UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 16, 2024

Pat Narduzzi

Press Conference

Clemson 24, Pitt 20

PAT NARDUZZI: Well, one heck of a football game, I can tell you that. I feel bad for our seniors. Wanted to get it for those guys. We had a six-game win streak on senior day and our kids fought their tails off.

As usual, it's a team loss. We did it together. There's plays on offense, defense that you wish you had back, but I love the group in there. They fought their tails off to the end. Didn't go our way. Game of inches.

You look at the defense played their tails off the entire game, on the field for almost 35 minutes. They had one drive at the end of the second quarter where they hit two big posts on us. Our guys tightened down, we made some adjustments and fixed it. But that, and then the two-minute at the end of the half where they made some plays and we didn't, wasn't some good coverage, and they got a field goal before the half, which was a critical field goal.

Then again, we pitch a shut-out defensively in the second half until 1:36 in the game and the quarterback draw, which they've run quarterback draws. They got us in a good coverage for it. Our stunt up front probably wasn't as clean as you'd like. We'll look at the tape. I briefly saw it from an iPad but was focused on the two-minute for our offense at the end.

Then offensively, they hung in there, made a lot of plays. Again, there was a lot of good plays out there for us. Nate Yarnell had a heck of a game.

I think we didn't protect the quarterback. We've had some shuffling going through the O-line as you guys know, and Jackson brown had to start at the right tackle spot, another change in the O-line. Jacoby was out in the second quarter, I believe, so we had another change there.

Again, just part of the game. It's next man up. We got banged up last week, we got banged up a little bit more today on op of that. But I love the way our guys played.

We had an opportunity offensively. You look at it, we had a missed field goal in the second quarter, I believe. A long one, not easy. Ben has been outstanding all year, and he's a hell of a kicker.

Then we had the goal line stand down there, 1st and goal at the 2. We didn't break the huddle fast enough a couple of times. We were huddling up; maybe we should have just gone tempo, and we were too slow getting lined up, and it starts with me making sure they're ready to go.

I call a time-out when Derrick Davis goes over the top. I don't know if they stop play, and I didn't see that play yet, but I look back at myself like maybe if I didn't call that time-out, maybe it's a delay and we score a touchdown and we don't matter. But we need to score at the 2-yard line. We've got to get -- six points instead of seven. Put that one on me for calling a time-out. I was just worried about that clock going down. We were tight on time, and I didn't want to be backed up five yards for a delay of game. So operationally we've got to clean that up.

But the kids fought hard, and it's the game of football. They did a nice job at the end. Cade Klubnik had a heck of a play.

Questions?

Q. Right after you called that time-out you had three straight offensive penalties for different things. What was going on? What was the issue? Was there a communication issue that was getting the plays in late? The fans at one point were counting down the play clock.

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, again, I think we were trying to huddle with our skill guys, and we just didn't break out fast enough. I couldn't tell you exactly what it was, but we were down on the clock and that's why it happened the first time. I wasn't going to get a delay of game. But those were critical.

Q. On that last play, what do you think led to that? Were you guys just so far back in coverage that he had a lane?

PAT NARDUZZI: I think we were in a two-man concept, which got us at the end of the half, too. Again, maybe went back to the well too much on that.

As you guys know, through the year our defense has been outstanding. I had complete confidence in them at the end of the game. Two-minute, I'm like, shoot. That two-minute at the end of the half, two-minute at the end of the game, our defense has been lights-out all year, and they got us into good coverage and we didn't rally and make a play on the quarterback. We've got to get him down. He took it to the house. At least let them kick a field goal and tie it up, whatever. We just didn't get him down. It's on us as coaches.

Q. How do you keep this team from losing confidence after a three-game losing streak?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, they're not going to lose confidence after what they did out there today. We've got a good football team in there and we played a good football team. They aren't crappy. We've got a darned good football team, and we just keep our heads up. We've got two more guaranteed games and then we'll move on from there.

We've got a really good Louisville game, Louisville team on the road, and then we've got to pick up the pieces, and our guys will do that. They were great in the locker room afterwards. It's the game of football. It's what we do.

Q. They had only had eight rushing yards up until that last play --

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, thanks for reminding me. Georgia held them to 38; that was the low on the year, so that tells you what kind of performance our kids did. Mafah really couldn't get anything going all day. It was a great performance by our defense in rush defense, and then you give up a quarterback draw, which was the one. They got 58 total yards, and they got 50 on the last play. I don't know if that answers your question, but yeah.

Q. Two guys taken off on carts. Any update on those guys?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, both of them will be out for the year. David had looked like probably a broken -- I'm not a doctor but it was not pretty looking sight out there. You knew immediately that he had an issue there, and then C.J. Lee, he'll be out, as well, with it looked like -- I'm no doctor, but a patella tendon.

Q. What do you think; why were you drawn offsides three consecutive plays?

PAT NARDUZZI: Well, they called -- three in a row, again, it was critical but it wasn't critical because we got off the field anyway. Defense did a heck of a job. Three in a row, center was moving his shoulder and getting us to jump, but there was three in a row and then they got him in the next series, but they didn't get him enough.

Again, there was some movement up there that shouldn't be done, but they didn't get him. I'm whining to the officials. They got him the next series, but I'm just glad he didn't score on that drive and we got off the field.

Q. Was losing a touchdown as much a part of the game as 13 penalties?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, definitely. You look at offense, we had a holding call early. We had a false start, Gavin down on the goal line, I believe. One illegal formation. We had delay of game on 3rd and goal, we had two false starts by our guards out there, and then we had an unnecessary roughness on PJ O'Brien. I can't tell you I got a good peek at that one.

Then we had the three offsides on defense. We had a facemask on the sideline, which was kind of nit-picky, but I believe we got off the field on that. We had a roughing the passer on Nate Matlack. He was coming -- maybe he was a little high; I didn't look at it. But those are the penalties that we had, and then we had a delay of game on punt return for fair catching and then picking up the bounce.

Again, when you look at it, just too many unforced errors, and we've been good all year. The last two weeks we haven't been that way. We had six drops. We had other opportunities offensively.

Again, there's just so many things you can point to. It's not just a two-minute drive at the end of the half or at the end of the game. It's a goal line stand. We had our opportunities to win. We've got a good football team in there. We've just got to be cleaner.

Q. At this stage of the year tighten up discipline in moments where you guys had those self-inflicting penalties that regardless of -- the ones where you're offsides and the shoulder thing, that's one thing, but when you're doing it to yourself on offense --

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, it's attention to detail, and we talk about it every day. In crunch time, we've just got to be more disciplined. Again, we've got a disciplined football team. We're not an undisciplined football team, but things happen in the heat of the moment and guys get anxious, and we didn't do a good enough job.

Q. Do you anticipate (indiscernible) will be ready for next week?

PAT NARDUZZI: I would imagine, yes.

Q. Take us through the personal foul on Nate. The flag didn't come out but then it came out late?

PAT NARDUZZI: Came out like 10 seconds late, yeah. That was like, I don't know. I couldn't tell you. It looked like an aggressive play to me. I don't know. Sometimes I lose my mind.

Q. How do you think Nate played overall?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, he made some great throws. I don't like the eight sacks. Is that on him, is that on the O-line? We gave Jackson Brown some help over there with some chips. I think that helped out a little bit. We tried to help him out and help everybody out, but Gavin did a great job chipping and helping out on protection, so it wasn't like we ignored that. But just gave up too many. But I thought Nate played a heck of a game.

Q. On that final drive where Sauls hit the field goal to take the lead, was it your plan to go in there conservative or did that false start penalty kind of change the plans?

PAT NARDUZZI: Again, they had the time-outs, so we knew they were going to blow their time-outs. I wasn't telling Cade anything. I wasn't telling him to be conservative because there's nothing I hate worse than third -- in a four-minute situation if you want to call it that, just running three plays in a row, but that didn't help the 1st down.

But as soon as we got backed up, I think that was a pass on that play. I wasn't worried about it. Like I said, I'm not going to get conservative. There's nothing I hate worse than trying to run three straight times up the middle and count on your kicker because they're going to get the ball back, as well, but they burned all three time-outs, gave them some time at the end.

But as a matter of fact, I think on the penalty, again, we had some one-on-one coverage out there because they had the box packed, but then we got backed up, and it just changes things a little bit.

Q. Considering Nate played as well as he did, would you consider keeping him as quarterback next week?

PAT NARDUZZI: It's way too early. We'll see how Eli is feeling, and that's a coach's decision. We've got a lot of confidence in Eli. Eli has played well all year, as well.

Again, I've told you all year Nate Yarnell is a good football player, and you guys saw it out there today, and we'll see when the grading gets done and see how everybody feels.