Pitt HC Pat Narduzzi Brushes Off Spat With Recently-Fired Georgia Tech Coach
PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers will be facing a team in flux this weekend after their Week 5 opponent, Georgia Tech dismissed head football coach Geoff Collins and athletic director Todd Stansbury this week.
Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi opened his weekly press conference by acknowledging how difficult firings are and said he wishes the best for Collins moving forward.
"Sounds like a new leadership down there," Narduzzi said. "My thoughts go out. It's never easy. Geoff Collins is a great guy. ... You never like to see that happen to anyone. I don't care who it is, who their record is. He's got a family. ... and we were hoping he was going to get up to Pittsburgh one more time."
Narduzzi brushed off an incident in which Collins seemed to avoid shaking hands with him after the Panthers beat the Jackets, 34-20 at Bobby Dodd Stadium in December 2020. Narduzzi said Collins just wanted to get one last earful in with the referees before they left the field.
"I know you guys want to talk about the handshake, but he's a good dude," Narduzzi said. "He was mad at the officials. He's intense. He's a really good football coach."
Collins coached the Yellow Jackets through a transition away from long-time head coach Paul Johnson's trademark triple-option offense. He wanted to recreate Georgia Tech's program in a modern image and while he embraced the home city's culture and recruited fairly well, his efforts didn't yield much in the way of on-field results.
Collins' teams never won more than three games in each of his three full seasons at the helm and they currently sit at 1-3 in 2022 with losses to Clemson, Ole Miss and UCF coming by an average of 30 points.
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