Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi broke down his teams’ upcoming matchup against West Virginia on Monday, speaking about WVU’s offense, as well as what the rivalry and this type of game means.
On WVU’s Offense
“Well, CJ Donaldson is a good football player. Greene at quarterback, he’s athletic. He’s a weapon. They like to run the football. They’ve got a bunch of RPOs. CJ’s 240 pounds. He’s a load. He’s hard to get down. Again, our opener last year seemed like our opener this year against Cincinnati, so hopefully we’ll be tied in more just — we’ve seen live bullets in the game. Won’t be a surprise as much as it was last year.”
“I think we’re better prepared, but they’re better prepared. They’ve got experienced — I think they’ve got nine guys returning on offense. Their entire line and tight end are back. Brown does a great job scheming you up. He’s obviously calling the plays, as well, so I think he does a good job play calling, as well.”
“It’s like preparing for a whole different offense, although they saw some of our weaknesses a year ago, so they do a good job scheming you up, with formation of boundary and some different things that got us that we’ll hopefully be more prepared for, but he’s not going to go back — I’m assuming, and we’ll still practice it, but he’s not going to go back to the same stuff. He’ll find some other stuff that he’ll try to pick on.”
On The Rivalry
“We’ll learn more going down there. I think the kids will really learn what the rivalry is on the road and how hostile it is. I mean, rivalries are rivalries; it’s nothing more than any other game for me. We know we’re just down the road. But it’s a football game that means a lot to a lot of people. I think our Pitt fans are passionate. West Virginia fans are passionate. It comes down to passion. People want to see you play well in those games.”
On Garrett Greene
“You know, I see a guy that is athletic. 5’11” guy that’s really athletic. He’s a real athlete. He’s physical; he’s tough; he’s a competitor. He’s a run threat. He can throw it. He can throw all the RPOs he needs to throw.
“I think he’s throwing for 200 yards a game, which is good, when they’re running the ball 70 percent of the time or 65 percent of the time. We’ve got obviously games last year that he played, and I think he started against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and played really well. He’s played in big games. I just think he’s a competitor. He’s a tough dude.”
WVU Using the RPO On Offense
“We’ve been working a lot on that, and that’s something we haven’t seen a ton of this year, so it’s a whole new thing. We’ve seen them in the past. No, every run they have will have a run-pass option off it, whether it’s a screen out there, whether it’s vertical routes.
“They run some quarterback zone read; he’ll keep it. They’ve got vertical routes running off the edge by two receivers. So there’s all kinds of different ones they have. We’ve got to do a good job of playing those guys because it puts you in a one-on-one situation depending on what defense you’re in, and you’ve got to make plays.”
Photo by Justin Berl, Getty Images
