Pitt HC Pat Narduzzi Draws from Experience Facing Ben Roethlisberger in UNC Preparation

Pitt Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi is approaching Drake Maye the same way he did Ben Roethlisberger.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers are preparing to face a quarterback that ranks among the top-10 nationally in yards, yards per attempt, touchdowns and passer rating. Facing a talented signal-caller is just another week of life in the ACC, but North Carolina's Drake Maye provides a bigger challenge than anyone else in the league can. 

Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi had high praise for Maye when talking about the challenges the Tar Heels pose to his defense this week. 

"The first thing I'll say to you is that he's a first-round quarterback," Narduzzi said. "You can go ahead and mark that down now. ... No doubt about it. He's got the size, the athletic ability, great vision, he's calm in the pocket. ... He's just really talented. He's a natural quarterback. ... He can do it all."

Narduzzi compared him to former first-overall pick and Clemson star, Trevor Lawrence, but is drawing on his experience facing a different first-round quarterback in games and practices when preparing to face Maye on the field. 

Joking that the NCAA wouldn't let him put 12 players on the field, Narduzzi said he would try and keep things simple. That's what he did when he was a defensive assistant coach and coordinator in the Mid American Conference during the early 2000's. 

When Narduzzi was the linebackers coach at Northern Illinois, he was on the sideline when Miami's Ben Roethlisberger, a future first-round pick, threw for a career-high in yards and four touchdowns in a 61-41 win. There was nothing the Huskies' defensive staff could think of to slow him down. 

"We had to change the coverage up," Narduzzi said. "I wasn't the coordinator at the time, thank god. But we changed the coverage up so much. We said 'We can't defend this guy' ... 'He's too good. We'll have to confuse him,'. All we did is confuse ourselves."

When Narduzzi left Northern Illinois the following spring, he knew he'd have to face Roethlisberger every day in practice. After having seen the proof in person that trying to confuse Roethlisberger was not a winning strategy, Narduzzi went back to basics. 

"I took the [coordinator] job [at Miami] seven days before spring ball in 2003 and I was like 'What am I going to confuse him in spring ball or will we just bite the bullet and our kids will have no confidence?'" Narduzzi said. "So we went out there and played our base defense against him and played really, really well against him in spring ball every day to the point that the head coach wasn't very happy."

Narduzzi's going to adopt a similar strategy this week as he prepares to face a quarterback whom no one has found an answer for yet. This week hasn't featured a complete retrofit of his defensive unit, rather some tweaking to fit into the specific personnel the Tar Heels have. 

Pitt will stick to what they know and Narduzzi hopes to see similar results as he did against Roethlisberger all those years ago. 

"So we got to keep it simple," Narduzzi said. "We have to do what we do."

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