Pitt HC Gets Honest About Issues After Bye Week

PITTSBURGH — The bye week couldn't have come at a better time for the Pitt Panthers.

The Panthers had an ugly performance against the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Backyard Brawl in Week 3. There were costly penalties, missed assignments and overall poor execution. All of that falls on the head coach, Pat Narduzzi.

The silver lining is that Pitt did not suffer a loss to a conference opponent, and its long-term goals are still intact.

The Panthers have had a week to reflect and self-scout to get ready for their first ACC opponent of the season against Louisville. Even though Pitt was underwhelming against the Mountaineers, it has the opportunity to get back on track this week.

"We beat ourselves," Narduzzi said to open his first press conference since the loss. "We shot ourselves in the foot. Nobody beat us."

Perhaps the most egregious statistic from the loss to West Virginia was the 14 penalties for 118 yards that Pitt committed. To compound the impact of those penalties, nine were committed on what Narduzzi called a "money down" — third or fourth down. Seven of those money down penalties were committed on the Mountaineers' side of the field, and five occurred in the red zone.

To make matters even worse, most of those penalties were committed by veterans on the teams.

"We can't have captains, we can't have our older guys, our seniors, our leadership guys making those types of critical errors," Narduzzi said. "And we've got to be better. We've got to be better on the road. We've got to be better with the noise, and we've got to be better across the board. And that doesn't matter whether it's offense or defense. Our seniors got to play their best football."

Sometimes, with teams that like to play physically, like Pitt, referees can be quick to throw the flag on plays that other refs may not. Narduzzi believes this was the case in Week 3.

"You saw some of the penalties that were either there or not there, but we've just got to be smart," Narduzzi said. "And I think it's just being aggressive. We talk about aggressive penalties and unforced penalties and selfish penalties, but we've got to be smarter. We're better football players. We're smarter now. If they're going to call it that close, then we've got to do a better job as coaches, making sure that we give them no reason to call a roughing the passer or trying to go push a pile, and all of a sudden the pile goes down and you go over the top. We've just got to be smarter."

Sep 13, 2025; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi argues a call during the third quarter against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

It wasn't just the penalties, though. The Panthers also struggled moving the ball on offense, especially in the first half.

Eli Holstein had one of the worst games in his career against West Virginia. He missed wide-open targets, threw the ball into coverage and was visibly uncomfortable in the pocket.

However, it wasn't all his fault. The offensive line missed assignments and allowed the Mountaineers to get 18 pressures and six sacks on Holstein. On the first snap of the game, right tackle Ryan Baer missed a key block and Holstein ended up fumbling for a loss of 11 yards.

"We know any contact on a quarterback affects a quarterback," Narduzzi said. "It doesn't help when you go out there on the first play of the game and you have a max protection called and we don't protect the quarterback."

However, there were times when Holstein had time in the pocket to let it rip, and he still missed some of his targets.

"We'd like him to be perfect," Narduzzi said. "He's not going to be, but big-time players make those plays in big-time games. And we've got to make those plays. That goes down to execution. We've got to make the play when we have somebody open."

But overall, Narduzzi said he still feels good about his offensive line moving forward.

"When you look overall, besides a couple of issues with the running back protection, we did a good job protecting the quarterback," Narduzzi said. "We ran into some sacks, and we've got to move our feet in the pocket and find the open receiver and hit him."

Pittsburgh Panthers quarterback Eli Holstein (10) throws a pass against the West Virginia Mountaineers — Sep 13, 2025; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers quarterback Eli Holstein (10) throws a pass during the first quarter against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

The Panthers also struggled to get the ground game going after Desmond Reid was sidelined in the first quarter and did not return to the game. Pitt subsequently had 46 rushing yards and that afforded West Virginia the luxury of only stopping the pass.

Pitt leaned on Juelz Goff and true freshman Ja'Kyrian Turner. Goff had eight carries for 37 yards and Turner had four carries for nine yards. Reid managed to break off a few nice runs before exiting and Goff had a 17-yard rush at the end of the game, but without Reid, the execution of run plays wasn't up to Narduzzi's standard.

"When the young guys came in, some of the places we were running the ball, it wasn't exactly like you'd like it to be," Narduzzi said. "But again, whether it was (Turner) or Goff, those are things we'll get cleaned up the more experience they have."

It's unknown if Reid will be available on Saturday, and the answer will likely come when the offense walks on the field against the Cardinals. But, if Reid can't go, Narduzzi said he has lots of trust and confidence in Goff to be the featured back.

"He plays big," Narduzzi said. "He had a nice run in the fourth quarter, bouncing out and breaking a few tackles and getting around the edge for a big important gain on that play. But he had some obvious protection issues as well that we've got to get cleaned up with him, and we'll get that straightened out this week."

Now that Pitt has had a week of rest and a week to fix its mistakes from Week 3, Narduzzi is confident that his team is more prepared heading into ACC competition.

"The players bounced back," Narduzzi said. "The players were great last week, and the coaches are the same way. We're older. We'd better be able to bounce back. We know how critical it is. It's a one-game season every week. You put everything into the first week, second week, third week and you put it all into the fourth week."

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