Pitt's Pat Narduzzi Fined for Blasting Officials in Backyard Brawl

The ACC has reprimand the Pitt head coach for his postgame comments.

Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

In a postgame interview with ESPN, Pat Narduzzi openly criticized the officiating in the Backyard Brawl stating, “Some of the calls we got…the late hit out of bounds, they catch a ball with a hand to the face…I’ve never seen anything like it. You know? Wow. I mean, we beat West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl, and we beat the officials too in one game.”

As expected, the ACC announced on Sunday that the school has been fined for Narduzzi's comments in the interview.

Statement from the ACC

"The Atlantic Coast Conference issued a public reprimand of Pitt’s football coach Pat Narduzzi for violating the ACC Sportsmanship Policy following Pitt’s win over West Virginia on September 14. In addition, the league announced that an institutional fine has been issued to Pitt ($5,000) as a result of the violation. The funds from the imposed institutional fine will be placed into the Weaver-James-Corrigan-Swofford Postgraduate Scholarship account.

"Narduzzi’s postgame comments, aired on ESPN regarding the officiating crew, were in direct violation of the ACC Sportsmanship Policy that states: “Public criticism of officials or public comments evaluating the officiating of particular contests is not in the best interest of intercollegiate athletics. Individuals associated with the athletics program are prohibited, therefore, from commenting while acting in an official capacity on officiating other than directly to the Conference office.

"The ACC considers this matter closed and will have no further comment."

While the officiating was poor, you could argue that West Virginia got the worst of it. Six of Pitt's penalties were offsides/false starts which have essentially zero judgment in the call. Meanwhile, WVU had a long touchdown taken off the board due to an extremely questionable holding call on left tackle Wyatt Milum who hadn't been flagged for a hold since last season. A couple of plays later, Pitt blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown for a 14-point swing.

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