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Pitt Media Recap Day 7

Panthers are scrimmaging today.  Here is the official media recap from yesterday.  More from Narduzzi and Bates on Weaver.  Also interviews with Patrick Jones and Deslin Alexandre.

Pitt Football Camp – Media Recap, Day 7

Video Interviews and Quotes from Pittsburgh

 

INTERVIEW VIDEOS

Head Coach Pat Narduzzi

Defensive Coordinator Randy Bates

Defensive Linemen Patrick Jones II & Deslin Alexandre

Offensive Lineman Jimmy Morrissey

 

PITTSBURGH—The Pitt football program held the seventh practice of its 2019 training camp on Friday morning at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side of Pittsburgh.

Head coach Pat Narduzzi met with reporters prior to the session, while defensive coordinator Randy Bates and players fielded questions at the conclusion of the workout.

 

Head Coach Pat Narduzzi Transcript

 

Opening Statement:

“I’ve got some sad, unfortunate news… This is one of those ones that makes you sick to your stomach as a coach. We suffered a casualty yesterday unfortunately with Rashad Weaver with a knee injury, something that will have to be surgically repaired. He’ll be out for the season. It makes me sick. It’s something you never want to see happen, but we all know it is a part of the game. It’s not what you want to see.”

 

On who is capable of stepping up in Weaver’s place:

“We have a lot of guys who have to step up. It puts more pressure on those guys to fill Rashad’s shoes. Rashad is strong as heck. He is going to coach. You will see him on the sideline with headphones on. That guy should be a coach someday. He’ll coach. He walked out for practice today, and he has a schedule in his hands. He’s ready to go. Deslin [Alexandre] has to step up. Kaymar [Mimes] has to step up. Habakkuk Baldonado, too. A lot of guys have to step up. Those guys are always one snap away from being that next man in. We will miss Rashad dearly, and I feel bad for him. It’s not easy to sit with the doctor and hear that news come out. I had to break the news to him. That it’s one of the ugliest things you can have.”

 

On how the players are handling Weaver’s injury:

“It is all a part of the game. I hate using the term next man up, but it really is next man up. Guys are texting me saying, ‘Coach, we’re going to play our tail off for Rashad.’ Guys use this a little bit as motivation. This just keeps the guys going. Each day is there for you, but it is not a given. You step out there, you might have one play and it might be your last.”

 

On how Weaver’s injury happened:

“It was an inside drill, the very last play. It was a pass. It was a play-action pass on the inside drill, coming off the block. The tight end is trying to run a route; it was a block then go. As the tight end runs the route, he kind of threw him. As [Weaver] came off it, he planted his foot. So technically, it was non-contact. It’s not like somebody rolled into him. It was a thud period.”

 

On what the exact injury was:

“Yes, it was an ACL. Right.”

 

On how the team is progressing:

“I feel good. I think the guys have gotten better every day. It’s amazing, the day Rashad gets hurt, Habakkuk, who is coming back from a similar injury, fell to his knees and got back up and said, ‘hey, I’m okay.’ But then all the sudden you saw him take a step forward like, ‘Haba is starting to come around again.’ But after six days and seven today, we’re out in shells with a scrimmage tomorrow. I feel really good about where we are. Obviously, I wish we were one person stronger. But we have a strong football team that will continue to fight and move forward. Rashad will be better for what it is. We’ll fight to get another year back. But we’ll move on.”

 

On positional battles he wants to see in the scrimmage:

“Every one of them. There are battles at one and two, and two and three. They’re all interesting. There are battles at every position.”

38 thoughts on “Pitt Media Recap Day 7”

  1. Bates: “This is not like basketball with 5 guys. With 11 guys, you don’t win the game with just one guy, and you don’t lose the game when you’re missing 1 guy”

    He seems like a guy who players can relate to, and he certainly has a pretty good resume

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  2. Weaver could have made a difference this year. I would disagree with Bates. In football, one guy can make the difference. Plenty of examples. It’s just would weaver have been it. He’s arguably their best player on D.

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    1. I agree with you here Tx. Weaver is a game changer. The coaches aren’t going to say the season is ruined and over from an injury to one player on August 9th though. Yet, a team with decent recruiting should be able to overcome such a setback.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. If I had to list the top three most important players on defense prior to Weaver’s injury, Weaver makes that list…

    Narduzzi is not a guy to change from his base 4 DL 3 LB defense, but given Weaver’s injury, lack of experience behind him, and some depth at LB, I wonder if he would consider a 3-4 base defense… The answer is no, of course… Just food for thought.

    Picket and Morrisey are two guys that we can ill afford to see injured on offense.

    Salahudin looks fast in one of the practice videos…

    Pine had a nice pass breakup in another video. He’s got some size to him as well.

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    1. They’d have to change D scheme in the spring not after a week into season camp. Too late for that.

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    1. If you were short on linemen wouldn’t you want to go 3-4-4. Although a I agree going to the nickel as a base defense is smart these days, and we do have a ton of depth in the secondary

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      1. and PITT will play many teams with a spread offense. Let’s wait and see what PITT ends up doing but it is fun speculating.

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    2. Pitt plays the 4-2-5 fairly often. It’s not the base though. The base is 4-3-4. I’m suggesting looking a base 3-4-4 as noted by MM. Not going to happen though. And that’s fine. Just food for thought.

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  5. I see the lockdown on scrimmage info hasn’t changed.
    Come on, Pat, throw me a bone…even a little one.

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    1. I like the fact that Champagnie had 8 reb and Koulibaly had 7 the most. Also see Aiken Jr is active again after his operation and rehab …. he may be needed some time during the season just for a few minutes here and there

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    3. You starting backcourt absolutely cannot shoot 50 percent from the foul line. That’ll cost Pitt big come the season. Imagine playing a great first 38 minutes then blow it in the final two because of missed charity shots.

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  9. What Gordon said + 10…
    Good seeing you again buddy.

    Were going to shoot for a tee time closer to 2:00 on Friday 8/30 to accommodate those traveling in from out of town.
    Let me know if you can make it.
    lokarfr@gmail.com

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    1. The golfer called “I’m Carrying this Team!”, aka, Richman, hit some of the best shots I’ve ever seen. It was like watching Brooks Koepka at a major… 😊

      (Course Richman was inspired by “Heather,” but he’d have to explain that one…)

      But we all contributed some shots and we scored well. BigB can really putt well!

      This fund-raising event was a good example of the POV bringing Pitt fans together…

      Go Pitt.

      Liked by 2 people

        1. I had a “flask belt” for this occasion. It worked wonders. I also was able to bid on and win a signed Aaron Donald Rams jersey that is authenticated for $150. Steal.
          Man it was a great time, especially when Major Majors is chipping in for an eagle.

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  11. Hey Mr. Michelangelo Monteleone, are you still giving a Sunday morning podcast any consideration? I always enjoyed Reeds podcasts.

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  12. On one hole after we hit tee shots Richman says to Bernie “hey, you left your beer on the tee box”
    Bernie goes back, grabs the beer and takes a drink…then says “hey, that wasn’t my beer. Wonder how long it was sitting there? Hope I don’t pick up some kind of disease from this”
    That’s kind of the way the day went…awesome time.
    Almost won the dam thing. Finished second by one stroke.
    Hats off to Mr Bev Buckle, John’s chipping and Biggies putting.
    I was the musical director…😎

    Liked by 2 people

  14. Crazy is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result.
    With that in mind, allow me to beat the same drum I beat every year at this time.
    The Post Gazette hasn’t had an article about Pitt football in two days.
    The Trib has had one article.
    By comparison, my home rag, The Patriot News, spews Nit nonsense endlessly. Today – 4 articles.
    There was a Pitt scrimmage yesterday. Y isn’t this more publicized? Throw out some video. Let me hear some chatter. For a team dying to put fannies in the seats, how is this appropriate marketing?

    Maybe we shouldn’t tarp off the upper deck. Maybe we should just tarp the front porch instead.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. while you make a good point, the fact is that PSU is THE team in Central PA. Meanwhile, Pitt athletics, whether doing good or bad, will always be 4th in the city. The Pirates are on pace to have the worst 2nd half in the long history of MLB, and they still get a lot pf press, but of course, nothing dominates the local sports like the Steelers.

      And one more thing … both local papers have PSU alums doing the Pitt FB beat. The PG had a Pitt alum doing Pitt FB the past few years but he just took a promotion to (you guessed it) the Steelers beat … one of the 3 full time PG writers following the Steelers

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      1. PSUcks is the team here because I live among the cult and the Patriot News is pandering to the cult to, like most papers, struggle to survive.
        That said, Pitt posted a thirty second video of the scrimmage. Evidently, they heard me.
        Gonna see if that trick works on my wife.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. don’t get me wrong, I would like to know who did well in the scrimmage as would everyone else here. It’s frustrating but I think we Pitt diehards are the only ones who care.

          I would like to see the local ratings of how many watched the Steelers in their 1st pre-season game on Fri vs Pitt’s opener vs UVa.

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          1. Well Heinz looked no better than a Pitt football game on TV. They announced 45k but it looked more like 35k. Yellow seats look just as bad for a steeler game.

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  15. I agree with you GasMan yet at the same time have a little understanding of why in the fall practices are kept under wraps. At the same time………. give the media and more importantly the fans a little more to chew on. There has to be a happy spot in the middle.

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