UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 5, 2026

Nick James

Press Conference

Pitt 59, Miami (OH) 14

Q. It seemed like you were being very disruptive up there today. What was your confidence like going into your senior year here?

NICK JAMES: Just playing beside my guys. They're going to do their job, so I just want to make sure I do my job and help the team win.

Q. It seemed like you finished last season playing pretty well the last few games. Did you feel like that? Did that give you some confidence in the off season that kind of carried over to where you are now?

NICK JAMES: Yeah, I really tried to just work on my game a lot in the off-season, just putting in a lot of extra work.

Q. With this group do you guys feel like you set a tone up front?

NICK JAMES: That's always the goal. I feel like we always can be a lot better than what we do each day.

Q. You guys didn't really give up anything after halftime. What worked well in the second half?

NICK JAMES: I just feel like our mindset. We're always going to go through some adversity. It's just how we respond to it.

Q. Obviously you practice against this offense. You see it firsthand. Everything that we saw today, Mason seven touchdowns, 600 yards, is that what you guys saw the past month?

NICK JAMES: Hey, it's great to see. I love to see it. They've been giving it to us a lot during practice. It's fun to see him do it against another team.

Q. You guys have a number of younger players, inexperienced guys or transfers who maybe haven't played. How much do you learn from that week one to week two? You've seen it; how much growth can there be?

NICK JAMES: It can be a lot. Getting into the film session tomorrow and really just toning in on our game and focusing on the little details that we missed.

Q. There was a point in the second quarter where they had scored, you guys had punted, and they started to get a little momentum, then you burst through, make a big play in the backfield that kind of resets things and the offense reasserts control of the game. What were you feeling in that moment? Like hey, we've got to step up right now?

NICK JAMES: Yeah, just like I talked about the adversity, everybody is going to have a big play, it's just how we respond to it.