There was one more issue from the PSU game that we hadn't really asked Pat Narduzzi about yet, so I brought it up on Thursday. Here's the question and answer.
One thing we didn’t ask you about from Saturday night was the coin toss. What happened there? Did Dennis say he wanted to defer and the ref didn’t hear him? Did he say he wanted the ball? It seemed like there was confusion.
Narduzzi: "There was confusion. And I don’t know what it was. Usually, the head linesman - the same guy that threw the flag is the same guy that asked me, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘We will defer; they know that.’ And then at halftime, he comes up and says, ‘Which end do you want to kick from?’ And I said, ‘What does it matter? I told you we wanted to defer and you didn’t help our guys; why am I telling you?’ It was just an error out there, kind of the way the day did, I guess. When it rains, it pours. That was a mistake there, just new young captains - and again, I blame myself, because I didn’t get it done. I should have had - which, again, I went through, ‘This is how it goes.’ Week One, they didn’t have a choice to make; Albany won the toss and deferred, so you’re taking the ball and we told them it didn’t matter which way, ‘Whatever you guys want to do as far as where we receive the ball.’ This week, all of a sudden we win the coin toss and they’re like, first time they had to make that decision. So, part of growing up.
"I wasn’t even sure they knew what defer - I said, ‘Do you guys know what defer means?’ Just say you want to play offense or defense; that’s it. That’s all you have to say. They’ll figure it out from there. Just tell them you want to play defense. That’s my fault."
One thing we didn’t ask you about from Saturday night was the coin toss. What happened there? Did Dennis say he wanted to defer and the ref didn’t hear him? Did he say he wanted the ball? It seemed like there was confusion.
Narduzzi: "There was confusion. And I don’t know what it was. Usually, the head linesman - the same guy that threw the flag is the same guy that asked me, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘We will defer; they know that.’ And then at halftime, he comes up and says, ‘Which end do you want to kick from?’ And I said, ‘What does it matter? I told you we wanted to defer and you didn’t help our guys; why am I telling you?’ It was just an error out there, kind of the way the day did, I guess. When it rains, it pours. That was a mistake there, just new young captains - and again, I blame myself, because I didn’t get it done. I should have had - which, again, I went through, ‘This is how it goes.’ Week One, they didn’t have a choice to make; Albany won the toss and deferred, so you’re taking the ball and we told them it didn’t matter which way, ‘Whatever you guys want to do as far as where we receive the ball.’ This week, all of a sudden we win the coin toss and they’re like, first time they had to make that decision. So, part of growing up.
"I wasn’t even sure they knew what defer - I said, ‘Do you guys know what defer means?’ Just say you want to play offense or defense; that’s it. That’s all you have to say. They’ll figure it out from there. Just tell them you want to play defense. That’s my fault."
