Pat Narduzzi knows exactly what awaits his Panthers on Saturday, and he isn’t mincing words about the challenge.
“We got Central Michigan coming in here. They’re a tough football team. They are blue-collar,” Narduzzi said this week at his media conference. “Matt Drinkall is the head coach. Came from Army. Brings that Army toughness. They’re getting their best players on the field.”
Pitt’s head coach made it clear the Chippewas will not look like the Duquesne team his squad dispatched in Week 1. “They’re going to play with three quarterbacks. If you’re out there watching, you’re not going to say, What happened with the quarterback? Did he get hurt? They play with three. They have packages for all three offensively,” he explained.
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The Chippewas’ physical approach stands out. “They like to line up and pound you, okay? That’s what they want to do. About 70 percent run football team. They’re going to line up in a lot of two tight ends, three tight ends… It will be a different look for our defense this week. It’s going to come down for toughness I think. We’re kind of built for that here in Pittsburgh. Anybody that wants to line up with big people, we embrace that here. That will play into our hands, for sure.”
The head coach also highlighted CMU’s early success. “They got a great win against San Jose on the road. Never an easy trip to go out to California, play a night game. They did a nice job being plus three in the turnover ratio, three turnovers defensively.”
On defense, he sees a veteran coach at work. “Sean Cronin is their defensive coordinator. I’ve known him for a long time. Heck of a football coach. They ran a lot of three down this past week at San Jose. We expect some three down and also four down as far as what they do. Bouncing their backers all over the place trying to confuse you.”
For Narduzzi, the formula is clear. “We haven’t done anything yet, guys. We’re 1-0. We’re 0-0 this week. We beat Duquesne. Now we’ve got a tough, physical MAC team,” he said. “The parity in college football is closing, and I think that’s a good thing for the game.”
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