'Love for the game' keeps Pitt players, coaches hungry to reverse misfortune from a year ago

Every day, Pitt defensive coordinator Randy Bates gets down on the ground and does pushups and situps in front of his players. He started with 12 on the first day of practice Wednesday. He promises to reach a daily number of “30 or 40” by the end of the season.

Bates, a cancer survivor, is 64 years old.

“As you get older, you feel younger around these guys,” he said. “Until they show a picture of me with the kids, I feel as young as they are. As long as I’m physically good, it just gives me a lot of life to be around these guys.”

Coaching college football gets more complicated every year, with players earning paychecks like any other university employee and thousands transferring nationwide after every season — sometimes, even when they get along well with the coach. Give Bates credit for putting the players above all else.

Pat Narduzzi, 58, has seen it all in 35 years as a coach — he was a graduate assistant at Miami (Ohio) in 1990 — and he knows better than anyone the difficulty of keeping a program on an upward trajectory. Two years after winning an ACC championship, he was 3-9 last season.

Narduzzi said his “love for the game” brings him back every year and overwhelms the outside noise.

“As coaches, I think we’re in this game because we like to compete,” he said. “You can’t play anymore, so you get to coach, try to get them to jell on offense, defense, special teams and try to put the best product on the field. That’s what you do it for. It’s a challenge. It’s fun. This is the best time of year. This is what we live for.”

Perhaps no player mirrors his coaches’ love for the game more than sixth-year senior middle linebacker Brandon George, who learned more than he wanted to know about the business side of football when he briefly entered the transfer portal after the 2023 season. He changed his mind and returned before the end of December.

“You hear people talk about (the portal) like it’s a transactional thing. It’s not a transactional thing. Football is relationship-based,” he said. “That’s what makes this game great. In the pros, you’re playing for your next contract. Here, you’re playing for the men to the right and left of you.

“This is a family. At the end of the day, it’s hard to leave family. Every once in a while, family gets into arguments, little tiffs. At the end of the day, they’re still your brothers and sisters, mom and dad. That’s the mentality that brought me back. Whatever happened, this is home.”

As much as he loves his teammates, he loves the physical side of football just as much.

​”There’s no other sport on earth, besides boxing, where I get a pat on the back for trying to knock somebody’s teeth out,” he said. “Everywhere else, I would get arrested for it. I was that little kid in flag (football) who got yelled at for stiff-arming and running people over.”

That’s the kind of aggression Bates saw from his defensive unit while players were preparing for practice Wednesday.

“I would liken our defense as we are going out as the black Lab on the first day of hunting season,” Bates said. “He’s pulling on that chain and ready to go. I had that chain, and I was holding them. I had to keep them chained down until we go out there. I was excited to watch them because that is Pitt defense. I think you’re going to see a much more aggressive defense this year.”

Narduzzi said he has seen a different attitude among his players since January when they started conditioning for the season.

“There’s got to be,” he said. “I just see a more serious football team. I think they thought (last season) that we would just line up and it would happen easy.

“I see more leadership out of this group, out of our seniors, out of our Eagles (leadership council).”

There’s inexperience at several positions, including defensive line, outside linebacker and cornerback, but Narduzzi believes there’s more overall talent and athleticism.

They also know that losing hurts, so the players’ leadership council came up with the slogan “Prove it.”

“A lot of people are (saying), ‘OK, where is Pitt? They’re back where they used to be,’ ” Narduzzi said. “That’s not the case. So we’ve got a lot to prove.”

But it won’t be easy. Since 1961, Pitt has won three or fewer games 16 times. In the previous 15, the following season’s victory total never was more than six.

Narduzzi doesn’t pay attention to history, though. He is more of a believer in human nature.

“I think sometimes you’ve got to get smacked and knocked down before you go, ‘Oh, I’ve got it,’ and I think they got it,” he said.