McKewon: Examining fact and fiction in Pat Narduzzi’s blast of Mark Whipple | Football

Narduzzi has been Pittsburgh’s coach since 2015. He’s now on his fifth offensive coordinator. There’s one fact.

Here’s a second: Since arriving at Pitt, Narduzzi has coached in two ACC title games and won one. Nebraska hasn’t sniffed the equivalent.

But here’s a third: A month after the Panthers were in the 2018 ACC title game — losing 42-10 to Clemson — he fired his offensive coordinator. Maybe you heard of that guy: Shawn Watson.

Narduzzi fired Watson, and replaced him with Whipple. By 2021, Pitt won by 24 points in its second ACC title game appearance.

Pitt did not win the Peach Bowl last season, and that loss — to Michigan State, which passed over Narduzzi for its head coaching vacancy in 2020 — was kind of personal to the coach. Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback Kenny Pickett sat out the game, watching from a suite. Narduzzi, the former Spartan defensive coordinator, had to endure it.

“He’s a 21-point difference,” Narduzzi said of Pickett on the podcast Bazzy’s Black and Gold Banter. “Michigan State gets their butt kicked in.”

Pickett didn’t play in the 31-21 loss, Narduzzi intimated, because he was banged up.

“His toes, his ribs,” Narduzzi said. And Pickett was banged up, Narduzzi intimated, because Pitt threw the ball “85% of the time” last season.

“We didn’t make it easy on Kenny,” Narduzzi said. “I think the most impressive thing about Kenny Pickett is, everybody knew we were going to throw the ball, and we threw the ball. To me, that’s the hardest thing.

“The guy threw the ball like he did and, as a defensive coordinator, if I know you’re going to throw the ball, I’m going to get you. I’m going to make you pay.”

Actually, including sacks, Pitt threw the ball 56% of the time in 2021, running the ball 44% of the time. The Panthers had three backs carry the ball more than 100 times — Nebraska had one.

The Huskers’ leading rusher, Adrian Martinez, carried the ball 133 times. By season’s end, the quarterback had a broken jaw and so busted his throwing shoulder that, coach Scott Frost said, it made a clicking noise.

Pickett sat out the Peach Bowl to protect the first-round NFL draft status he earned, and also because of his ribs and toes. Martinez sat out NU’s final game in 2021 because his shoulder literally clicked.

It’s pretty clear which offense exposed which quarterback to more punishment.

But it’s accurate that Whipple calls a lot of passing plays. Accurate, too, Husker football players were hinting this spring at an “air it out” approach that will lean more on pro-style concepts Whipple developed in the NFL than, say, the Coastal Carolina orbit motion option. And accurate that Pickett has repeatedly credited Whipple above all others with his development into a first-round draft pick.

“He’s always looking to add things from other offenses that we can implement and make ours better,” Pickett told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review last season. “I think that’s what makes him such a great coach. I know a lot of coaches are stuck in their ways, but he’s a guy who’s always learning new things and I respect him a ton for that.”

Stubborn? Not according to Pickett. Narduzzi?

“Our old offensive coordinator had no desire to run the ball,” Narduzzi said. “Everybody knew it. He was stubborn. Wake Forest’s 118th in run defense and we threw the ball every down. And when we ran it, we ran it for 10 yards, and that wasn’t good enough.”

Narduzzi’s speaking of the ACC title game against Wake Forest. Pitt ran for 2.8 yards per carry. So, not 10 yards.

Whipple interviewed for the open Nebraska job fewer than 24 hours after Pitt won the ACC title. He eventually took the job.

Narduzzi released a statement after Whipple left:

“During his three seasons at Pitt, Mark Whipple was a great asset for our entire football program. He did a tremendous job transitioning us from a heavy run attack to one of the best passing games in the entire country.”

Whipple produced an offense that scored 41 points and 486 yards per game. But he did something else, too, and if I had to play a hunch — speculation like gossamer — that thing probably bugged Narduzzi, because it bugs a lot of defensive coordinators. Like it once bugged Bo Pelini a little bit, too, with his last OC at NU.

Whipple called games with a quick tempo.

Excluding the bowl game — which Whipple did not call — Pittsburgh ran 78 plays per game in 2021. That was nine more per game than Nebraska, ninth nationally and a total that would have ranked No. 1 in the Big Ten, ahead of Purdue. Pitt ran 74 plays per game in 2020 and 73.3 in 2019. That last number is a little more than NU’s plays per game in 2018 — Frost’s first year. Remember the tempo of that season?

The Huskers tried slowing it down with Matt Lubick — by a little bit in 2020 then by more in 2021. That deliberation — plus some triple-option tweaks — helped make NU’s offense more explosive between the 20s. Did it exhaust defenses?

The evidence of Nebraska’s repeated fourth-quarter and two-minute drill failures say no.

Nebraska’s 69.3 plays per game in 2021 were its fewest since … Shawn Watson’s last year, when NU averaged 65.4 per game. In 2009, it was 62.6, a glacial pace.

That was Watson’s preferred palette. Frost?

If you take away the Fordham blowout, NU ran 67 plays per game last season. It helped the defense. It didn’t win games.

Whipple, an Ivy League graduate, is bound to speed it up. Narduzzi probably liked the wins without loving the taxation on his defense.

He may have fired Slow-Poke Shawn and promoted Tim Beck in 2011 — and Beck may have been the better OC — but Beck had to throttle down the tempo more than once in his tenure. Players hinted at it, too. They wanted to go fast — and the Huskers had the players to do it.

Beck had one game at Nebraska to call at his preferred speed, the 2014 Holiday Bowl. Remember?

Nebraska ran 94 plays. Tommy Armstrong threw for 381 yards. NU scored 42 points. It looked like Texas Friday Night Lights in late December.

Whipple isn’t going to go that fast, but he could crank it up to the mid to high 70s. And, if so, Frost knows the type.

That was his preferred speed when he arrived. And if it’s win-or-bust in 2022, Nebraska may pull the sports car out of the garage.

Narduzzi, meanwhile, hired a new OC: Boston College’s Frank Cignetti.

The Eagles averaged two more carries per game than Pittsburgh. But — BC ran 65 plays per game last season, last in the ACC. It’s probably not a coincidence.