STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 1, 2025

Pat Narduzzi

Pitt Postgame Media Conference

Pitt 35, Stanford 20

PAT NARDUZZI: It's never easy in the ACC to go on the road across the country. I thought our guys did a heck of a job just managing the trip, the miles. I thought they did a great job with hydration.

Happy with the win. I thought the defense played outstanding. Offensively, again, gained a lot of yards, but we can't turn the ball over in the red zone three times, down at the goal line three times. Just can't happen.

That's probably the most disappointing thing, but we'll learn from that. We've got a young quarterback. He's got to learn how to just take what they're giving you and not try to force things, try to take the touchdown pass and try to make those plays. We'll reevaluate.

Defense, 4th down stops, we dropped two interceptions, and we didn't finish as well in the first half. We had chances at least four touchdowns with the dropped interceptions. Questions?

Q. Turner had a good game today. How do you feel about him?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, I felt really good for Ja'Kyrian. Boosie is a great player, obviously Desmond didn't go today. Was a game-time decision, and he didn't feel right. Boosie is a guy -- Justin Cook got in there and made a nice play. I don't know how many plays he got. But Boosie is a football player. He's tough. He's physical. He was Des Reid 2.0.

Q. Mason's last turnover was a fumble. Were you comfortable with --

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, it wasn't supposed to be a run hit. If you go back and watch the videotape, it was kind of a power read and was supposed to shovel it. Something happened with the shovel and he just ate the ball. Again, it was an incomplete pass. It would have been nice to come out with at least three down there, but we can't turn the ball over. I still thought he was down.

Q. He had two fumbles, as well. What do you coach him on as far as running the football?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, he's got to have better ball security. Obviously it's something he'll learn from, and we've got to get better at that.

Q. Coach, those red zone issues (indiscernible) what stood out to you most about him as a freshman?

PAT NARDUZZI: Well, he's a true freshman. What stands out most about him is those turnovers at the end. But he'll learn from it. Again, he made some great plays. There were some times he made some great plays. We'll take the great plays. We've got to clean up the bad ones. But he's got a lot of moxie for a young quarterback.

Q. What allowed your defense to settle in after you had those missed opportunities in the first quarter especially?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, again, let the quarterback get out of pocket on the scramble, I think he was 1 of 22 when we got him off the spot or got off the spot and it broke down so we wanted to get him out of there, but it was a three-deep coverage and let the tight ends scramble get behind us. That was the first one.

Second one was a great coverage call by Randy Bates, and Battle is right where he needs to be. He's underneath it. He's got to turn around and intercept the ball. We played what we called dog coverage and couldn't ask for anything else, it's a touchdown. Overall you look at what the defense did, and it was a great job.

Q. How much was Kyle Louis getting back in the lineup a piece of that?

PAT NARDUZZI: Kyle Louis, how about that interception in a that was a big, big, big time play. I had some NFL scouts ask me last week, could he play safety. That was a big-time interception.

Q. Given the way the game finished, you're 7-2 but you've won five in a row. Given that fourth quarter, is there satisfaction with a win like that?

PAT NARDUZZI: There's satisfaction, but as coaches, you're always looking at the bad stuff. Just working on Notre Dame; know what I'm saying? I know I've got to make sure Allen Green doesn't come to practice this week. I've got to keep him out of the facility, shut him down a little bit. He's got a little gold and green and blue in him.

But we're looking forward to this next one. It's going to be a big one at Acrisure Stadium. It's going to be nice to have a week off just to get everybody back.

I would imagine Biles would be back, No. 3 will be back. I'm excited.

Q. Given there's three top-15 teams you're going to play over the last weeks of the season, what gives you confidence that this team is ready for that challenge?

PAT NARDUZZI: We're ready. I guarantee we're ready. We've got a really good football team. We turned the ball over five times and you still win by 15, 16, whatever the points were out there. We have a really good football team but we're going to have to play smart and do things right.

Our guys will be ready. This is what you play for. This is why you play these games. Again, Notre Dame coming in and going into the fourth quarter of the season, three quarters are over, now we have a break at the perfect time for that break.

Q. What did you think of Jiavani Cooley when he stepped in?

PAT NARDUZZI: We'll look at it but I think he did solid. Kendall cramped up a little bit. We were delayed in getting him an IV, but I think he did okay. We'll see it. We move the ball down the field so I can't say he was the reason we didn't. He didn't throw any interceptions; I know that.

Q. With the late-season bye, how will you utilize the next two weeks?

PAT NARDUZZI: Next week obviously we're going to work on recruiting. Because it's Friday, we don't have any days left, but we're going to use this bye week to get healthy. We're going to stay fresh. We'll have two practices. Both of them will be in spider pads so there will not be a lot of physical contact but we'll mentally be way ahead on the Irish.