Pat Narduzzi is Foge Fazio 2.0

[vantheman1976]

I was around 50 years ago to watch Pitt in their heyday......had season tickets from '73 to '76 when I finished my graduate school degree. Some of you may remember those Pitt juggernaut teams which lasted until about '82. My God.....were they good! Every fan in the country respected Pitt back then. When Foge was appointed head coach in '82 I said then that this was the beginning of the end for Pitt football. They've now been an afterthought in college football for 40 years. What do they do....appoint another 'in over his head' assistant coach with no experience as the head coach. And please don't start preaching to me about Narduzzi's record the last couple of years. Foge lasted 4 years. Narduzzi shouldn't have even lasted that long because he never should have been hired to begin with. Stupid idiots in Pitt administration never learned. End of discussion!

 

[tetonpanther]

Bull crap duzz is light years better than foge. Foge was a wonderful person

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

I was around 50 years ago to watch Pitt in their heyday......had season tickets from '73 to '76 when I finished my graduate school degree. Some of you may remember those Pitt juggernaut teams which lasted until about '82. My God.....were they good! Every fan in the country respected Pitt back then. When Foge was appointed head coach in '82 I said then that this was the beginning of the end for Pitt football. They've now been an afterthought in college football for 40 years. What do they do....appoint another 'in over his head' assistant coach with no experience as the head coach. And please don't start preaching to me about Narduzzi's record the last couple of years. Foge lasted 4 years. Narduzzi shouldn't have even lasted that long because he never should have been hired to begin with. Stupid idiots in Pitt administration never learned. End of discussion!

Were you in a coma when we won the ACC Championship? That was by far the best season I ever experienced. I started going to games in 1985. Narduzzi has flaws and needs to make changes, but Fazio is a terrible comparison.

 

[vantheman1976]

Bull crap duzz is light years better than foge. Foge was a wonderful person

No he's not.....and wonderful person has nothing to do with success as a college coach. You want to make comparisons then compare Narduzzi to Johnny Majors and Jackie Sherrill....1973 - 1982. You defend this joke of a coach and all you do is accept mediocrity. Were you around to watch Pitt football 40 to 50 years ago......that was excellence....not this crap we see today.

 

[vantheman1976]

Were you in a coma when we won the ACC Championship? That was by far the best season I ever experienced. I started going to games in 1985. Narduzzi has flaws and needs to make changes, but Fazio is a terrible comparison.

Fazio took a jewel and turned it into a turd. And by the way....if your history started in 1985....then you really can't appreciate what Pitt excellence in college football was. And please don't give me this crap that an ACC championship in any way can be held up to what Pitt was 40 to 50 years ago.

 

[forbesfield]

Not the same situation for many reasons.

Foge was the best. You kids who never knew him, I'm sorry for that. He was just the best.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

Not the same situation for many reasons.

Foge was the best. You kids who never knew him, I'm sorry for that. He was just the best.

He sucked as a head coach. The team had no discipline. Good guy and defensive coordinator.

 

[vantheman1976]

Not the same situation for many reasons.

Foge was the best. You kids who never knew him, I'm sorry for that. He was just the best.

If you're talking about Foge the man I agree.....superb person.....superb defensive coordinator.....including his time as a coach in the NFL. As a head coach at Pitt he failed because he didn't meet the bar set by Majors and Sherrill. While head coach at Pitt his W-L % was about 55 % and he lost 2 bowl games in 4 years. If Narduzzi replaced Sherrill he would also have been fired after 4 years. My point is since the heyday of Pitt football 50 years ago....mediocrity is now OK.

And by the way I didn't mean to disparage the Foge as a human being. Sadly....he never should have gotten the Pitt job after Sherrill left.

 

[ThePanthers]

Got it. Need to bring in Saban.

 

[NatronaHeightsPanther]

Were you in a coma when we won the ACC Championship? That was by far the best season I ever experienced. I started going to games in 1985. Narduzzi has flaws and needs to make changes, but Fazio is a terrible comparison.

2021 was good, but it would have been so much better had Narduzzi’s vaunted defense not sh*t the bed against a directional Michigan school.

 

[HailtoPitt]

Thanks for the reminder that 1976 was almost 50 years ago. #$&@+. I remember when it was ONLY 20 years ago. And somehow, very quickly, it became 50 years ago. Good God.

 

[upj87]

Were you in a coma when we won the ACC Championship? That was by far the best season I ever experienced. I started going to games in 1985. Narduzzi has flaws and needs to make changes, but Fazio is a terrible comparison.

That was by far the best season I ever experienced. Man, sometimes I do feel sorry for you kids...

I do agree with you about the comparison...Foge was handed a Cadillac and turned it in to a Yugo in short order..Narduzzi inherited a Ford Escape and turned it into a Ford Escape with a sunroof. Seems like the sunroof is starting to leak though..

 

[Frabjous]

IIRC, a Foge Fazio team punted on third down in a game once.

 

[The Ole Six-Fiver]

2021 was good, but it would have been so much better had Narduzzi’s vaunted defense not sh*t the bed against a directional Michigan school.

Hey. WMU almost went .500 in the MAC that year. And they had that one player that didn’t totally suck. And that one slant pass they ran that was kind of good.

Let me say I appreciate the guy has slightly elevated us from a regular .500 to .667 program. He did not bolt out of a side window in the night with our AD at the door, he didn’t stand mute on our sideline checking his phone every three minutes for texts from Wisconsin; and he didn’t punch his wife on the way home after the intro press conference. These may seem a low bar admittedly. But we have learned differently.

I’d be fine if he continues to stay for years to come and deliver the occasional conf champ run every few years and regular deliver 7-8 wins. Pitt’s administration wants nothing more, in fact would start grumbling if he did better than that. Old timers know this is totally true.

But he’s not been anything that a P5 school truly committed to excellence couldn’t replace if it was competent enough to care to.

And if he continues to let an entire season go to hell, nobody should miss him if he were to leave. Hundreds of excellent football coaches out there. A program that supposedly has the bestest AD ever should not have too much trouble finding one. It’s not who leaves, it is all about who you replace him with.

 

[upj87]

IIRC, a Foge Fazio team punted on third down in a game once.

uh, so what? times when that can be a decent strategy...

 

[thebadby2]

IIRC, a Foge Fazio team punted on third down in a game once.

Maybe more than once unless you;re thinking of the same occasion I am--I was at Pitt Stadium as a young kid with my dad in 1982 when Foge punted on third down against a lowly Temple team that Pitt was drubbing badly. I remember my dad and his buddies, who may or may not have been drinking water out of the flask they were passing around to each other, going ballistic about that.

 

[thebadby2]

That was by far the best season I ever experienced. Man, sometimes I do feel sorry for you kids...

I do agree with you about the comparison...Foge was handed a Cadillac and turned it in to a Yugo in short order..Narduzzi inherited a Ford Escape and turned it into a Ford Escape with a sunroof. Seems like the sunroof is starting to leak though..

Narduzzi inherited a Ford Escape and turned it into a Ford Escape with a sunroof.

LMAO. That is about as well put as it could ever be.

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

IIRC, a Foge Fazio team punted on third down in a game once.

against Penn State. With Dan Marino as his quarterback.

 

[Pitt79]

You can't compare the two, Foge was there like 2 years and was 3-7-1 one of them. Duzz is there a decade, won an ACC Championship and a few bowl games, He's not Bear Bryant but at the same time he's not a total bust.

 

[pittguy81]

I was there. The OP conveniently leaves out the fact that Jackie Sherrill had exactly one year experience as a Head Coach when he was hired to replace John Majors...and in that one year he went 3-8 at Washington State. The problem with the Foge hire was that while Sherrill was HC, he ran the ship with an iron hand and Foge was a player's coach and "one of the guys". WHen he was hired as HC a lot of the players still saw him as one of the guys and he never was able to control the locker room and the team like a HC needs to do. He couldn't make that transition.

Duzz is nothing like the Fazio disaster

 

[upj87]

against Penn State. With Dan Marino as his quarterback.

ok, do continue and fill us in on the situation as I cannot seem to recall the circumstances...I do remember a kid at some point during the Foge era selling eggs and a map to Foge's house at the Syria Mosque parking lot... Assuming he is the head of some Fortune 500 company now...

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

Maybe more than once unless you;re thinking of the same occasion I am--I was at Pitt Stadium as a young kid with my dad in 1982 when Foge punted on third down against a lowly Temple team that Pitt was drubbing badly. I remember my dad and his buddies, who may or may not have been drinking water out of the flask they were passing around to each other, going ballistic about that.

I remember that too, but I think it may have been earlier and with Sherrill? And actually it may have even been second down. I remember it was a weird sequence, like a double penalty, then they got the downs confused, and then Sherrill said post game he figured heck with it let's just punt.

There were two occasions and one was also the PSU game with Foge in 1982.

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

ok, do continue and fill us in on the situation as I cannot seem to recall the circumstances...

lol, you're expecting a lot to recall the specifics from 40 years ago. I seem to remember a penalty, bad weather, and Foge saying he was afraid of a fumble so he thought if they did fumble the punt snap on 3rd they would get another chance to punt the ball on 4th down. Should have been fired on the spot after giving that answer.

 

[vantheman1976]

Maybe more than once unless you;re thinking of the same occasion I am--I was at Pitt Stadium as a young kid with my dad in 1982 when Foge punted on third down against a lowly Temple team that Pitt was drubbing badly. I remember my dad and his buddies, who may or may not have been drinking water out of the flask they were passing around to each other, going ballistic about that.

Man....were those the days....I was a young man then. I recall going to the Pitt games from '73 to '76 with my father in law. He always had a flask that he sipped from all game long. Boy do I miss those times....

 

[vantheman1976]

I was there. The OP conveniently leaves out the fact that Jackie Sherrill had exactly one year experience as a Head Coach when he was hired to replace John Majors...and in that one year he went 3-8 at Washington State. The problem with the Foge hire was that while Sherrill was HC, he ran the ship with an iron hand and Foge was a player's coach and "one of the guys". WHen he was hired as HC a lot of the players still saw him as one of the guys and he never was able to control the locker room and the team like a HC needs to do. He couldn't make that transition.

Duzz is nothing like the Fazio disaster

I accept your comment about Sherrill at Washington State.....thank you. Let's just say that 'Deer in the Headlights Duzz' is a continuation of the Foge disaster that started the 40 years of total mediocrity we continue to suffer with today.

 

[CJsE]

That was by far the best season I ever experienced. Man, sometimes I do feel sorry for you kids...

I do agree with you about the comparison...Foge was handed a Cadillac and turned it in to a Yugo in short order..Narduzzi inherited a Ford Escape and turned it into a Ford Escape with a sunroof. Seems like the sunroof is starting to leak though..

Nah, 2021 was a great time.

Narduzzi inherited an Escape, put some work into it then traded it in for a suspiciously low priced '95 Porsche 911. After a year there was an ever-growing stain on the garage floor but now there's a grinding noise when shifting gears and it won't start on cold days.

 

[thebadby2]

I remember that too, but I think it may have been earlier and with Sherrill? And actually it may have even been second down. I remember it was a weird sequence, like a double penalty, then they got the downs confused, and then Sherrill said post game he figured heck with it let's just punt.

There were two occasions and one was also the PSU game with Foge in 1982.

You may very well be correct--that makes more sense timing wise because I remember still being in middle school at that time, and in 1982 I would have been starting 9th grade.

I must have assumed that was Foge b/c it was so boneheaded.

 

[thebadby2]

uh, so what? times when that can be a decent strategy...

That's why you see it so often at all levels of football......

 

[vantheman1976]

You can't compare the two, Foge was there like 2 years and was 3-7-1 one of them. Duzz is there a decade, won an ACC Championship and a few bowl games, He's not Bear Bryant but at the same time he's not a total bust.

Nope....gotta' correct you. Foge was head coach for 4 years....'82 - '85. In '82 and '83 he did OK....but you could see that the program was in decline. Finished 25-18-3 over 4 years...54 % winning percentage. Lost both bowl games he coached. That's mediocrity. Duzz ain't much better....63-42 in a little over 8 years...60 % winning percentage....6 bowl games lost 4 of them. Have you ever watched him on the sidelines? He looks like a deer in the headlights....clueless.

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

Nope....gotta' correct you. Foge was head coach for 4 years....'82 - '85. In '82 and '83 he did OK....but you could see that the program was in decline. Finished 25-18-3 over 4 years...54 % winning percentage. Lost both bowl games he coached. That's mediocrity. Duzz ain't much better....63-42 in a little over 8 years...60 % winning percentage....6 bowl games lost 4 of them. Have you ever watched him on the sidelines? He looks like a deer in the headlights....clueless.

Foge did okay? Are you serious??? He took a Ferrari and wrecked it into a tree. 1982 was a dismal failure. Grant it having a clueless admin didn't help, but Foge was incompetent. We were number 3 in the country preseason in 1984 and finished the season with 3 wins. With two players on the team who were selected in the top 4 picks in the NFL draft. Let that sink in a little.

 

[vantheman1976]

Hey. WMU almost went .500 in the MAC that year. And they had that one player that didn’t totally suck. And that one slant pass they ran that was kind of good.

Let me say I appreciate the guy has slightly elevated us from a regular .500 to .667 program. He did not bolt out of a side window in the night with our AD at the door, he didn’t stand mute on our sideline checking his phone every three minutes for texts from Wisconsin; and he didn’t punch his wife on the way home after the intro press conference. These may seem a low bar admittedly. But we have learned differently.

I’d be fine if he continues to stay for years to come and deliver the occasional conf champ run every few years and regular deliver 7-8 wins. Pitt’s administration wants nothing more, in fact would start grumbling if he did better than that. Old timers know this is totally true.

But he’s not been anything that a P5 school truly committed to excellence couldn’t replace if it was competent enough to care to.

And if he continues to let an entire season go to hell, nobody should miss him if he were to leave. Hundreds of excellent football coaches out there. A program that supposedly has the bestest AD ever should not have too much trouble finding one. It’s not who leaves, it is all about who you replace him with.

I really appreciate your points. You have underscored what I attempted to say.....for 40 years Pitt football has been mediocre or slightly above that from time to time.....and the Pitt administration is content with that. I'm one of the old timers you allude to. I saw the excellence 40 to 50 years ago. I was there. I just can't bring myself to accept what has happened. That's all for now now....back to my rocking chair.

 

[vantheman1976]

Foge did okay? Are you serious??? He took a Ferrari and wrecked it into a tree. 1982 was a dismal failure. Grant it having a clueless admin didn't help, but Foge was incompetent. We were number 3 in the country preseason in 1984 and finished the season with 3 wins. With two players on the team who were selected in the top 4 picks in the NFL draft. Let that sink in a little.

Whoa....slow down man. Read what I said. In '82' and '83 the program had not crashed and burned yet. By the end of '85 it had....no one will argue that Foge drove that that Ferrari into a tree.

 

[Pitt2009]

Nope....gotta' correct you. Foge was head coach for 4 years....'82 - '85. In '82 and '83 he did OK....but you could see that the program was in decline. Finished 25-18-3 over 4 years...54 % winning percentage. Lost both bowl games he coached. That's mediocrity. Duzz ain't much better....63-42 in a little over 8 years...60 % winning percentage....6 bowl games lost 4 of them. Have you ever watched him on the sidelines? He looks like a deer in the headlights....clueless.

Narduzzi inherited a program that went 6-7, 7-6, 6-7 the three years prior to arriving. He went 11-2 two years ago and 9-4 last year. Seems like upward trajectory to me…

 

[Parkview57]

If you're talking about Foge the man I agree.....superb person.....superb defensive coordinator.....including his time as a coach in the NFL. As a head coach at Pitt he failed because he didn't meet the bar set by Majors and Sherrill

All true, but to add anything negative beyond..." Foge was a great coordinator but he just wasn't a head coach." is in real bad taste.

 

[vantheman1976]

Narduzzi inherited a program that went 6-7, 7-6, 6-7 the three years prior to arriving. He went 11-2 two years ago and 9-4 last year. Seems like upward trajectory to me…

Keep that thought....let's revisit it in a couple of months. If he turns it around you can rub it in.😎

 

[BigZeke]

Hey. WMU almost went .500 in the MAC that year. And they had that one player that didn’t totally suck. And that one slant pass they ran that was kind of good.

Let me say I appreciate the guy has slightly elevated us from a regular .500 to .667 program. He did not bolt out of a side window in the night with our AD at the door, he didn’t stand mute on our sideline checking his phone every three minutes for texts from Wisconsin; and he didn’t punch his wife on the way home after the intro press conference. These may seem a low bar admittedly. But we have learned differently.

I’d be fine if he continues to stay for years to come and deliver the occasional conf champ run every few years and regular deliver 7-8 wins. Pitt’s administration wants nothing more, in fact would start grumbling if he did better than that. Old timers know this is totally true.

But he’s not been anything that a P5 school truly committed to excellence couldn’t replace if it was competent enough to care to.

And if he continues to let an entire season go to hell, nobody should miss him if he were to leave. Hundreds of excellent football coaches out there. A program that supposedly has the bestest AD ever should not have too much trouble finding one. It’s not who leaves, it is all about who you replace him with.

Great post. My sentiments exactly. PS Hire a competent OC who can hire his own coaches and who runs a scheme from this century that actually encourages the forward pass - H2P!

 

[The Ole Six-Fiver]

Keep that thought....let's revisit it in a couple of months. If he turns it around you can rub it in.😎

Nah. assuming it doesn’t turn around, the retorts then turn into “Pitt fans are too cheap, don’t donate, you should feel grateful to be .500, we’re more than a football school, we prioritize properly, go root for Ohio State if football is all you care about, blah blah.”

Pitt is so… weird, really the best word. Schizophrenic maybe. Conflicted, perhaps. Everyone purports to be on the same ‘side’ when it comes to the revenue sports… but not really. Fingers constantly pointed, contradictory agendas.

 

[Tuck Shop Gal]

Foge had much more talent to work with than Narduzzi. Not excusing his decisions but just sayin'

 

[upj87]

Narduzzi inherited a program that went 6-7, 7-6, 6-7 the three years prior to arriving. He went 11-2 two years ago and 9-4 last year. Seems like upward trajectory to me…

not sure how 9-4 with a typical brain fart loss to Ga Tech and a much less talented Louisville team after that 11-3 (odd, you added the bowl win last year but not the bowl loss in 2021) combined with this year is an "upward" trajectory...

 

[Pitt2009]

not sure how 9-4 with a typical brain fart loss to Ga Tech and a much less talented Louisville team after that 11-3 (odd, you added the bowl win last year but not the bowl loss in 2021) combined with this year is an "upward" trajectory...

I mistakenly left out the third loss in 2021. The loss to GT was brutal but you’re selling Louisville short. Their defense was stout. They led P5 in turnovers and were second in sacks. Diaby, Gillotte, Abdullah, Brownlee, Clark, and Griffin are all NFL caliber players.