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October 7, 2016

For a coach with defensive roots like Pat Narduzzi, getting burned by the triple option offense is not something he can just let go with ease. It clearly bothered him that Pitt struggled to contain GT last year and then Navy decimated Pitt in the bowl game.

To that end, he’s had the team practice for it since August.

Pitt wanted to leave nothing to chance this year and gathered data from coaches around the country who have successfully defended the triple-option. Then they set out to get better at it.

“I think for them, and I think even for the coaching staff, there’s a bad taste in our mouths,” said Conklin. “I think we feel like we can defend it better than we have. We thought going into the Navy game we were going to defend it well and did not.”

On run plays, the quarterback can hand-off to his fullback, pitch it to the slotback, or keep it himself — which leaves little time for defenders to react.

A year ago, the Yellow Jackets amassed 482 yards of total offense, including 376 rushing yards, but lost to Pitt, 31-28, on a last-minute 56-yard field goal.

“The run part of it is so different than anything else you faced during the course of the year,” said Conklin. “Our run fits, that we’ve seen against the previous teams, it’s just different. I don’t know if it carries over as much. The assignments are going to be different, there’s different keys and reads and the scheme is a little bit different.”

So Pitt practiced against the option. A lot.

Narduzzi said the time the team spent on the offense during two-a-days in August had clearly paid off when Georgia Tech rolled up on the schedule. A year ago, coaches were more concerned with installing the base defense.

“When could you really tell? On Tuesday,” said Narduzzi. “It wasn’t ‘What are we doing?’ … On Tuesday you really noticed [the option] wasn’t foreign to them. They understood exactly what they were going to do. It was just really polishing things up through the week.”

Not much to say about this other than, we’ll find out just how well tomorrow.

GT HC Paul Johnson has been running this offense for decades. He does know what he’s doing.

A couple other things, to toss in the notes for a light day.

Good piece from Ryan Bertonaschi on Narduzzi’s views towards the ACC staying at 8 games (spoiler alert: he’s happy about it), and proposed early signing period in college football.

The NCAA Division I council announced Wednesday that it is considering a proposal that would add two 72-hour signing periods, and, some hours later, ACC athletic directors voted to continue playing an eight-game league schedule with at least one Power Five nonconference game as opposed to increasing each team’s yearly conference schedule to nine games.

The NCAA proposal also includes an article that would allow each program to carry a 10th assistant coach and a separate one that would limit satellite camps to 10 days.

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi was asked about the early signing period Thursday after his team wrapped up practice in anticipation of a matchup with Georgia Tech Saturday.

“I think it benefits the schools more,” Narduzzi said. “I don’t think it’s in the best interests of our student athletes. I think it just benefits us to lock them up and worry about the next one. I’m not a proponent of the early signing period. I like the process we have right now.”

“It allows [teams] that have 20 scholarships to lock down 15 of them and then take their 10 assistant coaches and go focus on those five and love them up in a way that just isn’t fair or real,” Narduzzi added. “There are so many kids transferring nowadays. You read the transactions, kids are transferring all over the country. Kids are making bad decisions, and I think that, the faster we make them make decisions, the worse it’s going to get.”

Given that Narduzzi does not like to rush evaluations and push for early commits, it’s small wonder he’s not in favor of it. Definitely a topic for more examination at a later date.

FSU is not really hitting the panic button, but it is interesting to see them start to worry about slipping and that Jimbo Fisher WON’T go to LSU if it is happening. Again, Noles fans can worry the coach is having some issues, but if they think they will get as lucky as they got with nailing the Jimbo Fisher hire after Bowden; well they should just look at the misses suffered by their in-state rival — twice.





I am not thrilled about an early signing period either. The way college football coaches are fired, some in season like Les Miles, the young athlete could commit and then be stuck with an entire new coaching staff. Yeah, yeah they are supposed to commit to the school not the coaches but we know that is not true. It may be hectic now but the rules are in place and the early period only benefits the bigs who can sign one 4 star running back and once he is locked in go out and get a better one. Bad bad bad idea.

Comment by rkb 10.07.16 @ 8:38 am

As to GT and playing the defense having practiced on it during fall camp I am not feeling at ease. The coaches and players had a month to prepare for Navy game and we got trounced. We shall see.
HAIL TO PITT. WRECK THE WRECK.

Comment by rkb 10.07.16 @ 8:41 am

Having seen the Navy game in person i am in the “believe it when i see it camp”. Pitt D was helpless and do not know if it was talent or coaching deficiecy or both.
So far Conklin has not impressed.
I hope Pitt offense can win the possession battle or it could be ANOTHER long day.

Comment by Taxing Matters 10.07.16 @ 9:10 am

Pitt had no one, save Whitehead, on defense that could match the Navy QB’s athleticism. That plus the home cookin’ that allowed dubious pre-snap motion added up to a long night. GT will have neither going for them tomorrow. the Pitt D will have their best game of the season so far and will honor the retro uniforms — H2P!

Comment by 2$Chuck 10.07.16 @ 9:36 am

well since we apparently practiced for the triple-option at the expense of honing our pass defense, we better do well tomorrow

Comment by wbb 10.07.16 @ 11:42 am

Any Blatherite coming in for the game tomorrow who wants 2 awesome seats gratis just let me know. I have 4 in North Club not using 2.

Comment by wally 10.07.16 @ 2:07 pm

Conklin and company have one of the best run defenses in the country.

Comment by Grizzly1 10.07.16 @ 2:30 pm

Grizzly1, I beg to differ on that assessment. For one just look how badly our run defense performed against Marshall(no less) in the 2nd half last week. Two, why run against Pitt when it’s so much easier to score and score quickly against our very weak secondary. Thus our opponents are choosing to attack us from the air not the ground. And three Pitt in some games have controlled the clock quite well keeping the opposition from either running or passing.—Expect to see our run defense lose the battle tomorrow. And I always expect our pass defense to lose their battle MANY times in any game.

Comment by jrnpitt 10.07.16 @ 3:32 pm

@chuck,

navy embarrassed us. it had nothing to do with the refs..

Comment by goalie44 10.07.16 @ 3:37 pm

We’re about as ready for the Triple Option as we are for getting Hillary or Trump as our next president…

Comment by Jackagain 10.07.16 @ 4:43 pm

Cant coch nard tell the off cor TO pass for a 1st down? Nards defense is like swiss cheese. Coach Narduzzi NEEDS TO TAKE SOME CHANCES HE IS LOSING ANYWAY so why not pass get a damn first down and kill the game ..but no we will run and run and get stopped and then punt and our defense which is terrible will lose the game. H2P

Comment by Boo Boo #1 10.07.16 @ 8:12 pm

Lets be honest this is the same old Pitt team. FIRE Narduzzi I never liked him in the 1st place H2P

Comment by Boo Boo #1 10.08.16 @ 2:13 am

The word decimated is usually misused, confused with annihilate. Decimate (root decimal) was military tactic of Alexander the Great eliminating opposing armies by one tenth at a time and then retreating.

Comment by Old School Panther 10.08.16 @ 3:20 am

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