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.
Related articles
Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 12
Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 12-18:May 12: Actor Millie Perkins (“Knots Landing”) is 88.2024-05-07Innovation drive in health sector boosts multinationals' confidence in Chinese market
BEIJING, April 5 (Xinhua) -- With a sizable consumer base and a relentless drive for innovation, Chi2024-05-07China's Maternal, Infant Mortality Rates Continue to Drop
Contact Us HomeNewsHighlightACWF NewsSocietyWom2024-05-07World Autism Awareness Day Marked at a Kindergarten in Beijing
Contact Us HomeNewsHighlightACWF NewsSocietyWom2024-05-07China's software industry logs steady growth in Q1
BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- China's software and information technology service industry logged stron2024-05-07Wuzhou Juyan Tea Industry Booms in E China's Zhejiang
Contact Us HomeNewsHighlightACWF NewsSocietyWom2024-05-07
atest comment