Pat Narduzzi on Pitt players being heckled: 'It doesn't really matter'

There were people among the nearly 50,000 at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday night who were disappointed with what they were watching. It was Pitt’s second game of the season, and it turned into a 27-21 loss to Cincinnati, an unexpected result for many people.

It also was quarterback Phil Jurkovec’s second game as a Pitt player after a successful and celebrated career at Pine-Richland. For much of the evening, the offense he was directing wasn’t producing as some people thought it should — people who apparently believe it’s their right to have a winning team in town.

Some among the crowd expressed their displeasure by booing.

Coach Pat Narduzzi, who said he didn’t hear the boos, tried to deflect the vocalized criticism toward himself. He probably wasn’t totally wrong when he said, “They were probably booing me.”

In the end, Narduzzi has much bigger issues while trying to steer his team through this season.

“It doesn’t really matter,” he said. “If that’s what you want to do, you want to do. I’m not dealing with it. We’re disappointed enough. We’re going to stay positive in this room. That’s kind of all I have to say about that.”

Asked about it after the game, Jurkovec said he understood why his team was getting such rough treatment from paying customers.

“You know what, we didn’t play well enough,” the 23-year-old senior said. “We’re going to be better.”

What he said before that, however, bothered some people.

“I think if you’re grown man booing in that stadium, then you have to look at yourself,” he said. “I think that’s pathetic.”

The eyebrows raised by that comment do not belong to Narduzzi, who said he did not have a conversation with Jurkovec about it.

“I didn’t really hear about (what he said). It doesn’t really matter.”

Narduzzi said he understands how fans who attend the games might react in certain situations.

“Fans are going to be passionate,” he said. “I really don’t care about the guy who’s in his basement on Twitter. I hope our kids don’t listen to that.”