After seven games and four defeats — and with four opponents left on the schedule — Pat Narduzzi has plenty of evaluating to do, but he said now is not the time to do it.

When he was asked Thursday to assess Pitt second-year offensive coordinator Mark Whipple after 20 games, he declined to do so.

“I’m not going to do any evaluating until after the season,” he said. “I don’t think (evaluating now) is the fair thing to do.”

Pitt’s offense has struggled in recent weeks, especially in the ground game and the red zone.

In a 45-3 loss to Notre Dame last Saturday (second-worst in six seasons under Narduzzi’s command), Pitt gained 162 total yards — its lowest output in nine years. The three points were the least Pitt scored in Heinz Field since 2010.

“The last thing in everybody’s mind, and I say this about offense or defense, (is) what you did last week,” he said. “What have you done for me lately?

“We can evaluate week by week. We can evaluate play by play. It ends up, what are we going to do at the end of the season? How are we recovering? What are we doing to try to get our playmakers the ball? Those are things we’ve addressed this week. Right now, we just need to regroup and play together and try to put a better brand out on the field.”

Whipple is Pitt’s fourth offensive coordinator to work with Narduzzi. Jim Chaney and Matt Canada left for jobs in the SEC. Shawn Watson was fired and replaced by Whipple.

A needed off week

After putting his team through two lighter practices during the off week, Narduzzi admitted his players “weren’t physically prepared (for Notre Dame) like I’d like them to be.”

“I don’t think we were as fast as we needed to be.”

Pitt (3-4, 2-4) is the only ACC team to play seven games without an off week.

“We didn’t play against four nonconference opponents to start off the year. Six straight, physical, tough ACC football games,” Narduzzi said. “It was kind of a concern last Thursday, and I cut practices way back. Probably didn’t cut it back enough. There is the mental fatigue as well as the physical fatigue.

“At the beginning of the year, I thought seven games and a bye (were) OK. But when you get into the grind of it, it’s not OK. It’s kind of rough.”

Narduzzi emphasized the players are “trying hard.”

“I thought our effort on Saturday was good.”

He mentioned two special teams plays where “you saw a couple guys not going, like, hard. Guys that don’t play that many reps.”

He said execution must improve.

“Sometimes execution gets harder when it’s against good folks,” he said.

How’s Pickett?

Narduzzi said he doesn’t know about quarterback Kenny Pickett’s playing status for the Nov. 7 game at Florida State.

“Kind of where we were a week ago. It’s kind of a day-by-day. I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll see. You can sit here and hope and pray. He’s working his tail off. He’s tough, as we know.

“I wish I could give you an answer yes or no, but I don’t know.”

He said Joey Yellen, who has started the past two games, took most of the reps this week.

Davis Beville was in for only one series last Saturday, and Narduzzi pointed to the young quarterback’s bobble of the first center snap.

“Maybe we should have given him another series. But just coach’s decision,” he said. “It ain’t easy. He’s a young guy going out there. We have two redshirt freshman quarterbacks. That’s where we are right now.”

What about those penalties?

After Pitt was penalized 12 times in the Notre Dame game, Narduzzi said he sent video clips of those plays into the ACC office, per league protocols.

“Put it this way, there are not 12 penalties in the game,” he said. “You send them in, and you get what you get.”

He admitted some might have come as a result of “a little bit of frustration kicking in.”

He added, “How do you have two in the first half and 10 in the second half? It doesn’t make any sense.”

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