PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi revealing as to what his offense would be this coming season-'we won't be running the triple option'. Beyond that, anything is possible under new offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti.
"You don't just call plays and run formations regardless of your people," Narduzzi said. "The first job of an offensive coordinator is to evaluate your personnel. Who are your people and what do you do?"
"You do have a foundation of an offense that you teach," Cignetti explained. "I sat down with the staff, you look at every position. We looked at the players to get a feel for what you can do because we want to be great at things. We don't want to be good, we want to be great."
Those evaluations started upon his hiring last week and are ongoing.
Cignetti spent the last two seasons at Boston College with a pair of wildly different results.
In 2021 at BC, the Eagles were about as 50-50 as you see now-a-days. Cignetti's offense threw for 2,217 yards and rushed for 2.291 yards (1,983 when you account for sacks). Eight more touchdowns (21) rushing than passing, a lot of that likely due to the injury of starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec, limited to part of six games and just 96 pass attempts. The previous year when the Pine-Richland star was healthy, 3,216 passing yards to 1,476 rushing with 23 passing TD to 11 rushing.
Narduzzi said we will likely see a combination of what we saw in Cignetti's two seasons with Jeff Hafley in Boston and what we saw with Pitt last year. It's a Pitt team minus their record setting quarterback, an impact tight end and a couple of receivers.
"Yeah, I think there is greatness," Cignetti said of what he has currently on the Pitt roster. "I think they put greatness on the field last year and we have to continue that greatness and there are certain things we have to improve on."
He quickly pointed out the run game, they need to improve from being 11th best in the ACC in 2021. Whether it's one player becoming the guy or running back by committee, that is an emphasis.
Obviously, he has the Biletnikoff Award winner in Jordan Addison, Jared Wayne and talented receivers' room. Cignetti compared rising sophomore tight end Gavin Bartholomew to former Pitt tight end Nate Byham (47 receptions at Pitt also known for his stout blocking), who he coached with the Panthers and NFL third-round pick Hunter Long. He coached Long for one season at BC catching 57 balls for 685 yards and five touchdowns. He thinks Bartholomew could line up anywhere and be effective, taking advantages of mismatches.
Also serving as quarterbacks coach, Cignetti will be searching for Kenny Pickett's replacement.
"I learned a long time ago as a quarterbacks coach," Cignetti said. "I've had great mentors-my father, Mike McCarthy (Cowboys coach), they said when you are coaching the quarterback always try to see it through their eyes. Always ask them what did they see. That way you can understand the decision they made. Football is a really tough game, playing quarterback is very difficult."
Spring football begins next month with the Spring Game on April 9. It will be the first time to evaluate what he has in a practice, then in scrimmage settings. Cignetti said they will experiment with a number of things, some of which will be dropped by fall because it doesn't fit what they do best.
The 56-year-old has been offensive coordinator briefly under Dave Wannstedt at Pitt, along with North Carolina, Rutgers and California. He spent 11 years in the NFL coaching Aaron Rodgers, Eli Manning and Sam Bradford among others. Now he's back to his birthplace.
"Pittsburgh is a football town," Cignetti said. "When you walk in those front doors every day you know football is important. It's not like that everywhere. From a professional level, it was just awesome to be back in a football environment, where it was really important."
It seems right that Cignetti joins Narduzzi's staff. A Cignetti (between himself, his father and brother Curt) has coached a Pitt under Mike Gottfried, Dave Hart, Paul Hackett, Dave Wannstedt, Foge Fazio and Johnny Majors.
"From the outside looking in seeing what a great job Coach Narduzzi and his staff have done building this football program," Cignetti said of where the Pitt program is at. "There is a reason why they won the ACC Championship. They've done a great job recruiting. They've done a great job coaching. It's a personal challenge to keep it at the level it's at and make it better.
