View from the P4: “It’s a good league. It’s building.”
Post-Gazette writer Abby Schnable did us a huge favor by asking Pat Narduzzi, the Head Coach for the Pittsburgh Panthers, about his impressions of the NEC as a whole.
“I think it’s a great conference. There’s no bad conferences in the country. It’s another FCS program. They’ve got Robert Morris, which is another city rivalry, I guess you could call it. But I think it’s a great league, and it’s building. They continue to bring good talent in and they got good players.”
Getting something positive from a coach prior to any game isn’t newsworthy on its own. It only makes sense to compliment your opponent before a game. Our interest in Coach’s view of the Northeast Conference is more based on a prior comment he made several years back regarding the CAA. Coach Narduzzi had noted that the CAA was a MAC based in the Northeast. So our question was: what does that make the NEC?
Evidently, building.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Saint Francis beat Kent State last season, as well as Pitt’s week 1 foe Duquesne knocking off Youngstown State, a place he’s very familiar with. When we spoke with Craig D’Amico this offseason, we both talked about how the feeling for NEC non-conference games has changed over the past few seasons. It’s no longer an expectation to be non-competitive. There’s excitement now for fans of the league’s schools. Looking at how close LIU played Rhode Island, or CCSU’s near-upset of UMass- you now expect the league to be able to compete and even win some of these games prior to league play.
So, yeah. Building.
Coach Narduzzi’s praise wasn’t limited to the NEC, though. He also clearly has a lot of respect for the Dukes and Coach Schmitt. After noting that this was Coach Schmitt’s 21st year, he gave specific praise to QB Ty Riddell, RB Taj Butts, and WR Joey Isabella. In terms of the overall talent level he’ll face?
“I think Jerry and his staff do a great job of recruiting and bringing talent in.”
Riddell has been here before, having led ETSU to a victory over Vanderbilt when he was the starting QB for the Buccaneers. It’s one of the more interesting storylines for this opener. Do you learn anything from knocking off P4 schools at the FCS level? While the bulk of the Dukes have played Boston College before in a big loss last season, the program has also played Florida State in the past. But there’s something about staying home and playing a school just up the road- literally, by the way, up the road- with your fans in the stands. And for the local talent, they’ll have the chance to show the Pitt staff what they missed out on by not offering. The Dukes will bring their A game, and we agree with Coach Narduzzi on one more front- this will probably be the best game the Dukes play all season.
We’ll have the chance to see how the talent matches up on the ACC Network or at Acrisure Stadium this Saturday.
