Pat Narduzzi has at least 1 area of confidence coming off Pitt's loss at WVU

Whenever a college football team drops a game in a way Pitt lost at West Virginia, the topic invariably comes up about how the players will — or won’t — bounce back emotionally when they have to take the field next time out.

For Pitt, that’ll be Saturday against Louisville at Acrisure Stadium.

In this case, Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi has confidence his group will do that coming off a bye weekend.

“The players bounced back. The players were great last week (at practice),” Narduzzi insisted.

“The ACC is ahead of us. A nonconference game is a nonconference game. The goal at the end of the day is to win an ACC championship. Our guys realize that. I think they learned a lot from last week’s game, our first really big game on the road. It’s never easy to go on the road and win a football game.”

Fair enough. But what about the coaches? They pour their hearts into these weekly referendums on their entire careers too. How do they cope when a week’s worth of work dissolves in the way it did at WVU?

“The coaches are the same way. We’re older. We’d better be able to bounce back. We know how critical it is. It’s a one-game season every week. You put everything into it,” Narduzzi said. “Coaches are the last ones you worry about.”

OK. From an emotional standpoint, maybe not. But maybe the better way for me to have asked the question is from a confidence standpoint.

Confidence in football isn’t just about a quarterback knowing he can make a long throw or a kicker feeling like he can nail a last-second field goal from 55 yards.

It’s the coaches having confidence that their players can execute the basics. That they’ll convert what’s on paper for the game plan into positive play on the field. That they’ll be where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there.

Based on how many times Narduzzi bemoaned the on-field execution of his players during that loss to WVU during his press conference Monday, his faith may be a bit dented in that regard.

“We have to tighten up a lot of things. The first thing we have to do is tighten up our execution on both sides of the ball,” Narduzzi said. “Both sides of the ball, it comes down to execution. Without execution, it doesn’t matter, and you can’t even evaluate the play. … I don’t know if our guys were just too fired up or what, but we didn’t execute.”

I thought Narduzzi was going to channel his inner John McKay after a while.

Reporter: “John, what did you think of your team’s execution?”

McKay: “I think it’s a good idea.”

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Despite all those concerns about his team’s ability to turn intent into action, Narduzzi says his staff will be steadfast in its approach to game planning.

“We talk about that all the time. The plan doesn’t change,” Narduzzi decreed. “Some of the Xs and Os on the field change. What you’re doing. How are you doing it? Who’s doing what? Who you’re getting the ball to, who’s blocking, all those things. But the plan never changes. If you start changing the plans, you’ve got problems.”

Some of those problems right now include a rushing attack that’s 15th among 17 ACC teams. A quarterback in Eli Holstein, who is coming off six sacks in Morgantown. A team that blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead. A star running back in Desmond Reid, who left the Backyard Brawl after the first quarter.

Yet Narduzzi is unwavering in his belief that his assistants have a steady hand on the rudder, particularly offensive coordinator Kade Bell.

“I meet with him all the time. I think he called a (heck) of a game,” Narduzzi said. “There are plays you’d like to have back here and there, and communication can always be better. But I thought when you go back and watch the tape with him and see what’s there and what’s open and if we get the block there, if we get this, I think we put ourselves in some good positions. We’ve got to finish.”

They sure didn’t in Morgantown last week, and they sure didn’t down the stretch last year, losing their last six.

Narduzzi may not want much to change, but that part has to, or this season will end in mid-tier ACC obscurity as so many others have.