PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – You’ve heard the phrase ‘the hunter becoming the hunted’ in terms of a team rising up to be a champion. Pitt Head Coach Pat Narduzzi doesn’t buy it and said they will approach this season the same way despite being defending ACC champs.
“We are going to be on the offensive,” Narduzzi said Monday. “We are not going to be the hunted. We are going hunting ourselves. We are going after them.”
“There is no target on our back, we are not really defending any. It’s not going anywhere, it’s there. That trophy is not leaving the building. It’s over. We are just starting a new (journey) going after that trophy and going after the championship again.”
“It was fun, it was good to win a championship, double-digit games,” said Panthers senior Haba Baldonado. “Last year was last year, people are not going to line-up in front of me thinking about last year. What matters is today and the game that we have in September and then one game at a time.”
“I don’t think we are trying to prove that at all,” said linebacker SirVocea Dennis about showing last season wasn’t a one-and-done. “We are trying to win football games. We are not trying to get another 11-win season, we are trying to win every day. If we do that, it will come.”
“Nobody cares about what happened last year, they really don’t,” Narduzzi said. “Nobody in this room is going to care. We have to work on the next. This is the 2022 team, it’s different than the 2021 team. I think our kids have a good mindset about what that means and what they have to do to be something different than 2021.”
Even with the success, there is the feeling that they still don’t get the love the deserve.
“I think we get disrespected a lot,” said Pitt safety Erick Hallett. “Not a shot at any media outlet, it’s no secret we haven’t been great the last decade. I think we are getting into being a perennial power in college football. I think with that we need to play to that level and get the recognition. I honestly think we do think we get underrated a lot.”
To that point, the Associated Press released its preseason poll on Monday. The Panthers are not in the Top 25.
“I want to know where we are ranked at the end of the year,” Narduzzi said. “Those preseason rankings mean absolutely nothing. Go pull out your rankings to where they were last year (preseason) and see what it looked like and how wrong they were.”
NIL
When asked about it, Narduzzi called it the elephant in the room. How Name, Image and Likeness policies have changed the game. The Pitt coach approves of his players profiting off their hard work, but he worries about rich outsiders having too much influence of his program.
“Put some borders on name, image and likeness and what you actually can and can’t do,” Narduzzi suggested. “I think you have to remove the boosters from the game. You have to remove them. For years and years and years the boosters were eliminated, now all of a sudden you brought boosters back in the picture”.
“I want our kids to make the most money they can, but I want them to work for it and do it the right way and not just Black Market it.”
Clarifying his comments, Narduzzi said he’s not against booster support of the schools. His concern is about outsiders making promises to athletes and the schools having no control over it. He said there have to be some limits or caps or the gaps between the schools will ruin college football.
Quote of the Day
From Erick Hallett, a senior from Texas, who said about John Denver’s song ‘Country Roads’. The anthem played in stadium after Mountaineer home wins.
“I’m not going to lie, before I knew it was West Virginia’s song, I kind of liked it,” Hallett said. “Now that song is like a devil’s chant.”