Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi may have some things to clear up with his players after it appeared some of them took exception to comments he made after Saturday’s 58-7 loss to Notre Dame.
Pitt suffered one of Narduzzi’s worst losses of his career and the program’s most one-sided defeat since a 60-6 loss to Notre Dame in 1996.
After Saturday’s game, the Panthers head coach tried to explain what had been going wrong this season.
And in doing so, he seemed to throw some of his players under the bus.
“As a football coach you lose a lot of good players from a year ago and you think as a coach you’re going to replace them, and obviously we haven’t,” Narduzzi told reporters, according to ESPN. “Again, it starts with me. I didn’t do a good enough job coaching today. Put it on me, and we’ve got to make plays.”
Pittsburgh has gone 2-6 this season as they’ve struggled to replace the players they lost after last season. The program had six players taken in the 2023 NFL Draft, which is tied for the most by any team in the ACC.
Whether Narduzzi meant any offense by the comments when he said them, when they reached the players inside the locker room via social media, they clearly didn’t sit well with some.
Running back Rodney Hammond Jr. quoted a post on X containing part of Narduzzi’s comments with a caption that had a question mark and read, “Crazy world.”
Safety Javon McIntyre reposted the same post accompanied by a thinking face emoji and the word “huh.”
Running back Montravius Lloyd chimed in with a thinking face emoji and wide receiver Kenny Johnson simply wrote “crazy” in response, which he later deleted.
Narduzzi did try to quell some of the controversy with a post on social media of his own, taking responsibility for the loss.
“I am 100% responsible for today’s loss,” he wrote on X. “Like I said after the game, it starts with me. I didn’t do a good enough job coaching today. Put it on me! I remain committed to finishing the season strong with our team!”
The Panthers host No. 4 Florida State next Saturday.
Pittsburgh is trying to avoid what could be their seventh loss in their last eight games.
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