Central Michigan's Matt Drinkall offers praise of Pat Narduzzi, Pitt's front 7

College football coaches belong to an intimate fraternity. Across all levels, many have crossed paths at some point, be it at clinics or while serving on the same staff.

As they accrue more years in the profession, all coaches develop reputations. For Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi, his background is mostly with defense. Aside from 1992, when he led the wide receivers at Miami (Ohio), he has operated on the other side of the ball.

Central Michigan first-year coach Matt Drinkall, Narduzzi’s adversary Saturday at Acrisure Stadium, had high praise for Pitt’s 11th-year coach.

“He’s set the standard of defensive football in college for about the last 25 years,” Drinkall told reporters Tuesday on Zoom. “You’ve always paid attention to how well he does and how he does it, because anything he does is kind of the standard that everybody copies.”

Before arriving at Pitt in late December 2014, Narduzzi spent eight seasons (2017-14) coordinating Michigan State’s defense and, before that, Cincinnati’s (2004-06).

Now, Narduzzi and coordinator Randy Bates will aim to stop a Chippewas offense that constitutes a significant departure from the kind of scheme the Panthers will face the rest of the season.

That Central Michigan resides in the Mid-American Conference is not being taken lightly by Narduzzi, who pointed out the league’s Week 1 performance.

Central Michigan won at San Jose State, Toledo lost to Kentucky by a touchdown and Buffalo trailed Minnesota by just three entering the fourth quarter.

“We’re 0-0 this week,” Narduzzi said. “We beat Duquesne. We (now) have a tough, physical MAC team. If you go back and look at the MAC schedule last week — who they played — all the tough, tight games. Ohio U almost beat Rutgers. Wisconsin, 17-3 (over the RedHawks). They played good football.”

Key in the Chippewas’ run-heavy attack is their usage of three quarterbacks. For Drinkall, who spent 2019-24 at Army in various offensive assistant capacities, including as co-offensive coordinator in 2023, rolling with more than one quarterback simply made sense.

Top Plays | Week One pic.twitter.com/EfRKnfrap1

— Central Michigan Football (@CMU_Football) September 1, 2025

“To me, you play a lot of guys at every other position,” he said. “I don’t know why that one’s any different. … We have multiple quarterbacks that can play, who we think can be starters on other teams in our conference. We like them a lot.”

Quarterbacks Pitt can expect to see Saturday are Joe Labas, Central Michigan’s starter, plus Angel Flores and Jadyn Glasser.

Against the Spartans, Labas threw the ball 10 times, completing five passes for 56 yards while rushing two times.

Flores took 12 carries for a modest 33 yards, throwing for 59 more on three attempts, while Glasser was used the least, registering four rushes.

“We’re a pro-style, power spread offense,” Drinkall said. “It’s 85-90% gun-based, a lot of two-back elements. But the three quarterbacks that we play, they’re not that different. The neat part about them is, it’s not like when one goes in, you only do these things. All three of them run 95% of the offense. You just try to tailor the things that they do really well within that system.”

Pitt’s defensive front seven will be entrusted to shut down that trio.

Playing into Pitt’s hands in that particular matchup will be a deep, veteran defensive line. Additionally, Pitt’s returning starting linebackers, Kyle Louis, Rasheem Biles and Braylan Lovelace, racked up 41 collective tackles for loss last season.

In last week’s win over Duquesne, Louis posted three TFLs and was named the ACC Linebacker of the Week, and Rasheem Biles and Cam Lindsey combined for 1 1/2.

“It’s going to be a big game for us up front,” Panthers linebacker Cam Lindsey said. “Just really trust in our details and trust in what we’ve been seeing on film and going over in practice. I feel like with just trusting in each other, not letting each other down and just playing ‘we-fense,’ I think we should be good.”

Drinkall, whose team put up 236 rushing yards against San Jose State, expects a tough battle on the ground Saturday.

“Very impressive players,” he said of Pitt’s front seven. “To me, it’s a combination of three things, and you love the challenge of playing this. One is, you put on the tape, and the personnel is good. Every one of those kids is supposed to be playing football at that level. They are all very impressive kids that are long, athletic, twitchy, very physical and they run their butts to the ball.

“Then you start watching the tape and you realize not only are they very good players, they are incredibly well-coached with details, mechanics and fundamentals. The third piece is, they operate in their system and have a very good understanding of their system.”

Plenty of other factors will determine if Pitt moves to 2-0 Saturday.

The Panthers likely will delve deeper into their offensive playbook than was seen against Duquesne, challenging Central Michigan to neutralize tailback Desmond Reid.

Drinkall’s defense also will have to keep pace with Kenny Johnson, Blue Hicks, Poppi Williams and the rest of Pitt’s wideouts.

But for Narduzzi, the foremost challenge Saturday will be readying his defense for the Chippewas’ distinctive scheme.

“It’s different from what we’re normally seeing,” Narduzzi said. “I think that’s probably the biggest deal.”

Note: Drinkall relayed Tuesday that Chippewas starting left guard John Iannuzzi suffered a season-ending ACL tear in Week 1.