UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 27, 2025

Pat Narduzzi

PAT NARDUZZI: All right. Closed the chapter last night on the Wolf Pack. Just a lot of things to be happy about when you watch the tape. I thought our kids played really hard.

Two things we talked about going into that game is playing with great effort. We had to fly around and make plays. We did that. We played with great effort. I thought we played tough. Those are two things on the back wall there that we talk about all the time. Those are two ingredients I thought we needed going into that game. I think we got that for sure.

Sometimes it hurt us a little bit on defense, we were too aggressive at times. We got to play smarter. Our guys were flying around trying to make plays and get a W. Have to taper that down a little bit and be smart. I am sure some trick plays, some toss passes and everything you can throw at us to see if they can trick us into the aggressiveness we played defensively.

Again, same thing offensively. We executed. The other thing I am happy about is just the discipline we had. I think we had seven penalties. Two of them were kick out of bounds. Sometimes that happens, especially with (indiscernible) a lot at the kicker spot. Drove a couple of those out of bounds or out of the end zone. We'll work on that this week.

But the resilience our guys have shown. Like I said back in August, our football team, regardless of who's on the field, the next man up. Our guys have never wavered. It's not like, Coach, how about this? They buy in. Everything we ask them to do, whether it's clean their locker or go out there to find a way to get it done.

Perseverance that they've dealt with all year has been phenomenal because there are no excuses. Nobody's going to care. You guys don't care on a Saturday after a game. You don't care on Monday at a noon press conference why you lose or why you win. It's about getting the job done. That's what our guys set out to do every week when we step on the field.

Again, they've been just a pleasure to coach. Couldn't be more appreciative of just their attitude, as we move forward.

So Stanford. Coach Reich is a heck of a football coach. Been around a long time. Coached a lot of football. I think he's taken over play calling duties. Nate Byham I think is their offensive coordinator. I'm sure he runs the day-to-day operations and gets them in stuff they like. Heck of a Pitt man. Great Pitt man. We'll go out and visit with Nate. Hopefully pregame I'll get a chance to say hello to him. Outstanding coach. Obviously works with the tight ends and coordinators the offense.

Bobby April is the defensive coordinator. Again, they're pro style on offense. More than we've seen. Like a Central Michigan type team. Not as many personnels and big people in the game. I'm sure they'll take a good peek at that game to see what they can expose us with. Combination of some Boston College you see, some of that Bill O'Brien, Frank Reich offense. You see a lot of that.

They got talented tight ends. Fast receivers. They got a kid that's a 10.3100 meter guy. Gulbranson is their quarterback. They played two this year as well with injury. Talented football team.

Defensively they're three down, four down, probably a little good mixture of both. We will see dropping off ends, trying to confuse you to different stuff. We'll have to be on our stuff when we head out of California.

Questions.

Q. (No microphone.)

PAT NARDUZZI: Since Monday. It was a matter of saying... On third down, it was like Monday. We game plan on Mondays and Tuesdays. It was a thought on Monday, game planned Tuesday night for third down is what we do.

Again, it's a matter of trying to find out how do we get our best personnel on the field. It's money down. Doesn't matter what happens on first down, second down. When you get to third down, fourth down, how are we going to manage.

You got different guys doing different jobs. That's the problem. So they got to get it executed, get on the right path. If you are blitzing, four-man pressure, how are you going to navigate those things.

Monday and Tuesday, Who are they? What are we going to do if wet get to a two-minute situation, victory defense? It was a lot more to prepare for for our guys.

Like I said, they did a great job. They didn't waver and go, Coach, why are we doing that? We don't have enough linebackers on the field.

So again, it's using our base package and teaching guys new jobs, okay? That's kind of what we did. It's not like we changed all the different things we do in that package. It's the same package. Just teaching guys different jobs.

Q. You talk about guys doing different jobs. Cam Lindsey was in the third down package. How did he handle all the things you threw at him?

PAT NARDUZZI: He did well. For his first start I think he did a heck of a job. He's only going to get better from all the reps he got in that game.

Now when he goes in, whatever the situation is, whether it's as a starter or backing somebody up, you got more confidence in him. He's watched the tape yesterday. He knows the things he made mistakes at. He knows he's got to be detailed.

As we talked in here last night, it's every play. Every play could cost you the game, depending on who you're playing. That effort yesterday might not be good enough this week. So we got to continue to get better. There's a lot of things we can clean up from Saturday. Cam definitely has a lot of things to clean up on his part.

Q. When we were talking with Mason after you scored 53 points. The thing he seemed most concerned on was plays left out there. After watching some tape, did you notice anything? What do you feel maybe you could do better on offense?

PAT NARDUZZI: There's a lot of things we can do better, depending on the coverage, take your check-downs. Late in the game he took his check-downs, whether throwing to Juelz Goff. Gains a first down on second and 11, a first down.

Just not trying to be the hero. Try to be a hero a lot the week before, try to make those plays down the field. There was a couple times where he tried to do that a little bit. Way, way less. But there's times where, like, it's great to throw a check-down and gets 11 yards. Let him run with it. You don't have to throw a 50-yard pass. You can throw a three-yard pass and get 50.

I think that is something that is going to be a week-to-week growth out of him overall. Based on the defense you're saying and the pressure you're under, I think that all matters.

Q. How do you evaluate or assess Mason getting into the red zone, decision making?

PAT NARDUZZI: You never get to the red zone if he doesn't look good prior to that, right? You better be good to get to the red zone.

It's efficiency, the free-wheeling zone, middle of the field, whatever you want to call it. Then working down into the red zone. Got to be efficient.

I think it's the same. He's playing efficient football for the most part. As long as we talk about those penalties. The difference between our offense Saturday and our offense up in New York a week ago was being behind the sticks. It's hard to call plays and execute when people have their ears pinned back and they can blitz you because it is second down and 15 or third down and 18. You get in those situations, good luck to you. Bostic couldn't even navigate that.

Q. (No microphone.)

PAT NARDUZZI: You know what, that many? Maybe not. I'd have to look back. You guys can maybe check the stats on that, but we had Jordan Whitehead as our honorary captain. I remember he made a pretty major impact as a true freshman. It was great to have him back in town on Friday and Saturday.

So it's hard to say, but it's a great recruiting class. I think we got another great one coming in this year, as well. But guys getting opportunities and making plays, so we're blessed to have those young guys playing for us.

Q. What does that say about your staff's ability to find and identify talent?

PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, I mean, I think it was on June 5th, and we were in the middle of recruiting weekends in the summer. There was an article came out in "The Athletic." I'm sure you guys saw it. It was June 5th, 'cause I had some recruits in this weekend, talking about it in the office on Sunday, that reminded me. They ranked us as the No. 1 team in the country of developing talent. Is it development? Is it recruitment? It's a combination of both.

I think there's an article that came out in 2022 or 2023, I don't know, that also talked about how they re-ranked our 2019 class was ranked 54th in the country with Rivals and all that, and they re-ranked it and said it's the No. 9th class in the country. How does that happen?

I think it's recruiting evaluation. I think it's development and getting the best out of our kids. I think that's what football is all about. That's what we do as coaches. Our job is to take the players we get and make them better players and make them productive on the field.

So far it's been good, but November 1st we got another one ready to go. So find out.

Q. Does the decision to keeping Des on the field as long as you guys did, especially when you were up as high as...

PAT NARDUZZI: You are never up as far as you want. I can tell you that. It's the fourth quarter, I'm still on edge on the sideline.

Des wants to play. He was feeling good and wants to play. Des will be fine. Des wants to play the game. Des don't like being on the sideline. Des wasn't happy the week before. Taking 23 snaps, he was upset.

We want to get him on the field, but we also want to keep him healthy. It's a fine line, but we're trying to win football games.

Q. (No microphone.)

PAT NARDUZZI: Boots, he's been playing well. Like I said, all three of those tailbacks are good. You kind of go with that hot hand. If Bootsy is playing well, you keep him in there. It's nothing that Juelz didn't do. It's just kind of what Bootsy did, I guess.

Juelz is a great player, as well. Like I said, just talked about him catching a big conversion for a first down in the fourth quarter. So we got a lot of faith in all threes of those guys.

I tell you what, we got another kid that has got four games. Justin Cook is another kid that I think is a tremendous player. I don't talk much about him, but in the next few weeks, you may see Cook on the field, as well.

Q. What stood out about him?

PAT NARDUZZI: He's a receiver. Transferred in as a transferred, and we transferred him to running back position in spring ball. He gives our guys headaches on defense. Like, he was Hollywood last week. He gives us chest pains on defense.

He makes plays. He makes our defense work every week. I think he's a special back, too. We would like to redshirt him. That was our intention just 'cause I think the kid can play for us and be an impact player for us, too.

Q. I noticed Synkwan Smith was not on the availability report last week. Could he play for you this year too?

PAT NARDUZZI: He could. I mean, if we wanted to get four games out of him, he started I think either a week, a week and a half ago. Started getting into the scout team and going. He did a nice job for us last week. He's available, so... He's not on the injury report. I'm glad you mentioned that.

Our training staff did a great job of getting him back and ready to go. We'll just see how he goes here. He missed a lot of spring ball. He obviously wasn't here in the spring and hadn't done anything in fall camp. He's got a long way to go as far as getting in on offense. Who knows if he can help you on special teams, for sure.

Q. C.J. Lee made his first appearance the other day. Didn't get as many catches as he would have wanted.

PAT NARDUZZI: Just one, that's all we needed (smiling).

Q. What was it like to see him back on the field?

PAT NARDUZZI: It was good. Like I say, we're trying to get four games out of him, as well. I think with can use him in the next four games that we have. The next being the most important one of getting more reps.

You don't play for a long time. You're on scout team. Scout team is not like being on the first team. We know he's a proven football player for us. He started for us last year. We got a lot of faith in Mr. Lee.

Q. First day of fall camp, Kade was telling us one of the big things you needed are chunk plays from guys not being Des Reid. Is it too simple to say that Mason is finding guys?

PAT NARDUZZI: Mason is finding them, and they're making plays when they get the opportunity. That play to Blue, those are real explosive plays. I thought Kenny Johnson played lights out. He was unstoppable when he was in there. That was great to see.

I mentioned him. Compared to where he was at North Carolina last year, compared to where he is now, just the development that J.J. has done in that receiver room and Coach Bell, as far as the little things that he's doing. He's special. We got to get him to continue to play at that high level.

Q. Cross-country travel is more of a regularity these days. I think you're heading to Stanford a day earlier. How do you let this long travel not disrupt your week of practice?

PAT NARDUZZI: Well, the week of practice is going to be the same. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is exactly the same, except we're leaving a little early. So instead of them hanging back on the bridge at the Forbes or their apartments, we are going to spend five hours on the plane together, get their iPads downloaded so they can do their homework on the plane.

It's like going to Syracuse. It's like going to Tallahassee. It's a road trip. I think the more you make of it, the more it becomes an issue. I don't think it's an issue. It's a little bit of a time change. We go out and play.

I think the best thing is it's an early game for us. It would be a major deal if we were playing 7:30 at night Pacific time and getting off the field at 2:30 in the morning, playing in the fourth quarter. I think that's a tough one. This one is very, very reasonable, I think.

Q. Have you reached out to anyone, friends, other coaches, asking, What was your experience?

PAT NARDUZZI: I haven't. But Chris LaSala, he's my ops guy, my main man. He does all that. He knows what we want.

We call a lot of people every week, doesn't matter if you're traveling to Syracuse, finding out is the press box any different, that little glass house they have up there at the dome, or you're going to Tallahassee, how's is the locker room, this, that? We're always doing our homework.

Just like a coach, we're trying to find out what they're doing on offense and defense. Doing our intel what's happening operationally, things we need to get down when we're out there.

Q. (No microphone.)

PAT NARDUZZI: The only thing they may be looking forward to is maybe the open week. I'm looking forward to an open week, too.

How do we keep it? That's my job to make sure they don't lose focus, we're locked in. Just trying to win one more game. It's a one-game season right now. The rest of the season doesn't matter.

If you don't take care of business week in, week out, doesn't matter. Our focus is to win one more game, go 1-0 this week, which has been our mantra since I've gotten here. Just take care of Stanford, do what we got to do to try to go out there and play against a physical, well-coached football team.

Stanford is really good. They beat Florida State out there. They play good football. It's a 7-7 game at halftime last week against Miami, a really talented Miami team. They got a really good football team. So we got to go out and play our best or we'll get our tails beat in.

Q. Will Caleb still be taking the kickoffs or Sam Carpenter as well?

PAT NARDUZZI: We'll look at it. I think both of them are really good. We rested Sam's leg last week. We felt like just I think midway through the year, he could have played, kicked off on Saturday. He wasn't out. He wasn't benched. It was just let's rest him a little bit, so... Just resting the leg.

I think that kickoff is an explosive play. You're practicing it on a Tuesday, getting some on a Thursday, not too many of them. You can out-kick your leg. Just keeping him fresh. When he would Juelz could do it. Was it what we wanted? No, not as good as we needed to. We haven't been great kicking the ball where we want it.

I think Sam was really good at the beginning of the year kicking touchbacks. We felt like his leg was tired. We felt like let's give him a week off.

Last Tuesday, I guess going into the Syracuse game, he didn't kick on a Tuesday. That's our kickoff day. We work kickoff on Tuesdays. He didn't kick. We didn't help him any by doing that. We're just trying to rest him a little bit.

Q. Is there a reason you don't use Trey on the kickoff?

PAT NARDUZZI: Not really. I've never seen him kick off. Just focusing him on field goals right now. I'm sure he'll be able to do it later on, give him more, but no real reason except he's a freshman. Let's just give him the most important job is putting it through the uprights.

Q. Last week there was an NCAA announcement, a decision to allow coaches and student-athletes to gamble on pro sports. Do you have any insight on why that would be something that was needed?

PAT NARDUZZI: They don't ask the coaches. I think it's absolutely one of the stupidest decisions I've ever seen. First of all, it's a habit. It's no different than smoking, drinking, doing drugs. It's a bad habit. I don't think anybody in here encourages their guys to go out drinking and get smashed on a Friday or Saturday night, or at a ballgame.

It's a disease. Same day that comes outs, there's a disease in the NBA with what's going on there. It doesn't matter how much money you make as a coach, you're still gambling like that, it's not to make money, it's 'cause your addicted to it, I guess. I'm not speaking for anybody.

I think it's an addiction. I think if you want to go to the casino down the road and hang out there and throw your money away, think you're going to continue to win...

Gambling is gambling. I'm not a gambler, so I don't understand it. I'm not addicted to anything. I don't think it's a great thing to teach our young people how to do.

It's hard enough in the compliance office of trying to get your guys not to gamble. You can gamble on a boxing match, on horse races, because it's not a NCAA sport. Who is gambling on horse races, unless you go to the horse track. You can go to the casino and play craps or whatever you want to play. It's a thing on your phone. You can pick it up and get on an app. What are we doing? Once you do it once and you win, you want to go do it again. It becomes an addiction. I think it's not good.

It's the same thing with these availability reports. What are we doing? We're encouraging gambling and people to say, Oh, he's out, let me put some more money down there, see if I can get it done and win.

So good question. It's a bad deal. It all comes down to they probably don't want to have to take care of all the business that goes with trying to monitor it. But push the wrong button on your phone, see what happens. I did it, but I thought it was an NFL game. I pushed the wrong button and just put a bet on a college football game.

I just think it's not good. I'm not going to change my tune. Tomorrow I'll talk about it because I haven't had a chance to address our team. One of the first things I'll talk about is I guess November 1st they can do that, but stay away. Nothing changes in our room. You guys shouldn't be doing any of that. Save your money, put it in the bank. That's my feelings.

Q. Those availability reports are supposed to insulate the players, keep them away from the gambling element? Doesn't it seem to run counter to then say, you can gamble?

PAT NARDUZZI: The decision makers, I don't get it. Let's talk about Stanford. I gave you my feelings on that. It's bad. I don't like it. I'm old-school, too. It's just because I'm real old.

Any football question? Let's end with a football question on Thursday there's no availability because we're out of here.

Q. (No microphone.)

PAT NARDUZZI: I hope so. I sure hope so. We'll see. It's Monday. We still got Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I hope so, for sure.

Thank you. I appreciate that question. Thank you.