is, those are hard to convert. Again, it starts with illegal procedures and guys jumping off sides and little discipline things that drive me crazy.

Q. Florida State's first touchdown, I think you called a timeout right beforehand, but your two defensive tackles were running out on the field late.

PAT NARDUZZI: To me it's a coaching error. I told our guys, get that sub personnel in based on the defense. We can put 15 guys on the field if we want to, and then as soon as we call it, those guys come off, and we didn't get that done.

That's on the coaches. I believe we would have stopped them, too, if we would have got those guys out quicker.

Q. What do you guys have to do to be a more disciplined football team? You led the ACC in penalties going into this game, and penalties were an issue again.

PAT NARDUZZI: We have to be more disciplined. We coach it every day. We go through the penalties every day that we haven't practiced. It's focus, and I think C'Bo had two. He is a captain now. Congratulations to him.

But, you know, it's focus. We snap the ball every day in practice, and we have to be better. I don't know what to do.

Q. What was going right for you guys defensively to keep Florida State, which is the No. 5 scoring team in the country, so limited in the first half?

PAT NARDUZZI: Guys played. They made plays early and got off the field. We bent a little bit early, but we got off the field.

So they're playing like they should. They played physical. They played hard.

Again, like I said, the defense played really hard today, and that's what I was looking for. I didn't see that in the second half last week. I felt like they were just worried about what was going on the whole team, and they just needed to take care of their business.

Defense plays defense. Offense plays offense. Special teams has to play. We just have to lock into what we do and take care of what you can control. Control the controllables.

Q. How hard is it to keep up the defense's spirits when the offense can't get a lot going?

PAT NARDUZZI: I've been around it before as a defensive coordinator. We have to take care of our business. You can't worry. You put blinders on and can't worry about it.

I always say this to defenses. Hey, if we shut them out, we win; right? They shut them out. That's our attitude on defense.

Q. Brandon George, seemed like he was in a lot of good places today.

PAT NARDUZZI: Our plan going in was to get Brandon and Shane equal reps. I thought Brandon George did a heck of a job. I was proud of him.

It's something that we've been focusing on him. He's a big, physical middle linebacker and just to get downhill and make plays. That's what I saw from some of the little replays I saw afterwards on some TFLs.

Q. What did you make of Caleb today?

PAT NARDUZZI: Again, we'll look at the tape. He had some good roles. Put it that way. He didn't have a very good sky punt, but again, he is a baby too. He got some snaps last year in relief, and this is his first year starting, and he's been inconsistent, but so have I.