Narduzzi frets over his players
Coach says there is a lot on their minds
Pat Narduzzi is worried. Not necessarily about himself contracting COVID-19. “I’m 54 years old, and I have no fear,” Pitt’s coach said on a Monday afternoon Zoom call. No, Narduzzi is concerned about his players’ physical and mental health — and about how the state of college sports is weighing on the Panthers’ minds as they prepare for a fall slate.
“I worry about these kids because there’s so much to think about right now,” Narduzzi said. “They’re reading what’s happening in the Big Ten and the Pac-12. Why are these doctors saying this and that, when they’re saying this? There’s a lot of concern out there in this world, period. We’re in a pandemic for a reason. So the kids have a lot of things on their minds.”
Narduzzi mentioned the Big Ten and Pac-12, two Power Five dominos that fell last week. Since reporters last caught up with Narduzzi Aug. 7, those two leagues, as well as the Mountain West and Mid-American conferences, shut down fall sports.
By losing the MAC, Pitt lost its season-opening opponent in Miami (Ohio), an opponent that might not be replaced. Narduzzi said Pitt “got some inquiries” about the opening, but he expressed concerns that nonconference teams will be able to meet the ACC’s COVID-19 protocols that “are going to get more strict.”
“We’ll play that by ear,” Narduzzi added. “We’ll let Heather Lyke make that decision.”
While its opener hangs in the balance, Pitt is just grateful to be on the practice field.
Joey Yellen, a transfer quarterback from Arizona State, said he “felt for” his former teammates after their season was nixed by the Pac-12 last Tuesday. He also called the beginning of last week “crazy” as fall football seemed poised for a total shutdown.
Pitt defensive end Rashad Weaver, meanwhile, found himself appreciating little moments even more than usual. Weaver recalled sitting on the grass at Pitt’s South Side facility after practice last week when he was approached by fellow redshirt senior Damar Hamlin.
“Damar walked up to me and said, ‘I don’t even want to go inside. You don’t have to think about anything when you’re out here,’ ” Weaver said.
“It just clears our mind with everything going on.”
Of course, that reprieve was briefly taken away Thursday, when Pitt canceled practice because several players displayed COVID-19 symptoms. A day after the team’s first padded practice, players reported headaches and body aches to the team trainer — which are symptoms associated with COVID-19 and the dayafter side effects of full-contact drills.
Pitt erred on the side of caution.
“You can’t just say, ‘Oh it’s because they had contact yesterday.’ It scares you, and you’ve got to be safe. So, poof, shut it down,” Narduzzi said. “It’s only a practice.”
All the players tested negative, and Pitt returned to practice the following day. But that scare was just another thing for the Panthers to deal with in a week of college sports marred by harsh realities — realities that spilled over into Monday.
Shortly after Narduzzi’s Zoom call concluded, North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus announced a transition from in-person classes to remote learning just one week into the fall semester. The decision came after the university’s coronavirus positivity rate rose from 2.8% to 13.6% last week, which certainly doesn’t help the ACC’s push to play from an optics standpoint.
It doesn’t help from a campus health perspective, either, which is something else that worries Narduzzi.
Many football players will take their classes strictly online this fall, and Narduzzi thinks the South Side facility is the safest place for the players to be. He has lauded the testing protocols put in place by team doctors and the medical staff, as well as the consistent sanitization practices throughout the football building.
But Pitt students have started to move back to campus — and there’s bound to be interaction between team members and regular students.
“What I’d like to do is put them in the indoor facility and line the place with mattresses and bunk them right there. Shut the doors, lock them and don’t let them out. Keep them in our little paradise down here,” Narduzzi said half-jokingly. “But they’ve got to go out and we’ve got to teach them how to act, and I think our guys are well trained.
“I’m concerned when school starts. That’s my concern. Got to keep them away and make sure they don’t get cooties.”