Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi rants about Penn State HC James Franklin’s comments
Penn State head coach James Franklin made some comments earlier in the week, which caused Pittsburgh’s head coach, Pat Narduzzi to go on a rant.
It’s no secret that Penn State football and Pittsburgh football are not huge fans of each other. While there’s an ounce of respect for one another because sportsmanship exists — it doesn’t mean that these two programs have to be fond of each other.
As expected, they are not. The rivalry between the two programs doesn’t really need fuel added to the fire, but naturally, there was some added this season.
Not only is it the 100th and potentially final meeting between the Panthers and the Nittany Lions — but some comments made this week over a PSU transfer set Panthers’ head coach Pat Narduzzi on a rant on Thursday.
It all started back in August when a Penn State safety decided he needed a fresh start. Being that John Petrishen spent a lot of his time nursing injuries while with the Lions, he fell behind with his progress. Therefore, he was strictly a special teamer for Penn State.
Petrishen, respectfully, wanted out of Happy Valley. He made it clear to the team that he was going to check out some other options and was sure to transfer. About a day later, Pat Narduzzi announced that Petrishen was the newest member to Pittsburgh’s football team.
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So what did James Franklin do? He worked on modifying sideline signals knowing that Pittsburgh was scheduled to come through to Beaver Stadium during week three. Franklin never mentioned it before, but he brought it up himself during a press conference on Tuesday.
Being that Petrishen has been around the program for a few years, he knows enough about the offense and defensive signals to make Franklin want to play it safe and make changes. So he put that out to the media this week, and it sent Narduzzi on a rant, which occurred Thursday.
Narduzzi speaks his mind
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette’s John McGonigal, Pat Narduzzi felt it was necessary to bring up Franklin’s comments on his own after not being asked five minutes into his media availability. Apparently, Franklin’s small announcement struck a big nerve for Pittsburgh.
“We haven’t been thieves, I guess,” Narduzzi said to start his rant off. “But usually the people who are paranoid are the people stealing them.”
Then, Narduzzi went on to explain that a former Pittsburgh safety, who joined Narduzzi’s coaching staff in 2015 is now Penn State’s assistant recruiting coordinator. However, Narduzzi doesn’t necessarily feel any discomfort with that situation.
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According to McGonigal, Narduzzi’s rant on the topic lasted nearly three minutes. He ended it by saying, “it’s just funny,” as he remains confused as to why Franklin felt the need to make that announcement.
Clearly, Franklin’s idea to ‘play it safe’ by changing signals struck a nerve for Pittsburgh’s coaching staff. While it didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, as it’s just a precautionary move — it definitely made for an interesting situation between both programs.