I’m gonna go ahead and confess, after the PSU game last year I wanted to fire him. His strength coming into the Pitt program was as a defensive guru and surely by then (in season 3) he would have had his defense playing at a high level. So it was great to see him and his team rebound to win the Coastal division and play competitively vs ND, a game they had a chance to win.

I really don’t know much about Pitt beyond losing Hall and Ollison. What are the expecting for Pitt and what does everyone think about HC Pat Narduzzi?

(07-22-2019 02:25 PM)Garrettabc Wrote:  I’m gonna go ahead and confess, after the PSU game last year I wanted to fire him. His strength coming into the Pitt program was as a defensive guru and surely by then (in season 3) he would have had his defense playing at a high level. So it was great to see him and his team rebound to win the Coastal division and play competitively vs ND, a game they had a chance to win.

I really don’t much about Pitt beyond losing Hall and Ollison. What are the expecting for Pitt and what does everyone think about HC Pat Narduzzi?

Offensively: I expect their running attack to slow down, but the passing game has a chance to be much better.
Defensively: I'm not sure, TBH.

Hopefully some Pitt fans can give us all the scoop.

I like Narduzzi. He fits with the Pittsburgh mentality. As you noted Pitt has been very inconsistent though.

I think Pitt will take a half step back in the Coastal. I think the Virginia schools are the teams to beat, and Manny Diaz will have Canes competitive

Tough OOC too, with Penn State and UCF

Narduzzi does look like a PITT guy, and honestly he is the guy I thought Tom Jurich would hire instead of bobby petrino. I say give him a little more time.

(07-23-2019 02:43 PM)HRFlossY Wrote:  Narduzzi does look like a PITT guy, and honestly he is the guy I thought Tom Jurich would hire instead of bobby petrino. I say give him a little more time.

Does he have a Wanstach?

Narduzzi reminds me of a lot of other head coaches whose teams don't match his pedigree. In other words, his background being a defensive chief, you'd think his D's would be strong and perhaps his O's would be a step behind. It's been the opposite in my eyes.

Looking back at Ga Tech's experience for other examples...George O'Leary was known as a strong defensive coach (national championship D-Coord., D-Line assistant on Super Bowl team) but for the most part as HC at GT it was his offenses led by Joe Hamilton that lit up the scoreboard under the watch of Ralph Friedgen while his defenses were mediocre (with the exception of the '98 defense that gave up a lot of yards but made up for it with creating an inordinate amount of turnovers and turning them into defensive touchdowns...his DC that year was none other than Randy Edsell).

Then, following him was Chan Gailey, who was known as an offensive guru at one time with the Steelers and whose background was on the offensive side of the ball. Well, his offenses were mostly "offensive" while HC at GT and that included having a guy named Calvin Johnson (aka Megatron). It was Jon Tenuta's defenses that won 7 games seemingly every season in Gailey's 6 years.

Narduzzi follows same traits. If Pitt ever gets a strong defense, they will duplicate being the Coastal rep in Charlotte more frequently. Their offense has been fun to watch for the most part since Narduzzi arrived.

I’m a Pitt fan and here are my completely biased thoughts:

Honestly, I have no idea what to expect from Pitt this year?

I know that’s not a terribly satisfactory answer, but I sincerely think they are the least predictable team in the entire ACC.

Reasons for concern/pessimism:
+ Inconsistent QB
+ Replacing FOUR offensive linemen
+ Replacing TWO 1,000 yard rushers
+ Defensive struggles — especially against the run

So, if you look at it in that light, I absolutely understand why so many people are bearish on the Panthers and expecting them to take a step...or two...or more back this year. Who knows, those people may very well be right? Would any outcome in the Coastal really surprise anyone?

I think the most disappointing part of all the Narduzzi era so far has been the defense’s dismal performance against the run. Now, I will say that Randy Bates, who took over as defensive coordinator last year, has definitely made a major improvement. They are much more flexible and aggressive on defense than they were under former defensive coordinator, Josh Conklin. Still, they have a ways to go.

So, if you look at it just in that light, I absolutely understand why so many people are bearish on the Panthers and expecting them to take a step...or two...or more back this year. Who knows, those people may very well be right? Would any outcome in the Coastal really surprise anyone? Personally, I think you could throw everyone in that division’s name in a hat and draw them at random and you would come up with a prediction just as good as anything anyone else can make.

However, the more I’ve looked at Pitt’s roster and studied what everyone else is returning, the more optimistic I’ve become. I legitimately believe people are likely sleeping on Pitt this year. Further, I think the Panthers have a great chance to be a better team this year than they were last year.

Reasons for optimism:
+ Talented QB
+ Experienced, well regarded QB friendly OC
+ RB depth
+ Talented secondary
+ Deep DL - especially on the interior

They say that the quarterback improves the most between his first and second year. I think we will see that with Pickett — who definitely flashed at times last year, but could not consistently do it. He was also awful at times last year. If he can get the pass protection, I think he’s going to be pretty good.

He’s listed as a junior, but that’s very misleading. He’s really a redshirt sophomore. I don’t think a lot of people realize that during his true freshman year, he was the fourth string quarterback all year long, but he was thrust into action because of injuries and poor play by all the guys ahead of him. He was put in for the final play of our third to last game of the season against Syracuse – which burned his red shirt. Then, he went down to Blacksburg in his first ever start and almost beat a pretty good Virginia Tech team. However, he had no idea what he was doing. He didn’t know more than 5-10 plays — max. Then, he led an upset of previously undefeated Miami at home.

Also, I cannot possibly overstate what a big problem former OC Shawn Watson was for Pitt. I’m not into scapegoating coaches, but literally nothing he did ever made any sense. It was at times surreal.

Pitt ran the third slowest offense in the country. Let me ask you something: In this day and age, who runs a slow down offense? Who doesn’t play with any tempo ever? I would say nobody, but somehow we were the third slowest offense in the country, so clearly at least two other teams who also chose to play with one arm tied behind their back.

Also, he had these two big running backs who were both pretty good and effective and he complemented them with a short passing game. Again, who does that?

If you’re gouging people on the ground, as we did to most of the teams we faced, that’s naturally going to draw safeties and linebackers up towards line of scrimmage. It’s just common sense.

Anyone would do that.

So, if you’ve got a bunch of defensive backs and linebackers crowding the line of scrimmage to try to limit the ground game, who then complements that with bubble screens and quick outs?

Now, the $64,000 question is did Watson run such a slow and predictable offense because he simply did not have any faith in the quarterback or the line’s ability to protect him, or did he do that because the game had passed him by?

We’re about to find out because we now have a coordinator who has run a lot of tempo and who has had a lot of success with quarterbacks pushing the football down the field.

That’s what has me tossing and turning at night – those unanswerable questions until the season starts.

I will say this much: I have seen predictions of them going 5-7, 4-8, etc. As I said earlier, anything can happen with this team. However, I do not think that’s very likely at all. I think it is more likely that they will go 8-4 or 7-5. That’s pretty much where I have landed on how I expect the season to go. If they go .500 again or below that mark, he would definitely be in trouble heading into next year.

Good stuff, Good Doctor.

That opener at home versus the French is or could be a huge game in the Coastal race. With everybody kinda bunched up in the Coastal with no real standout favorite (like in the Atlantic), I guess EVERY Coastal game is or could be a huge game of course.

I have to think with a lot of new faces, the French potentially catches a small break getting their roadie at Heinz Field so early in the season before (maybe) the new faces in Panthers uniforms get "broken in". Then again, the French has struggled winning on the road over the last decade. Will definitely be a big game for both - and the rest of the Coastal for that matter.

All Narduzzi has to do is win more than he loses and Dantonio will get him on as the next MSU coach.

Dear Pitt: Just beat Penn State this year and all will be forgiven.

We need to worry about Virginia, first and foremost. We will get to Penn State later. I expect that Virginia game to be a highly competitive affair.

They have one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC and I believe we will FINALLY have one of the best defensive backfields in the ACC.

I believe all four members of Pitt’s secondary will play in the NFL. That’s a really big deal for a team that runs such an aggressive quarters defense. I think most people are overlooking that fact.

Pitt has kinda had its way with the French. 8-3 all-time, 5-1 since Pitt joined the ACC including 3-0 at Heinz Field. Pitt has won 4 straight in the series.

(07-25-2019 05:29 AM)Wear Purple Wrote:  Pitt has kinda had its way with the French. 8-3 all-time, 5-1 since Pitt joined the ACC including 3-0 at Heinz Field. Pitt has won 4 straight in the series.

I knew I liked the Panthers for some reason.