After long days, short nights, Pat Narduzzi says Pitt prepared for opening day

College and NFL coaches might be the only people who won’t get offended or embarrassed if you ask where they sleep at night.

“In the couch, over there,” Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said Thursday afternoon in a conference room adjacent to his office. But he emphasized he hasn’t done so yet this year.

Coaches are famous for spending so much time at practice, in meetings, watching video and counseling players that they lose track of time. Former Pitt defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable, who spent only the 2012 season on former coach Paul Chryst’s staff, kept a cot in his office.

The Pitt staff works long days, starting at 6 a.m. and, some nights, works close to midnight.

Narduzzi said he hasn’t slept in his office this season — perhaps because he loaned his pillow to freshman running back Rodney Hammond — but he has done so in the past, mostly because he lives 25 minutes away.

He didn’t do it as often when he was defensive coordinator at Michigan State.

“I only lived two minutes down the road,” he said.

No matter where Narduzzi and his coaches lay down their heads, the seventh-year coach feels good about how they have prepared the players for the opener at 4 p.m. Saturday at Heinz Field against Massachusetts.

Narduzzi said coaches and players have worked especially hard this week while trying to trace the past of UMass’ 12 transfers.

“It can be too much, but it’s never enough,” he said. “We’ve gone back pretty deep.”

Part of the preparation was studying UMass coach Walt Bell’s tendencies when he was offensive coordinator at Maryland in 2016 and ’17.

“You try to talk to whoever you can about (a player’s) mental makeup,” he said. “That’s the nice thing about transfers. You can backtrack and not only watch tape but talk to people you know at those different institutions. ‘How was he there? What did he do?’ We know enough people to get an idea.”

He said coaches tried not to overlook such details as where the tight end lines up or what play Bell likes in desperation time.

The game will be Pitt’s first at home with people in the stands since a 26-19 loss to Boston College on Nov. 30, 2019.

“The pageantry of a real football game. We missed it a year ago,” Narduzzi said. “We were having scrimmages in empty stadiums. I see a locked-in team like they were last year against Austin Peay (in a 55-0 victory in the opener). I sense the same maturity right now out of our guys.”

It also marks the return to full health of tight end Lucas Krull, defensive end Habakkuk Baldonado, cornerback Damarri Mathis and middle linebacker Wendell Davis, all of whom missed significant time last season with injuries.

“We’re healthy going into this opener,” Narduzzi said.

UMass players are eager for the game, too. The Minutemen played only four games last season, losing by a combined 161-12 to Georgia Southern, Marshall, Florida Atlantic and Liberty.

“I expect them to come in and play the best game they will play all year. They will be motivated,” Narduzzi said.

At the beginning of the week, there were three positions up for grabs on Pitt’s depth chart: free safety, middle linebacker and kicker.

Narduzzi was reluctant to reveal much information, but he said Erick Hallett will start at free safety, with Rashad Battle entering the game early.

“We feel great with both of them,” he said. “Kicker (between Ben Sauls and Sam Scarton), I’ll let you hang on that one. Middle linebacker (between SirVocea Dennis and Davis), we have two good ones there. We’ll see.”

He admitted to reporters he would prefer the other team stays in the dark.

“As long as UMass doesn’t know. I don’t mind if you know,” he said.

Narduzzi, who has been involved in season openers since high school in the mid-1980s, admits to feeling “butterflies.”

“I was actually more nervous on Monday than I am now,” he said, “just because you get a good week of practice in. I get nervous and excited. But once that first kickoff and first hit (happens), you calm down and you go.”