How I wish that Pat Narduzzi could find an OC from the Josh Heupel coaching tree and bring him to Pitt.
I just love watching them move the ball down the field. They are one of the top offensive teams in the country and look even better when they quicken the tempo of their play calling. They make most college offenses look like they are running in glue. What they did today against an NFL talent laden Alabama defense was one of the most impressive things we will see this year in college football.
Most teams and this does include Pitt, would have just taken a knee and played for OT, Josh Heupel and his team did not. As a football fan, watching them gain 45 yards on just 2 plays in 15 seconds, was incredible.
This is why tomorrow afternoon, the Tennessee football program will find itself ranked as one of the top 3 or 4 teams in the country.
As a football fan, I would like to congratulate Josh Heupel and his program on their success this year. As a fan of the Pitt football program, I am hoping that one day, all Pitt football fans will get to see that exciting, high scoring type of offense being played by the Pitt Panthers football program.
Until then, lets win some more ACC games, win the Coastal and beat Clemson to win back-to-back ACC Championships.
H2P!!!
I have been screaming about wanting this type of OC, since Narduzzi was hired, but he is part of the Jurassic Age when it comes to Modern Day Offensive College Football. Cignetti just being the latest of his OC Hires to run an Old Pro Style of Offense. This is why, unlike a lot of others here, I did not criticize Addison for transferring to U$C, as he was around for Spring Practice and saw what type of Offense Cignetti was installing. Of Course, I also do not blame Addison, as he also is playing with a Great QB with Williams, who is much better than Slovis. Also, he got a sweet NIL Deal with United Airlines. Anyone here who I had read in past posts, wishing bad things for Addison, are hypocrites, as I bet if he was their Son or Brother, they would also have backed him in transferring to U$C for the reasons I mentioned here. I am thankful that he helped PITT win the ACC last year, and also provided them with another Belitnikoff Award Winner. I hope he recovers quickly from his injury in the Utah Game and has a Great NFL Career(hopefully for my Raiders, although I am hoping they can draft Caleb Williams in 2024, if they are close to having a Top 3 Pick, although they probably have enough Talent to not finish near the bottom of the NFL next year, and was just too stupid to not mark Kelce the 4 Times he scored in the Red Zone last Monday Nite versus the Chiefs).
The main reason I wanted PITT to run an Uptempo RPO Offense, is that it also helps negate the Lower Average of Recruits they can get(mostly 3 Stars) compared to the Big Money Programs. You just need to get the right QB, who can efficiently run this type of Offense, and Hooker does it well for Tennessee, who still recruits better than PITT, if not yet at the level of Alabama, Georgia and tOSU. Now Michigan recruits well enough on the Offensive Line to run the ball well like they did against Ped State today, but PITT is never going to recruit those Dominant Offensive Linemen ever again, as the 1980s are not coming back.
Of course, PITT did try this Uptempo RPO Offense by hiring Godd Graham, which had me excited, although was not happy about hiring a Coach bringing Bible Study Group Sessions into the Program like he did at Tulsa, as I am Agnostic, and did not like the idea of Players maybe feeling pressured to participate in fear of losing Playing Time(if Talent is equal among Players), as despite having the Cathedral of Learning, PITT is not a Religious School.
The Football Problem with Graham though is he came into a Program where he did not have such of s QB(and other Players), to implement his System right away, and he bolted after only 1 Year(apparently having conflict with the AD, Pederson, like others had within the Athletic Department). Of course, Graham failed at Arizona State and Hawaii, so apparently he was not a Good Head Coach anyways, but that does not mean an Uptempo RPO System cannot work, even if having Narduzzi as the Head Coach, and having him adapt and find a Good OC to implement that type of Offense.
One Side Note-I was surprised that Whipple had Pickett run a few RPO Plays last year, as figured he was stuck in his Old Ways of just running a Pro Style Offense, so although not Uptempo, at least he implemented a few RPO Plays to keep Defenses Off Balance at times. I was still glad Whipple left, but just was not happy that Narduzzi did not take the opportunity to bring the PITT Offense into the Current Times, and seek out an OC, who as you suggested, runs an Offense similar to Heupel. Honestly, I thought Tennessee was going to beat PITT by 18-25 Points this year, and surprised that PITT did a decent job against their Offense, as in the game last year at Tennessee, if their Starting QB(Milton?) would not have overthrown 3 Wide Open Receivers in the 1st Quarter, it would have been a long day and most likely a loss. I recall when PITT hired Narduzzi and he stayed at Michigan State to coach their Defense in their Bowl Game, that Baylor using an Uptempo RPO Offense put up a lot of Points in that game, which had me concerned that PITT was just hiring another FAT 10 Stone Age Football Coach, although think that Michigan State did somehow made a comeback to win that Bowl Game.
Even the Nictator after complaining about the Uptempo Offenses around 2012 and wanted to try and have the Rules changed(think it was Mississippi being the last SEC Team to beat Bama 2 consecutive years with the Nictator as the HC, and they ran an Uptempo RPO Offense), as Bama could no longer win 17-10 type Games, so the Nictator finally adapted and figured out if you can’t beat them, then join them(I wish Narduzzi would also see the light). He hired Kiffin, who actually had no background running an Uptempo RPO Offense, but he learned and implemented it, and Bama started recruiting Top QBs and WRs. Bama really beat themselves yesterday versus Tennessee though because they had 17 Penalties, which they still almost overcame, but they missed a Long FG late in the 4th Quarter
, providing Tennessee about 30 Seconds left to get into FG Range with 1 TO they still had available to use. Still 17 Penalties is the most ever by a Bama Team, since the Nictator started coaching there(2007?).