UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 12, 2026

Pat Narduzzi

Press Conference

Pitt - 12, UCF - 7

PAT NARDUZZI: Couldn't be more proud of our football team. I think that was a big-time team win. All three phases found ways to get their job done. Obviously it wasn't pretty. It was ugly weather day. Weather delay, the whole deal, sudden change, whatever it may be. Obviously some good plays in the game.

Again, I think it was a good football team. Look across the line. Look at the guys who played against, really good football team. Obviously a Big 12 win. We'll take those any day. They all count as one.

I thought that run by Damon Ferguson in the second quarter at the end, that was a manly run. That's kind of what he showed. We'll continue to get better.

I would say this, we'll probably get better, we'll make more improvements from game two to game three. When you look at a Big 12 opponent and what we did, a Power 4 team. We'll probably see more improvement this week just on some detailed things that we've got to clean up.

But overall, really happy. Gabe Russo had a heck of a day. You think about special teams, that one punt that was high and a little high snap, he snagged that thing in the weather. I mean, we had zero turnovers.

We didn't get one on defense either. Probably, missed a few sacks defensively. Especially in that third and five at the end, in two minutes, we gotta get that one.

But, hey, it's a win and couldn't be happier for our kids.

Q. Defense?

PAT NARDUZZI: They played good. I mean, looking at 206 yards -- wish we wouldn't have gave up that one touchdown at the end there. Made things get a little hairy there. But you know it's good to have a little adversity.

Obviously they aren't perfect. We didn't make some plays out there today. I think that quarterback was as wet as anything. I think when you think about the ball, he was just grabbing and it was like wiping us off. We've got to clean that up and kind of go from there. Defense played well.

Q. (Inaudible) Turner not being able to play, looked like he was warming up. Was it a game-time decision? Was it something that you guys kind of had a sense of going in?

PAT NARDUZZI: It was a game-time decision. Something minor that we just wanted to make sure we're safe with him. It's a long season. Didn't want a little thing to get big. Obviously got an ACC opponent up this weekend. Try to get him healthy.

We had a lot of trust in La'Vell and obviously Damon Ferguson. Try to ride it out got faith in that back, there's no sense in messing something up so we wanted to be smart.

Q. Sudden changes, but Damon Ferguson getting the start, like you said. He didn't know he was starting. How do you think he handled the moment today?

PAT NARDUZZI: I think he handled it pretty well. I mean, we'll look at the videotape and see exactly. I'm sure he made some mistakes, bounced some runs when he shouldn't, you know, freshman mistakes. But thought he did a nice job.

Like I said, that one run, I mean, that's a big-time run. And I think the Big 12 officials let those piles go a little longer, too. I've made note out there. You play with the Big 12 staff, I mean, told our guys we got to start pushing the pile, they will let it go until it stops. So good day by Damon.

Q. Does it give you confidence as a coach that you can win different ways this early on? Last week the offense. This week?

PAT NARDUZZI: Absolutely. You know, special teams as well. I mean, our kickoff team responded like we asked them to. I mean, you know, we had two big hits. I'm talking big hits on the kickoff team. So I was happy with our kickoff coverage, which made a major emphasis.

Probably got better from week one to week two as far as kickoff coverage goes. You can probably mark that down.

Obviously, Antonio was really good. He's 100 percent. You think about how important those points are whenever you get them.

Q. Expand on the importance of (indiscernible) in the punting game especially in these conditions?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, just catching the snap -- you just sit there and pray, catch the snap. That's a big deal, from 14 yards back, that thing's spinning back there. You're not a real -- no disrespect to Gabe -- he ain't an athlete, right, you think about receivers and quarterbacks catching a snap. But punters catching it, fired up, should give him a lot of confidence back there as far as just getting his job done. So nice job by him.

Again, he got another, was it two inside the 10-yard line? I think he might have dropped two inside the 10. I mean, those are big plays which gives your defense a chance in a coming-out situation.

Q. Dried up for you guys offensively in the second half, punts on every single one of your possessions after halftime. Just how would you evaluate the offense in the third and fourth quarters?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, it was tight. I mean, it was tight. Wasn't easy. I thought we ran the ball. Even at the end there, we're fourth-and-one. We were in the go. But I was like we're punting the ball. Even, probably, maybe just based on the weather, maybe even that first first fourth down and four, I think we went for it and didn't get it. Probably bad coach's decision there.

But again, based on the weather and we trusted our defense. I think we were a little bit conservative on offense. We ran the ball and just wanted to protect it and again zero turnovers wins the game.

You have one turnover in the fourth quarter, game's over. And so that's the most important thing is the ball. The ball is the program.

Q. There were some throws that you didn't try to make when the game got on because he was trying to protect the team. Is that something that you guys coached him to do, or is that an adjustment you think he knew to do in that moment?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, I mean, being smart. So it's important. A punt is not a bad thing. Everybody thinks it's a bad thing because the offense didn't score, but a punt is a good thing. A turnover is really, really bad thing that can fatally kill you.

So protecting the ball, it was not easy. Shoot, I had discussions with the officials out there, can you dry the ball? They let it sit down there for 15 seconds. Well, shoot, it was wet. It was not easy to throw a wet ball, especially if you want to be smart with the football.

Q. Different linebackers contributes to sacks. What does that say about your linebackers?

PAT NARDUZZI: The linebacker crew, I've been telling you since all of August, we missed some tackles. But I know Alex got a sack. He was fired up. I didn't see the sack totals or anything like that.

But we missed -- give their quarterback, Alonza, he's a winner. Told you he's a winner. Give him credit. He got out of some hell back there, made some plays. But in the end we got it done.

Q. Going out there on that last offensive drive, needing that stop to seal the win, you said that's something that the defense wants. They want to go out there and have that pressure on them. What does that say about that unit and the confidence that they have?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, you know what, I think it's just a confidence builder for the future. I think that's the first thing. You get that opportunity to go out there and go four-and-out and stop them. To me, there's nothing that builds a team better than that.

That's what you want. You want it on defense to stop it. Even we threw one pass, I told Kade, got a first down. So he threw one pass, and I think after that ball went into the ground, it was like, let's just run the ball and eat up the 40 seconds, probably gave a timeout to them, but you gotta be aggressive with it but we gotta be smart.

Q. Your guys that were out here a few minutes ago said you had them well prepared to deal with the weather. Can you elaborate on that? Is there anything specific?

PAT NARDUZZI: They hated me during practice because I was looking at the weather all week, saying we're going to do wet balls.

Tight ends and receivers think they can wear those gloves. Those gloves are slippery as heck. We probably gotta find an answer for the quarterback. They might have do Kenny Pickett two gloves, get him a pair of gloves that can, you know, grip that ball better than what we found.

So we'll experiment with that. But we had walk-through yesterday. We did wet ball drills for the offense. We worked on wet ball drills. That's critical. You never know when you need it. And that's why, even in fall camp, you'd like to be out there in the rain and get the experience of catching balls in the rain. It's a different deal.

That was our -- we didn't have a practice like that. I don't know if I prepared -- maybe on Wednesday we had some wetter balls than what we had out there today. But maybe it was -- maybe we need to go more wet. I don't know.

Q. Not a big fan of short weeks. I mean, I guess how do you prepare going into Thursday?

PAT NARDUZZI: You know what, I think, if you go back in the last six opportunities we've had on Thursday, I think we're 6-0. I think we started off not so good in my tenure here in those short weeks.

But we've had a good plan of how to attack it. No question I'm not a big fan of what we've got to do. We'll be practicing tomorrow. Tomorrow will be like a Tuesday practice. So it starts right back up. And that's the way it is.

I think I got a radio show on Monday night. I mean, are you kidding me, Mike? What are you trying to do to me?

It's a sped-up week. And we've got to get our guys fresh. But we've got to get them prepared for really good Syracuse team. I'm assuming they they're 2-0 as well, right? I didn't see the final score. They did? Cal beat them? I know they were up 3-0. I lost track. It's obviously a really good Cal team. I'll start on that tape when I get home.

Q. You guys held them to 0-of-3 on fourth downs and 4-of-13 on third downs. What can you say about how prepared you guys were for those money-down situations, Strader also getting targeted twice in those situations?

PAT NARDUZZI: I mean those first-half fourth downs were big when it was dry out. It was a little dryer out at that time, in that second quarter. Those are some -- those fourth downs were huge, it's a momentum win for the offense or the defense if you get it or don't get it.

Those fourth downs, those are big plays in the game and won the football game for us probably.

Q. Schematically, did UCF do anything that surprised you or how did that compare with what --

PAT NARDUZZI: I have to look at the tape to see exactly, but I think what we saw on their defense was what we prepared for. Offensively, the same thing. I don't think there was anything crazy out there that we saw. We knew they would have different things, but we worked stuff from back in 2014 against Oregon and all that stuff. And they ran some of those plays, if you can imagine that. Scott Frost does a great job.