Pitt holds a 24-17 lead against its bitter rival, West Virginia. The Mountaineers just called a timeout to stop the clock at 2:58, and it’s fourth-and-four at the West Virginia 37-yard line. Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi has an important decision to make.
Narduzzi can show confidence in redshirt sophomore quarterback Eli Holstein and go for it, he can have first-year kicker Trey Butkowski kick a 54-yard field goal or he can punt the ball away.
And Narduzzi arguably chose the worst of the three options — he chose to punt the ball away and give the Mountaineers ample time to drive the ball across the field against an already tired Pitt defense.
I’m a strong believer in the idea that the smartest thing to do in late-game situations is to do what the opposing team’s fans don’t want you to do. Narduzzi did the opposite. In the stadium, it almost felt as if the West Virginia fans were cheering for Narduzzi when he made that curious decision.
We, as sports fans, hear the cliche ”you play to win the game,” ad nauseam, but here Narduzzi did not do that — he played it safe. He played not to lose, and his team still lost. Holstein should have had the ball in his hands to close the game out.
But, technically, we did get that because Pitt elected to play defense first in overtime, which, to me, is yet again another coaching mistake from Narduzzi. He, without any thought process, told his team to elect to start overtime on defense.
“No,” Narduzzi said, quick to respond to a reporter’s question. “We always want to play defense and know what we’ve got to respond to.”
I get the reasoning, but let’s sit back and think about the situation. Over the last nine minutes and 23 seconds of game time, West Virginia has completely bullied Pitt. The Mountaineers have had two drives lasting 25 plays, taking six minutes and 56 seconds of game time and gaining 159 yards. The entire Pitt defense was gassed on the sideline.
By no means would it be a smart decision for Narduzzi to put his defense, half of them with their hands on their knees, back onto the field. But Narduzzi didn’t even think twice about it — he immediately did what the analytics would say and not what his eyes should have told him.
And somehow, neither of these was the worst mistake Narduzzi made on Saturday. He, as the head coach of Pitt football, had no clue why his redshirt sophomore wide receiver Cataurus “Blue” Hicks was not on the field during a few series in the first quarter.
“I was asking the same question,” Narduzzi said. “‘Where’s Blue? Where’s Blue again?’”
As a head football coach, how is that possible? You are the coach — you should always know where your players are. If you want him on the field, put him on the damn field.
If I were Pitt’s new director of athletics, Allen Greene — who was in the press conference room at the time — this would not give me any confidence in the football coach I inherited.
Not knowing where a player is at is almost a fireable offense, and admitting that is insane. Then, to add to that, making poor decisions in clutch moments has to make Greene think Narduzzi is not the guy.
For the rest of the season, Greene should have Narduzzi prove to him why he should stay as the head coach. He can’t have any more coaching screw-ups like he did in Morgantown.
The schedule isn’t easy for the Panthers, and a non-bowl appearance for the Panthers seems likely, so if Narduzzi musters a bowl game appearance, then he has shown why he should stay.
Even if Narduzzi doesn’t prove himself and Pitt has another less-than-desirable season, Narduzzi still has a chance of staying because of how large his buyout is, which is not publicly known.
But still, his seat will get even hotter for the next season, when his buyout will continue to get smaller.
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