UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 17, 2026

Pat Narduzzi

Press Conference

Pitt 27, Syracuse 13

PAT NARDUZZI: Good Thursday evening in Pittsburgh. Obviously proud of our football team, going out and getting another win against a really good ACC team. I think Fran Brown's got a really good team. I think they're tough. I think they're physical, and, again, they should've beat Cal last week. If that gives you any indication, we talked about them minus 3. So give Fran and his team and staff credit for coming out and giving us a good fight but that fight wasn't good enough. Our guys played solid. I think we could have played better. I don't think we played our best football game, but it's nice to win when you don't play your best football on offense or defense.

Kind of disappointed with the tackling a little bit. Tough to play a few days later after last Saturday and just preparations, never the same but our guys did enough to win the football game, some great plays out there, some great fourth down stops. Our defense made plays when they needed to. Those two picks in the second half were critical and, again, I thought our offense did a great job running the ball and I know you guys like that.

In Pittsburgh you got to be able to run the ball good. So, questions?

Q. 245 rushing yards, just kind of that carried the offense tonight.

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, shoot, probably could have been a little bit more. You see Cook go out there and break off a big one, could have maybe scored. Bad luck there. Our deep back field went from being deep to two guys out there and I was telling J-Bo you better be ready to go.

But I thought La'Vell and Damon Ferguson played really well. Physical, tough runs, bouncing some place and making plays with their feet. I was excited about the run game and obviously the O-blocker, the O-line did a nice job blocking up front.

Q. (Inaudible) what has he done that he's been about to be this good this quickly?

PAT NARDUZZI: He's such a fun kid to be around. First of all, he plays loose. He's not a tight ass freshman, put it that way. That guy dances. He's got the best dance moves every ever, so he's loose. He's obviously intelligent. He's smart just as far as a freshman goes. I think tailback is a spot if you're talented and you play loose, you can play as a freshman and he's got speed. You see him take an edge and turn the corner. He's a talented young freshman.

Q. Mason, about some of the missed throws, interceptions, what looked like an off night for him. What would you assess out of how he played?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, Mason tries to be perfect and we're never going to be perfect. He's unhappy after the game. Nathan Peterman was on the sideline. Nathan is like, hey, every win is good. It's hard. To win the game when Mason doesn't play as good as he wants to is a beautiful thing.

But I think time and I think Malik's not out there. He's used to throwing to Malik. TK was out for a couple of weeks, and he's got him and Demetrice McCray. Those receivers are winning and we got to do a better job getting them timed up better on some of those deep balls.

That's the what he's upset at, missed a couple of shots down the field which he could have hit. So Mason's going to be fine.

Q. With Syracuse, are they doing anything or is it just coincidentally?

PAT NARDUZZI: I think it's just coincidental. Totally different defense this year with Vince Kehres running it. What we saw, we had our chances. We had guys open. Shoot, one of their pass interference, he had C.J. Lee wide open down the middle of the field which would have been a touchdown, but he's got to see it better.

Practice last week, short week, all that stuff, I'm not worried about Mason. That's the last guy I'm worried about.

Q. Back to your offensive line, after the first game they gave up some pressures they looked pretty strong today. What did you see for them week after week as a group?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, I think our offensive line is doing a good job. Knock on wood, we have the same five starters out there, we got to keep that room. They got to stay healthy. They get along so well together. The whole group is playing well together.

I talk to them just about finishing blocks. We get a hat on a hat but one of the big emphasis keys to victory going into that game is we gotta finish blocks. Not just get a hat on a hat, but finish them off. I think that's what we did today. I think I'm going to watch the video tape and go we finished blocks. That's how you break runs. You don't just get your hat on someone and not finish the guy off. I think we finished it up front. That's what I'm proud about.

Q. (Inaudible) Damon says they call him Unc. What have you seen from him in terms of that leadership and how important has he been to that room?

PAT NARDUZZI: He's been great in that room, obviously. La'Vell, if you listen to him on the radio show, the guy is so mature, so smart. We have a lot of those smart guys. I think I say everybody is smart, but he is the uncle in that room and he does a great job leading that room.

Q. Three different games three different ways --

PAT NARDUZZI: How did we win this one today? We ran the ball today. I tell you what I told the guys afterwards. Our special teams, that kickoff coverage. I go back to our kickoff coverage. Talk about getting better. That kickoff coverage, they shouldn't try to return it. They should just fair catch it, okay? Because they were flying down there. We got those guys -- give credit to the prefers, that kickoff coverage was like they were going down there and I love that.

Q. I think of Allen Bryant.

PAT NARDUZZI: Allen Bryant, he's on fire. He was a great special for us last year and he's doing the same thing. Allen Bryant was good, but it takes all those ten guys running down there besides the kicker and fitting where they need so someone can make a play.

Q. You guys are 3-0 now heading into Bucknell this week. How do you keep everybody focused and grounded?

PAT NARDUZZI: That's easy. That's my job. We'll be fine. Our guys will stay -- we gotta go out. They're going to want to go out and make plays period. We'll get them focused up and get them ready for Bucknell. That's my job.

Q. The turnovers, mentioned the turnovers, but that sequence where Lee had the pass breakup and FitzSimmons had the sack, how significant was that?

PAT NARDUZZI: It's guys making plays. I don't think C.J. had great coverage on that but he had good recovery. He recovered and went and finished the play. I didn't like his technique at the line of scrimmage. He kind of jumped outside, gave the guy a free inside release, but went and finished it and that's what you do. Sometimes you don't play great up front at the line of scrimmage but he finished.

Every one of those plays was critical. Guys making plays, and, again, we didn't make enough plays in the run game. That's what really upsets me. We got to look at our run fits and get better at that.

Q. Last week the sack safety, he's done this over and over again during his time at Pitt. What is it about him that he has a penchant for making big plays?

PAT NARDUZZI: He's a football player. He's a guy, I thought he got banged up early, I thought oh, gosh, we can't lose Braylan. But the interception he had was four verticals and we've been two-by-two detached. Some people hit us on that see him. We worked hard on it, so it's good to see him. I know Coach Bowen, our linebacker coach has worked hard on trying to get him to finish that the right way and he did.

Q. Syracuse, what they have done check (inaudible).

PAT NARDUZZI: It's film study plus it's copycat stuff. Miami hit us on a few of those vertical routes and we didn't play it as good as we wanted to, so it's something we worked on. Syracuse came back to try to attack our coverage and, again, credit to our kids and credit to our coaches.

Q. How important is the next nine days to recover and get back healthy?

PAT NARDUZZI: We definitely got to get healthy. After three, we're a little bit banged up. Boosie didn't go today, pretty much coach's decision. He probably could have gone. He went through pregame and I grabbed him in the locker room and said you're not going. I'm just not taking any chances. I felt like we could beat Syracuse without him and I wasn't taking any chances. I may hold him out another week too, who knows.

Q. Back to your point about the run defense. It seemed like early on, you were stuffing them up a little bit. As the game progressed, they found some holes, had some splash plays. How well overall do you assess the --

PAT NARDUZZI: It wasn't good. A couple of fits. Ran a double A gap, which we have run probably 3,000 times since I have been here, and the backer doesn't come over the top. He's going to make the play if he does. Just the tiny details we weren't good at today, so it was not good enough.

Q. Emphasis on having anymore balance attack between the run and the pass on offense or is that more match-up base?

PAT NARDUZZI: There's always an emphasis. When we want to run the ball, we want to pass the ball, we want to be two-dimensional. That was the goal coming into the game. It's always an emphasis, but we're not gonna beat a dead horse and try to run it when it's not there. It's all depending on what they're giving us.

Just on the headsets I'm listening to the offense, it's there, it's there. And then we run it and it's there. You know, like just listening on the headset, so it's all depending on if they give us the look we want and they play the coverage we want. We're going to try to dictate and try to figure out what they run pre-snap.

Q. (Inaudible) come in with juice this season, what have you from him this season?

PAT NARDUZZI: He knows the defense. He's familiar with it. He's playing at a high level. He just gets off the ball. He is a guy that can cause penetration havoc in the back field. He's worked hard at his pass rush. He's been violent with his hands, which was a big emphasis in the offseason, just getting better, trying to win our one-on-ones.

Q. Cruce Brookins came out in the second half, didn't return. Saw him on the sideline still holding his helmet. Could he has gone back in?

PAT NARDUZZI: Probably couldn't have gone back in, but Cruce Brookins is tough. He'll be ready to go. It was good to get those younger guys, Tony Forney came in. Didn't look like I wanted him to. I thought Cole Woodson came in, I think played solid. We'll see. But it was good to get the win, get two younger guys in there. I think AB got in as well, Allen Bryant. It's good to get those other guys to find out. There's going to be a time we're going to need them and they got to both play better as well.

Q. (Inaudible) can you speak to what that means to you?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, I have reflected on that the last couple of days because, you know, Chris Carter's worn me out on that question. The team gave me a game ball afterwards, which was fun. They threw some water on my head, which was great.

And, you know, I look at it and what I told those guys in the locker room was they're fun to coach. My job is easy. It's just fun to be here at Pitt. Because I did reflect, I pulled something out of the archives. My dad used to always have something like this folded up in his wallet. He had it in his wallet. This is not the original. I have the original at home, but I fold it up the same way he did, put it in his wallet and it's a little thing, a little quote that he had that says remember this. It was by Elbert Hubbard. It said, "If you work for a man in heaven's name, work for him. If he pays yours wages which supplies you bread and butter, work for him. Speak well of him. Stand by him. Stand by the institution he represents."

That's what it comes down to. My dad was big on loyalty. I guess I inherited that from him, but that's what it comes down to, being loyal. I came here in 2015 to coach at Pitt and I had no intentions of ever leaving. Had opportunities to leave, I've stayed but, again, it's because I love being here. I'm a Pitt man and I'm proud to lead this program.

Q. I have some questions about that. You said maybe count the practices too. How many practices you have?

PAT NARDUZZI: That would be a long count, but you can pretty much go 144 times three practices a week plus all the camp. 24 practices in camp, and you can probably figure that out but I'm not that good at math.

Q. You mention loyalty, but when you first took this job, did you ever imagine you would hold onto it this long (inaudible).

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, I figured it was no surprise to me. I have never been fired yet. I have never been fired. I tried to get fired when I was at ordown. Floyd Keith got fired. I went in the newspaper and said you can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit and I was hoping they would fire me and he hired me as the D-coordinator. I was like are you kidding me? I was trying to get fired so I could go find another job, so I have never been fired, unfortunately, I guess. But, again, came here with intentions of being here for my career.

Q. What has this team right now proven as far as the next step in your legacy (inaudible)?

PAT NARDUZZI: They haven't proven anything yet. We've won three football games. We got a long season to go. We got to stay healthy. We got a lot of football to play and we need to finish strong. First thing is we need to get into number four and beat Bucknell.