What Did Pat Narduzzi Say Ahead of Pitt Season Opener?

PITTSBURGH — Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi spoke for the final time ahead of the Panthers’ 2025 season opener against crosstown foe Duquesne.

Here are some of the key takeaways and quotes from Narduzzi Friday afternoon.

— Opening statement: “Excited to watch our guys play. It’s been a good week of practice. It’s been a great camp. I feel like our kids have really bought into everything that we have asked them to do throughout camp and throughout this week. So looking forward to watching those guys play. It comes down to making plays on the field. I’ve told them that you know, we’re more mentally and physically prepared as you can be right now.”

— On the 2025 team getting Pitt back to upper echelon of ACC, national spotlight: “Yeah, we think that all time, but it starts with game one, and we’ll find out. That’s why we get to play the games. We’ll find out this weekend where we are. That’s kind of what I want to see. We’ll find out how close we are, and what we have to do to clean.”

— On if there’s a team that the expectation in camp was far off from what the team ended up being: “It was after that Sun Bowl. After the Sun Bowl, where we had so many guys opt out for the NFL and not playing that game. I was really impressed with the way they played a really good football team in that game. I felt like it didn’t translate into the next year. I think I mentioned that after the Notre Dame game, but things happen. But I felt like, ‘Wow, this is a new group of guys that went and did that.’ It just didn’t go, but you know that happens every year. Can happen any year.”

— On how many position battles are still up in the air: “Just about every position battle. If you don’t go out and execute, whether it’s at left tackle, at quarterback, at running back, at defensive end, the linebacker. We got a pretty good idea who’s going to get that done. I’d say we’re about 85% locked into what we are, but you find out who those gamers are.

“Trey Butkowski is our starting kicker, but he’s still competing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a kicker, a long snapper. I think last year we started off with Upa being the long snapper and a short snapper, and then all of a sudden it was like, Nico. So we’re going to find out. That’s why we play the games, right? Scrimmages are great. We try to get close to a game day atmosphere as we can. When those lights go on at noon, that’s what we’re going to find out. And like I told our football team, it’s an audition. You’re auditioning for your position, for your units, and we get to find out, you know, how that’s going to play out.”

— On going down far down the Pitt depth chart to get the roster experience against Duquesne: “Depends on what score’s like. It depends on how we audition. If we play well, like we think we can, and should, but we got to make plays. You can have guys wide open if you miss them. You could be in position to make a tackle or miss it, so it all depends on what we what we do on the field.”

— On what type of impact RB Juelz Goff can have: I got a lot of faith in him. I think he had a heck of a bowl game. I’ve been impressed with him. That guy’s been really solid. That guy practices every day like a starter. He’s consistent. There was times during OTAs, he was dropping balls. I’m like, ‘What are you doing? Like, we need to catch the ball.’ That guy catches the ball in the backfield. He is smooth. I’ve been really, really impressed with Juelz Goff.”

— On what Pitt playing Duquesne means for the city: “It’s great for the city. I think it will be a great turnout. I think there’ll be a lot of enthusiasm in that stadium. We got the Rib Fest that it’d be nice if you guys brought me some ribs after the game somebody. I walked by that in our Panther walk, and I never get to taste a rib. I think it’ll be a lot of excitement. It’s two Pittsburgh schools playing, and haven’t had it for a long time. For it to happen this Saturday it will be unique.”

— On being more aggressive on fourth downs inside the 50 with freshman kicker Trey Butkowski: “We’ll be aggressive like we were last year. We’re always going to be aggressive on fourth down, so we’re going to take our shots and trust our guys make those plays on offense and defense. It puts the defense at risk when you do that, whether it’s fourth-and-1 at your own 20 yard line or fourth and one at the plus 20. It’ll be a different decision making goal when we cross that 50-yard line there will be different things we’ll be thinking about as we enter into the red zone.”

— On having Pitt DT Sean FitzSimmons ready to go for Week 1: “Sean Fitzsimmons has been excellent. It’s great to have him. He’s been really good, so we’re excited to have him ready and he’s playing at high level right now. So is Nick James. There will be Nick James, Francis Brewu, those guys are playing really, really well.

— On new rule regarding if you go down with injury after ball is placed, team has to call a timeout and if it has value as a tempo offense: “No doubt about it. We don’t do it. Matter of fact, the last time we looked like it, you guys can go back to videotape at Tennessee. I think it was Keyshon Camp came running off the field, then just went down. I called a timeout because that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. He went down, and then I called a timeout because I thought it looked bad. He was just trying to get off the field. Substitution issue on about the minus 20-yard line. I was like, ‘What are we doing?’ We have substitution try to get it with that fast tempo offense. So that’ll certainly help our offense with guys wanting to pull out, so that should help us a lot.”

— On any areas of Duquesne’s game that will be challenging for Pitt: “I would say their RPOs and we faced really good RPO teams in the past. I think they do a great job with the RPO game, so that’ll be one where you’re running the ball and our backers are going to be running up in there. Then they’re going to try to throw the ball behind our back, and our safeties got to play really good.”

— On QB Eli Holstein progress: “We’re gonna find out Saturday, right? I’ve been impressed with him. I think, he’s taking on leadership role, as well as operating the offense. I think it’s no different than Aaron Rodgers. What’s he look like? You guys haven’t seen anything. Is he going to be what he was with the Jets, or he’s going to be like he’s with the Steelers? I think it’s the same thing. He’s been impressive through camp. He can run, he can beat you with his feet, he can beat you with his arm. He’s got enough weapons to beat you.”

— On Pitt QB Eli Holstein being a risk taker: “That’s hard to say. You can be aggressive as long as you’re right, right? We’ll take our shots. He’ll be asked to take his shots when it’s time. But it’s also complete the ball, move the sticks. We like to be explosive. Kade likes to be explosive. He’d like to score every series in two or three plays. That’s great, but hat’s not college football. There’s some really good defenses out there, and Duquesne and Mickey does a great job. Mickey Jacobs, that is.

You gotta take what the defense is giving you. If they’re gonna, if they’re gonna pack it back and be in some type of Tampa two, we want to be aggressive? I don’t think so. The most important thing is, we have the ball in our hands, and we’re not turning the ball over unless it’s a long, long bomb and it’s a 40 yard change of possession. You got to be smart and aggressive at the same point.”

— On Pitt defensive tackle rotation: “They work well together. They all have rotated throughout. We feel like we got really four starters in there, and will rotate them as needed. It’ll be based on play counts and how long was he out there, giving another guy to start the series off. We’ll try to keep it even and fresh.”