Pat Narduzzi went after USC and Lincoln Riley; now he’s going after Utah on NIL
Pat Narduzzi is not having a very Merry Christmas.
Narduzzi and his Pittsburgh Panthers are preparing to play the UCLA Bruins in the Sun Bowl, but Narduzzi is angry at Pac-12 schools other than UCLA. We’ll explain below.
Pitt didn’t have a terrible season in 2022, but the Panthers were certainly much worse than they were in 2021, when they won the ACC championship and reached a New Year’s Six bowl game. Kedon Slovis did not thrive in Pitt’s offense; he wanted out, and has made his decision to enter the transfer portal yet again.
The 2022 season didn’t go as coach Pat Narduzzi intended. Crucially, the ACC moves to a division-less format in 2023. Pitt will not be able to win the ACC Coastal and get to the ACC Championship Game. It will have to finish in the top two of the conference standings to get there. With Florida State clearly moving up the ladder in the conference behind Clemson, Pitt’s chances of returning to the ACC title game just got worse. Maybe that’s why Narduzzi is mad at another Pac-12 school.
Here are the details, in case you missed them:
NARDUZZI MAD AT UTAH THIS TIME
Per Joshua Newman of the Salt Lake Tribune:
Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi used part of his National Signing Day press conference on Wednesday to accuse the University of Utah of tampering with a recruit who had been verbally committed to the Panthers, but later flipped to the Utes.
Narduzzi’s accusation centered on three-star wide receiver Daidren Zipperer, who committed to the Panthers on Sept. 24 and visited Utah a week later. Zipperer de-committed from Pitt on Oct. 24, then committed to the Utes on Halloween.
“Shoot, I’ll just say it,” Narduzzi said. “We lost one to Utah that was a good receiver for us and I think [NIL] had something to do with it.”
UTAH AD MARK HARLAN REACTS TO NARDUZZI
“It’s frustrating, and I am furious at the Pitt head coach for his comments yesterday,” Harlan told The Tribune. “I have made it very clear to my counterpart at Pitt that that’s unacceptable. It’s not the way we do things at the University of Utah.
“That being said, I think it shows the frustrations that are out there within the industry, and then outside, fans that may be confused about this whole thing.”
HARLAN WASN'T DONE
“It is completely unacceptable to throw the University of Utah under the bus and I will not stand for anyone accusing us of something that is not true. I made my feelings known,” Harlan continued.
“You’re not allowed to induce anyone to come to any university, and you are not allowed to set pay-for-play contracts. Those are the two rules. To get in front of a press conference and just throw that out is unprofessional. They know how I feel about it.”
FROM THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Reporter Joshua Newman added this detail in his report:
Earlier this week during an interview on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh, Narduzzi said he heard two schools had offered UNC star quarterback Drake Maye $5 million to transfer. He wouldn’t say which two schools.
IT IS VERY CLEAR
Dec 30, 2021; Atlanta, GA, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi on the field prior to the game against the Michigan State Spartans during the 2021 Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
Pat Narduzzi will fling rumors against a wall regardless of how true they might be. He shoots first, and he doesn’t even ask questions later. It’s profoundly irresponsible.
WE WROTE THIS ABOUT NARDUZZI BACK IN JULY
From a late-July story we wrote:
“Narduzzi explicitly said that Jordan Addison was made into the player he was by the Pittsburgh program, as opposed to crediting Addison with lifting the Panthers to the next level. Sour grapes and a lack of grace after seeing an athlete transfer? That’s a bad look.”
NARDUZZI EVEN GOT MAD AT NEBRASKA, TOO
Also from our late-July story here at Trojans Wire — remember this?
“It’s not the only bad look from Narduzzi in recent days, as our friends at Cornhuskers Wire noted.
“Check out what Pat Narduzzi said about his former offensive coordinator at Pitt, Mark Whipple, who is now at Nebraska:
“On the most recent episode of Bazzy’s Black & Gold Banter, Pitt Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi made several comments criticizing his ex-offensive coordinator, Mark Whipple. Narduzzi believed that Whipple was too stubborn to run the football and only wanted to throw, regardless of the situation.
“Our old offensive coordinator had no desire to run the ball. Everybody knew it. He was stubborn. Wake Forest was 118th in run defense and we threw the ball every down. When we ran it, we ran it for 10 yards but that wasn’t good enough.”
“The Wake Forest game he mentions was the ACC Championship Game, a game that Pittsburgh won 45-21. When you take a closer look at the stats, you also realize that Pat Narduzzi either has a terrible memory or an ax to grind with his former OC. Pitt did not throw the ball every down and actually ran more than they threw, with the Panther offense finishing with 38 rushing attempts to 34 passing attempts. You’ll also notice that Pitt did not average ten yards a rush but 2.9 yards a carry. So he was only off by seven yards a carry.”
CONTRAST
In comments made at the beginning of 2022, Pat Narduzzi did not blame Brian Kelly and Notre Dame for tampering, if you recall another story we wrote about the Pitt coach.
Notice anything about those comments? Narduzzi explicitly refused to blame then-Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly for the series of events, He directly said this was about “back-channel” maneuvers and not about anything Kelly might have done.
REAL TALK, REAL SOLUTIONS
We commented on Narduzzi’s selective blame game:
Why is Narduzzi blaming Riley for Addison, when it is known that Caleb Williams knows Addison, and that players can recruit other players?
The fault here lies with the NCAA allowing player-based (aka, back-channel) recruiting to occur, or at least for not making it clear that such activity will be punished. Nope. The NCAA has left the door open on this front.
Why is it Narduzzi lets (Brian) Kelly off the hook but thinks Riley is tampering? Why would he think Riley and not Williams is the main player in the Addison case?
BOTTOM LINE
Pat Narduzzi needs to do his job better. Speak less, coach more, and maybe don’t throw other people under the bus. Everyone else loses recruitments and coordinators and wide receivers and doesn’t throw a fit each time it happens.
Someone needs to put his head down and do his job, instead of complaining about another Pac-12 school.
