Pitt's Pat Narduzzi wants another championship ring but understands plenty needs to be fixed

Pat Narduzzi made a fist on his right hand and, with sincere pride, flashed the bling that represents his greatest triumph as Pitt’s head coach the past nine seasons: the ring earned in 2021 as ACC champion.

He appeared on the ACC Network on Tuesday morning during the ACC Kickoff event — three separate appearances, actually — talking about his hopes, expectations and goals for the 2024 season and beyond (national title among them).

In the process, he let everyone around him know that Pitt sits among some elite company in the ACC.

Pat Narduzzi pointed out today that only Clemson (8), FSU (4) and Pitt have won ACC championships the past 13 seasons. “We’ll make sure nobody forgets that. I want another one of those rings.” pic.twitter.com/GZsRaUk6wy

— Jerry DiPaola (@JDiPaola_Trib) July 23, 2024

“The past 13 years, there have only been three teams who can put one of these rings on their finger — Clemson (eight), Florida State (four) and Pitt. We’ll make sure nobody forgets that. I want another one of those rings.”

At the same time, Narduzzi doesn’t run from what happened last year, only two seasons removed from an 11-victory season — a 3-9 record, finishing last in the 14-team conference in points scored (242) and yards per game (317.9) and a pass rush he described as “awful.”

“We were just awful last year, weren’t we, Donovan?” he said from the podium during his news conference, looking at senior safety Donovan McMillon, who was off stage. “We didn’t get any sacks (31, actually, down from an average of almost 50 the previous four seasons).”

What happened? What was the No. 1 lesson learned amidst the misery?

Narduzzi offered an honest answer.

“For our entire team and staff, you just don’t line up and think you’re going to go win football games,” he said. “It takes a lot of work and you better have your mind all the way into it. You never know why what happened happened. But a little bit inside of me tells me that we went into that season thinking, ‘Hey, we’ve won 20 games the past two seasons. We’re good. Let’s just go play. We’re just going to show up and win.’

“That’s not going to happen (this season). That’s the biggest thing. To me, it’s the mentality. This game is half-mental and half-physical and you better have the mental part of it and right now we have that mental part.”

Narduzzi breaks down the “mental part” into attitude and — in the case of first-year, 31-year-old offensive coordinator Kade Bell — creativity. He used that latter word several times Tuesday when discussing why he hired Bell, who spent the past three seasons at FCS Western Carolina.

“When things aren’t going good, it’s my job to fix them,” he said. “Kade Bell was a guy who was off the radar. (I) did a lot of homework, looked at a bunch of different guys and it just narrowed down to that guy.

“I can’t tell you how I excited I am to watch (the offense) go. I watched them in the spring for 15 days, listened to our guys talk about some of their individual workouts and the team sessions they’ve had against the defense, how much more knowledge they have. We’ve added a few more layers to that as the summer went on.”

Narduzzi said he didn’t know Bell before he began interviewing him for the job.

”He wasn’t on my radar very long at all,” he said. “This is one of those out-of-the-box ones. Sometimes, you go into hires, ‘OK, this is what I need.’ I need a guy who’s going to score points, who’s going to have our offense have some enthusiasm. I need a guy with energy. I need someone who can be really creative in what he is doing offensively.

“It’s his creativity. He has a different mind about him. He pulls out different stuff. He has a different way to attack. You can have the greatest defense in the world, if you don’t score any points, it’s demoralizing. That’s one of the things that trapped us a year ago. There was no momentum.”

With only three collegiate starts in his past, junior Nate Yarnell is the unquestioned No. 1 quarterback at the moment. He said he has meshed well with Bell over the first seven months of their relationship.

“He’s come in and really set the tone and set the dynamic,” Yarnell said. “What he’s doing with the offense I love. The biggest thing coach talked to me about is just doing what we’re good at. Play fast. Catch defenses off guard and score some points.”

Narduzzi said he will give Bell the freedom run the offense as he sees fit.

“I’m a defense guy. I’m going to turn our offense loose,” he said. “In nine seasons, I’ve never handcuffed our offensive coordinator. ‘You have to do this, do that.’ I let them go be them.

“That’s how I was coached. That’s how Mark Dantonio treated me when I was defensive coordinator (at Michigan State). He didn’t micro-manage. I don’t ever micro-manage what they call, when they call it. That’s on them.”