It isn’t the way of the world in college athletics to exercise patience when it comes to coaches building programs. Athletic directors and school presidents are quick to fire coaches who don’t have enough success, especially once ticket sales and things like donations to the athletic department begin to decline.
If a fan base is unhappy with the direction of a program, the pocket book is always the way they show it and quite often administrators buckle to the pressure. This is why, in my humble opinion, so many coaching hires turn out to be a disaster or never really have a chance to build a sustainable program.
Pitt has taken the opposite approach with Pat Narduzzi, and there are many fans who have been upset about it. Narduzzi’s teams are always tough and competitive and they usually are good for an upset or two, but the overall results have been a bit underwhelming. And it always feels like there is at least one game Pitt should have won but found a way to lose.
This past season was supposed to be the breakout season for Narduzzi’s Panthers, but they were 6-5 (5-5 against FBS teams) and lost to the two best teams on their schedule (Clemson and Notre Dame) by a combined score of 97-20. It was about as underwhelming of a season as it could have been, especially considering expectations that were put on the Panthers before the season.
There were a lot of Pitt fans calling for a change and many saying they didn’t think Narduzzi was the man for the job. Pitt’s athletic administration disagreed and stuck with Narduzzi, who has a contract through 2024, and that was the right thing to do. I have heard all the reasons why Narduzzi should be fired, but I haven’t heard a single good one.
Yes, in the big picture, what Narduzzi has done in six seasons isn’t all that impressive and is a whole lot closer to mediocre than good. He is 42-34 overall, but that includes six wins over FCS schools, meaning he is 36-34 against FBS teams. He is also 1-3 in bowl games, and it isn’t like those losses have come against teams like Alabama.
He has fared well against ACC teams for the most part, as he is 29-20, but even the year the Panthers won the Coastal division they were 7-7 and had some really bad losses. It was a great accomplishment to win the Coastal for the first time, but the shine of it was taken off a little because they lost their final three games.
All of that being said, I still maintain the right move for Heather Lyke and company was to keep him around and stay the course. It just feels like the program is on the doorstep of a breakthrough, and it feels like the Panthers are going to have a lot of success over the next few seasons.
This past weekend was a great reminder of what Narduzzi does best: recruit.
The Panthers got four commitments from the 2022 class, growing his class to eight. He is coming off a season when he landed one of the highest-rated recruiting classes Pitt has had, and he has a lot of returning players who are going into their junior and senior years.
Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program. Narduzzi has consistently improved the base of talent with the Panthers and he has a program that will always dominated by upper classmen. When a program gets to the point where most of its best players are grown men, that’s when it should produce big returns.
I don’t believe that Narduzzi’s recent success in recruiting happened overnight, either. It is a result of a lot of years of building relationships with high school programs, players, coaches and the community.
It takes time, and given the wilderness the program wandered in for a few years after the 2010 season, these are all good developments for the future. The fact that the program is finally stable and built the right way means it would have been idiotic to pull the plug after last season, especially coming through a pandemic-altered season.
Narduzzi has to win more — that much is clear and I am sure he knows that. He will no longer be graded on future potential or what he is building. Six years is an eternity in the world of college athletics. He has to start winning all the games he is expected to win and truly compete for ACC titles.
But it is also clear to me that he has the program in a place where consistent results and consistent winning are possible, if not probable.
Paul Zeise: pzeise@post-gazette.com or Twitter: @paulzeise
First Published: June 14, 2021, 8:02 p.m.
