Coach Pat Narduzzi- How to Build a Championship Culture

Coach Pat Narduzzi and I break down why Pitt keeps players and coaches in the building while still producing high character pros and NFL Draft picks. We also get real about the transfer portal and NIL world, from tampering to agents to the hidden costs that don’t show up in the headlines. 

• low transfer rates driven by relationships, access, and day-to-day development 
• a special teams setback story that shows persistence and honest communication 
• culture defined as consistency, standards, and equal treatment for stars and walk-ons 
• roster management in the portal era, balancing classes and replacing experience with experience 
• tampering as a constant reality and why NIL numbers are hard to verify 
• concerns about agents taking advantage of athletes and prioritizing money over fit 
• transferring trade-offs, including happiness, system fit, draft stock, and lost academic credits 
• adapting as the sport changes, including scholarship expansion and keeping people bought in 
• the coaching business, firing cycles, and the pressure for instant gratification 

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Transcript

Why Players Stay At Pitt

SPEAKER_02 0:00

You know, uh, you guys have had this just unique, consistent ability to get guys who are perceived to be under-recruited, who develop, who stay, you have one of the lowest transfer rates in the country, and yet have high character and end up getting drafted. How, like, how are we doing this? Like, what goes into this?

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Yeah, Colin. Uh, great question. I like that uh, you know, we don't lose very many people because you know, you talk about a low transfer rate. That to me, I tell recruits all the time, like that that tells you how the culture is and tells you what the family's like. So we don't lose very often those guys. I mean, every once in a while, you know, the Jordan Addisons are gonna take off on you. And, you know, uh, we had one this year that we were disappointed, just really one, though, that we were disappointed that left. So that's gonna happen. But we do have one of the lowest transfer portal rates in the country, which is what I want as a head coach. But, you know, it's hard to say how or why, but I think it's, you know, because number one, relationships and people. I mean, I think when you got the right people in the building and you have relationships with your players, it's important. And I think it starts from the top down column as far as just having real, real relationships with these players. I mean, I think I, you know, I know our guy's as good as anybody. It's not a head coach sitting in the head coach's office and he never gets to talk to anybody. That door is always open over there. Someone wants to come walk in, you know, has something to say. Uh like my door's open. And I think that's probably one of the reasons. And we and we develop our guys. I mean, you know, football is is is our love here. And uh, I've got a staff full, building full of people that want to, you know, help transition these kids from high school through their college days into the professional career, whether it's you know, in business or in the professional leagues.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Do you remember

A Senior Asks For Another Shot

SPEAKER_02 1:40

the lone time I walked into your door? Do you remember our conversation? Heck no. A lot of meetings ago. Shit, you're an old man now. Three kids. Three kids. I'm old now. Tell me about it. Tell me about it. So I walked in. It was uh, you know, unfortunately, after I lost to Penn State, and uh actually it was a couple weeks after, okay? So I'd gotten taken off special teams, didn't say anything for a couple weeks, and then it was the first time I didn't travel. I came into you, had a conversation. We went right down to Coach Powell's office, and we had a full conversation. If you if you don't remember, I got repeated. I remember a little bit of that, but I don't remember the details of it. I got all fired up, you know. I stand up, I have, you know, I have some tears starting down my eyes that I'm trying to hide because I had a lot of pride, you know. I say, I said, I don't care if you put you know Kenny fucking pickett in front of me. I'm gonna run him over practice smart. I remember as I'm like walking out of the room, you grab my arm and you say, Con, I love your passion. You go to Coach Powell, put him on a team tomorrow, and then I never came off special teams again. And I always will always remember that. Just uh, you know, your willingness to listen and give me a second chance, which not many fifth-year seniors get.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Right. Well, that's good. That's a good story. I like that story. I'm glad I asked you to tell it. Um, I kind of remember it now, but uh 2018, man, there's been a lot of a lot of things happening since that past yeah. Yeah, that's that's eight years ago now.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

So that's what did a bad Penn State game? I had a penalty. So I got one penalty and yeah, I got I got pulled off. You know, hey, listen, I was like maniacal. I knew that depth chart to a T. I was the only special teams change across all special teams. And so, and I bookmarked in practice who wasn't running hard, who wasn't doing it. So when we had that sit-down meeting, I came prepared with ammo. And that's when you're like, you're like, all right, we're going to meet with Coach Powell.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Hey, that's persistence, Colin. You persist and you weren't just gonna sit, you know, in that team room and go, shoot, I should be playing. And if you don't go, if you don't say something, I don't know.

unknown 3:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

And I don't sit there and follow that depth chart to see who got pulled off a punt or off a fuel goal block or whatever it may be. Um, but if you don't say anything, I think that's a problem with kids nowadays. They don't communicate. You know, tell me how you feel, tell me what you're gonna do to fix it, and let's get you out there. I mean, that's hey, we want you on the field too. I don't care who it is, you or Kenny, you know, Kenny Pickett. I won't give him the middle name you gave him, but uh, I love Kenny Pickett though, huh?

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Yeah, Kenny, Kenny is uh, no, I love Kenny. Kenny's a he was the first person that made me believe in what I call like that it factor was meeting Kenny and knowing that he had the it factor. No doubt about it.

Favorite Players And Alumni Bonds

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Who is your favorite athlete you've ever coached?

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Oh man. I've got a lot of them now. You know, going into season number 12 with Pitt, there's a bunch of them. I can't say there's one, you know. Again, as you know, these are all you know, all my children, right? Every year you get 115 of them, and then next year you bring in another 25. Uh, or in this case, this year we ride him 36 with the transfer portal and and high school players. But uh, you know, there's a bunch of them. I mean, you know, there's all the great memories, but the ones you gotta think about are all those dudes that made a lot of plays. I mean, Kenny Pickett, you know, uh, like how does that guy not become one of your favorite players? I mean, I love our current quarterback, uh, you know, Mason Heinschild right now. I mean, he's kind of a Kenny Pickett lookalike. I mean, I think you're gonna see that guy win a championship at Pitt as well, just like Kenny. I think anytime you get a guy pulling the the trigger, you know, you know, at that position, they have a chance to be really good and win a championship. And we've certainly got that in 2026. Uh, but there's a bunch of them. I mean, you look at Rashad Weaver and Patrick Jones and Kalijah Cancy, you know, Matt Gonsalves. The list goes on and on. You know, Brian O'Neill. How do you not love Brian O'Neill? I mean, so many guys out there that Tamar Hamlin, I mean, like, he he makes more money outside of football than he does in football. I mean, that guy's become a marketing genius. So they're all favorites. I mean, Dane Jackson, I can just go on and on. The great thing about that is uh, you know, they're around all the time. Matter of fact,

Golf Parenting And Playing For Life

SPEAKER_01 5:41

you need to come out to the Alumni Golf Automate, which is this Friday.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

I know. So I always, you know, I always because I changed my emails and I keep forgetting to get myself back on that email, but I've been, I need to get back to that alumni golf outing.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Well, if you shoot me your email, I will pass it on to the right people today so you get on that email list for next year. Okay. And you got three kids. So probably the seventh-month old, if you woke up in the morning and said, Hey, honey, I'm gonna go play golf today, she might slap you upside your head.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

The good news is, see, I I, you know, I'm smarter than I look. My four-year-old has a natural tendency to really like golf and has can actually hit a golf ball. So I keep telling my wife, hey, I I can't not be good at golf and have my daughter be really good at golf. I have to be able to teach her, so I have to practice. That's that's what I've been doing.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Get her a scholarship. And let me just tell you, like, I'm terrible at golf. You know, I can try to embarrass myself, but you know, it's okay. I'm used to it. I'm really good at it too. But my son can golf. I mean, pretty much a one or two, something like that. Almost a scratch golfer. And I took him out when he was little. So take your boys, girls, daughters, sons out this big, and you go out there, you play, you know, I'd hit my ball to the right or left, and my son would dribble it like 20 yards. I'd take off in the golf cart and I'll say, I'll meet you up there. And he'd he'd whack that thing all the way down to the point where every year, Colin, I saw him just start driving the ball 100 yards past me. And I'm like, what? I created a monster. He never really had a lesson. I taught him how to golf. And and and the kid can play. Those are fun, fun moments. So bring him out young, teach them young. It's it's motor memory. I didn't have that opportunity when I was a little kid.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

No, that's awesome. No, yeah, that's it's like my main thing is I want to get all my kids, you know, golfing. That's uh, you know, I think that that is something I wish I would have done at a younger age. It's something you can do forever, too. Something you can do forever, no doubt about it. With

Transfer Portal Strategy And Roster Balance

SPEAKER_02 7:29

uh, you know, you mentioned uh a couple of the guys that that you brought in. With like the portal, it seems like, you know, we have a knack for bringing in guys who are more mature. We're not looking at younger guys who are kind of coming in. We're kind of taking that older, more mature guys coming in. Is that kind of the recipe where we're looking for the more mature guys transferring in as opposed to the younger developmental guys?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

You know what? Uh it's a great question. Uh, the first thing is we're bringing in, I think we brought in 22, 23 freshmen. So, Tom, we're still bringing in freshmen. If we have 20 seniors that are leaving, we're gonna bring in a new group of young guys to replace the old guys, and everybody kind of moves up. So it's not really changed. What's really happening at Transfer Portal is you're gonna have a sophomore, junior, or senior that maybe is not playing, and they jump in the portal. Okay, they started not playing on special teams, so they're like, I'm out of here. Instead of coming in talking to me like you did, they're gonna, you know, I'll never forget that story now. They're gonna uh I'm gonna tell that story. You know, they're gonna jump in the portal. So if we lose, you know, a sophomore, junior, senior, or a third, fourth year, fifth year player, then I'm gonna go get an older guy to fill that in. So, you know, we're not really concerned, you know, I got a roster thing in front of me, just I don't know if I can even find it, but like it's it's you know, situated where I know how many, you know, how many players I have, you know, in each group at each position, you know, just roster management, and I can't find it sitting in my desk here because I got so many papers on my desk, but but it's a roster management, which tells me where all the players are. But if like say if I've got you know seven older linemen and I've I've got a need for 17 linemen, well, I can't just take a bunch of freshmen and replace a bunch of seniors. You know, just like so just making sure you have so many seniors, so many juniors, so many sophomores, and making sure you balance the class out so you're not real young and you're not real old. If you become real old, you know, you're gonna have a bad year of the next year. So you have to have those young guys coming up at different ages. So we try to balance it off based on our needs.

Culture Means Consistency And Standards

SPEAKER_01 9:23

That's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

That uh, that obsessive detail that you have. You know, I I know uh not everyone has that. Are there people in the profession that you respect at that kind of level that you know have the same level of tick that you do?

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Yeah, there are. I mean, but you know, but it's got a different level, right? I mean, you know, and I, you know, I worked with Mark D'Antonio for, you know, for 11 years. He was pretty detailed. But like I'm like I might be at an extra level as far as that goes, you know, and I gotta I gotta be a pit, right? Um we have to take care of the details just so we expect our players to take care of the details on the field. You know, we gotta expect the coaches to take care of it, make sure we got that held down, you know, in this office. So it's all about the details on and off the field.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

That's what I look at. I think the the culture conversation, you know, I know you said you're not on social media that much, but like across social media in the actual media, some of those conversations get hijacked a little bit and it's a little more kumbaya than to me, like what culture actually is is like the standard, the details, and upholding it, you know, at the highest level. And I think that's something you do a really good job of embodying, and it has that trickle-down effect. And is that something you still communicate with the guys? I know we had our culture talks when I was there. Is that something that's continued or has changed at all?

SPEAKER_01 10:40

No, that hadn't changed at all. I mean, you know, it's about the consistency, right? If I'm consistent, they'll be consistent. So I don't really change what we do. You know, we'll try to always add to it. You know, we remember Quiet Time, you know, all the things we did there. You know, we have a thing we do now, we have mentor meetings which each coach has, you know, four or five players, and we get a chance to interact and and and get together as a team just to get you know, to get to know your teammate better. And I think that's been huge for us. So we just continue to add stuff to make it better, but it comes down to consistency. If I'm inconsistent in what I'm doing and the standard I'm holding, our players are going to be inconsistent. If I'm consistent and they know every day it's gonna be the same, I'm not gonna treat the star player any different than I'm gonna treat a walk-on. But that's the way it is. I don't care if you miss a team meeting, you know, walk-on missed a team meeting, I throw them out, you know, the star receiver missed a team meeting, I don't throw his ass out of the meeting, we got a problem. You know, that's when you lose your culture.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

I'm uh, because that brings up another good point, right? Like the talent equals like tolerance that you frequently hear people say, you know, how do you approach that? Like if uh Kenny Pickett doesn't do the right thing versus if a me doesn't do the right thing, you know, how do you handle and navigate those conversations?

SPEAKER_01 11:53

You know, just be real, you know, tell them the truth. You know, I've never had any problem. You know, some coaches have to tiptoe, you know, through it, but I'm not tiptoeing through it. I'm gonna be real. And I think that's what the players respect is it's gonna be the same for everybody. Everybody gets treated the same. You know, I I I just don't think you can you can, you know, the top, you know, we can't tolerate, you know, the the and again, whether it's on the field or off the field. I mean, you know, if a guy continues to not make plays on special teams, shoot, we gotta find somebody that can't, you know, at least put pressure on you. I mean, you learned your lesson, maybe weren't as good as you wanted to be, or we weren't as good, and you got the what was the penalty for, by the way? It was a block in the back, which I thought was soft. It was a block in the back. So, hey, don't give those officials any chance, Cyler. I'm gonna go back and damn watch that game now. But now you can give them an opportunity, like don't give them because we know it is a soft call. It was probably a shitty call. I probably put the point, I probably put sent it in to the officials after the game, but you know what? It doesn't help, right? It doesn't change the outcome.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

So yeah, pal certainly cussed me out after that one. That was uh that was not a fun one. But uh no, I was uh I'll never forget, I'll never forget that penalty. But that's you know, uh, there's a certain level you can't fake, and you wear your heart on your sleeve. Do you think that there's anything different that you would change about that? Or are you always gonna be that heart on your sleeve? I'm gonna say what I want. I don't care who it offends or pisses off. This is how I am and this is how I'm gonna operate.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Yeah, sometimes you kind of go, ah, why'd I, you know, why'd I say that? But yeah, sometimes, you know, the big thing is I'm honest. I'm gonna tell like I tell our players like it is, I'm gonna try to tell the media like it is. Um, you know, I just, you know, I'm not gonna tiptoe around, you know, how I feel. And and uh, you know, that's my that's what my dad taught me growing up. You know, uh he died way too young at age 51. But you know, I remember him always, you know, pointing his big fingers. His fingers were about maybe that big around. And he used to point the big finger and say, hey just tell I'm about to tell you like it is, you know. And to me, that's the way I was raised. And to me, it's the only way to deal with issues, situations, is to tell it like it is and tell them like you feel. Do you think that attracts players who receive that type of coaching well? I think so. I think I think I think kids want to know. To me, through all my years coaching, whether it's you know, linebacker coach and defense coordinator head coach, the thing that players hate the most is a coach that can't tell them the truth. When you come in and say, coach, why am I not playing special teams or why am I not playing linebacker? And the coach is like, hey, just keep working at it. Like, that ain't the answer. Kids hear that and they're like, this is a bunch of bullshit. Tell me what I need to know. Tell me what I gotta do so I know where I'm going. Everybody needs direction. And to sit there and say, hey, you're good enough, just keep working at it, you know, got a boy, you know, uh, you know, like your enthusiasm, like, no, hey, you gotta go make a play. It's not real hard. Like, you know, I'd like to put the videotape on and show them what they have to do. So there's no, you know, the you know, so you can't walk out of the building going, man, I didn't get my first shot. Coach is right, you know. And most of the time they're like, I see that coach, you're right, I'll fix that. So they either can either fix it or they can't fix it, one or the other.

NIL Reality Tampering And Agents

SPEAKER_02 15:07

What's gonna be the difference? You know, last year, you know, have a change in quarterback, come in, a lot of excitement, college game day. How are we gonna go as a program from that to back to competing in that ACC championship game? What's gonna be the tangible steps that we take so that we can get there and win again?

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Well, I was gonna ask you, Colin. I was gonna ask you for, you know, uh, see if you were interested in donating to the NIL fund. I'm just kidding, you. But uh, you know, again, I think we do a heck of a job here. We want to win championships. Okay, we want to be in the playoffs to want to win a national championship, but we're you know, striving for that every day. Um, and I think we do a heck of a job with what we have, and we'll continue to battle people and fight people, you know, to the to the end uh with what we have. Uh, you know, there's some people out there, you know, I'm talking to coaches on the road, they're like, coach, this is crazy out here. There's people out there visiting 2028 kids in high schools. They're sitting with a 2028, which you can't talk to 28s. So not only can you not go into school and bump them, you're not allowed to sit down and have conversations with them. You can't fly them down to a certain city that you're located for four days and and and and wine and dining for four days. It's like it's a major violation. But there are no rules. You know, we're gonna continue to do things the right way and battle people and fight people and and and swing and fight as hard as we can. And that's what our guys do. That's why I love working at Pit because we got that tough, you know, pit steel city attitude.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

There's something about being a Pitman that you can't be a Pitman unless you have some grit to you. And I think the the program certainly embodies that. Soft asses don't survive. I guess that is true. You know, how frustrating is some of the tampering that goes on? Because it probably goes on a heck of a lot more than what gets reported, but like how frustrating is that knowing that certain guys are getting contacted um when it's probably during a period where they shouldn't be.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

It's uh it's frustrating, you know. I mean, it's it's constant tampering. It's not a little bit of tampering. You know, when the portal opens up, when a guy visits the next day, it's like, how did you get that done so fast? Well, you've had contact for the last week, and you know, you're not allowed to have contact until the portal opens. So it's it's it's ridiculous to be honest with you. It's that's you know, tampering is a bad word probably to even use because it's not tampering. Tampering is when you do it every once in a while, and maybe tampering happened one time. Like this is a constant, this has become you know the rule of thumb that you have to tamper or or you can't get a good player. We're getting guys out of the portal we think are really good players. We're not tampering at all. We're doing it the right way, the way it's supposed to be done. But you know, we we had a certain really good player be tampered with here and uh you know, two days before the portal closed. Okay. You know, it's open for 15 days. On day 13, uh he's getting tampered with and we had to fight it, and we we won the war. Okay, so we won it. But, you know, it's ridiculous when a guy's not in a portal and he comes in and tells me that he's been offered a two-year contract, it's a it's a problem.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Is like how much of that is legit? Because they never you don't have to announce what you're making. Like it's not publicly disclosed. So, like when you're competing with with some of this and you get some of these numbers reported, like how do you question the validity of what they would actually be getting paid versus what you yeah, what's real, what's not?

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Yeah, we don't know. You know, it's it's it's not like the National Football League where you can show me, show me in writing. Very rarely do people give you a contract so you can take that contract and use it in somebody else's office, say, hey, this is what I got here. What are you gonna give me? Give me another piece of paper. I had a I had had one of the ACC head coaches, I won't say his name, and uh he has a you know, a player that went in a portal um and uh was asking for a certain amount of money and had the courtesy of another ACC coach texting me saying, Hey, I got a call from an agent saying they wanted a visit and to visit they needed this much money, this much money, okay, and they needed in writing to get a visit. And the coach's response was I'll play with 18 receivers before I, you know, before I do that. And I'm just kind of giving you that position. It doesn't really matter, but but he just said, you know, I won't play with that position uh if I got it paid that. You know, that's what we're getting to. You know, who knows what's real fake? You know, you can ask for whatever you want nowadays. Um there's a and again, it's part of the tampering, it's part of the agent problem we have out there, Colin. It's not like the natural football. They got quiz recruits when they walk through my office every day, like, hey, what is an NFL agent? What's the maximum percentage you'll take from a player's contract? It's 3%. 3%. Let me see if I put my right fingers up. It's 3%. And they're they're amazed. They're like, really? I thought it was at least 10. You know, and they're paying, you know, 20 to 25% on the high end, you know, to these agents to help them find a school. And I think it's just ridiculous that these poor these these kids are being taken advantage. High school players transfers are being taken advantage of by these agents. They know they're gonna shop kids around in different places for more money, okay? But they're not worried about that kid's happiness. They're not worried about the culture they're getting into. All they're worried about is padding their own pocket so that they can make more money from this kid. They don't care if the kid goes to another university, he's unhappy and doesn't play, and his draft stock drops because he never played, and you got to go, hey, go watch after I transfer, when you have to tweet out, hey, go watch my pit video, that's a problem. Okay, you're supposed to have better video wherever you transfer to. That's a problem. And we've seen that happen.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

I'm glad you bring that up because like with the work that I do that I was telling you off air, oftentimes what I run into is conversations with athletes who want to enter the portal that want to transfer. And the first thing I bring up is, is that the right fit? Because you may chase a short-term paycheck, but it may hurt you on your long-term earnings. It may devalue your stock, it may put you in a position to where you aren't going to thrive in that system and that is going to be viewed poorly on you from a performance lens. So it's, are we just chasing the paycheck or are we chasing the opportunity to position ourselves better, right? Are we putting ourselves in a system that is better suited for you with a coaching staff that you may fit better with? And I don't think that there's enough people who are considering all of the ramifications of transferring. Sure, you hear of, you know, the the Joe Burrow transfers of the world or the Jalen Hurts transfers of the worlds, but what isn't talked about enough are, and you see it, you've seen it happen at Pitt. People leave Pitt and they do significantly worse than being in a culture and a program like Pitt. Every one of them. Almost every one of them. And so, you know, I think that's the frustrating part is like, why are we not having these conversations? And to your point, there's there's NIL agents meeting with freshmen. Yeah. Freshmen in high school. And it's it's just, you know, it is so different. And I wasn't, you know, I know eight years is a long time. But like, that's not an eternity away in how just different it is in the landscape of it.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

I mean, you're exactly right. I mean, they don't look at the ramifications of what's going to happen, what if.

Fit Over Paychecks And Academic Stakes

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Um, there's always two things I look at. Number one is are you happy? Okay. You can't buy happiness. You know, you know, I'd always bring up my own career. When I was at Michigan State, I had a chance to take head coaching jobs wherever. I had a chance to go leave the Big Ten and go be an SEC coordinator, you know, with Kevin Summon or Tennessee with with uh you know, uh, who was it, uh Vince uh uh Dooley, uh Derek Dooley. I mean, I could have a chance to leave for a lot more money, and I stayed because it ain't about the money. And too often these guys are taking the bigger paycheck, which is just a short-term thing, and ruining their life on the back end. But it all comes down to if you're happy where you are, why are you leaving? Because there's a lot of people that are miserable out there, okay? And you know, coaches are miserable. You know, you got people in the building that are miserable. We have a happy building here in Pittsburgh. Kids are happy, that's why they stay. Okay. Kids that are leaving are usually looking for, you know, something that they shouldn't be looking for, is the money or, you know, trying to think they can go there and win a national championship. Maybe, you know, they feel like maybe we can't win a national championship, whatever that may be. Um, but there's a lot of people haven't won a conference championship out there that people go so. Um, so to me, it's about the happiness. And the other thing, Colin, you didn't bring up is academics. How about you got a master's degree? How about getting your degree? Kids don't realize when they transfer, they're gonna lose credits. Most places we don't take C minuses here. We're not taking these. So you may lose 15 credits, you may lose 30 credits, you're losing a whole year of academics. They aren't ever gonna catch up. They can never catch up, they don't have enough years of eligibility to catch up, so they're never graduating. So you transfer, graduation rates are going down. You know, we have a major problem in college football right now for years and years and years. You know, APR, you know, was so important as far as graduation rates go. Now, at the transfer portal, who's graduating? They're gonna look at in 10 years, we're gonna, we're gonna, the graduation rates are gonna be awful. Okay. They're gonna be awful. They won't be awful at Pittsburgh. Um, and you know, overall, what are we what are we doing? These kids are gonna graduate if they graduate, okay, or if they don't graduate, are they gonna get a job? Are they gonna be in a job they are satisfied with? I mean, some of the money they're making nowadays when they graduate and they're not going to the NFL, what are they gonna do? They're gonna get offered a job for 100,000, going, I think I can't work for that. I worked in that like that? Only 100? I don't I don't know how we can make them happy. And those are the things you worry about. We're losing a generation of players and student athletes because there's no way that works harder than our football team, our football players, and really college football players across the country, academically and athletically, we're losing that toughness of that grit.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Yeah, it's that's the disheartening thing to see, is particularly the last thing you said, we're losing that toughness and grit because all those things factor in academically, learning how to be a student athlete is an important thing. Obviously, my line's a little bit different. You know, I knew um, well, at least I thought at the time I was gonna have a 10-year NFL career, but I think subtly I knew that wasn't gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

But like those pet stake game. What'd you say? I first talked about that pet steak gate when I was kidding.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

Oh man. But, you know, I think it's I always talk about the development factor. You know, I don't care if you play in the NFL 15 years, I don't care if your career ends after college, I don't care if you stopped after high school. At the end of the day, to me, sports is a vehicle, a greater vehicle for life in the values and characteristics that it teaches you and helps you develop that's gonna help you deal with other real world problems that the other sector of the world doesn't get. When you play football in particular, there is a there is a certain level of grit and toughness that it's going to give you that's gonna give you a leg up on everybody else. And if you don't make those things a focus, doesn't mean necessarily have to be the main focus, but a focus in your choices and decisions, you are missing the whole point of what high-level athletics is supposed to do, particularly at the college level. And I think we lose sight of that.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

No doubt about it.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

You're absolutely correct. Well said. Well, hey, I know uh I know you're on a time crunch here, Coach. So I do want to respect your time and I appreciate you. You got any more questions?

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Let's get it done. You know, persistence, you're persistent. And yeah, I told Mike, I said, you know, poor call is try to get me for a year now. It's been a year. I got to get back on with you. I'd like to do it at least once a year. I think we need to we need to have this going.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Heh. I would love that. No, you you always have an open platform here, coach.

Adapting To Scholarship Expansion

SPEAKER_02 26:34

But no, I I think the you know the big thing is how do you stay adaptable? Like as a coach, like how are you staying adaptable to the times? Because things are changing, it feels like on an ever-ending cliff. How do you stay adaptable as a coach here?

SPEAKER_01 26:46

You know, you got to keep an open mind. You know, you got to know things change, but guess what? They change on the field. That's what we do as coaches. So to me, it's the the the life of a coach. Things change on offense, things change on defense. Shoot 15 years ago, we were facing I pro offenses. I mean, they're lined up at two backs and a tight end, sometimes two tight ends, two backs. Um, and we've adjusted to the no-huddle and the tempo and all those things. It's no different than offense, defense, or special teams. The game has changed on the field. It's also changed a lot, even maybe more drastically off the field. And to me, that's what we do. We find different ways of maneuvering through, you know, different concepts. I mean, and you constantly do. Last night I'm laying in bed thinking about, you know, I'm hearing about people, I'm hearing about people that are now like we're allowed to have 85 scholarships minimum. Okay, but we can have as many as 105. And I'm hearing now that people are starting to go into, hey, we're just gonna take, we're gonna grab a bunch of scholarship guys. Well, go ahead and have 105 scholarships on your team. You can't keep those guys happy. Okay. It's hard enough to keep 85 scholarship guys happy. How are you gonna keep 105 happy? And, you know, you're thinking about how the game is changing. If that's the new thing that people are gonna do, then they're just gonna have more scholarships and try to take as many players as they can. That's great. But, you know, just a new strategy. I'm laying in bed late. It's just constantly my head's totally spinning, is like the new thing is like when I bring kids in, okay, you got an offer from there, how many scholarships are they taking? So they can kind of go. I mean, I can't tell you how many meetings I've been in where they talk about, let me see the depth chart, you know, how many players are you taking at the linebacker position or the O line position, or taking this many. But if the coaches are being real with you, if they're taking how many total scholarships do you have available, or are you guys giving out? If it's 105, well, guess what? Your chance of playing go down and your chances of transferring go up. So it's just another thing that we got to maneuver how we, you know, I don't believe in 105 scholarships. I don't think we can keep them happy. I think other people will find out, you know, that you can't keep happy, but they're gonna find out the hard way and have a bunch more guys in the portal, and we'll have less guys in the portal, and we'll take their guys eventually if we think they're good enough. So just the way it goes.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

You know, you talk about guys staying too, and we didn't talk enough. You don't have a ton of coach turnover. You know, there may be times where you have to make that decision, but there's not too many coaches who are willingly wanting to leave. You know, Coach Sanders, Coach Collins, still there. They were there when I was there. You know, how about that? Coach Bates retired, right? Like those guys are still there, and I'm sure that they've had other opportunities. And it's like, what does it say about the coaching side of it too? That coaches want to stay and work at Pitt too.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yeah, I mean, again, it goes back to the portal. Okay, goes back to the portal. It goes back to, you know, you know, what I talked about just like, why did I stay with Dan Tonio, Mark Danio for 11 years? I always said, like, if I'm happy, why am I leaving? You know, one of the toughest jobs ever turned out was Kevin Summer with a Texan app. And I thought he was a great dude. Would have been fun. Go down to the SEC. You know, the only bad thing is my wife was worried about, you know, the hogs in the backyard. It wasn't squirreled right around the backyard. The realtor gave her, the realtor talked about these wild hogs running around. My wife was like, spooked. We got on the airplane, she's like, everybody down here is from Texas, and we're not, and there's wild hogs. Like, I can't do that. I'm like, oof, they gave you a bad, bad deal there. But like, you know, if you're happy, and that's why I talked about being happy in academics with transfer portal. If your coaches are happy, you can go somewhere else. And I've seen coaches make the mistake and go somewhere for more money, and I try to tell them like it ain't about the money. Like, money does not give you happiness, and it's the same thing for the players. So, you know, it's not like I'm preaching something that I didn't do and I went and always take the more money, whatever job it was to go, you know, hey, I get to make more money, I've taken that job. If I'd have taken the head jobs that I got offered before I took this job, I'd have been fired in three years. Because all the guys that took those jobs, they got fired three years. I'd have been fired. And it's not because I wasn't a good coach or a bad coach, it was because you can't win. And that's why I'm going on season number 12, because it's about making good decisions, getting with the right people. But our coaches love being here too. And I think when you got the family atmosphere, that you don't you don't lose your kids. You don't lose your coaches.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

What is

Coaching Firings And Instant Gratification

SPEAKER_02 30:57

your perspective on coaches getting fired? Because some of the some of these cycles are insane. You know, like it feels like there's an unrealistic expectation from certain fan bases and media outlets that are causing additional pressure on coaches. What is your perspective on the firing of some of these guys, particularly this last offseason?

SPEAKER_01 31:14

You know what, it's it's crazy. And I'm not sure of the reason. Um, obviously it's a business, but you know, that's why you get it, you get with good people. You know, good people don't make those decisions. When people are worried about their own jobs and they start firing someone to save their own jobs, and then it gets worse. You know, how about, you know, I always say this like even for me, it's it's hard to fire somebody. You know, I haven't been lucky in 11 years not to have to do that very often. Sometimes you have to, but it's you know, it's my fault if I hire a bad coach, and then it's my fault if I don't get him right. So it's my job to coach the coaches. So ultimately, I always point the finger back at myself saying, you know, I hired him. It's my job to make sure he's successful. That's my job. That's why they call me the head coach. I got to go coach the coaches, and then the coaches coach the players. And you know, I've always felt that's you know the way it is. Well, it's the same thing when AD hires a head coach, give him the tools, give him the tools to win. And don't take the pressure when you know everybody's calling further ahead, and then you make that, you know, that decision, you know, it can get worse. You know, you'll see across the country this year, it'll get worse in some of those places before it gets better, but it could have been better at first. So I think always, you know, bite your tongue, pause, and make a good decision.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

Yeah, I uh it's it's crazy to to see coaches that you think too would have had a little bit more wiggle room, you know, for a down season here. Then you see some of these guys get canned, and it's like, and like you talk to regular fans and they're like, oh yeah, it's a great decision. I'm like, you have no idea how hard it is to win. Like you have no idea how many pieces are involved, particularly in football, to get people organized in the right way to win. And I think about when I was there, we start off that season one and two or whatever it is, then we rattle off like six or seven straight, get ourselves in the eight or uh in the ACC championship game against arguably one of the greatest teams ever against Clemston, um, in that absolute rain mud pit. But like people will be calling for firings three, four games into a season, and you have eight, nine games left. You have no idea what's gonna happen. And it's too week to week as opposed to body of work, which I just I fundamentally can't understand. And it drives me nuts the thinking that goes on in a lot of these media outlets.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Yeah, we've created monsters out there and they want instant success, just like our kids want instant success, right, Colin? I mean, think about it. They go on Twitter, they can post something and they get likes. That's my favorite, and all that crap. Um, you know, and they they push that little red button, whatever it is, and retweet it, and all they retweeted me like they want that instant gratification, and so do these ADs, and somebody's, you know, we're fortunate here. Alan Green's outstanding, our AD and Chancellor Joe Gable. So it starts with the people that you work for, and that's why I'm so blessed to be where I'm at.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

I'm

Season Outlook Tickets And Practice Invite

SPEAKER_02 33:56

super pumped for this year, you know. I think uh obviously I'm not a quarterback expert here, but you know, watching, you know, Mason last year, I think there's a a little bit different edge to him, as you were saying earlier. He's got a little bit of that, you know, Kenny Pickettism to him, where it's like you watch him play, you watch him spin it a little bit. It's like this cat's different. When you have that, you give yourself a chance.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

No doubt about it. I mean, I think the the Mason Hyde show, you know, 1.0 compared to the 2.0 that we're gonna see this year is gonna be a little bit different. So it'll be it will be fun to watch. So if you're out there listening, get your get your season tickets and get ready to go to Charlotte as well. Get your tickets to go to Charlotte.

SPEAKER_02 34:33

You guys play Bucknell this year too, Coach. You guys, I'm gonna have to split my jersey in half there. You are? Hey, do you see my bucknell jersey? Which half you should wear the whole time. I was gonna say, do you see my bucknell jersey back here? No, it's blue and gold. It's blue and gold. That's bucknell right there. No, that's your pit jersey. No, but how do you mean your pit jersey? Where's your bucknell? Uh but I'm that's what I'm saying. I only have my pit one here. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

I was gonna say bleed, blue, and gold.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

Where are you living now? I'm still in Pittsburgh, right outside. Where at? I live in Penn Trafford.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Pen Trafford, okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Good. Yeah, some close.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

But hey, you're welcome down to practice anytime you want. I appreciate that. Come check it out, see how different it is, or how similar you're like. Shit, I remember those days.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

Oh, it's yeah. We'll get you in a special teens meeting. Get me in that special teams meeting. We'll get you in there. Well, I'll definitely come by. Uh it's uh now I was just talking with my wife the other day. I mean, we've been together since we were 15, but I was like, it doesn't feel that long ago. We were in the Southside and I'd be coming back at nine o'clock from classes. I'd see you for 10 minutes, go to sleep. I'm up at 4 30 for practice again. You know, it doesn't feel that long ago. And your days are about the same too. Yeah, we fall nowadays we fall asleep at like nine o'clock. That's uh that's uh I you know, just with everything going on, every morning I'm in the gym by like four thirty, so it's like I fall asleep by like eight thirty, nine o'clock, and then wake up and do it all again. So it's so that's how you that's how you win.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

That's how you win on the field, and that's how you win you know outside the field.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

My call, it's been a pleasure, man. I appreciate you, Coach Jews. Um let's go get another ACC championship.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

You got it, buddy.