Pat Narduzzi Humble About Moving Up Pitt All-Time Coaching Board
PITTSBURGH -- With a 45-24 win over his alma mater, Rhode Island, Pat Narduzzi made a push up the Pitt Panthers' record books and into elite company. It was his 56th win at Pitt, tied for the third most with John Michelson.
He holds a better winning percentage than Michelson and is just four wins behind Glenn "Pop" Warner for second on the all-time wins list, but Narduzzi claims there is little significance to his climb up the Pitt record books.
"Just means I'm getting old," He said. "Been here a long time. It depends on how long it takes -- you've got to divide it by how many years you were there, I think. Doesn't really matter. It's about winning every week and going 1-0, that's a staff thing. ... The team wins the games."
Still, his opponent this week just fired their own coach while Narduzzi, in his eighth season at Pitt, is enjoying the most successful years of his tenure. Narduzzi said he feels like the program is where he wants it to be, but that kind of success is fragile.
"Year seven you win a championship game you feel like you are [where you want to be], but every year is a new year, right," Narduzzi said. "What you did last year doesn't matter. ... You lose some good players to the draft or whatever it may be; to Name Image and Likeness, whatever it is. You lose some guys and you've got to replace them. You never know what you can be."
Narduzzi didn't want to focus on the individual marks he's in a position to beat, choosing to instead reflect on what the wins he's amassed have done for the overall health of the program.
Throughout the 21st century, Pitt has seen underwhelming coaches come and go frequently and while Narduzzi hasn't put together a perfect record, he did give the team a sense of stability. An obvious and overlooked benefit of winning, even if that success falls short of championship-caliber, is that it gave the program a sense of direction that would be consistent for years. Narduzzi said he's proud to have been able to do that at Pitt.
"If you're the head coach at Pitt, you take pride in what you're doing," Narduzzi said. "My job is to come in here, rebuild it. Create some stability as the head football coach here and win football games. And that's what we try to do every week."
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