UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 10, 2026

Pat Narduzzi

Press Conference

North Carolina 21, Pittsburgh 17

PAT NARDUZZI: Obviously not what we expected to get today. You know, got a ton of confidence in our football team. It's one game. Like I told them afterwards, whoever plays in that championship game is going to have a loss, and all our goals are right in front of us.

Didn't make enough plays today. I thought defensively we played unbelievable really, but gave up two big passes, gave up two explosions. They couldn't run the ball. They had 20 yards of rushing. Had 100 yards less than we did offensively. So when you talk about offense, you know, out-gained it by 100 yards plus probably. We just didn't make enough plays.

0 for 4, and really comes down to being 0 for 4 on fourth down. Again, it's everybody in the locker room. It's coaches, players. We didn't make enough plays today.

Really impressed with our defense at the end. We got two four minutes. We went out and stopped them three. The last two series we got the ball back after fourth down and short. What appeared to be a fumble, reviewed, and all that stuff.

You know, maybe we're 6 inches away, but it's a game of inches, and we didn't win the inches today that we needed to, and that's what happens. But it's a great lesson for everybody in that locker room. We're not invincible. We'll be back, I guarantee you that. We got a good football team there.

Questions?

Q. There are about two fourth and shorts you guys had. Looked like you might have been in field goal range. Was that your call to go for it in that situation, or was that Kade's call to say we got something here?

PAT NARDUZZI: It's absolutely my call, period. I make those calls and put that on me. Maybe should have kicked a field goal. We can go back and say should have, could have, would have. I expect our offense on fourth and two. The one where Blue almost caught it. You hope he catches it.

Obviously it was a high throw, and Holden can make that play all over. He can make it all the time. I thought he was really sharp on all the short plays. Just went a little high there.

Obviously his first start. You think about it, he will are get better and better just from the experiences. Got a lot of faith and trust in him. He'll get those throws. He'll be much better. I was happy with the way he played today in his first start, and he'll learn.

Q. (Off microphone) after you guys went ahead and they had the 75-yard touchdown afterwards?

PAT NARDUZZI: It wasn't really a breakdown. We were in cover three, and they hit one on us. We were in cover three. I mean, you hope you're good in that. I think the pressure was no good. I think we had three guys behind the quarterback. If you are bringing six and you have three behind the quarterback, that means you only have three in front of them, and he had time to step up.

We have to do a better job. We've done a good job of whether it's four man or six man overall, but when you blitz like that and you are playing three deep, we have to be in the quarterback's face, and we didn't.

Give them credit. Obviously they're a good football team. They took Notre Dame, gave Notre Dame all they want last week, so we didn't get beat by a crappy football team. Give them credit. Bill Belichick is a good football coach, and they made just enough plays to win, and it was a close game. It was a hell of a ball game.

Q. Is Holden your starter next week, or is that a decision that you --

PAT NARDUZZI: Absolutely, we have a lot of faith in him, and Cory will keep getting better as weeks go on. Without a question, a ton of confidence in Holden.

Again, first start, guys. It's sometimes not pretty, but I thought he did a nice job. You think about the drives he had. We open it up with a 12-play, 75-yard drive. We just got to be more consistent.

Then we go on a 14-play, 67-yard drive. We've got to finish in the end zone. Field goals are great. We get down to the red zone in the first half. We have to finish it.

14 plays, 67-yard drive; you're doing something right. Again, we just got to, again, look at the play-calling. We look at coaches. We look at players. It's all of us.

When we lose, it's everybody. When we win, it's everybody. Again, it's something to learn from.

Q. The difference between some of those fairly methodical, long, sustained drives that you mentioned with a lot of the drives we saw late in the game --

PAT NARDUZZI: Just guys making plays, and Holden was on target. You think about some of the shots he was throwing on the field, he was throwing some great balls. He didn't make them at the end. That's something we'll learn from.

Q. You guys had some success running the ball early in the game, and that kind of went away. What do you think about that?

PAT NARDUZZI: Nothing. They made some adjustments and started packing the box and stopped our run. So we rushed for 150, which was our goal. I know we'd like to have 250, but you know, we did run the ball well. Then all of a sudden we didn't.

We'll look at the videotape to find out why, but they were doing some things different up front. Give them credit. They ended up stopping our run, and they start chasing the zone down, and then Holden ends up having to keep it because that's their read. So we got to do a better job as coaches of making sure that's not happening.

Q. A lot of initial looks for Holden where you had those kind of hitches on the outside giving him those isolated half-read looks, half-field looks. What did you need to do to compound upon that after early -- because early on that and the run game were working. It seemed like they took away things in the second half.

PAT NARDUZZI: They make some adjustments, just like we do, offensively and defensively, and started taking away some of those, pressing it, and jumping some of the routes. Then we tried a couple of moves and didn't connect.

That was a heck of a catch by Malik. I'll tell you what, it's good to have him back.

Q. (Off microphone - question about Malik).

PAT NARDUZZI: Not beneficial enough to get a W, but I'm just happy he's back. That guy made a miraculous recovery. Let me just tell you, credit goes to our trainers to get him back on the field and doctors. You know, he had surgery, and he was back. That's a tough dude that, you know, got healthy quick.

Q. Woodson made his first start today. What did you see you see from him?

PAT NARDUZZI: He got a pick. Cole Woodson keeps getting better every day. They had 13 first downs. They had 269 yards total offense. Obviously Cole is a starter back there, so Cole has done a nice job and made some plays. I'm happy for him, and we'll just keep getting better.

Q. How did the offense get back to getting more plays, passes down field, especially over the middle of the field?

PAT NARDUZZI: You know, got to throw it there. Again, they did a nice job in coverage and took some of the things we like away. You know, they're playing a lot of deep coverage. They played a lot of deep coverage, which was giving us the checkdowns. Then they started breaking up on the checkdowns.

But, again, good football team, well-coached. They took some things away, and then we got to make plays when we have opportunities.

Q. What did you see from your special teams today?

PAT NARDUZZI: What did I see? Obviously we're 1 for 2, made a 56-yarder. That's a long one. We took a sack on that play. We got to throw the ball away. We didn't -- should have had a shorter field. 56 yards, that's a Hail Mary there.

Chadha continues to hit it well. He had a nice 41-yarder, so we're 50 there. Another three points would have helped us, which maybe we get in field goal range and hit another one, and if things change if you make that one, and then you are kicking field goals near the end.

Four-point deficit is always an issue. It's like you know, we can kick a field goal and hope that we'll have another opportunity, but there's no guarantees. That's especially near the end why you go for it because they can go run the clock out, and it's game over, and then we'll be asking, how come we kicked a field goal, why didn't we score a touchdown? Again, hindsight.

Again, our defense did a heck of a job getting the ball back. I mean, that was impressive. Two opportunities. Can't say enough about those -- we had an opportunity to get the ball back twice at the end to win the game, and we didn't get it done.

Q. Your offensive line, I think they opened up the space in the run game, and they continued -- it looked like they gave Holden a lot of time back there to try to work through things throughout the game.

PAT NARDUZZI: They did. Holden has to step up in the pocket a few times. That was something I know Kade was emphasizing with him where he was kind of drifting to the right instead of stepping up in the pocket and maybe you take off running, but that's something, again, he'll learn.

He'll see it on tape. He's a sponge. He's really smart. The O-line has done a nice job. I was surprised to even see two sacks. It must have been one-yard sacks, but I was shocked to see even two sacks. I told the O-line, shoot, protected the quarterback damn good today. That's what it felt like out there. So we did a great job protecting because they've put pressure on quarterbacks.

Q. What did you think about your defensive front, limiting their run game, getting a lot of pressure in this game? I know you didn't come up with the win, but did you feel like they gave you the energy that you look for in games?

PAT NARDUZZI: No doubt. Again, it's two plays. You talk about a perfect game except for two plays, but you know what, two plays will get you beat. I know Coach Sanders kicks himself in the head for the blitz that we were on, and we didn't get home. We would have been great. We had a good tip. We even knew it was passed, to be honest with you. There were two tight ends, and it's what we call a slot wing formation. It knew it was passed, and we didn't get it home.

Q. You are known to be a guy that has faith in his players, supports his players even when they have their hard time. What did you say to Holden after the game or after he made some mistakes?

PAT NARDUZZI: Just told him just keep going. Calm down and relax. Again, first opportunity in those situation, guys, it's not easy out there. It's a lot of pressure on a quarterback. I'm glad I never played quarterback, but Holden was smooth out there.

You didn't see anything different in him. He'll point the thumb right at himself and say, I got to be better, and he will be. Again, the second pick, I don't know where that was going. Took a shot on fourth and two and threw it in the end zone, but again, we got -- again, we'll look at the play call and, again, being aggressive, whatever, but let's get the first down and keep moving the sticks.

Q. (Off microphone) it seemed like he left the game in the second quarter. What happened there?

PAT NARDUZZI: Just dinged up a little bit still. So maybe could have gone, but I just told the trainer, hey, we got good backs back there. Let's not do anything crazy. I think he'll be okay for next week, but we'll see.