Watch: Pitt HC Details Second Scrimmage and Position Battles

Here's everything Pat Narduzzi said about the recent scrimmage.

Opening Remarks: 

It was great to get into Acrisure Stadium. Got a lot of great work done. Got 122 plays on offense and defense. Defense won the scrimmage, and you know, usually turnovers. But I think we got 122 snaps on offensive, defense. We got 42 snaps on on special teams. I think we left about 9:15 p.m. So, we’re walking out of there, I told the kids afterwards that, ‘Hey, I like what I saw.’ You know, I don't care who wins this scrimmage. It doesn't come down to that. But just the execution and the details were much better. We had cut down the missed assignments offensively, defensively by 37, I think, compared to the first scrimmage. So that's a lot. And, again, that's just being very picky in each position. But we eliminated the mental errors, so overall, when you walk out, you go this is a pretty good performance. Again, we still got a ways to go. We aren't near where we wanna be, but I was excited about what we did.

Who forced turnovers in the scrimmage?

You know, Shadarian Harris had a nice one. Little change of a coverage. Kind of surprised the offense. I'm trying to think of who else. Again, with the 2s, the young guys had a couple. Josh Guerrier had one. Nice diving catch. I think we had drops, too. You know, they talked about big catches. We also had drops. … Nothing else with the 1s, probably.

Did the offense give the ball away or did the defense create turnovers?

You know, one was a takeaway. Drip (Harrison) got one, yeah, he did a great job disguising the whole thing. That was good. Obviously, we had a wrong route on that play as well. So, we’re good there. And then the other ones are kinda under thrown balls, whatever. You know? But there's pressure on the quarterback and all that stuff. I'm not worried about that. We tasked our quarterbacks to go ahead and take take shots down the field wherever it may be. You know, just wanna be aggressive for the ball. 

How did Eli Holstein perform? 

I think overall when you look at it, (Eli) had a good day. He's getting better just like everyone on the football team, but I was happy with him. I think quarterbacks played solid again against, you know, stingy defense.

How did the offense as a whole perform?

You know, I like what I saw. Like I said, the execution part of it. I thought our O-line did a heck of a job compared to the first scrimmage. And, again, offense won the first scrimmage, I wasn't very happy with the offense. But then offense loses the second scrimmage, and I'm happy with the offense. So, the protection was good. I thought we did a much better job. What we did during the week paid off as far as those little things we talked about. Like, you gotta get better at this today. We gotta take care of this. I thought our protection was good. I thought we ran the ball. Des (Reid) didn't get any reps. So, anytime you don't have Des back there, it's a whole different element to the game. But I thought Juelz Goff did a heck of a job, as far as just running the ball into 1s. And he had some great cuts out there, too. So we ran the ball more effectively. Did a great job on early downs.

Why hasn't Desmond Reid scrimmaged yet?

Yes. Precautionary. (Des Reid) is healthy and ready to go. Again, he's practiced hard every day, and I'm happy where he is. So, I didn’t need to get him reps. The tailback is so much different than every other position. I mean, you can get hit by seven guys on one play. Coach (Lindsey Lamar) helps me out because I’ve got a hard time with it. Le’Veon Bell at Michigan State, that guy was a war daddy, but he's a bigger back. But I was like, ‘coach, I don’t think we should do it,’ but then I'm like, ‘coach, you're right. You're right.’ So, he calms me down, keeps me off the cliff there. 

How is Ryan Carretta progressing? 

You know, (Ryan Carretta is) not pushing for first team reps, but being that next guy in on the inside, yes. He's doing a heck of a job. He's doing he's doing a really nice job with it. So, we've been happy, and we're able to get him some guard in and center reps just by just moving things around. So, we're happy to have him, too.

How were snaps distributed during the scrimmage? 

Pretty even. It was, like, 45 plays for the 1s, 45 plays with 2s, so I wanna say 24, 25 plays with the 3s. And again, we held out who would need to. You know, Kyle Louis didn't take a ton of them. He might have 25. We didn't need to see 45 out of him. So, just coaches being smart and getting the guys developed that need to be developed. The guy’s that are gonna help us. I mean, Nick Lapi, he had a heck of scrimmage. I'm happy with where he is. He's being the most consistent he's been. So, I thank his mother out there because she's helped him get consistent. Shawn Lee has emerged. You talked about some of those young guys that emerged. Shawn Lee has emerged and showed some nice things. And then, one of the guys just to mention is Max Hunt. I probably haven't talked about Shawn Lee or Max Hunt a lot. Max Hunt, freshman tight end, he’s kind of a gamer. Sometimes you see different stuff when you watch him. He just makes plays. He's done it in practice, but he's just consistent. Hatches the ball, he makes plays, he runs well.

How are the position battles unfolding on the O-line and D-line?

You know, (Jeff) Persi, he's doing pretty good at that position, but Stanley, Kendall Stanley is still good, too. So, I’m like either one of those guys plays at the drop of a hat. And then at the defensive end spot, again, we can rotate guys. We're gonna stay fresh. So, I'm happy with that position as well. I mean, Joey Zelinsky has really stacked two or three really good days together. Plus, you know, the combination of Blaine (Spires), and Jaeden Moore had a nice scrimmage again. Jimmy Scott wasn't you know, he's not flashing like those other guys do, but we know Jimmy's good. But I’d like to see him show a little bit more on game day. … Zach Crothers is doing a nice job. Nate (Temple has) been solid. Got a lot of talent in front of him right now and a lot of competition in that room. 

When does regular season game planning begin?

No, we’ll wait probably a couple more days before we get in. Right now, we’re worried about Pitt. Right now, the game plan is make sure Pitt is as good as we can be. It's all fundamental. So, we got time on that. We've worked all summer on on them as far as, some of the scouting reports. We know who they are. Big thing is we don't beat Pitt. You know, we beat Pitt, we beat ourselves, we’ve got problems. So, our fundamentals — we wanna continue to sharpen those things as we go.

Is Ja’Kyrian Turner getting close to returning? 

Yeah. He's getting closer. Like I said, we brought it back too early, mistake, and we're gonna be very cautious with him. But, like, Juelz Goff, he's really good. So, we'll get Boosie ready to know when it's time.

How does Eli look in year 2 of the system? 

You know, he's a year old. He's doing a great job leading. But it's just really understanding what they're doing as a whole on offense and really what the coverage is and just bails them out quicker.