Everything Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said ahead of SMU game

Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi spoke with the media on Monday, previewing a Top 20 matchup against SMU, addressing injuries and more at his press conference. Here’s a lot of what Narduzzi said and the entire video from his press conference.

Opening Statement: Coming off another win, obviously we closed the chapter on Syracuse last night. Outstanding job by our football team. Preparation, I think it always starts with preparation, how we practice, and to dismantle a team like we did, especially defensively — we were on the field for 102 snaps. We lost time of possession by 22 minutes. Our guys didn’t look back, don’t care. They were out there eating.

Our offense only had 45 snaps, so they weren’t on the field very long just because we couldn’t. But it was an impressive performance, especially defensively, and again, would have been nice to give our offense more snaps, but we got a lot of guys to play the game, as well.

That was the other thing. In the past we’ve gotten guys snaps against Youngstown State but we were able to get twos and threes in the game, especially defensively, because of the amount of snaps we had and the score and what it was.

Moving on to the next one in SMU, Rhett Lashlee, won a conference championship a year ago, has stumbled only once this season, so they’ve got a great football team. He’s heck of a coach. Happy for him. We’re looking forward to going down to Dallas.

Defensively they’re four-down, change it up coverage-wise a little bit. But to me they’re very similar to us defensively in my opinion because I think they’re simple. I don’t think they do a lot. I think what they do is sound and they just play hard and play fast. That’s why they’ve had so much success.

I think they’re ranked 24th in the country in rush defense, I believe, or — let me get my stats right here. Rush defense they are fifth in the country, excuse me, so probably No. 1 in the ACC I would imagine.

In rush offense — they’re a running team compared to what we saw last week, a passing team. This is a team that’s going to want to run it at you. Does a great job running it at everybody, but 24th in the country rushing offense.

Defensively, interesting, you talk about transfer portal, they have 17 guys in their two-deep that are portal guys. As a matter of fact, I think every one of their starters is from the portal, every one of them on defense. Offensively they only have seven guys from the portal so I thought that was an interesting thing, like holy cow.

They’ve got a lot of good players. They’re talented across the board. Their two defensive ends stand out, Harvey and Roberts. Those guys stand out on defense.

Obviously, the tailback and obviously Kevin Jennings their quarterback, Brashard Smith, their tailback, and their receiver, No. 13, Roderick Daniels, he’s kind of a slash guy, plays a little tailback, plays a little receiver. Not quite sure what to call him, a tailback, but he’s a slash. Pittsburgh knows what that is from the old days.

But really good football team and we’ve got to prepare to come after them.

On SMU QB Kevin Jennings: Yeah, he’s really athletic, unlike what we saw last week. We know last week, he could sling it and throw it accurate, 2nd and 3rd down conversions, but this guy is going to — he’s got a strong arm. He can zip it in there. It’s like he’s playing darts out there. He throws darts.

Obviously, he can beat you with his feet, so we’re going to have to contain him the best we can, but he’s a guy that likes to scramble and take off running. That’ll be the challenge this week.

On differences between watching SMU live Saturday and looking at the film after: It’s totally different. You listen to the announcers and what they say and you’re getting a totally different view, but watching All-22 is the fun part. That’s why we coach. I actually woke up Saturday morning early and watched it on the iPad just to — the All-22. It was a well-played game. I think both teams battled it out and it came down to a two-point play.

On SMU getting into the ACC: Yeah, that’s not my job to evaluate. That can be commissioner. To me it’s good to have a good football team in the conference, good coaches, and I’m looking forward to going down to Dallas and seeing what they’ve got down there. I’ve never played SMU. It’s one of those games you never played at, so different stadium. Growing up, Eric Dickerson in those goggles, that’s kind of what I grew up in, that era. That guy was a dude, watching him run down there. It’s homecoming. We’re a homecoming team, so maybe I’ll get to meet Eric Dickerson at the 50-yard line or something like that.