In 11 years under Pat Narduzzi’s guidance, Pitt has suffered losses ranging from frustrating to inexplicable.
A defeat Saturday at Acrisure Stadium to Central Michigan of the Mid-American Conference would be a combination of both, as Pitt is favored by more than three touchdowns (21.5 points, as of Friday morning, per Action Network).
Despite playing at home against a non-Power Four opponent and being the heavy favorite, Narduzzi has looked to instill a sense of respect amongst his players for their upcoming foe.
“I tell our guys all the time, you just can’t throw your helmet out and think you’re going to win any football game,” Narduzzi said. “I don’t care who it is. You think you’re just going to line up, go to Acrisure Stadium and play football?”
Not to mention, Narduzzi knows only too well the sting of losing to a MAC program, as Pitt stumbled early into the 2021 campaign vs. Western Michigan, losing 44-41 at home.
Of course, that squad ultimately rebounded to become Narduzzi’s best since arriving in Oakland at the end of 2014, advancing to the Peach Bowl as the No. 11 team in the nation.
Still, Narduzzi has seen firsthand the pitfall of not playing your best football vs. a seemingly inferior opponent.
Not to mention, after this weekend, Pitt travels to Morgantown for the 108th installment of the Backyard Brawl against West Virginia.
But even with the highly anticipated showdown against Rich Rodriguez’s Mountaineers looming, Narduzzi is confident his players aren’t overlooking the current task at hand.
“I think our guys are pretty good through our history of locking in for one game,” Narduzzi said. “(After we lost to Western Michigan), we won an ACC Championship that year. Sometimes, it’s a good wakeup call for you, too. … Central Michigan’s a good football team. They’re a better football team than we faced a week ago and they’ll pose challenges, there will be adversity in the game, just like there is every game.”
From the moment he began previewing the Chippewas on Monday, Narduzzi made note of coach Matt Drinkall’s distinctive offensive attack, which features three quarterbacks and a run-heavy scheme.
That will undoubtedly be a major storyline Saturday, seeing how Pitt’s defensive preparation for such a unique look translates to the gridiron.
Heading into kickoff, Narduzzi likes how his defensive 11 have handled things.
“Just heavy personnel,” Narduzzi said of CMU’s offense. “Two tight ends, three tight ends, four tight ends in the game at one time instead of a bunch of wideouts in the game. It’s just different. Every week, we’re prepared for 12 personnel, which is two tight ends in the game, but then there’s three, there’s four — they’ve just got a bunch of different, big personnel groupings that we’ll have to be prepared for.
“We’ve had a good week with it. It’s nothing foreign to us as coaches, but it’s foreign to the players when you don’t do it, very much of it, for the whole month of August.”
The flip side of the coin for Pitt’s defense will be staying poised in the pass game and avoiding any explosive plays through the air.
Central Michigan, while tossing for only 115 yards in its season-opening win over San Jose State, proved it could gash the opposition for major yardage, as receiver Tommy Mcintosh caught a 47-yard pass in the third quarter.
In addition, the Panthers are a week removed from allowing Duquesne receiver Joey Isabella 120 receiving yards in their 61-9 blowout win over the Dukes.
To be fair, not all of that was on the first-team defense’s watch, yet Isabella managed to come down with catches of 59 and 30 yards against Pitt.
Those constitute exactly the kind of explosive gains Pitt will hope to limit vs. Central Michigan.
“It’s eye control,” Narduzzi said. “You’ve got to have eye control. They’re going to try to lull you to sleep and pop one on you. … We expect some pop passes to the tight ends that we’ve seen in the past.
“It’s a heavy run look and also the tight ends slip out somewhere, where they run what we call Y-High. But it’s just eye control out of the safeties, making sure that tight end, did he block? If he didn’t block, then it’s, ‘Where’s the ball?’”
Tight ends getting involved
Last weekend against Duquesne, Pitt rotated in its three primary tight ends: Jake Overman, Malachi Thomas and Justin Holmes.
Thomas had the splashiest day, taking a short reception up the sideline 34 yards to the house in the third quarter (before being flagged for excessive celebration shortly thereafter).
Holmes went without a catch while Overman made one grab for 3 yards.
Overall, coach Jacob Bronowski, who oversees Pitt’s tight ends as well as special teams, was pleased with what he saw from his three players.
Moving forward, Panthers fans can expect all three to likely continue factoring in for meaningful snaps.
“I think all of them did kind of what we expected them to do,” Bronowski said. “I wouldn’t say anybody necessarily pulled away. I thought Justin Holmes — obviously don’t know a whole lot about him, being a transfer. I thought he really rose to the occasion and looked even better than I was anticipating, just in terms of operating, understanding what was going on.
“ … Obviously, Jake, really pleased with what he does all the time. He’s a consistent war daddy. And Malachi’s a young guy. He’s only been here since last June and only played 45 snaps last season. I thought he came in and the moment wasn’t too big for him.”