Pitt Take 5: Pat Narduzzi hopes Saturday scrimmage upstages next week's Blue-Gold Game

The Big Blitz dance, jazz and rock band won’t be performing at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday.

Bad AZZ BBQ won’t be cooking smoked ribs on the street.

ESPN’s Louis Riddick won’t be helping to launch a new Pitt apparel line for his alma mater.

ACC Network cameras will be shut down and stored away.

All those things, however, will happen and be part of the festivities April 13 at Pitt’s annual Blue-Gold Game at Acrisure. The live scrimmage Saturday — with attendance by invitation only — will provide a much clearer picture of what Pitt’s football team will look like when the season opens Aug. 31 against Kent State.

“It should be the best (scrimmage) of the year,” coach Pat Narduzzi said.

Any coach will tell you that coaches are more comfortable and more willing to try new plays and alignments when no one’s watching.

“The Spring Game will be on ACC Network,” he said. “I don’t want to show everything we’re doing. We’ll keep it a little bit vanilla.”

Pitt concluded its penultimate week of spring drills Thursday. Here are a few anecdotes:

1. Slow and steady

Coach Pat Narduzzi spoke to reporters Tuesday and appeared satisfied by what he saw in a four-minute drill at the end of practice. Offensive coordinator Kade Bell temporarily set aside the no-huddle offense and went at a normal pace.

“It was good to see our offense get in an actual huddle, just learn how to eat up the clock,” Narduzzi said.

Yes, Bell wants to snap the football about 12-18 seconds after the end of the previous play, but no unit can keep it up for four quarters. There also needs to be some traditional sequences, such as closing out the game with a lead by huddling up, running the ball and moving the sticks.

There will be growing pains associated with this offense that might lead to a slow start to the season. A more tradtional approach at strategically sound points of the game — with a strong running game — isn’t a bad idea.

2. QBs’ quick release

Quarterbacks will try to get the football out of their hands quicker this season, employing a strategy that can frustrate the pass rush. Nothing slows down an up-tempo offense more effectively than a sack.

“You want to take those completions,” Narduzzi said. “Coach Bell does a great job of trying to teach them to take what (the defense is) giving you. Everybody would like to have the deep ball, but we want completions and keep the drive going.”

Narduzzi said the popular phrase “50/50 ball” (when the receiver and defender appear to have equal opportunity to come down with the football) isn’t accurate in regards to long passes.

“Most times I’ve been around, those deep balls are maybe — maybe — 20%. I can go through the past 18 years of football and show you that it probably averages 13% or 14%. As a defensive guy, you like (the offense) taking shots because usually they’re going to fall incomplete.”

Does that mean Bell will restrict usage of the deep pass this season? Or, is Narduzzi throwing up a mirage to confuse his opponents?

3. ‘Be selfish about your success’

Special teams coach Jacob Bronowski understands the heavy responsibility on his shoulders, knowing there are “huge chunks of yardage that’s exchanged every time you step on the field.”

To that end, he tells his players “to be selfish about your own success.”

“You have to go out there and have a littte bit of an edge to how you’re going about stuff. From what I’ve heard, there’s a lot more competition (on special teams this season). That’s how that edge is going to be developed.

“It comes down to technique and effort. Develop within your technique, believe in your technique and go out there and play 100 mph and cut it loose. If we go out there and we’re timid and we’re not embracing the challenge and the grind and the toughness of everything, then,we’re cheating ourselves.”

Bronowski, also the tight ends coach, said he has been impressed by senior Gavin Bartholomew’s “feel for route running.”

“He’s getting better and better every single day. It’s something he needs to improve on and he knows that and he’s doing that.”

He also likes the toughness displayed by walk-on Josh Altsman, a Central Catholic graduate and Zelienople resident.

“He wakes up and he eats glass, I think, every single morning,” Bronowski said. “He will throw his body on the line. Makes it fun to coach.”

4. It’s time to relax

Part of senior kicker Ben Sauls’ preparation is about 10-20 minutes of almost daily meditation.

“Meditation is crucial in the kicking position, being calm and collected throughout the day,” he said. “I try to hit it daily. Breath work, visualization. gratefulness. I’ll close my eyes, visualize reps before games, after games, before bed, just to see it in my head and have a better understanding of what I’m going to do when the moment presents itself.”

Part of the gratefulness, he said, is being surrounded by his teammates, including new long snapper and UConn transfer Nilay Upadhyayula. Even though, Sauls admits, “I can’t pronounce his name yet.”

In two seasons, Sauls has missed only two field goal attempts inside the 40-yard line, but he is 1 of 5 outside the 50.

“Most of my misses are left, which means I’m not finishing all the way,” he said. “If I just get through the ball, it’s probably going to go in.”

5. Take it easy, P.J.

Approaching his fourth season on campus, safety P.J. O’Brien still doesn’t know how to relax.

“There are no days off. I need every rep possible,” he said. “If I could go all day in practice, that’s what I’d do. I don’t get tired. I just get sleepy.”

O’Brien is part of a three-man rotation at safety with Javon McIntyre and Donovan McMillon. Redshirt freshman Cruce Brookins of Steel Valley could make it four before the start of the season. He is receiving almost daily praise from coaches and teammates.

“Cruce is going to put his head in there,” O’Brien said. “Receivers, be cautious. Please, be cautious.”