How is Pitt off to a 4-0 start? By being

• David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterOct 3, 2024, 08:00 AM ET

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  • College football reporter.
  • Joined ESPN in 2012.
  • Graduate of the University of Delaware.

PITTSBURGH — Pat Narduzzi likes to score on offense.

Honestly, he’s annoyed that this needs to be spelled out so bluntly. Until last season’s 3-9 implosion, Pitt had been among the most consistently good programs in the country. Under Narduzzi, Pitt took home the ACC title in 2021, while scoring 41 points per game and sending QB Kenny Pickett to the Heisman Trophy ceremony.

Still, it’s hard to ignore Narduzzi’s inherently defensive vibe. He’s a blunt, blue-collar, Western Pennsylvania coach with a long history of creating innovative defensive schemes and demoralizing opposing quarterbacks. He may not hate offense, but he’s certainly not opposed to winning a bunch of games 13-7 either.

This was the image that haunted Kade Bell when he first spoke with Narduzzi about Pitt’s vacant offensive coordinator position last December. Bell didn’t want to scare Narduzzi away from a job offer by admitting he hoped to completely reimagine Pitt’s offensive game plan, so he sanded down the more progressive edges of the playbook.

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“You want to be careful with your words,” Bell said. “We go fast and are really aggressive, but I was telling him how we change tempos and all that.”

After about 15 minutes of talking, Narduzzi interrupted.

“Look,” Narduzzi said, “I just want to score points.”

Bell took a deep breath and started his pitch over again.

“Now,” Bell said, “he was talking my language.”

True to his word, Narduzzi has eagerly embraced Bell’s up-tempo style, even if it took a while for all the pieces to click into place. But amid a surprising 4-0 start to the season — including back-to-back come-from-behind wins — Pitt seems to have found a strange alchemy with its aggressive, young coordinator, a QB transfer from Alabama and a 5-foot-6 wrecking ball of a running back.

On Saturday (noon ET on ESPN2), the Panthers travel to North Carolina searching for their first 5-0 start since 1991 by being, perhaps, the least Pitt-like team in recent history.

“We’re not going to change what we believe in,” Narduzzi said, “but I want to win.”

Pitt travels to North Carolina this weekend. Barry Reeger-Image Images

NARDUZZI HAS ALL his assistants take a personality test called the Predictive Index. He learned about it from a booster who runs a trucking company and does the same with his staff. It takes only five minutes, but it helps define each person’s strengths and weaknesses and, more importantly, offers insight on how their personality meshes with others on staff.

Bell and Narduzzi are both sons of coaches, raised in blue-collar towns with a relentless work ethic and an uncompromising competitive streak, so it stood to reason the Venn diagram of their personalities would have significant overlap. When the results came back, however, many of their descriptors seemed at odds: Narduzzi the gruff, old hound dog who has seen it all and is rarely impressed by any of it; Bell an eager puppy, pulling and tugging and gnawing at any loose thread he can find in search of something new and exciting.

Here’s what the tests suggested:

“Pat and Kade may work hard to persuade each other.”

“Pat may be overwhelmed with Kade’s eagerness to have conversations and seek to politely shorten or avoid interactions.”

“Kade should set up time to speak with Pat rather than dropping by and asking questions.”

Narduzzi tossed the report on to his desk.

“He does this s— all the time,” Narduzzi laughed. “Dropping by my office at six o’clock at night, just to say, ‘Hey, what’s up, Pat?'”

The test suggested Bell was a “maverick” — creative and aggressive, a free thinker unencumbered by tradition.

The test labeled Narduzzi a “strategist” — the type of person who sees all the angles then figures out the best way to achieve his goals.

They approached problems from different angles, but they also seemed to balance each other in ways Narduzzi knew the program needed.

“Our defense is creative,” Narduzzi said, “and I wanted someone creative for the offense.”

So Narduzzi handed the keys to Bell, along with a promise to give the new playcaller anything he needed to win.

Narduzzi fired several key members of his offensive staff, including two assistants who’d been with him nearly a decade, but he felt it was important to surround Bell with the assistants he was comfortable working alongside — guys whose predictive indexes meshed well with the new OC.

Bell likes to be improvisational, so he doesn’t script a practice. Normally that would frustrate a strategist such as Narduzzi, but he has learned to embrace the fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants approach.

Bell dismissed the traditional staples of practice, such as repetitive ball security drills. While the two were watching a Pittsburgh Steelers camp this summer, Narduzzi nudged him and pointed out the NFL team they share a facility with was working on ball security, but that’s as far as the head coach pushed.

Pitt has had to rethink its strength and conditioning to accommodate Bell’s up-tempo approach, too. Last year, Pitt practices were often more of a walk-through — prep for game day, rarely more than 60 snaps. Now players run a lot. In spring ball, Bell estimates the first-team offense ran 800 dropbacks just to prepare for a more pass-heavy approach.

Bell wants at least 100 snaps in each practice now. He runs his offensive linemen ragged. It’s a strain on the defense, too. Narduzzi has accommodated all of it because he thinks it will help Pitt win.

With Pitt trailing by 21 in the second half against Cincinnati in Week 2, Narduzzi paced the sidelines like a caged tiger, raging against his team’s early struggles. Eventually, he caught a glimpse of Bell, calmly chirping into his headset, a smile on his face.

“How are you so calm?” Narduzzi asked.

Bell shrugged.

“That’s just who I am, man,” Bell said. “We go well together.”

In Narduzzi’s nine seasons at Pitt before 2024, the Panthers had blown as many fourth-quarter leads (12) as they had fourth-quarter comebacks. They were 0-35 when trailing by 10 or more in the game’s final frame.

By the end of Week 3, they’d already erased two double-digit fourth-quarter deficits.

This new balance — defense and offense, frenetic and calm, strategic and spontaneous — works.

Eli Holstein has thrown for 1,183 yards and 12 touchdowns this season. Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire

IT WAS JUNE, AND for months, Narduzzi had been hyping Nate Yarnell, the lanky Texan who’d gone from running Pitt’s scout team to landing the starting job late in 2023. Narduzzi quickly named Yarnell as QB1 for 2024, too, despite adding Eli Holstein, a redshirt freshman transfer from Alabama via the portal.

At this point, Holstein had spent the spring battling a hamstring injury and was splitting third-team reps with a walk-on, but he still had that Alabama pedigree, which made him an intriguing prospect.

What were Narduzzi’s early impressions?

He pulled out his cell phone and opened his calendar for the day.

“Look at that,” he said. “6:30 a.m.: Meet with Eli to go over defenses.”

Young quarterbacks don’t often want to meet at the crack of dawn to talk about defensive Xs and Os. But Holstein had picked up the habit during his freshman year running scout team at Alabama. He figured the best way to attack the Tide’s starting defense was to know it inside and out, so he began meeting with Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. The former Tide and NFL safety, who is now serving as Alabama’s director of player personnel, met with Eli each week and taught the young quarterback Nick Saban’s coverage schemes.

“I’d gotten a lot of advice from people who told me that, when you’re done watching film from an offensive perspective, go to a defensive guy and watch it with him,” Holstein said. “Those guys are going to be able to teach you more about defenses than anybody.”

By June, Holstein’s hamstring was feeling better, and he was a bit more comfortable in his surroundings, and that extra homework began to pay dividends. By the time the team reported for fall camp, he was a different player.

In Pitt’s first scrimmage, Holstein ran the No. 2 offense and had success against the first-team defense. It was enough to convince Bell and Narduzzi to give him some run with the first team.

“Eli came out on fire. He was really confident,” Bell said. “And he just kind of took over from there.”

Narduzzi had spent the past nine months preaching that Yarnell was the team’s starter, but he’d also learned a valuable lesson from the struggles of 2023.

Pitt opened last year with Phil Jurkovec, a transfer from Boston College and a Pittsburgh high school legend, as the starter, but he had been hit so much behind a shaky O-line at BC in 2022 that his pocket presence was a mess. Still, former OC Frank Cignetti didn’t want to make a QB change, and Narduzzi didn’t step in.

It was a mistake. Pitt cycled through three quarterbacks last season, and looking back, Narduzzi said it was clear Yarnell was the best of the bunch the whole time, despite his role on the scout team. Narduzzi had let incumbency dictate playing time, and he was wrong.

In 2024, the new-look offense had floundered against Pitt’s defense in every spring scrimmage, Bell said, but with Holstein at the helm for the second scrimmage of the fall, his unit was dominant.

Narduzzi met with Bell to discuss the depth chart, and the answer was obvious.

“Eli is who the team wanted because of the way he competes and attacks every day,” Bell said. “They believe in him, man.”

Narduzzi had a hard conversation with Yarnell, but there was no celebratory announcement for Holstein. He was in class the Tuesday before Pitt’s opener against Kent State and his phone pinged. The classmate sitting next to him had a ping, too. They both got the same news alert: “Holstein named Pitt starting QB.”

“The kid next to me looked at his phone, looked up at me, looked back at his phone and smiled,” Holstein said. “That was pretty cool.”

By Week 2, however, reality had set in.

Coming off the field at the half in Cincinnati, trailing by nine with a chorus of “Eat s—, Pitt” raining down from the stands, Holstein found his coordinator, put an arm around him, and apologized.

“That was on me, Coach,” he said. “I didn’t play well. But I’ve got this.”

Holstein’s second-half stat line: 13 of 18 for 211 yards and three touchdowns.

A week later, in the fourth quarter against West Virginia, he led back-to-back touchdown drives in the fourth quarter, completing 5 of 6 passes for 100 yards and running for 63 more.

Around Pitt, the comebacks are already the stuff of legend, but that undersells what really happened. It was about the buy-in, the belief the team has in this new quarterback. It’s not that the wins were miraculous. It’s that, for Holstein, they were never in doubt.

“In both games, despite the deficits, I never thought we’d lose,” Holstein said. “There’s a lot of fight in this team, and I knew we’d go out and execute.”

Desmond Reid has recorded four total touchdowns this season. Barry Reeger-Image Images

THE FIRST TIME Narduzzi saw Desmond Reid, he thought he’d made a mistake.

On film, Reid’s speed was obvious, but once the Western Carolina transfer was in Narduzzi’s office at Pitt wearing street clothes, there was another aspect of Reid’s game that was obvious: He’s small.

Really small.

“He’s not going to be able to pass block at this level,” Narduzzi told Bell afterward.

For two months, Reid heard that a lot around Pitt. In the weight room, there’s a lot of smack talk — usually offense against defense — and the Panthers’ linebackers were licking their chops for a chance to bulldoze the 5-foot-6 Reid.

But really, Reid had been hearing some version of this joke his whole life.

“I mess with him that he has ‘Little Man Syndrome,'” Bell said. “There’s a lot of fast guys out there, but what makes him different is I’ve never seen a guy his size be the most physical, toughest kid on the field.”

Reid’s first college offer came when he was a sophomore in high school at Miramar High in Miami Gardens, Florida. It came from Bell, who was then coaching offense at Division II Tusculum.

In any other frame, Reid would’ve had dozens of offers. He ran for 250 yards in a win over nationally renowned St. Thomas Aquinas as a senior at Miramar. He won MVP in the Dade-Broward all-star game, running for more than 200 yards. Locals compared his game to Dalvin Cook.

Well, Dalvin Cook in a 5-6, 170-pound package. That was the problem.

“A lot of [FBS] coaches would text me,” Reid said, “but nobody ever made an offer.”

That’s how he ended up at Western Carolina, paired with Bell as the offensive coordinator, where he just kept running. He had 112 scrimmage yards against Georgia Tech in 2022 and he notched a five-touchdown game against The Citadel in 2023.

This is the refrain Bell preached to Narduzzi after that first meeting. Just wait, he said. Reid isn’t like any other 170-pound running back on the planet.

“He has muscles in places you’re not supposed to have muscles,” Bell said.

When spring practice began and players could finally don pads, Reid knew he had his chance to quiet the critics.

It was early in the first full-pads 11-on-11 drills, and Pitt’s defense brought a blitz. Reid stepped into the void.

“He just stones the guy,” Narduzzi said. “Hits him right in the mouth.”

Since then, Narduzzi has gushed over the impact of his diminutive tailback, and when incumbent starter Rodney Hammond Jr. was ruled ineligible for the season, there was no hesitation handing the job to Reid.

In three games, Reid has 319 rush yards, 167 receiving and a 78-yard punt return for a score.

Reid was dinged up late in the West Virginia game, and Pitt held him out the next week against FCS Youngstown State just to be cautious.

“He was crying on the sideline,” Bell said, “He wants to show he’s tough enough he can play.”

Pitt won 73-17 without him. Narduzzi said the Panthers would’ve scored 100 if Reid had been allowed to play.

People still notice Reid for his size, but it’s not a source of derision. It’s something closer to amazement.

Reid was leaving Pitt’s football building a few weeks ago when a jogger running past stopped suddenly, turned, and yelled out: “Des Reid for Heisman!”

Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire

NARDUZZI WAS STALKING the hallways of Pitt’s football facility the Monday after beating West Virginia, armed with an intimidating scowl, and passed by safety PJ O’Brien.

“Smile,” O’Brien told his coach. “We won the game.”

That, Narduzzi said, was the first time in 10 years a Pitt a player had the gall to tell him to smile.

Don’t they know this guy? He’s an old-school coach, a defensive guy. He doesn’t smile.

“I wasn’t happy,” he said.

Yes, it’s a new era in Pitt, a time with plenty to celebrate, but no, Narduzzi hasn’t changed his stripes.

He’s not thrilled with this story either, asking that any recitation of his team’s early success be offset by a stern reminder: Pitt hasn’t accomplished anything yet.

Here are the harsh truths, according to those in the building.

Bell thinks the O-line is still a bit out of shape. He wants the offense to move faster, but after the first few series, the big boys get worn down, and he has had to accommodate that.

Narduzzi likes that Holstein has protected the football, particularly early in games, but the real offensive success has come when the shackles come off and Holstein just plays loose. He needs to find a balance — risk averse and aggressive. They won’t be able to keep erasing big deficits forever.

“We’ve got to play a four-quarter game against a good opponent,” Holstein said. “We’ve played two good Power 4 opponents and we played a good half and a good quarter. We need to come together as a team.”

Maybe it’s all talk in service of Narduzzi’s worldview, but he doesn’t think so. Nobody’s smiling — at least not in front of him. The misery of 2023 is behind them, and a pathway to the College Football Playoff is in front of them, but for now, Pitt is still finding its way through this new reality.

“Winning is great,” Narduzzi said after the stunning comeback against rival West Virginia. “Now let’s get back to what we do. There’s a lot of crap on the field I didn’t like. That’s a fact.”

Those things are not mutually exclusive, no matter what anyone thinks of the Pitt coach’s perspective on football. The one thing that remains undeniably true about Narduzzi is that he downright loves winning — defensive battles, offensive shootouts, come-from-behind wins, any win is good and no win is good enough.

He has a team in 2024 that feels the same way.