Pitt is still early in camp, but Pat Narduzzi is already seeing the kind of details that can shape a season. Speaking Tuesday morning before the Panthers’ 11th practice, the head coach spent most of his time on Mason Heintschel’s growth, the work being done along the defensive line, and the small habits he believes can add up over time.
Narduzzi said the goal with Heintschel is to keep the quarterback aggressive without overcoaching the instinct out of him. “You know what, you don't wanna micromanage him, so he's gotta go play.
I think when he starts to get frustrated, even you see the periods out there like, if I call a sack on him, well, the next play he gets pissed off, even though it wasn't a sack. He's like, 'Coach, I would have gotten away from that!'
Then all of a sudden, the next, he's trying to go make a play to prove everybody. So he just needs - that's part of growing up.
And we don't want to take his playmaking ability away from him. So again, there's some give and take, and he's not gonna be perfect.
That's the big thing. No one's perfect out there.
We're not perfect, and we don't expect him to be. We need him to play within the framework of the offense, but also understand the team is riding on his shoulders.”
That theme carried into Narduzzi’s next answer, where he pointed to the little stuff Heintschel mentioned Tuesday - getting the offense lined up faster, recognizing the defense sooner, and sharpening communication. For Narduzzi, those details matter because they stack up.
“No question about it. It's those tiny little details.
And I tell our guys all the time, if you take care of the little things, the big things take care of theself. But it's all those little things.
I don't care if it's cleaning your locker room or getting the ball set faster, get the receiver set faster, make sure the running back knows that maybe there's a corner blitz that's coming. I mean, just little things.
What happened yesterday, I was sitting in the quarterback meeting with the quarterback's coach, Coach Bell and Corey (Dailey) says, 'Coach, I knew the cornerback was coming because the receiver told me. I was like, I just spoke up.
I said, 'Did you tell the running back? Because he's gotta pick it up.
That's great, you two got a little conversation going on, but let everybody know. Over-communicate, those are little things that you just keep getting better as you grow.”
Narduzzi also made it clear he is not overworking Ja'Kyrian Turner, known as Boosie, even if the running back got some work in the scrimmage. He said Turner got about 15 plays, though he added, “I don't count touches, I count plays.” He explained that the staff already knows what Turner can do, so there was no need to push the workload further.
On defense, the Panthers’ end rotation is starting to take shape. Narduzzi said Crothers had “a good day yesterday,” and added that Ja-Mo, Isiah Neal and Jimmy Scott have all been strong.
He described Scott as a player the staff does not talk about enough and joked about how focused he is: “The other day I said something, I said, hey, you don't even smile anymore. He goes, 'Coach, I'm serious.'
He's about business.”
That group, Narduzzi said, forms the top four in the rotation right now. Beyond that, he sees a real fight for the next spots, with Reston Lehman and Josh Pittman competing for the fifth and sixth roles.
Juju Anderson is also pushing to join that mix. Denim Cook remains in the conversation too, and Narduzzi said the freshman has “got twitch,” while wanting to see more aggressiveness and the kind of confidence that lets him take over.
Lehman, meanwhile, has made an impression with his effort. Narduzzi called motor his best trait and said, “I mean, he's about 235 pounds, he needs to put a little bit of weight on.
But he gets bounced around, he just keeps going, I mean, it doesn't matter. This guy's got a great motor, I love his attitude every day.”
Asked how freshmen get through the first real wall of camp, Narduzzi said the answer is usually mental more than physical. The bodies can be managed, he said, but the installs keep coming, and that pressure can slow a young player down if he falls behind.
“They just gotta keep pushing and put more time in it,” he said. “But to me, it's usually you hit that mental wall, not the physical wall.”
Narduzzi closed by pointing to the offense’s balance. He said a passing game can dictate the direction of a plan when it’s working, but Pitt knows where it needs to improve.
“So the passing game's working good, you're gonna lean on that. But we know for us to win a championship, we got to have a better run game.But you guys wouldn't wanna watch it in the stadium if our run game's not what you wanted it to be.
But I think we've made some major improvements in the offseason, not only personnel-wise, but structurally, what we're doing and how we're doing it.”
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