University of Pittsburgh Athletics
10/26/2026 4:46:00 PM | Football
Pat Narduzzi did what he always does after a loss on Monday, and that was to put it on himself.
The Panthers fell at No. 1 Miami, and in the days since, Narduzzi has watched the film, found the details and come away with a clear picture of how the game got away.
The short version is that it was about field position, execution and the thin margin between good enough and great.
Now Pitt turns the page to Georgia Tech, a Saturday night Halloween matchup with two banged-up teams that are both hungry for a win.
Field position set the tone
The film told the story long before the final score did. Pitt's offense went three-and-out on its opening possession, and the punt that followed had a short hang time and landed in the hands of one of the country's top returners.
Narduzzi pointed to that sequence as the first domino, a small mistake against the kind of team that punishes them.
"34 of their points were scored on short fields, 50 yards or less," Narduzzi said. "I don't care who you're playing, you're going to struggle. But we were on the field 20 minutes and 20 seconds in the first half defensively, and you don't give a team that's that explosive the ball."
The Toney problem
Miami's Malachi Toney was the name Pitt's defense kept running into. The Panthers often had two defenders on him, whether a linebacker and a safety or some other bracket. He still found ways to get open, and Narduzzi gave him his due.
The head coach pointed to Toney's head fakes and his feel for manipulating coverage, and he admitted the safety help was sometimes a little deeper than Pitt wanted.
"He's a fantastic football player," Narduzzi said. "He's a Heisman candidate, and we didn't do a good enough job in coverage. Our plan wasn't good enough to stop him, but we did have two guys on him a lot. You're worried about covering him, so you're not worried about being physical. The combination of being physical and getting your hands on him as well as covering him is something that's hard to do."
Sticking with the plan
Pitt tried some different looks against Miami, and Narduzzi was candid that they didn't help.
The Panthers were strong on first and second down for most of the afternoon, but they couldn't get off the field on third down. He also gave credit to Miami's quarterback, calling him accurate and another Heisman candidate on that offense.
That led Narduzzi back to a philosophy he preaches to his players.
He believes a team can tweak its game plan from week to week, but a total overhaul usually backfires, especially in the middle of a season. The message to the locker room is to trust the plan, play fast and make plays.
"You can try a bunch of different things, and we did some different things for sure," Narduzzi said. "But it's got to go within the framework of who you are and what you do. Otherwise, we won't execute it well. I talk to our kids all the time about sticking with the plan. I think the worst teams start to change their plan midseason, then it goes downhill."
Quarterbacks taking a step
Holden Geriner remains the guy for Pitt, and Narduzzi liked what he saw in the areas the staff wanted him to work on. He stepped up in the pocket and took off running a couple of times, the kind of improvements the coaches had been asking for.
Narduzzi said Corey Dailey showed progress too, and he called it a step forward for the whole quarterback room.
"They made major improvements," Narduzzi said. "Is it good enough to win? No. Did we miss some stuff down the field? Yes. And that's, again, it's a process. We'd like to instantly have a guy back there throwing 75% completions, but that's not where we are right now. But we're going to get there. We have confidence in those guys to get it done."
Looking ahead to Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech comes to Pittsburgh on Saturday night, Halloween, with an injury report that Narduzzi said looks a lot like Pitt's.
The Yellow Jackets are coming off a tough outing against Boston College, which means both teams are hungry for a win. He also expects a very different look than last year, when Haynes King made the Georgia Tech offense a dual-threat challenge.
He also tried to widen the lens for his team after the loss. Among Power Four programs, 32 have five or more wins, and Pitt is one of them.
"There are 20 teams in the country that have six or seven wins, and there's 12 that have five wins," Narduzzi said. "We're one of those 12. We've done some great things, dealt with some injuries and not necessarily having all our guns when we walk out on the field. But there's a lot of football to be played, and our goal is to go one and zero each week.
