Pat Narduzzi breaks down ‘tough son of a gun’ Haynes King, Tech offense

Pat Narduzzi’s Pitt team short-circuited Haynes King’s electrifying Heisman Trophy run in the first quarter of the Panthers’ win over Georgia Tech on Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

The Panthers were a step ahead — and four touchdowns ahead — before King could get the Yellow Jackets’ prolific offense going with a second-quarter touchdown drive after the Tech quarterback opened the game 4-of-11 passing for 23 yards and an interception with two rushes for minus-11 yards in the first quarter.

Narduzzi’s answer for the Jackets was simple: “Keep it simple.”

Georgia coach Kirby Smart simply wants to win the rivalry game at 3:30 p.m. Friday and advance to what he hopes will be an SEC championship game appearance.

The No. 4-ranked Bulldogs need either Texas A&M to lose at Texas on Friday night or Alabama to lose at Auburn on Saturday night to make their eighth appearance over the past nine years in the SEC title game.

But first things first: Georgia is looking to win their rivalry game with Tech for what would be a series-record eighth time in a row.

Narduzzi, in talking about how his Panthers got the jump on King and Tech, explained the challenges of stopping Buster Faulkner’s offense.

“It’s not just stopping Haynes,” said Narduzzi, who is 7-2 against the Jackets since taking over the Pitt program before the 2015 season. “You’ve got to stop the rest of their skill guys and their tailbacks, everybody is athletic on offense.

“I think the first thing, you’ve got to keep the thing simple.”

Narduzzi said Pitt uses a wall to diagram opponents formations, and Faulkner’s playbook filled the side of the room.

“They do so much offensively, formationally. … it was like, what is this?” Narduzzi said. “Buster does a great job scheming you as far as the formations in the backfield sense. They’re going to look like they’re in empty (no backs in the backfield), but the back is just right outside, three steps away from being in the backfield — so are you treating it as empty, or are you treating it as there is a back in the backfield?

“So the first thing you have to do is keep it simple so our guys can play fast.”

Tech still managed to make a game of it and was on the verge of pulling within a touchdown in the third quarter down 28-14 and at the Pitt 1 when King, under pressure, threw a pass that was intercepted by Panthers linebacker Braylan Lovelace and returned 100 yards for a touchdown.

The Jackets ultimately closed to 35-28 in the fourth quarter, but Pitt answered with a four-play, 75-yard drive to effectively end the comeback hopes and hold on to win 42-28.

Narduzzi, who saw Tech roll up 378 total yards to Pitt’s 412 with King overcoming his slow start to finish with 333 yards of total offense and account for three touchdowns, gave credit where it was due.

“We made a few mistakes the second half because they started doing something different,” Narduzzi said. “They started lining up in empty quads and at least motioned the back out of the backfield, and then at quarterback, you can throw it or run it.

“He had a couple quarterback drops we really didn’t see on tape. We didn’t react very well with our backside linebacker.”

Smart might want to send Narduzzi a thank-you note because now that capable element of the Tech playbook is on film, and the Bulldogs can have a plan for it.

Narduzzi indicated Pitt’s 28-0 lead helped neutralize King’s running ability somewhat because the Jackets were in catch-up mode early.

“We didn’t prepare for as much pass. … We got up on him so far that they had a lot more pass game than we did,” Narduzzi said. “They usually are just going to grind it out and keep running Haynes King. We forced him out of that game, but he did a great job throwing the ball and getting the ball to his playmakers.”

Narduzzi said Georgia will need to be prepared for what figures to be a very motivated and capable group of Jackets.

“I can tell you this, they are going up against a really good Georgia Tech team that will be angry,” Narduzzi said. “They’re a tough football team.

“Haynes, I can’t give that guy enough credit, he’s a tough son of a gun and he doesn’t back down at all. He got hit a few times on Saturday (and) he just came back for some more.”

Narduzzi said he has his own challenges this week facing a Carson Beck-led Miami team in both of those teams’ regular-season finales.