For Pat Narduzzi, the most maddening aspect of shepherding Pitt through the covid-19 pandemic is not knowing what’s next.

Football coaches are consumed with knowing everything, from the bus schedule to what the opponent’s coach is thinking on fourth-and-3.

But Narduzzi doesn’t know something that, in 2020, matters more than anything: Where the coronavirus molecules originated before they infiltrated his bubble and helped cause postponement of Pitt’s game last Saturday at Georgia Tech. That’s bugging him every minute of every day.

“Whether it’s a doorknob, whether it’s a counter at McDonald’s. You don’t know where it’s going to be, or in Tallahassee somewhere (where Pitt played Florida State on Nov. 7),” he said.

“Nobody tries to get it on purpose, but sometimes it creeps up and gets you and it got us last week.”

After Pitt played the first eight games on schedule, Narduzzi said no one enjoyed having the weekend off, the team’s second in three weeks. (The first was scheduled.)

“Our kids were miserable,” he said. “I was miserable sitting home watching everybody else playing. Our kids put all the work in.

”You study your tail off for that English exam, and all of a sudden, the teacher says, ‘We’re not having that. Wait a second, I did all that stuff for nothing?’ That’s kind of where we are.”

Narduzzi met with his coaches and players virtually Sunday after they were administered the first of the three crucial covid tests they will get this week. They met again Monday while awaiting results, hoping not to get bad news.

“I sure hope we don’t. I pray we don’t,” Narduzzi said. “(If the news is favorable), we told our kids we plan on practicing Tuesday.”

He said Pitt could play with only one day of practice, “but you like to get two in.”

Meanwhile, he plans to play Virginia Tech on Saturday in the home finale at Heinz Field, but the visiting Hokies are the second part of the equation. Virginia Tech has had no recent problems, but it had two games postponed in September because of the coronavirus (the second because of an outbreak at N.C. State).

Pitt’s bad news didn’t surface last week until Thursday afternoon, a little more than 48 hours before the scheduled kickoff in Atlanta.

“You think everything’s good, and then you get reports,” Narduzzi said.

“I talk to our guys all the time. ‘Keep your guard up. Don’t let your guard down. Pretend like everybody’s got it out there.’ ”

Narduzzi declined to reveal how many members of his traveling party tested positive or were subject to contact tracing. But because of quarantine restrictions, some might not play Saturday against Virginia Tech.

“In the ACC, we don’t have a (minimum) number (to play a game),” Narduzzi said. “It’s about their safety and taking care of them.

“It’s a lot different when you’re home then when you’re playing on the road. Did we have a problem going down to Tallahassee (for the Florida State game)? Was there a stewardess? Was there a bus driver? I don’t know. That’s the crazy thing with this whole deal. You don’t know.

“But do we put our kids at risk on another airplane for two hours, on new buses, in a new hotel, waiting all day in a hotel? So many things that you look at. But we just jeopardize the next week and next week, and we jeopardize our football team and our kids. And I’m not going to do that for them or their parents.”

He said the decision not to play was made by Pitt’s medical personnel, but he added, “That’s how I feel at heart, as well.”

Narduzzi said Pitt’s practice facility gets a deep cleaning three or four times per week, plus workers regularly wipe doorknobs and other places with sanitizer.

“There couldn’t be a cleaner place,” he said.

“What happened and how do we fix it? Even if there’s nothing broken, we’re looking to still fix it. We’re working hard on it. This is a serious deal.”

He said players are “disappointed, but understanding.”

“They know this thing is real. We talk about it every, single day. We talk about earning those games and we didn’t earn No. 9.

“To them, it’s a loss. Saturday, I felt like I lost.”

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