University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pitt Football Camp: Day 12, Quotes
8/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
2016 Pitt Football Training Camp, Day 12 Coverage
Head Coach Pat Narduzzi
Opening statement:
"Today will be practice No. 14. We had a great practice yesterday. I was really happy with the intensity and the competition. It got heated out there. The guys were cranked up. Today we're in what we call spider pads. It will be a light, almost typical Friday before a big game. We try to teach our guys what we have to do on a Friday before a big game. We try to get them in that mood. We hired a new graduate assistant yesterday—he's obviously a former player—for recruiting and operations. LaRod Stephens-Howling will be our new graduate assistant. As you guys know, he's a former great [Pitt] tailback and a NFL tailback. We're happy to have him in the program as well. I'll give you that little announcement."
On how the LaRod Stephens-Howling hire came to be:
"He applied. I actually met LaRod [Stephens-Howling] last year. I told him that his first interview was after one of our summer camps. I don't know if you were there or not, but after one of our summer camps, he had stopped by. He was volunteering over at Robert Morris. He came out and I met him, and then I came out and said, 'Hey, do you want to say a few words to all of the campers?' He impressed me right there. He's a guy that we wanted to bring back to the Pitt family and a guy that has done a lot for this program. We're happy to have him back."
On if they will be at Heinz Field for the scrimmage on Saturday:
"Yes, sir. We will be."
On how much he tries to simulate an actual game when they scrimmage at Heinz Field:
"We'll wait until the rehearsal scrimmage the following Friday. Next Friday, we'll kind of hit all of the details then, but just like we do out here when we scrimmage, we try to work as many situations as possible. Even when we're out here we've got the coaches up in the tower with the headphones on, working the communication between the coaches because someone is going to be up and someone is going to be down. In our scrimmage it's more of the football part of it. We're working two-and-a-half minute sideline adjustments. So when the one defense comes off against the one offense, they go to the sideline, and we work and talk about the communication. We do a great job with sideline adjustments. It's something that we teach and coach. We don't want to get to game day and they're watching the scoreboard to see what's going on. No, they better be locked into that next series, and we try to coach that throughout camp."
On if Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada will be in the booth during games this season:
"Yeah, Matt [Canada] will be upstairs, correct."
On if having defensive depth will help against up-tempo offenses:
"It really does help. We just talked about competing and guys competing for positions, and competition is good because we've got more guys. So we obviously have the depth to be able to do that. It really will help us."
On if they are actively preparing to face the triple-option for the Georgia Tech game:
"Yeah. We've had probably eight to 10 minutes every day when we've worked on the triple-option out here. No doubt. We didn't do it in the spring because we felt like we had enough of it during the December month of practicing for Navy. We purposely installed it from day one."
On if moving Brian O'Neill to Offensive Line was the right move:
"There's no question about it. Brian O'Neill is going to be a great offensive tackle at the next level, and he's going to be a great one for us. He's all in, and it's a great move. I'm not a genius though; we had to do that. It didn't take a genius to figure that one out."
On how the freshman defensive tackles have looked so far in camp:
"They're like yo-yos right now. They're up and down, but they have a ton of talent. You see great spurts out of them every day. They have the ability to cause havoc in the backfield. [Amir] Watts will get off the ball. Yesterday he caused some major havoc on the inside. But sometimes he'll be on the same side as the other guy, and it becomes a problem. That's the same thing for the other guys. Keyshon Camp looked explosive yesterday, and Rashad Wheeler has looked good. All three of them I anticipate getting ready to go as the season starts."
On how the freshmen wide receivers have looked so far in camp:
"They're doing well. They've made some big catches on some deep throws. Aaron Mathews might be the guy that's ahead right now. We'll continue to keep giving him more and more as we move forward."
Wide Receiver Dontez Ford:
On Pitt's Wide Receiver depth:
"Coach [Matt] Canada already has an idea on the guys he wants out there. He's been mixing up the personnel a lot and giving everybody an opportunity. Right now Jester [Weah], Quadree [Henderson], and I have been taking a lot of reps, but other guys have stepped up and have made plays too. You can see other guys getting into the mix here as well."
On Aaron Mathews during camp:
"He looks good. All of our freshman are playing well right now. It's just learning the offense, and they have to catch up to the rest of us. They are all talented, they are all athletic and they can all go out there and make plays."
On trying to learn a new offense:
"Once you get use to the language and the terminology it's not too bad. You can see that all three new guys are making progress in the meeting rooms. They are figuring out how to take the language that we use in the meeting room and to use that to understand the concept going out into the field."
On how much studying goes on during camp:
"We are only on the field for a few hours. The rest of it is us in the meeting rooms studying and learning things. It can take a toll if you are not prepared for it. But our guys have done a good job spending a lot of time in the meeting rooms preparing for everything."
On the potential of being a starter for the upcoming season:
"I'm looking forward to it. I want to go out there and win games. That is the most important part. It is going to be fun seeing what we do this year. We have a variety of guys that you can put the ball in their hands and they can do something with it."
Linebacker Bam Bradley
On moving around in linebacker positions:
"I prepare for everything. I played Money all last year, so it makes it easy to go back and forth. I have to train my mind to when I'm playing each position, but I wouldn't say I didn't expect it because I was prepared for anything."
On what it will take to solidify a starting job in either linebacker position:
"This is my last year and there isn't much that I haven't done to prepare myself for this. I just put all my faith in God so that when that day comes and it's time for me to have that job, it's going to happen for me. I really believe that so I'm not really pressing the issue or bugging coach, I just come out here every day and do my job the best I can and make plays."
On talking to his brother about the Star linebacker position:
"I didn't really talk to him that much. I paid attention in meetings when he talked and what coach was saying to everybody and tried to remember little things so if I ever got put in that position it wasn't brand new."
On if his previous shoulder injury is affecting him at all:
"I'm not held back at all. I do preventative stuff just because coming into the first couple days of hitting I didn't know how it was going to be. It's not really bothering me at all. I just get treatment on it every day to make sure nothing does go wrong. It's my senior year. I can't afford to be playing 50 or 60 percent; I need to be 100 percent for every game. I do the preventative maintenance to make sure everything is okay."
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