Over the past few years, Pat Narduzzi‘s had a handful of opportunities to step out of Mark Dantonio‘s shadow and head his own football program but opted instead to remain at Michigan State. Now, though, it appears the defensive coordinator is ready to pull the trigger on a move. Maybe.
According to multiple media outlets, Narduzzi is on the verge of replacing Paul Chryst as Pittsburgh’s head coach. Chryst left Pitt after three seasons on the job to assume the same position at Wisconsin.
Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports wrote late Monday night that “Narduzzi has emerged as the leading candidate to become the next head coach at Pittsburgh.” A short time later, ESPN.com‘s Joe Schad wrote that “Narduzzi has emerged as a focus of Pittsburgh’s head coaching search.”
The fact that Pitt has apparently targeted Narduzzi is far from surprising.
Last week, Narduzzi interviewed for the Colorado State opening that ultimately went to Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, although it was thought even then he may be the front-runner with the Panthers. Marshall’s Doc Holliday was another rumored candidate for the Pitt opening.
For Narduzzi’s boss, it was predicted back in July that the coordinator would hold out for a job in one of the top conferences in college football.
“Pat wants to be a head football coach at the BCS (now Power 5 conference) level, and I think he wants to do that at one of the major conferences,” Dantonio said five months ago according to mlive.com. “But it’s got to be the right situation. And right now, from the standpoint of his salary, it’s gonna have to be a BCS job. And you really, really have to look to our administration and acknowledge that aspect in terms of them delivering, in terms of trying to keep us where we’re at.”
Should Narduzzi’s hiring at Pitt come to fruition, he would be the first current defensive coordinator hired as a head coach during this spinning of the coaching carousel. Of the 12 coaching hires made at the FBS level in 2014, five have been current FBS coordinators while a wide receivers coach (David Beaty, Kansas) landed a sixth. Four others were current FBS head coaches, and the other two were head coaches at Div. III (Lance Leipold, Buffalo) and high school programs (Tony Sanchez, UNLV).
UPDATED 12:12 p.m. ET: A source with knowledge of the situation has confirmed to CFT that Narduzzi and Pittsburgh officials are close to finalizing a deal that would make the Spartans’ coordinator the Panthers’ next head coach. An official announcement, though, is not expected until Friday at the earliest.
