PITTSBURGH — There are a lot of things people can say about Pitt football coach Pat Narduzzi, but one thing they can never say is that he is afraid to speak his mind. He is refreshingly honest, sometimes to a fault, and he isn’t afraid to tackle many controversial or hot-button issues without much of a filter.
That isn’t to say he is always right, but he is always at least honest about how he feels. And quite often when he speaks on a topic, he kicks a hornet’s nest and makes himself a bit of a lightning rod for criticism, sometimes fair, sometimes unfair.
The subject of Deion Sanders’ roster management at Colorado was brought to Narduzzi and, not surprisingly, he didn’t hold back his thoughts. Sanders was hired by Colorado in December and at his first meeting with the players told them all essentially they would be replaced.
Since then, 70-plus players have departed from the program and Sanders has unapologetically replaced them (at last count) with 47 transfers and 20 incoming freshmen. And he isn’t done, as he still has to fill about roughly eight to 10 more spots to get close to the full allotment of scholarship players.
It has been a polarizing subject. Some have criticized Sanders, and many have come to his defense by saying, “The team stunk last year, so what was he supposed to do?”
Narduzzi loves a polarizing subject, so when he was asked about the transfer portal and Sanders by Brandon Marcello of 247Sports in Florida at the ACC spring meetings, he didn’t hold back with his thoughts.
“That's not the way it's meant to be," Narduzzi said. "That's not what the (transfer portal) rule intended to be. It was not to overhaul your roster. We'll see how it works out, but that, to me, looks bad on college football coaches across the country. The reflection is on one guy right now, but when you look at it overall — those kids that have moms and dads and brothers and sisters and goals in life — I don't know how many of those 70 that left really wanted to leave or they were kicked in the butt to get out."
Narduzzi then added, “I grew up in a profession that you can't tell a guy that he has to leave based on athletic ability. I think he'll be shocked that he probably had some pretty good football players in that room. When I got to Pitt back in 2015, I didn't kick anybody off. Zero. Those are your guys. When you become a head coach, you inherit that team and you coach that team. If someone wants to leave, that's great. You don't kick them out. I disagree with that whole process. That's not why I got in the game."
The criticism of Sanders that Narduzzi hammered home is he is abusing the rule that allows a first-year coach to essentially cut players provided he offers to keep them on scholarship. Of course, like every new rule regarding transfers, there seems to be a lot of unintended consequences that are hurting more than they help.
Narduzzi just pointed this out and, of course, he drew some criticism for his comments, especially from the usual crowd who act like any criticism of transfers, the transfer portal or NIL is outrageous. There are some who think Narduzzi is a hypocrite because he has taken transfers, especially at quarterback, to make the Panthers better.
Those criticisms are dumb, intellectually dishonest and completely missing the point. Narduzzi didn’t criticize transfers. He didn’t criticize the transfer portal (though he has openly questioned whether it is right for college athletics), and he didn’t criticize athletes who transfer.
In fact, he said the opposite of all that. He said if players want to leave a program, they should.
Narduzzi’s chief criticism wasn’t about transfers and the transfer portal; it was of the abuse of the transfer portal and Sanders’ abuse of the rules about cutting players.
He is 100% correct in this particular instance, and he couldn’t be more correct if he wanted to be. What Sanders is doing is indeed outrageous and it isn’t good for college football or college athletics in general.
The rules on transferring and roster manipulation in general were meant to give players who are either disgruntled or looking for a different fit the opportunity to leave without the coach or athletic department stopping them.
And the rule that Sanders completely abused is meant for first-year coaches to be able to free up a few scholarships to be able to have a more full recruiting class. None of it was meant to turn into full-blown free agency and cutthroat roster manipulation like it’s the NFL.
The loudest advocates of transferring and the transfer portal fail to understand that there are actually valid criticisms of the process as it is now. The biggest thing is these are student-athletes regardless of how much money is being thrown around and how much money people in and around the game are making.
At some point the student part of being student-athletes has to matter, given that these are all allegedly institutions of higher learning whose sole mission is to educate young people.
That’s why, in this case, the criticisms of Narduzzi being “hypocritical” are way off base. He is absolutely right that this is not the right course of action for college athletics and for student-athletes.
It is absolutely ridiculous to have 70 guys leave a program, most forced out the door and replaced in one season. That’s not what the transfer portal was designed to do, not what the rule changes on cutting players were designed to do and not what is right for college athletics and student-athletes.
Narduzzi was right. His critics are wrong. The nonsense going on in Boulder is an absolute embarrassment.
