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Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi greets Penn State head coach James Franklin before they faced each other for the first time last year at Heinz Field.
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Pitt and Penn State are keeping verbal jabs to a minimum

Matt Freed/Post-Gazette

Pitt and Penn State are keeping verbal jabs to a minimum

Pat Narduzzi spoke somewhere around 5,000 words Monday at his pre-Penn State news conference, but not one of those was “James” or “Franklin.”

Nittany Lions defensive line coach Brent Pry received a shoutout — “Coach Pry’s got the front four going big-time,” Narduzzi said. Offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead got name-dropped — “Coach Moorhead and the offense is, again, explosive,” is how Pitt’s head coach put it. Oh, and there was “credit to their coaching staff” for what they’ve done in recruiting to build a “good football team.”

So is there some sort of coldness betwixt the most powerful men within the most powerful football programs in Pennsylvania?

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Maybe not.

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“We’ve got a great relationship,” Narduzzi said Wednesday afternoon.

Narduzzi added that it’s not the same talking ball with an offensive-minded coach like Penn State’s Franklin, but that he’s had the chance to hang out with the fourth-year Nittany Lions boss and his wife, Fumi.

As they each enter their second year of this rivalry renewed, then familiarity breeds … what, exactly, for the football programs at Pitt and Penn State?

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The sniping from one school to the other has certainly quieted down from last year to this one. Remember when Scott Barnes, Pitt athletic director at the time, tweeted that the “visiting team” returned tickets that he would make available to Pitt fans? Remember way back in January 2015, when then-Penn State offensive line coach Herb Hand was all about the #OurState hashtag? And after last year’s 42-39 Pitt victory, Franklin accused Pitt of illegal pre-snap clapping to disrupt his offense.

The list goes on and on, but the war of words has indeed simmered, and we know Pitt’s players won’t be adding to it this week. The closest thing we’ve gotten is this:

• Monday, Narduzzi was asked about Penn State being the heavy favorite Saturday. Part of his response: “We were the underdog last year, too, so what's the difference?”

• Tuesday, it seemed Franklin came across that sound bite and remembered that actually, Pitt was a 3.5-point favorite by the time kickoff rolled around Sept. 10: “I saw some things kind of reported, just kind of interesting — I listen to everything and I read everything — not that it matters a whole lot, but last year we went to their place, and it was a tough environment. Obviously, it's an exciting game for the state. We were the underdogs, everything that I saw.”

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Ah, now maybe there’s a subtle shot across the bow. But otherwise, Franklin was entirely complimentary of Narduzzi and Pitt, from their offensive and defensive schemes to Narduzzi’s decision to limit media access for the week.

“Coach Narduzzi does a really good job, and we have a lot of respect for him and their program,” Franklin said at his weekly news conference. “They present a very challenging offense.”

Or at least they’ll try, potentially letting quarterback Max Browne loose a bit more than he did in Week 1. Franklin said he’d go back and watch film of Browne at Southern California or even in high school to get a feel for what he can do in more than just a one-game sample size at Pitt.

Echoing that sentiment was Penn State senior safety Troy Apke, who represents the familiarity factor of this matchup perhaps better than anyone. Not only is he a Mt. Lebanon High School product who was recruited by Pitt, but his dad, Steve, played at Pitt from 1983-86.

“It's kind of funny, my dad used to say every time he walks on this field [at Beaver Stadium] for a photo shoot or media day, he tells me his blood is still on the ground because of when they played Penn State,” Apke said.

Apke also graduated from Mt. Lebanon the same year as Pitt offensive lineman Alex Bookser, one of many high school connections between the two rosters. Pitt sophomore receiver Aaron Mathews, who at first committed to the Nittany Lions, and Penn State freshman defensive back Lamont Wade formed a dangerous duo at Clairton in their day. Several other WPIAL alumni in State College had Pitt offers or were once headed there before Narduzzi’s arrival.

And then there’s all the guys on both sides who come from the same towns or states but faced each other as local rivals, which only adds to the Pitt-Penn State series.

“It does,” Naduzzi said. “I think there’s familiarity on both sides — us, as coaches, and players. Our players know all their players over there, whether it’s a Virginia or D.C. or Pa. guy. I think that’s what rivals are, really. It’s not about anything else; it’s about how much the players know each other, if they’re from the same state, and it’s really a pride factor, I think, as far as the rivalry goes.”

And it’s about the occasional verbal jabs here and there, too.

Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.

First Published: September 7, 2017, 10:00 a.m.

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