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Pat Narduzzi: All in on preparing for Brennan Armstrong in Coastal Showdown

Chris Graham
Pat Narduzzi
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi. Photo by Chris Graham.

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi isn’t falling for the ruse from Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall.

“Brennan Armstrong – expect him to play. I think they saved him up. He will be primed and ready for an ACC clash, so we do expect to get their best player, which they didn’t have Saturday. Who cares about the Notre Dame game? I think that was kind of the attitude they had going into it,” Narduzzi told reporters at his weekly presser on Monday.

The matchup is for the Coastal Division lead, with Pitt (8-2, 5-1 ACC) in the driver’s seat, and Virginia (6-4, 4-2 ACC) in position to take control with a win.

Vegas has Pitt a 14-point home favorite, but there could be some padding in there with the oddsmakers, and now bettors, expecting Armstrong to be out for a second straight week.

UVA lost 28-3 to Notre Dame this past Saturday, with true freshman Jay Woolfolk getting the start at QB in place of Armstrong, and struggling to an 18-of-33, two-INT, seven-sack performance.

But that was last week. Narduzzi expects the ‘Hoos to be back at full strength, and from his review of the game tape, he thinks they came out of their bye week better on defense.

“It seemed like against Notre Dame they’re more four-down (linemen). Have they switched in the open week to the four-down? We’ll see,” Narduzzi said. “We have to prepare for both different fronts and who they’ve been. I think they ran eight snaps in three-down against Notre Dame, but they went back to more of a four-down kind of deal. Bronco is really a defensive guy, so I’m sure he has a lot to do with what they do.”

Notre Dame gained 423 yards in the win, but that effort was an order of magnitude better for UVA defensively after the Cavaliers gave up 66 points and 734 yards in the loss to BYU back on Oct. 30.

“You saw them. I thought they did a good job defending compared to maybe the week before against BYU, where they got worn out a little bit out there, which is a long trip and an exhausting trip for them as well. It’s always tough going on the road. You add a little bit of that stuff in there, too,” Narduzzi said.

Getting ready for the Virginia offense, which was #1 in the nation going into last week, presents obvious challenges.

“It starts with (Armstrong) at quarterback, and he has a bunch of big targets,” Narduzzi said. “They run 60 different personnel groupings for our kids to figure out, what number is who? They got tight ends that play quarterback. They have all kinds of personnel groupings that you have to worry about on that side of the ball.”

Pitt did a solid job containing North Carolina QB Sam Howell in the 30-23 OT win last week. Howell was 22-of-33 for 296 yards and two TDs, with one INT, and only gained 28 yards on the ground.

“Sam Howell is totally different than Armstrong is,” Narduzzi said. “I would say, first of all, we did a great job against Sam Howell. I mean, we bottled him up in the run game for the most part. Especially the ones when he was supposed to run. We lost some contain late in the game, which drives me crazy, which we shouldn’t have. To me that comes down to a lack of focus. It wasn’t a lack of defense or structure as far as what we’re doing. Just do your job, and did we get a little worn out, I don’t know, on a short week? It appeared to be sometimes. I don’t think so. More of a lack of just details there, but we did a great job.

“Sam Howell and North Carolina is more of an RPO, as good of an RPO team as you’re going to face, with (Josh) Downs in the slot, so we did a great job of defending those,” Narduzzi said. “Linebackers, Erick Hallett played outstanding. And, again, we got in the dropback game. We’re OK as well, which to me is the easier part. Again, I think Virginia is more of a dropback team.

“They’ve got an element of the RPO in there. They like to throw it 70 percent of the time, so it’s going to be a dropback, line up at empty with all these different personnel groupings and chuck it deep, chuck it wherever they want to. That’s what they’ve done, and they like to throw the football.

“There’s some quarterback draws in there. There’s a little bit. I would say it’s more from scrambling than it is from a true quarterback run. I would say we’ll have to worry about other guys, whether it’s Woolfolk coming in to run it or the other guys that all play quarterback. We have to worry more about those guys coming in like a wildcat-type quarterback situation this weekend is what we’ll prepare for,” Narduzzi said.

Story by Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," a zero-time Virginia Sportswriter of the Year, and a member of zero Halls of Fame, is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].