Pitt AD Heather Lyke praises Pat Narduzzi for accountability after postgame comments
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Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke told TribLive on Tuesday that she respects coach Pat Narduzzi for apologizing after his postgame comments at Notre Dame suggested he has not done a good enough job restocking the roster.
“I greatly respect and appreciate Pat taking accountability for his postgame comments,” Lyke said. “I know it bothered him more than anyone can imagine because he is a head coach who invests and cares deeply about his personal relationships with his players. It’s why he coaches. Pat is committed to them well beyond the field.”
Asked after the 58-7 loss to the Irish to explain the problems surrounding Pitt’s 2-6 record, Narduzzi said, “You lose a lot of good players a year ago. You think, as a coach, you replaced them. We, obviously, haven’t.”
He added, “It starts with me. I didn’t do a good enough job coaching (Saturday). Put it on me. We have to make plays. It comes down to making plays and doing a better job coaching.”
He said he apologized twice to his players, first on the plane ride home from South Bend on Saturday night and the next day at the weekly team meeting.
Narduzzi said Monday at his weekly news conference that his comments bothered him to the point that he wasn’t able to get a good night’s sleep Saturday.
He told reporters that his postgame comments “didn’t, obviously, come out the way I intended them to come out. Sometimes that happens.”
“When I look at it, there’s nothing worse than a loss,” he continued. “The loss hurts. Everybody in that locker room is hurt. When you feel like your players are hurt by something the head coach said, that hurts even worse. It makes you sick to your stomach. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep Saturday night, I promise you that.”
Pitt will try to snap its two-game losing streak Saturday when the Panthers meet No. 4-ranked and undefeated Florida State at Acrisure Stadium.