Pat Narduzzi had a lot to get through Monday on the South Side in recapping Pitt\u2019s weekend upset over Florida State while looking ahead to the Panthers\u2019 next game on the road at Syracuse.<\/p>\n
But in between a recap of Saturday\u2019s action vs. the Seminoles, injury updates and thoughts on the Panthers in all three phases through the halfway point of the season, Narduzzi was asked to weigh in on two additional topics which have garnered significant local and national attention.<\/p>\n
The first was Acrisure Stadium\u2019s natural surface, the quality of which has come under scrutiny following the Steelers\u2019 win over Cleveland, as well as Narduzzi\u2019s thoughts on Penn State\u2019s firing of James Franklin on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers described<\/a> the Acrisure Stadium grass as becoming \u201cborderline unplayable\u201d by game\u2019s end Sunday, with coach Mike Tomlin calling it<\/a> \u201cpoor\u201d Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t see much of the (Steelers) game yesterday,\u201d Narduzzi said. \u201cI heard a little bit of the (complaints) but even before I heard the noise, coaches came into my office and said, \u2018Did you see that field?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cFor whatever reason \u2014 I\u2019m not a grounds guy \u2014 but I heard some of the noise yesterday. I thought (Pitt\u2019s Oct. 4 home game vs. Boston College), it was not very good. I thought it was a little shaky when I walked out there. It just seemed dry.\u201d<\/p>\n Steelers kicker Chris Boswell slipped on a 54-yard field goal attempt during the game, while specialist Miles Killebrew sustained a \u201csignificant\u201d knee injury, possibly due in part to field conditions.<\/p>\n After the Steelers\u2019 23-9 win over the Browns, the Acrisure Stadium grounds crew immediately began replacing the field\u2019s sod.<\/p>\n Pitt next plays at home Oct. 25 vs. NC State, followed by the Steelers the next day vs. Green Bay.<\/p>\n The relationship between Narduzzi and Franklin has appeared to be a complicated one over the years, featuring alternating doses of mutual respect <\/a>and barbs<\/a> directed at one another.<\/p>\n Pitt and Penn State playing one another annually from 2016-19, as well as the historic rivalry staying dormant since then, has sparked statements and counter-statements from both coaches as to each program\u2019s seriousness about playing the game regularly, if not every year.<\/p>\n So what did Narduzzi think of Franklin\u2019s dismissal after a 104-45 record in Happy Valley over parts of 12 campaigns?<\/p>\n \u201cJames Franklin\u2019s a great coach,\u201d Narduzzi said. \u201cIt\u2019s the business we\u2019re in. I say \u2018business\u2019 \u2014 it\u2019s a business. Places got to do what they\u2019ve got to do. I\u2019m not concerned about that. We don\u2019t play them and James will be OK. I\u2019ve got a lot of respect for him and it\u2019s a shame because he\u2019s a great coach. We all know that. He was in the (College Football) Playoff a year ago.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026But I\u2019m more focused on Fran Brown and the Syracuse Orange and the challenge we have in going up there to the (JMA Wireless) Dome and playing in a nasty atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n Narduzzi won the first Pitt-Penn State matchup, 42-39, on Sept. 10, 2016, which restarted a rivalry not played since 2000.<\/p>\n But over the next three years, Penn State won each time, including 51-6 on Sept. 8, 2018, at Heinz Field.<\/p>\n Justin Guerriero is a TribLive reporter covering the Penguins, Pirates and college sports. A Pittsburgh native, he is a Central Catholic and University of Colorado graduate. He joined the Trib in 2022 after covering the Colorado Buffaloes for Rivals and freelancing for the Denver Post. He can be reached at jguerriero@triblive.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pat Narduzzi had a lot to get through Monday on the South Side in recapping Pitt\u2019s weekend upset…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-4383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}