UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 5, 2026

Pat Narduzzi

Press Conference

Pitt 59, Miami (OH) 14

PAT NARDUZZI: Heck of a way to open up the season. I can tell you that. First thing, I'm proud of our players. They did a great job mentally getting in the game. I know physically we were ready. The last two weekends I've watched some sloppy football in openers. Just saw some stuff that's awful, and I addressed it with our guys, like we're going out, we're going to set the tone early, and I thought it was a pretty clean opener, maybe as clean an opener as we've had here at Pitt.

Again, I'll start off giving Miami of Ohio credit. I think they're a damn good football team. Probably see them in Detroit at the MAC championship. I think quarterback McComb is a good player.

But I just think we had a better team out there today. Our guys made plays when they needed to. Obviously there's some little things we've got to clean up, whether it's special teams, offense, getting lined up faster, and then defense we gave up two explosives that I'm obviously not happy with. But that's what you get.

They've got guys on scholarship and guys that have NIL. It's not going to be perfect, but the number one thing for us defensively for us is stop the run, and I think we did that today. We made them one-dimensional. We're going to pack the box, kind of like they tried to pack the box as well, and we obviously had a lot more success stopping the pass than obviously they did.

Questions?

Q. How did you feel the energy was from the Panther Pit?

PAT NARDUZZI: When we came out of that tunnel and I came down there, that energy was great, and I appreciate them showing up and being as great as they were early.

Obviously I think they sensed a little bit of a blowout, I guess. I'm not there, but the energy was there. I thought it was really good.

Q. What did Mason carry over from training camp to today, seven touchdown passes? What was working for him?

PAT NARDUZZI: Everything. I mean, everything -- how many turnovers did we have? Zero. That's kind of what we've shown in scrimmages. He's taking care of the ball. He forced a couple in there today that we'll look at and see what he was trying to do. Even when we kicked that 50-some-yard field goal, whatever it was, I was hoping we'd gain five yards and make it a little easier, but he took a shot, and we should have scored there. Then threw an errant one over the middle, which I wish he would have taken the check-down and got five just to get us a closer field goal when there's 11 seconds or I think it was eight seconds left.

But overall Mason played really well, as we know.

Q. What allows him to move around behind the line of scrimmage so well?

PAT NARDUZZI: He's like a little magician back there. Not only can he throw it, but he has that knack to make people miss and get out of trouble when trouble arises.

I think it's he's just got great awareness. He's got great visual on what's going on, the periph is good, and that's what he does all the time in practice all the time too.

Q. Any thought of letting him go for eight, which would have been the program record?

PAT NARDUZZI: You know, I thought about taking him out. That last drive he was in, I think it was going from the third quarter to fourth quarter, and I just let him finish that last drive. I almost yanked him out in the middle of the drive. There was no reason to get him out there again.

I got Boosie out after he had a run. I was shocked he was still in too. I was like, get Boosie out. We didn't let Boosie have a whole lot of scrimmages; what are we doing? We'd give him 15 plays in a scrimmage and then we're leaving him out there in the fourth quarter.

But I'm not worried about records; I'm worried about winning football games and coming out of that game healthy, which we came out healthy.

Q. Back to Boosie, what did you see from the run game today?

PAT NARDUZZI: It was okay. Like I said, I think they were 36th in the country last year in stopping the run, so I think they were pretty good. Run game was okay. I think Justin Cook had a nice run. But it was solid. In the second half when they started loosening up a little bit, I thought the run game got a little bit better. But that's because I think they were sick of getting beat one-on-one trying to play man coverage and load the box.

Q. You talk a lot about how important depth is. With eight different guys getting touchdowns today, what does that say about you guys' offense?

PAT NARDUZZI: It tells you you'd better cover them all. They're all making plays, besides Blue's drops, which I don't know where those came from; I don't think he's dropped three balls all camp. Maybe he was mad because I benched him to start off the game.

But I got them together at halftime. That was the only guy seeked out at halftime just to say, hey, listen, let that first half go, that ain't you, I've never seen that before, and then he comes out and does what he -- he even had a bobble. He was trying to catch it and run too fast, just trying to go too fast. Blue will be fine.

Q. What did it mean to see Mason tie the record?

PAT NARDUZZI: You know, I don't care about records. Tie the record? We want to win. I'm not worried about records, I'm worried about winning football games, staying healthy and execution. Mason executed. That's the beautiful -- I don't know what he was passing today, 31 of 41? I don't know what that percentage is but it's pretty good. For over 400 yards.

Big thing is he's standing right now, and he didn't throw any interceptions. That's the best stat right there. Forget records.

Q. Miami of Ohio is a bit of a tougher competition level than you've faced in openers. What do you think about playing a team like them to start the season?

PAT NARDUZZI: I love to play Miami of Ohio. It's one of the best MAC teams you're going to play. I've said it all week; I've got a ton of respect for them. I worked there for four years. I know what they're all about. Chuck Martin does a great job.

I think we had the premier team in the MAC coming in here, and I think they'll be in Detroit at the end of the year. None of their fans should be disappointed. I just think they ran into a little buzz saw today.

There's other teams that maybe played the worst team in the MAC and didn't come out victorious and lost. I think that's what you've got to look at and go, where is Pitt compared to where some other programs are.

Again, the most important thing is our kids came out and took coaching and they were serious. They were locked in pregame. They were locked in last night talking to them before bed check at 10:30. They were locked in. It wasn't like they took them lightly. That's the best thing is our guys are listening and taking coaching.

Q. Not wanting to see Mason press within the offense and just being himself, especially as the game went on, did you like what you saw out of him, staying patient, still taking some things underneath?

PAT NARDUZZI: No question about it. He took what the defense was giving him.

I'll tell you what, the same thing for Holden. I was impressed with Holden. I was hoping to get him in with more than 7:55 on the clock. But I thought Holden looked damn good too, guys. That's a question. He hasn't played a lot of football, game action. He had a big smile on his face.

So just getting your backup quarterback reps, that's why we're not going to go in and hand it off. I needed to see him throw it, operate, and you could see his accuracy. I'm excited about Holden as well.

Q. With Chadha and that distance and your reaction to the kick, what did you see in practice?

PAT NARDUZZI: Antonio, he's a funny kid. We've probably got to get him into the media at some point. He's a great kid. He's fun, fun to be around. I've seen him kick it from 65, so we knew he could kick it. I didn't really want to make his first kick -- what was it? 58 yards? I didn't want his first kick in Acrisure Stadium to be from 58, but he obviously handled it good and he's got confidence.

Just as he's lining up to kick it, I've got guys on the sideline, I'm hearing, I love Antonio. Even before he kicked it, like, he's going to make this. There's confidence in that locker room and on that sideline for him to go hit it from 58.

Q. The defense after the touchdown only gave up 96 yards the rest of the way.

PAT NARDUZZI: You know, again, like I said, it's always a little bit of -- we probably shouldn't have put him in that spot. We've just got to be smart. We knew the formation, whatever. We've just got to be smart about what we ask our kids to do and protect them a little bit. That's a little bit of coaches, us protecting our guys. But I love seeing it because it makes that guy know I've got to go out and fix it.

We had a bust on another coverage, lack of communication. So two of them; one was a bust and one was physical. One was flat-out physical and one was a coverage bust.

But that's all stuff that you get in the opener that you know now you've got to work on and practice and make sure it doesn't happen again.