Everything Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said after Notre Dame blew out his Panthers

Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi is under fire for apparently throwing his players under the bus following Notre Dame’s 58-7 pasting of the Panthers on Saturday. The answer that has him in hot water came in response to the first question of his postgame press conference following his opening statement.

Here is everything Narduzzi said after Notre Dame’s big win.

Opening statement

“Number one, Notre Dame is a good football team. We saw them two weeks ago against USC and they are big, physical, and athletic. I think we came out in the first half and played a solid first half. You’re down 17 and miss a field goal and get two picks defensively and you thought they were going you’re way.

“We didn’t move the ball as well as you obviously need to win a football game. Just a lot of plays out there we missed. Special teams, we start off with a punt return for a touchdown. Byron Floyd, a long snapper, has got a great chance of making a play and does what we ask him to do and he didn’t clean it up and didn’t get any help. I think we missed a tackle there, not sure exactly who. I know Byron was the first one there. In the first half, we give up seven points on a punt return.

“I thought the defense played solid. The defense was on the field way too long, another plus-10 minutes in the [time of possession] ratio. And then we turned it over in the second half. When you throw four interceptions, you muff a punt inside the five-yard line but you’re just trying to make a play and trying to make something happen and it turns the other way, you gave up two touchdowns on special teams today. Give them credit, but we didn’t make enough plays.

“Obviously the team is going through a tough situation right now. We’re not playing good. Got a lot of young football players out there. We’ll stick together as a football team and lock back in. We’ve got another great Florida State coming in and we’ve got to gather together and get going.”

On why this isn’t a great situation for Pitt right now

“When you lose like you lost today and had a tough one last week, why is it? I’ll go back, as a football coach you lose a lot of good players a year ago, you think as a coach you’re going to replace them and obviously we haven’t. Again, it starts with me. I didn’t do a good enough job coaching today. Put it on me. And we’ve got to make plays. It just comes down to making plays and doing a better job coaching.”

On not being able to win on the road at places like Notre Dame Stadium or anywhere else

“It ain’t the road. I’m not going to blame the road. It’s not the road at all. It just happens to be on the road. Christian [Veilleux] started off the game pretty good, just some errant passes and some bad decisions, I guess. But it had nothing to do with the road. It has to do with us executing, us coaching and making plays. In the second half we had way too many missed tackles. And you’ve got to give them credit. They’ve got a big, physical offensive line, and we didn’t make the plays we needed to.”

On not scoring on two INTs thrown by Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman

“I’ll just go back to the first play of the game, we get sacked. There’s a crossing route, and if you go back and watch it, he’s wide open and he doesn’t see it. Again, there’s some big dudes in front of you and there’s a lot of thing happening out there. It’s just one thing after another and it snowballs a little bit, but we’ve got to make plays. They do a good job on defense. Give them credit. They beat down Southern Cal two weeks ago, had an open week and had two weeks to prepare for us and were fresh.”

On missed tackles of Notre Dame offensive players

“[Audric] Estimé is a good back. He’s physical, and they’re rotating three or four backs in there and give them credit. A couple of times there are some fit problems, playing a lot of young linebackers in there as well. I thought we did a good job. I don’t know what the rushing stats were at halftime, but we did a good job there and either just got worn out. We’ll see, I don’t think there were a whole lot of adjustments on their side they did that were different. We just didn’t tackle as well.

“It seems like it’s mostly on the edge. I know the first touchdown was a crack replace and we didn’t get off of it fast enough. I’m not sure exactly why. The corner says he came in and took the guy and didn’t know if it was a crack or he was running a crossing route and they got us there. We’ll see the fit on that. It’s just little things here and there, a play here or there, both offensively, defensively, and certainly special teams.”

On his team’s punt unit

“The coverage was good, the protection was good all day. Last season it was more punter issues and dropping snaps and we have not done that this year. It’s just a different way. Our coverage was good. I didn’t see exactly where the location of the hunt was. The punting wasn’t great, but it wasn’t awful. It’s not the reason. We’ve got guys there to make the tackle and it’s the same thing on kickoff return late where we got guys there to make a tackle and we overrun the ball and just take some bad angles. Sometimes good players do that to you. Give them credit.”

On the youth playing on special teams for Pitt

“No doubt about it. Jordan Bass is getting a lot of reps out there. [Rasheem] Biles was out there today. We’ve got a bunch of young linebackers that are playing. I thought Brandon George played really well today. He was physical and got a nice pick, so we’ll see exactly what it was. We’re playing a lot of young guys and again, nobody cares. That’s no excuse, but we’ve got to grow up. We’ve got four games to go and we’re going to come back and work on Florida State.”

On the Pitt offense and defense not playing together

“We’ll stick together. We are one team. I can promise you that and those guys are together in there if you could walk through the locker room and see how they treat each other. It’s not that the offense didn’t put the effort in. They’re trying. It’s a good football team and they are together, I can promise you that. They are together and they will stay together.”

On the Pitt QB and WRs not being on the same page

“You see a couple of them out there and I don’t know if it’s exactly the routes and the quarterback just throwing it where it’s not supposed to be. We’ll see the details there and probably have a better answer on Monday. But we had opportunities.”

On Pitt’s running backs not getting many opportunities vs. Notre Dame

“Up front, no one has really run the ball too much on [Notre Dame]. They are pretty stout up front. They play man free and got some guys up front and we had new offensive linemen in there. Terrence Enos getting his first start, I think he had like five plays going into it. We thought our best chance was to try to throw the ball against them and get first downs that way.

“We tried a little bit option so you saw a little bit of the option out there and some of you may have saw that on Tuesday in practice. It had a little mileage. Running ball up inside on these guys was something that, it’s something you guys would whine if we did that. I think there would have been bigger three and outs if we tried to run inside.”

On a moment he shared with former Notre dame RB C’Bo Flemister after the game

“I love C’Bo and I love everybody in that locker room, I can tell you that. We wanted to pull him out of the game. I didn’t want him getting hurt. He would not come out. He said, ‘I’m going coach, I’m not coming out. ‘And I just said, ‘If you had gotten hurt I would have whooped you.’ I probably would have gotten my butt whooped.

“I just didn’t want him to get hurt because it was late in the game and it was not worth it. If he had gotten hurt at the end I would have shaken my head and said, ‘Coach Powell, why is he still in there?’ And he said, ‘Coach he won’t come out.’ I just thanked him for his efforts.

“That’s who we got. They’re trying hard. I don’t fault their effort. We’ve got to do a better job coaching and we’ve got to find a way to muster some first downs early. Way too many three and outs early and it’s hard to win a football games when you don’t score.

“Nate Yarnell came in and made a couple of nice throws. We turned some loose on a naked, and Karter Johnson had a nice catch and it was a great throw by Nate Yarnell. It was good him coming in relief and taking Christian. It was great to see Christian, a team guy, rooting him on as well on the sideline.”

On getting over Notre Dame and moving on to Florida State

“I don’t know if it matters who we play or who it’s gonna be. You’re going to fast forward because you’ll put the tape on and I think they whooped somebody real bad too. They’ve got a great football team so we’ve got to come ready to go, regather, we got to healthy and fix some bumps and bruises we got today and come back. I don’t think it’ll matter who we play, but we certainly got a great Florida State football team coming into Acrisure Stadium.”

What Yarnell coming in for Veilleux just about getting reps?

“It’s about getting him reps and seeing what he’s got. He’s a good football player and we’ve got a lot of faith in him as well. It was just an opportunity to get Christian out of there and sit-down and watch a little bit. Christian is not benched. It was just a matter of giving Nate a shot to show what he’s got.”