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John McGonigal's Pitt football chat: 10.08.20
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John McGonigal
11:01
Welcome to the weekly chat, folks. We’ve got an hour here to discuss the N.C. State game, look to Boston College or chat about whatever else is on your mind about Pitt. Let’s get it going.
Patrick David Antall
11:03
How does mark whipple still have a job? The draw plays every single first down with our smallest running back are trash. Red zone offense is abysmal. He’s wasting so much talent. I’m about to crowdsource a billboard dahn near the facility to get him outta town!
John McGonigal
11:06
The red-zone play-calling is uninspiring and historically unsuccessful. No doubt. But two things on Whipple: 1) I still think Vincent Davis is Pitt’s best option at running back, and 2) some of the blame has to fall to the offensive line. Senior center Jimmy Morrissey said it himself after the game: The line doesn’t deserve run calls when they’re blocking like they did last weekend. Whipple has done a good job scheming up the passing game for Kenny Pickett, and the O-line has done a nice job in protection. All parties just have to get on the same page about the running game, if they actually want to try and make it a thing.
Guest
11:09
Has Pitt played 3 bad teams or 1 bad game?
John McGonigal
11:12
Is it a cop-out to say a little bit of both? Austin Peay and Syracuse aren’t good. Louisville has a lot of weapons on offense that Pitt shut down. And last Saturday was a really, really bad game. I mean, awful. Pitt made Devin Leary look like Philip Rivers, and he’s not. If Leary ends up making it in the NFL, I’ll own that one. But Pitt shot itself in the foot time after time after time. The Panthers can prove everyone wrong this weekend and next weekend at Miami. But good teams don’t make those kind of mistakes.
Gerry D.
11:15
Is it really possible that the lack of a 2nd half pass rush was the result of a loss of aggressiveness due to the hard count / offsides calls?   One would think (hope) that a team might be prepared for such a thing.
John McGonigal
11:18
Patrick Jones II mentioned that postgame, and Narduzzi brought it up on Monday. Specifically, Narduzzi said this when asked about the lacking pass-rush: “It starts with me preparing our kids for the double-clap cadence and all that. We hadn’t seen a lot of it going in, and we did a poor, poor job. … Our kids have been so used to taking off and going, and they slowed us down.” I wonder, too, how no crowds might play into that.
Emeka Emezie
11:20
Dave Borbely didn't seem too critical of the OLine when he spoke to the media. Do you think that unit has a chance to improve in the run game or is this their peak? When a coach said they did a decent job but averaged 2-3 yds per carry I'm not too optimstic
John McGonigal
11:24
Hello, Emeka. You had a whale of a game last weekend. But in regards to Borbely, he’s one of the toughest coaches on staff. I remember Carter Warren mentioned Borbely really laying into them after a scrimmage in August. He’s a fiery guy who’s seen a lot of football at Notre Dame, Maryland, Virginia, Stanford. Just because he softened the blow a bit with the media doesn’t mean he wasn’t hard on his guys this week. 

Now, can the unit improve in the running game? I honestly don’t know. I thought the run game would improve throughout last season, and it didn’t. I thought there were positives in the Louisville game, but that might’ve been a flash in the pan. A part of me feels like they should give up on the heavy sets and the deliberate runs and utilize the playmakers they have at wide receiver. That’s the strength of the offense. Just lean into it.
Guest
11:27
Hello John.  Going into the NC State game, a number of Pitt players complained about not being respected.
John McGonigal
11:28
Yep, that was the word all throughout the preseason and first few weeks. Rashad Weaver said it best, though, on the ACC Network a couple weeks ago: They want to be the big dog, not the underdog, but to do that, they’ve got to win and win convincingly. The players know they botched a chance to open the season 4-0, maybe 5-0, and gain more recognition nationally.
Johnqv
11:29
If Narduzzi proceeds to lose 4 or 5 games this year will Heather Lyke make a move to a new Coach?
John McGonigal
11:33
Firing him after a 7-4 season? No. Not even 6-5. Internally, the team entered the season pushing for a trip to the ACC title game. And that’s still technically on the table. But Jaylen Twyman opted out, Damarri Mathis was lost for the season, and the ACC really screwed Pitt on the revised scheduling. Instead of a bye week in between Miami and Notre Dame, the Panthers play them back-to-back. They get Clemson. And their second bye week is the last weekend of the regular season. What good does that do? Guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s fair to have expectations entering a season. But at some point, you’ve got to adjust them. And while it’s not what players/coaches/fans would hope for, I think 7-4 is more than a fair record given the slate.
VM R3
11:35
If Narduzzi proceeds to have another sub par season and Pitt decides to move on,  what Coaches do you see as  possible candidates to replace him?
John McGonigal
11:36
I understand the question, but unless the season totally bottoms out and Pitt goes 4-9, I don’t think that’s speculation worth having right now. If 4-9 happens, ask me in December, and I’ll have an answer.
JR
11:36
Way to many mistakes versus NCS however games  are often decided by mismatched personnel that seemed to be at least part of the issue last Saturday. Your thoughts?
John McGonigal
11:40
When you say “mismatched personnel” I immediately think of 5-foot-9 corner Marquis Williams against N.C. State’s big receivers. Lackluster pass-rush aside, that was Pitt’s biggest defensive issue last weekend. They went at Williams constantly. It’s a tough position for Pitt to be in, too. He’s a talented, young corner who played well vs. Louisville. But without Mathis (even with Mathis before the injury) they’re thin at that position. And Pitt can’t change its entire scheme to account for one injury. We’ll see if teams try to match up big receivers on Williams moving forward.
Halvybuckets
11:42
Is Narduzzi stuck in the smashmouth, blue collar style of play on offense?
John McGonigal
11:44
I think there’s a desire to run the ball, to give it a chance. But only two QBs attempted more passes per game last year than Pickett. So I don’t think it’s Narduzzi being stuck in an old school style. He’s not calling the plays anyway. That’s all Whipple.
The. O’s Fries
11:46
Boston College has the best line in the ACC with Vrabel’s kid, Johnson and Petrula. And with Jurkovec in good form. Do you think our defense will bounce back? If they play anything like last week we’ll definitely lose. What was stopping the line from getting pressure?
John McGonigal
11:49
Boston College’s line is really good, but I do think the defense will bounce back. I watched the BC-North Carolina game, and a lot of Jurkovec’s big plays downfield came from outside the pocket. Rashad Weaver called them “circus passes.” And even though N.C. State’s cadences threw the front-four off last week, the Pitt’s pass-rushers are better than North Carolina’s and can keep Jurkovec contained. They might not get seven sacks like they did against Syracuse and Louisville. But it’ll be more than two.
Side note: I never had the chance to get fries from the O. So disappointing.
Ant
11:51
has anything been said on the Wayne and Addison Injuries?
John McGonigal
11:52
No word yet. But Narduzzi is meeting with the media later as he does every Thursday afternoon. I’ll be asking him about Wayne and Addison then.
guidoCorvairi
11:53
What is the story with Todd Sibley, he ran 2 Wildcats plays and got them to the one-yard line, then they brought in the middle school back. Sibley is more the size you need for short yardage.
John McGonigal
11:54
With Sibley, they use him in the Wildcat because they trust him to catch the snap. But he doesn’t provide the kind of burst out of the backfield that Vincent Davis or Pitt’s other backs offer. Normally, you’d see A.J. Davis in there on goal-line plays, but he was out injured. We’ll see what they opt to go with this weekend.
Tom
11:55
Pitt's lack of awareness of the time clock on their last drive is an indictment of the coaching staff.  I watched the replay of the game and they easily left 40-60 total seconds on the play clock.  Giving NC State the ball back with less than a minute to play and no timeouts likely would have changed the outcome.  Has anyone brought that up with Narduzzi?
John McGonigal
11:56
Yeah, I get that. Maybe Narduzzi figured he’d keep some time on the clock in case Pitt didn’t score from 1st-and-goal. We saw what happened from the 1 in the third quarter. If they don’t score, at least they have two timeouts and can get the ball back? Obviously looking back on it, you’d say to take more time off. And it probably would’ve changed the outcome. But I think that stemmed from Pitt’s red-zone inconsistencies.
Anthony
11:58
John, thanks for the low key shoutout on your podcast regarding your Pitt 5-0 comment. I don’t think getting to ACC championship is at all possible now. In your eyes, what makes this season still a good one record wise?
John McGonigal
11:59
Thanks for listening to the pod. We have a lot of fun with those. As for what constitutes success, if they’re able to get to 8-3 and win two of their four big games — Miami, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and Clemson — that’ll be a success. ACC title berth or not, that would have been a success before the N.C. State loss. At this point, a 7-4 finish would be acceptable, too, if they beat Miami, Notre Dame or Clemson. But losing all three of those and beating only Austin Peay, Syracuse, Louisville, Boston College, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech? Meh. That’s disappointing.
12:01
Speaking of the podcast, subscribe and listen to the North Shore Drive for Pitt, Steelers, Penguins, Pirates and high school analysis. The college writers — me, Craig Meyer and Nubyjas Wilborn — record a Pitt/Penn State pod every Tuesday morning that’s normally up by lunchtime, so be sure to check that out. And thanks as always for the questions.
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