Sorry for not posting these releases from the Pitt Admin but better late than never I suppose… Here are five press releases that came over the last few days… Have a great and safe Thanksgiving Day and weekend!

PITT COACH PAT NARDUZZI TRANSCRIPT (DUKE)
November 19, 2022

PAT NARDUZZI: Well, a win is a win is a win. A win is pretty — helped us get the win today. Appreciate it.

First of all just happy for our seniors what they did out there today, a lot of our seniors played maybe the best game they played, you know, from John Morgan across the board. So I’m happy for our seniors. Senior Day, our guys found a way to win. We did it the hard way.

There was a lot of positive plays out there today. You know, two field goals over 47 yards, a 51, a 47-yarder. I thought the two-minute drive before the half was a big drive, big-time drive, big-time throw into the end zone. The sudden change stop by — after two interceptions, two sudden change defenses, defensive stops were big time. I mean, they were big time. You’re talking about — let me see what I’ve got here, I don’t have the yardage here, plus 42 one time. Great job. One of them was a fourth down stop.

The scoop-and-score by Brandon was big time. Getting another with 3:32 to go in the fourth quarter, another fourth-down stop by our defense which was big time. And then obviously came down to the two-point play and did a great play by our defense there.

The third — the touchdown pass on fourth down we were probably in perfect coverage, and the tailback slipped out of the backfield, linebacker didn’t get it. Didn’t see it. We obviously didn’t practice that enough with him slipping out. He had himself in, and we turned the guy loose. We shouldn’t have even got to the two-point play.

We did some uncharacteristic things — things on defense as far as just we had a busted coverage one time on a big pass in the third quarter, I think it was, or beginning of the fourth, and just some communication things that just can’t happen.

So we gave them some stuff, but with as much as we gave them, we were able to come out with a W.

Q. Did you prepare for the trick play that you saw on the conversion attempt?

PAT NARDUZZI: You know, they like trick plays down there. I can’t tell you we saw the exact one but it’s a great play by our defense. They like their reverses… We didn’t call it out before the snap, I can tell you that but great play by our defense.

Q. Was Izzy available on the last drive?

PAT NARDUZZI: He was not but he would have been in there if he was, I can promise you that.

Q. Talking about all the big plays the defense made, two interceptions by Kedon in the third quarter, and Duke gets no points off of either of them. Can you talk about how important that was as far as momentum goes?

PAT NARDUZZI: Big. Big. You know, they can — our defense is playing at a high level. We made some stupid mistakes out there which drives me nuts.

But you know, overall, with what we were dealing with out there, I think we were on the field for 35 minutes or 34 minutes, something like that. The defense did a good job today. They won time of possession today which hasn’t happened much this year. But our defense stepped up. Made some good plays. We stopped the run. Quarterback didn’t run the ball like the leading rusher. We were able to stifle him as well.

Q. Second straight year where you had five defensive touchdowns. What allows for that and how do you account for those?

PAT NARDUZZI: I just say my prayers the night before the game, during the game, whatever it may be. Thank the Guy up there. The defense goes out and makes some plays and that was a big play by Brandon. Excited for him. Good to see another touchdown on defense.

Continue reading “Mid-Week Football Stuff: 11/23/22” →