First off, congrats to the Alumni Association and Pat Narduzzi for pulling off a great event that is long overdue for both alumni and fans of the football team. The rest of the schedule for Narduzzi visiting Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, New York, and Philadelphia is available here.
The event featured free hors d'oeuvre and a cash bar, tables set up by the Alumni Association and Pitt ticket office giving away free Pitt Swag (schedule posters, script Pitt helmet stickers, script Pitt buttons, script Pitt wrist bands, etc). Free professional photos with Narduzzi were taken and given to anyone willing to stand in line. They were nice, and a nice touch. Andrew Powell who recruits the area was also there, along with Chris LaSala.
Jeff Gleim, head of the Pitt Alumni Association, relayed an interesting anecdote to start things off. During the bowl game alumni tailgate in Fort Worth, in which Narduzzi was present, Narduzzi first words to Gleim were that he would go wherever, whenever to engage alumni, donors, and fans. That he wanted to get out and meet them. You'd have to think, then, that this event was in large part motivated by Narduzzi, and that it has to be an alumni association's dream to work with someone like that.
Pat Bostic emceed. Said Narduzzi already shows a love for Pitt that many think only alumni can have.
Narduzzi was very engaging, down-to-earth, and straight forward. Acknowledged that he knew how things worked and that he was enjoying a honeymoon because he was undefeated, but wasn't stupid or fooled by it. Gave some standard coach speak that you hear him talk about in other interviews about instilling attitude and toughness (Pittsburgh toughness) and emphasized how important the correct attitude was for the players. Attitudes seemed great with very few incidents of players not working to expected levels. Mentioned some had said how they were doing things they had never done before.
Went over his staff and how he pulled them out of major programs and all had significant experience (btw, that is an interesting contrast to the staff put together by Chryst). Emphasized how the staff was going everywhere to recruit.
Main focus of his talk was garnering support from the fans by getting them to the stadium. Said (and all these quotes won't be verbatim but I'll try to capture the essence) that he is aware of all the stadium talk, but Heinz Field is our stadium, and it is a great facility. Said that we, meaning the fans, have to make it live up to its potential as a great venue. That playing in front of great crowds is an essential part of building a championship program (and that one player even admitted to him that he plays better in front of large crowds), and if fans want a championship program to happen, they they have to be a part of that and make Pitt one of the top fan bases in the country. He put the onus on the fans to support the program by contributing and getting their butts in the seats on gameday...and to get involved in any way they could including with local alumni clubs.
Said everyone in the administration was on the same page to restore Pitt football... mentioned the chancellor and that Barnes was a great AD hire... but the fans have to role to play. Essentially begged people to get out to the stadium or contribute.
Talked about people "recruiting" for Pitt (within the rules). This means helping his staff establish local football connections, or working booster/fans existing relationships with prep players...getting players to Pitt's camp, etc. He actually called people out in the audience who had talked to him earlier about such things, pulled out one of their business cards and handed it to Andrew Powell (who already had one of his own). He openly welcomed such help. What was striking about this to me, is that I know in the past how some people have complained to me about wanting to help Pitt's prior staffs in such ways, but were ignored by them. This seems to be a completely night and day from some of the previous staffs' mode of operation.
Talked about the renovations to the UPMC Sports Performance Complex and how necessary some of them were, especially stadium seating and telestrators in the meeting rooms to keep everyone, including players in the back row, engaged. But said in their pre-spring meetings where he asked each player, one-on-one, for suggestions, not one player mentioned needing upgraded facilities. Said this is all on him for pushing upgrades in order to make things on par with other programs, to sell to recruits, and making the current players proud of the facilities and playing for Pitt. Speaking of how dated some aspects of the the facility were, he pointed out that the lockers in the UPMC SPC were the lockers formerly in Pitt Stadium. Half-joked that maybe they could sell them. Said the Steelers don't care what their side looks like, they just buy players. Pitt can't do that. (btw, donor levels to contribute are up on Pitt's website).
He also fielded an open Q&A session, which is when the uniforms came up. As mentioned in the other thread, they've already selected new uniforms for next season, but it takes a year to get them ready. He can't show a preview due to Nike stipulations, but said they're really cool. This season's uniforms were selected by Chryst.
When asked what the biggest change fans would notice this season, he said hopefully winning more than six games which was met with cheers.
When asked about getting PSU and WVU on the schedule, he said that he didn't make the schedule (Barnes did) but said PSU was already on it. He thought they should play every year for the next 400 years as all in-state rivals should. Said WVU wasn't an in-state rival and asked the crowd who'd they'd rather play which was met with a chorus of penn states.
He said he agreed with cost of attendance in principal, but wanted to see the amounts paid out made level across all the schools.
There were other things he touched on that you've likely heard or read before. He self-described himself as a big possession time guy. No big revelations from a football operations or game planning perspective.
He certainly seems more natural saying "Hail to Pitt" than he did when he was first hired.
In general, the major theme was trying to get people out to the stadium, but overall, it was a good event and interesting to hear him talk off the cuff about some things and respond to the unfiltered questions from the audience.
The event featured free hors d'oeuvre and a cash bar, tables set up by the Alumni Association and Pitt ticket office giving away free Pitt Swag (schedule posters, script Pitt helmet stickers, script Pitt buttons, script Pitt wrist bands, etc). Free professional photos with Narduzzi were taken and given to anyone willing to stand in line. They were nice, and a nice touch. Andrew Powell who recruits the area was also there, along with Chris LaSala.
Jeff Gleim, head of the Pitt Alumni Association, relayed an interesting anecdote to start things off. During the bowl game alumni tailgate in Fort Worth, in which Narduzzi was present, Narduzzi first words to Gleim were that he would go wherever, whenever to engage alumni, donors, and fans. That he wanted to get out and meet them. You'd have to think, then, that this event was in large part motivated by Narduzzi, and that it has to be an alumni association's dream to work with someone like that.
Pat Bostic emceed. Said Narduzzi already shows a love for Pitt that many think only alumni can have.
Narduzzi was very engaging, down-to-earth, and straight forward. Acknowledged that he knew how things worked and that he was enjoying a honeymoon because he was undefeated, but wasn't stupid or fooled by it. Gave some standard coach speak that you hear him talk about in other interviews about instilling attitude and toughness (Pittsburgh toughness) and emphasized how important the correct attitude was for the players. Attitudes seemed great with very few incidents of players not working to expected levels. Mentioned some had said how they were doing things they had never done before.
Went over his staff and how he pulled them out of major programs and all had significant experience (btw, that is an interesting contrast to the staff put together by Chryst). Emphasized how the staff was going everywhere to recruit.
Main focus of his talk was garnering support from the fans by getting them to the stadium. Said (and all these quotes won't be verbatim but I'll try to capture the essence) that he is aware of all the stadium talk, but Heinz Field is our stadium, and it is a great facility. Said that we, meaning the fans, have to make it live up to its potential as a great venue. That playing in front of great crowds is an essential part of building a championship program (and that one player even admitted to him that he plays better in front of large crowds), and if fans want a championship program to happen, they they have to be a part of that and make Pitt one of the top fan bases in the country. He put the onus on the fans to support the program by contributing and getting their butts in the seats on gameday...and to get involved in any way they could including with local alumni clubs.
Said everyone in the administration was on the same page to restore Pitt football... mentioned the chancellor and that Barnes was a great AD hire... but the fans have to role to play. Essentially begged people to get out to the stadium or contribute.
Talked about people "recruiting" for Pitt (within the rules). This means helping his staff establish local football connections, or working booster/fans existing relationships with prep players...getting players to Pitt's camp, etc. He actually called people out in the audience who had talked to him earlier about such things, pulled out one of their business cards and handed it to Andrew Powell (who already had one of his own). He openly welcomed such help. What was striking about this to me, is that I know in the past how some people have complained to me about wanting to help Pitt's prior staffs in such ways, but were ignored by them. This seems to be a completely night and day from some of the previous staffs' mode of operation.
Talked about the renovations to the UPMC Sports Performance Complex and how necessary some of them were, especially stadium seating and telestrators in the meeting rooms to keep everyone, including players in the back row, engaged. But said in their pre-spring meetings where he asked each player, one-on-one, for suggestions, not one player mentioned needing upgraded facilities. Said this is all on him for pushing upgrades in order to make things on par with other programs, to sell to recruits, and making the current players proud of the facilities and playing for Pitt. Speaking of how dated some aspects of the the facility were, he pointed out that the lockers in the UPMC SPC were the lockers formerly in Pitt Stadium. Half-joked that maybe they could sell them. Said the Steelers don't care what their side looks like, they just buy players. Pitt can't do that. (btw, donor levels to contribute are up on Pitt's website).
He also fielded an open Q&A session, which is when the uniforms came up. As mentioned in the other thread, they've already selected new uniforms for next season, but it takes a year to get them ready. He can't show a preview due to Nike stipulations, but said they're really cool. This season's uniforms were selected by Chryst.
When asked what the biggest change fans would notice this season, he said hopefully winning more than six games which was met with cheers.
When asked about getting PSU and WVU on the schedule, he said that he didn't make the schedule (Barnes did) but said PSU was already on it. He thought they should play every year for the next 400 years as all in-state rivals should. Said WVU wasn't an in-state rival and asked the crowd who'd they'd rather play which was met with a chorus of penn states.
He said he agreed with cost of attendance in principal, but wanted to see the amounts paid out made level across all the schools.
There were other things he touched on that you've likely heard or read before. He self-described himself as a big possession time guy. No big revelations from a football operations or game planning perspective.
He certainly seems more natural saying "Hail to Pitt" than he did when he was first hired.
In general, the major theme was trying to get people out to the stadium, but overall, it was a good event and interesting to hear him talk off the cuff about some things and respond to the unfiltered questions from the audience.
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