2017 Pitt Football Camp, Day 15 Recap

Narduzzi, Watson and Players Give Updates on Pitt Camp

 PITTSBURGH—A third consecutive hot and humid morning on the South Side of Pittsburgh saw the Pitt football team complete its 15th practice of training camp at the UPMC Sports Performance Complex.

Head coach Pat Narduzzi held his morning media session before practice. Following the workout, offensive coordinator Shawn Watson, quarterback Max Browne, tight ends Chris Clark and Matt Flanagan and wide receiver Ruben Flowers III also participated in interviews.

Coach Interview Videos: Narduzzi | Watson

 Player Interview Videos: Browne | Clark | Flanagan | Flowers

 Below are transcripts from all six media sessions.

Head Coach Pat Narduzzi

Opening statement:

“We have about seven more days of training camp. I think that we have a total of 16 days ‘til gameday, or something like that. We’re getting a lot of good work done. We’re getting some scout team work as well, which is good. It’s teaching our scout team guys how to service the offense, defense or special teams, which I think is critical to teach this time of year. We can’t wait ‘til week one to finally say, ‘hey, we need to get a look.’ Those are some of the things that we focused on the past three days; our scouts were a lot better than what we expected. Every guy out there is critical. It’s not just the starter or backup; it’s the entire team. That’s why they call it a team.”

On what he is looking for in the final week of training camp:

“We’re looking for the guys to get better every day. ‘Get three percent better’ has kind of been our motto, and you are looking for those guys that can hang. You get into that 15th day of fall camp, can they continue to progress or do they just hit the wall like, ‘I’m tired, I’m exhausted…’? Some guys will just be like, ‘I have no more for you, coach.’ It’s understood, but tough guys can push through it. So we’re looking for that toughness and that guy who is going to be with you every day.”

On if age is a factor in the players’ ability to handle being tired in camp:

“I don’t think that age has anything to do with it because I don’t get tired and I’m an old guy. You would be shocked that it doesn’t really come down to age. Sometimes, the young guys are so hungry that they don’t get tired and the older guys are like, ‘this is my fifth camp, I’m going to shut it down.’ So our guys have shown no sign of that. They have shown great resilience, and I’m happy with where they are. They just have to keep pushing, and that is our job as coaches.”

On the possibility of Jason Pinnock seeing playing time this year:

“[Jason] Pinnock keeps getting better. He’s a young guy and those two guys [Jason Pinnock and Damarri Mathis]… you talk about getting tired, those two guys don’t get tired. A lot of time, the freshmen after five days, if they are not mentally exhausted, physically, they have had enough. But they have shown a lot of mental and physical toughness throughout, so Jason has a chance. He is a good football player and we’re not saving anybody. We’re not redshirting guys just to redshirt them. If he can help us on special teams, we’re going to use him.”

On staying with the team in the hotel:

“I stay down there and walk every morning. If you wake up at some time between 5:30 and 6:00, you can watch me walk down the sidewalk. I don’t drive. If they walk, I walk. I could very easily take my car. I’m there every day with them. It’s a hotel. It’s much better than what it was like in the dorm, I can tell you that. It’s beautiful.”

On the long snapper competition:

“It’s been dwindled down. Nathan Bossory and Cal [Adomitis] are working at it right now. We’ll decide, but it is still a battle. Robert Hill left camp. He was a transfer from Tulsa and didn’t see himself in that top three.”

On if the third-down defense is an area that he wants to improve on from last year:

“Yeah, we want to improve everything. If I look back at it, that was probably one of our brightest spots. When we got them to be third-and-long, we were pretty good, I believe. We were probably winning 65 to 70 percent of the time. I think that it is a tough package to go against, but it’s that first and second down that’s important. Let’s get them to more third down and long, and I think that we have a shot when we do that.”

On what makes the third-down package so difficult to go against:

“You would have to ask those other guys. I don’t know.”

On if offensive coordinator Shawn Watson is adaptable:

“No question. If you look at where he has coached and who has mentored him throughout his career, he has a ton a knowledge. That’s an experienced coach for 30-plus years. He knows how to use your players, but that’s nothing special about him. That’s a given, but there are a lot more special things.”

Offensive Coordinator Shawn Watson

On what he has learned about his quarterbacks in camp:

“The two older guys are really playing at a high level. I know they’ve put a lot of work in. They’re highly competitive guys and they’re really good for each other that way. They’re really good for each other in that they help each other. We have a really good room and a really good thing going. I appreciate, first off, the spirit of competition between them and how that’s affected their play. When you have competition in your room, the performance goes up. That’s been a marked difference between now and the spring. Max [Browne] knows what he’s doing. Ben [DiNucci] is used to being coached by me now and how we make decisions. Time is taking care of a lot of things, and I think it has allowed them to be really competitive between each other.”

On if Max Browne is getting better at decision making:

“He’s been very assured in his decision making. He doesn’t make a lot of pass-decision errors, run-decision errors or management errors. He’s really sound that way, and he should be. He’s had a lot of experience and been trained by some really good coaches, so he’s got that part. His consistency since I’ve really been working with him, he’s been very good in that area. I think the big curve for him since he’s been here is learning how we do things and how we call things. That’s been his curve.”

On tight end Matt Flanagan’s career at Rutgers versus what he’s seen at Pitt so far:

“His numbers don’t tell the full story. What’s the emphasis of the tight end? All those things that we don’t know and I don’t know. I just know what he’s doing for us. He’s doing a great job for us and really providing us with a high level of play. He and Chris [Clark] have a really good thing going on there. Those two guys have been very competitive with each other, and we know we can use multiple tight ends now, which is huge for me.”

On using a high-tempo offense for the upcoming season:

“We’ll have that aspect; we’ll have that gear. I don’t believe in being in all of that. I think multi-tempos are the way to go, and that’s how we’re really built here. It’s a philosophy. It’s a team philosophy more than it is an offensive philosophy because the offense is setting the defense up for wins and the defense sets the offense up and how we mesh that together and what the philosophy is starting with Pat [Narduzzi]. Will we have that gear? Yes. Will we live in it? No.”

On if he has had a pair of receivers like Jester Weah and Quadree Henderson before:

“I did, yeah. At Colorado, I had D.J. Hackett and I had a kid by the name of Derek McCoy. Great players who were exactly like Jester. And then we had Jeremy Bloom, who was like Q [Quadree Henderson]. I’ve been around it, and it’s really cool. I haven’t had that skill set because you can use their skill set and what you do, how you get them open, where you put them and how you make matchups. It’s good to have. I’ll tell you what, the other guys in the room have been awesome, too.

I’m just blown away by how much better Ruben [Flowers III] is. Aaron [Mathews] with us, he’s had two really good practices back-to-back. We’re really developing a whole room. Ra-Ra [Rafael Araujo-Lopes] has been great. He’s competing with Q [Quadree Henderson]. Ffrenchy [Maurice Ffrench] has been awesome. We’ve really got, not just one, but several guys like Jester, and we’ve got several guys like Q [Quadree Henderson]. Skill set differs; some are a little faster, a little this, a little that. But we’ve got guys who we can create matchups with and use.”

Tight End Chris Clark

On how Matt Flanagan has been beneficial to him in camp so far:

“It’s been very beneficial. He is probably one of the smartest players I’ve ever been around in terms of knowing the X’s and O’s about the game. That’s something that I’ve had to work on a lot, and he’s definitely taken me underneath his wing and taught me a lot of things I never really knew about the position. I’m growing so much as a player in terms of my technique, so it’s been great for me.”

On how often he and Matt Flanagan will be on the field together and if there’s competition:

“I don’t really view it as that because we’ll both be playing so much. Sometimes Matt [Flanagan] might be in, sometimes I’ll be in and sometimes we’ll be in together. I don’t even really view it as a competition. Obviously we compete with each other and make each other better, but we both know we’re going to play a lot this year. It’s really good to have two solid tight ends.”

On how he has developed technically through camp:

“I think I’ve come really far. I made some strides in the spring, but then I had that injury where I had to take a couple steps back because I missed some more time. Now I feel like I’m starting to slowly get back into it. I’ve always been able to run and catch and have been an athletic tight end. Becoming physical and a good blocker is something that I want to become, and I think I’m making strides this camp. The coaches are saying it and I can see it on film, so it’s been exciting.”

On his thoughts on Coach Shawn Watson’s offensive scheme:

“I think the offense is definitely pretty similar to last season. Coach Watson has definitely added some of his own wrinkles to it. We still have a bunch of exciting things that we did last year that we will do this year. When we added onto it, I think the offense will be even more explosive this year. We’re definitely going to be a team that wants to pound the football. We’ve got a great offensive line, we’ve got tight ends that can block, I think, and we’ve got unbelievable running backs. We have a tremendous amount of good backs; even the freshmen have looked unbelievable out there. We’re definitely going to be a team that just lines up and smashes people in the mouth.”

Quarterback Max Browne

On his impressions of Matt Flanagan and Chris Clark in camp:

“Great. We knew how athletic Chris was coming out of the spring. It was a bummer to have him get banged up a little towards the end. But he’s healthy now. He’s a huge threat in the pass game. You talk about utilizing two tight ends, well one of them is just as good a receiving tight end as your other receivers. There’s no drop off there. And with a guy like Matt, you can tell he’s played a lot of football. It was kind of insert-and-play right away. He knew what was going on from day one. Real smart guy and real dependable, which is huge at the tight end position. I think Dev [Devon Edwards] getting in there as well, all three of those guys will have a huge impact this year.”

On how Pitt’s offense compares to the offense he had at USC:

“It’s very similar. It’s a lot like the offense I had my true freshman year with a lot more under-center emphasis and when you get to passing downs, go back in the gun. I’ve had three or four offensive coordinators to kind of learn. I mean ball is ball. You’re taught one play one way and it’s the same play at a different school, just called different. A lot of overlap, a lot of similar reads. That’s the beauty of being a fifth-year senior: you’ve seen it before and you just go out there and play.”

On how the most recent scrimmage went for him:

“It went well. Still things to clean up as an offense as a whole. It’s a process, like you said in the spring game. We’re building then as a team and as an offense, becoming crisper. I think we made some big plays on Saturday, but still have little things to clean up. We’re glad that after that scrimmage, we still have three more weeks before the first game. It seems like day-by-day and week-by-week, we’re getting smoother and making a lot of plays, which is a great sign.”

On adapting to Coach Shawn Watson’s personality:

“He’s a soft-spoken guy at times. But when it’s time to speak up, he’ll bite you. He’s a great leader, speaks well in front of our offense and he’s a great play-caller. You can tell he’s been around ball a lot. For me, I’m an easy-going guy, so I can get along with whatever. My relationship with Coach Watson is growing week-by-week. He’s a great dude, a great coach and it’s been a fun time in our meeting room.”

Tight End Matt Flanagan

On if he feels like he is getting acclimated to the Pitt offense and how things are done:

”Yeah, definitely. Just spending the time during the summer was invaluable. Getting in the summer 7-on-7’s out there was awesome and kind of learning the playbook. But yeah, right now, I feel pretty in-sync with everybody.”

On the competition with Chris Clark:

“We’re blessed to have two really talented tight ends. We have a really good room right now and every competition makes all parties better. We’re going to have an opportunity to have everybody contribute in that room, so that is really exciting.”

On his impressions on Coach Tim Salem:

“He’s a million miles per hour, but he’s a great guy and a great coach. I’ve been really fortunate to have him.”

On how Coach Shawn Watson compares to previous coordinators he has played for:

“I think that any coordinator out there has to get after his guys sometimes, but he is really professional. He has clear goals for the offense, and it has reverberated throughout the entire offensive unit—what he wants to get done, what’s acceptable and what’s the standard.”

Wide Receiver Ruben Flowers III

 On going through a redshirt year last season:

“I feel like, for a freshman when you first come in, it is always tough to be redshirted. I feel like, as I went throughout the season, I kind of progressed in my mental state and got a little better. I starting think like, ‘maybe this isn’t bad, maybe I can make this something.’ I talked with Jester Weah a lot about it last year, and he just told me, ‘just keep pushing, keep running and keep doing your thing.’ He told me he redshirted his freshman year and his time came. When your number is called, you just have to step up.”

On what he has learned from Jester Weah:

“I have probably learned a lot from Jester. The No. 1 thing is just focus. He always talks to me about focus. In the summer, I was always in Jester’s back pocket, like everywhere he went, I wanted to be. I’m always asking him questions. Sometimes, I don’t even go to Coach Sherman first, I always go to Jester because he has so much knowledge and so much to give, so I like to just soak that up.”

On his performance in the scrimmage on Saturday:

“I just keyed in and had a lot of focus. I just always gave a lot of effort and always being a great teammate.”

On working with Tre Tipton:

“Tre always has an open ear. No matter what the situation is, he always has a positive attitude and that carries over to us. I remember last year, Tre was the first guy when we first came in to sit all the freshmen down in film. Every day after the summer workouts and fall camp, he would just sit the three freshmen in the film room. He has always been the most consistent guy when it comes to just being a great guy and great teammate.”