If we’ve read Pat Narduzzi correctly over the past seven years, three months and two days, he is not looking beyond Monday’s coaches meetings in advance of Tuesday’s practice.

But all of a sudden, the year 2030 has become a talking point around Pitt football. That’s because Pitt on Monday signed Narduzzi to a long-term (to put it mildly) contract with language that makes the university beholden to him for nine more seasons through 2030.

After compiling a 53-37 record in his first seven seasons, Narduzzi is set up to become the winningest and longest tenured coach in Pitt football history.

Jock Sutherland is No. 1 (15 seasons and 111 victories from 1924-38), but he resigned at the age of 49 when Chancellor John Gabbert Bowman, who initiated the construction of the Cathedral of Learning, decided it was prudent to de-emphasize football.

Like Bowman, Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher is a builder — the $250 million Victory Heights project is scheduled to break ground later this year — but he also sees the value of a solid athletics department.

No other evidence is necessary than the commitment Gallagher and athletic director Heather Lyke just made to their football coach. Nine years in college athletics is a long time, so Pitt’s risk is not insignificant.

• Pitt signs Pat Narduzzi to new contract through 2030

The legacy Narduzzi will build — and leave — at Pitt is incomplete, but he needs only 59 victories in the next nine seasons to pass Sutherland. If he wins only eight games next season — three fewer than last season and a result that, no doubt, would anger many Pitt fans — he will move into second place past John Michelosen (56) and Pop Warner (60).

Pitt won the ACC championship in 2021, was invited to a New Year’s Six bowl game and finished ranked No. 13 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. Early projections for the 2022 season rank Pitt as high 13th.

Also, Pitt will open the season Sept. 1 on ESPN against Backyard Brawl rival West Virginia.

Among other good news that has emerged under Narduzzi’s watch:

• He recruited and coached Heisman Trophy finalist and likely NFL first-round draft choice Kenny Pickett, Biletnikoff winner Jordan Addison and seven All-Americans.

• He had an ACC-high six Pitt players drafted last year. Only seven schools had more.

• He helped procure enhanced contracts for his staff this year. “Big thing, our assistant coaches got taken care of. That was priority No. 1,” he said on the first day of spring drills Feb. 28.

• He’s built a culture at Pitt that has kept his players largely free of unwanted publicity. There hasn’t been a reported arrest of a Pitt football player in nearly five years.

— Larry Fitzgerald (@LarryFitzgerald) March 28, 2022

Pitt football matters now and is no longer the subject of ridicule, as opposed to the failed expectations and late-season defeats that marked Dave Wannstedt’s tenure, the departure of Todd Graham after 11 months and the mediocrity of Paul Chryst’s three seasons.

Pitt became a destination school this season for two transfers from big-time programs — quarterback Kedon Slovis (USC) and linebacker Shayne Simon (Notre Dame). But Pitt never had been considered a destination job for coaches. Narduzzi’s five immediate predecessors (Walt Harris, Wannstedt, Michael Haywood, Graham and Chryst) left Pitt with time remaining on their contracts.

If Narduzzi remains through 2030 when he will be 64, he will have coached at Pitt for 16 seasons — one more than Sutherland — and for as long as Nick Saban presently has been at Alabama. Only seven FBS coaches have been at their schools for 16 or more seasons.

Situations change in athletics almost as quickly as you can turn a page on the calendar, but Narduzzi has spoken previously about loyalty.

“It’s about the people. It’s about being happy every day,” Narduzzi said two days before Pitt defeated Wake Forest in the ACC Championship game. “I turned down five head coaching jobs before I took the right one.

“I’m happy in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is my home.”

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