Pitt modernized its offense over the winter. The growing pains will be felt for a while
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pat Narduzzi spent most of his first nine seasons at Pittsburgh building a program whose identity reflected its coach’s old-school values.
Physical. Defense-oriented. Run-heavy. Narduzzi took pride in his team being an outlier of sorts in a game growing ever more innovative — especially on offense — by the season.
Then came last fall and a 3-9 finish in which nothing worked. The Panthers couldn’t score. Couldn’t pass the ball effectively and couldn’t run it well enough to make up the difference.
The result was Pitt’s worst season in a quarter century and a reckoning too. Narduzzi overhauled a significant portion of his staff and replaced offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti and his pro-style approach with Kade Bell, a 31-year-old who turned Western Carolina into one of the most prolific offenses in the FCS.
The injection of youth and fresh ideas has invigorated both Narduzzi and the Panthers. Yet that newness also comes with the kind of growing pains that have been on display most of the spring as Bell tries to get the Panthers to play faster, something that can be tricky when you’re essentially learning a new language.