With ACC opener looming, Pitt's Pat Narduzzi backs struggling QB Phil Jurkovec

While his team prepares to confront undefeated and 17th-ranked North Carolina on Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium, Pat Narduzzi remains supportive of quarterback Phil Jurkovec.

Why, considering Jurkovec has completed less than half of his pass attempts (35 of 75, 46.6%) over Pitt’s first three games?

Why, when Narduzzi admitted two of Jurkovec’s three interceptions at West Virginia cost Pitt the game?

Why, since the coach said he needs to see better decision-making?

“You try to make something happen and you make nothing happen. You make bad things happen,” Narduzzi said.

Later, the coach added, “We’re better off punting on second down if we turn the ball over.”

Yet, in less than a year’s time, Jurkovec has built up enough good feelings among his coaches and teammates that Narduzzi is not comfortable making a change. Or, if he is, he certainly doesn’t want to let North Carolina’s coaches know what he’s thinking.

He continued to praise Jurkovec for his intangibles.

“He’s a leader in that huddle. He’s a guy you trust,” Narduzzi said Monday during his weekly news conference. “You see it every day. When you look back and you look at all the stats and all the numbers of what you put in a practice and what you put through camp and you put on paper, you just don’t dump things like that. You just don’t do it.

“That’s a philosophy and where I’m coming from.”

Of course, there are three days of practice before the ACC opener — when losses will hurt even more than they do in the Backyard Brawl.

“We’re going to evaluate every day. It’s going to be a big week of practice for everybody, including the quarterbacks,” Narduzzi said. “We have to get better.

“We all got issues. That’s why they call us coaches, and we have to go fix it and try to make it as perfect as we can. We can do a better job coaching. It starts with my butt.”

Narduzzi made his reputation as a defensive coach, and he said he leans on offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. and his staff “to make decisions at every position.”

“Those guys know it better. I don’t sit in (meetings). I spend 85% of my time in the defensive side of the room.”

But if they decide to change quarterbacks, it won’t be the first time the starting lineup has been altered during the first month of the season.

• Freshman guard B.J. Williams pushed senior Jason Collier out of a job (before Williams missed the WVU game with an injury).

• Donovan McMillon replaced P.J. O’Brien at strong safety and responded by making 18 tackles against the Mountaineers.

Narduzzi said it’s easier to make a change at safety than at quarterback. He must be certain the next quarterback will play significantly better than the starter.

“The quarterback position is a totally different animal than any other position,” he said. “You try to compare a quarterback to safety, and to me there’s no comparison. We’re going to rotate safeties in there.

“I’m not a quarterback whisperer. I’m not a quarterback guru. But I do believe — from anywhere I’ve ever been — that it takes time to jell with your guys. We’ve been juggling things up front. There’s been a different offensive line every week. There are some missing pieces there.”

Williams and senior guard Ryan Jacoby are injured, and left tackle Matt Goncalves left the WVU game with an apparent injury, but pass protection improved against the Mountaineers, who sacked Jurkovec only once. Cincinnati dropped him five times.

Throwing on the run, however, appeared to create issues.

“We haven’t done our job to do the protection part of it,” Narduzzi said. “We have to give Phil more opportunities to throw under duress in a practice situation. Maybe we should go live on the quarterbacks so they can really feel it. How dumb would that be?”

Narduzzi repeated what he’s said in the past when things go wrong: It’s everybody’s fault.

“I know you (reporters) don’t want to hear that. If I could sit here and say, it’s this guy, if we get rid of this guy … It’s not that. You go back and watch the tape as a coach, missed blocks, not only miss a block, but (a player goes) the wrong on the offensive line, or tight end or tackle, whatever it may be.

“It’s catching the ball. You have to catch the ball. We have opportunities where we can catch the ball and we don’t catch the ball. There are opportunities to complete the pass and throw a better pass, and we don’t complete the passes. It’s everything. There are a lot of guys who didn’t make plays on both sides of the ball. It’s all over the tape.

“I think we do a good job of not throwing guys under the bus and say it’s all your fault. Once you start pointing fingers, you got major issues, and then you lose your locker room and lose your faith and belief and trust to what’s going on.

“Believe in the system and stick to your fundamentals and what we do as a program. You stick with what you do and it will get better.”

Narduzzi said Jurkovec’s demeanor was “good” Sunday when players and coaches put the WVU game to rest. He was asked if booing from the stands — something that happened in consecutive weeks in two stadiums — might affect Jurkovec’s psyche.

“Who were they booing? I think they were booing me,” he said. “Did they say, ‘Boo, Phil,’ or ‘Boo, coach?’ I don’t hear those things with my headphones on, and I’m not sure our kids really do, either. I think there were boos in the first game (Wofford), someone said, correct? We’re in Boo City, Boo City, PA.”

But he believes it’s not a problem for his team.

“Hey, it is what it is. If that’s what they want to do, that’s great. It should not affect us or our psyche.”

Note: Pitt’s game at Virginia Tech on Sept. 30 will start at 8 p.m. and be televised by the ACC Network.