Those are some fightin’ words.
Pitt Head Coach Pat Narduzzi joined Colin Dunlap and Richard Bazzy on their Bazzy’s Black & Gold Banter show and went off on the Big Ten and his former offensive coordinator.
Talking about the Peach Bowl game loss to Michigan State, Narduzzi said if now Steeler quarterback Kenny Pickett had played, it would’ve been a 21-point different in the outcome.
The Spartans beat the Panthers 31-21.
He added if Nick Patti was able to play the whole game, it would’ve been a 14-point difference.
“Michigan State gets their butt kicked in,” said Narduzzi. “Talk about Big Ten and SEC and ACC, Richard you’re going to get me going on this. If that was one of the best Big Ten teams last year then you know, let’s go to the Big Ten and win it every year oaky, so I’m tired of hearing about this Big Ten dominance and SEC dominance.”
Narduzzi believes that it was the best thing for Pickett to miss that game so he couldn’t risk injury and jeopardize his draft stock.
Narduzzi also admitted that Pickett was “banged up” and that former OC Mark Whipple did help, saying he had injuries to his toes and ribs.
He went on to speculate if it wasn’t for throwing the ball constantly, he might have felt comfortable playing in the Peach Bowl.
“We didn’t make it easy on Kenny, I think the most impressive thing about Kenny Pickett is everybody knew we were going to throw the ball and we threw the ball,” said Narduzzi. “Our old offensive coordinator had no desire to run the ball. Everybody knew, he was stubborn, I mean Wake Forest 138th in run defense and we threw the ball every down, when we ran it, we ran for 10 yards but that wasn’t good enough . . . so maybe if he didn’t bang him up all season, he would’ve played [in the bowl game].”
Bazzy said the bowl game loss still bothers him, but Narduzzi told him to “let it go” and focus on the 2022 Panthers.
Later in the conversation, Narduzzi said it's a "fact" that he has a better staff on offense going into 2022 and doesn't care if they only win one game, it's still a better staff.