Pat Narduzzi has an eye for talent, otherwise he wouldn’t be entering Year 10 atop the Pitt Panthers football program and rank among the most-tenured current head coaches in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
What he saw when he plucked Cory Sanders away from Group of Five program Western Michigan was a promising young defensive coach who already had experience at the helm of an NCAA Division II program.
Now, Sanders is Pitt’s assistant head coach and Sanders is in the new top assistant role in part because of his willingness to tell Narduzzi the truth and the trust that the two have built across the previous six seasons together.
“Cory is not a coordinator; he's a guy that I can trust,” Narduzzi said as his team opened preseason camp. “I think it comes down to trust. I know he's very detailed. I know he's a heck of a teacher. I know he's well respected by the rest of the football team.
“It comes down to respect, first of all, but he's a heck of a coach. He's done a great job developing that room, and he'll take on any roles as assistant head coach that I give him.”
Sanders also is willing to be direct with Narduzzi – an element the head coach cites as lacking from the Pitt offensive staff a year ago during an 3-9 season that stands as the worst of Narduzzi’s time atop the Panthers.
“That should happen all the time,” Narduzzi said of an assistant being candid with the head man. “This is no -- we're not hurting anybody's feelings. To me when you have guys on your staff that you trust, I expect that to happen, okay? I can't say that necessarily happened on offense last year. That's one of the things that kind of ticked me off is it didn't seem like there was that come in and say, ‘Hey, Coach, this is what I think, I don't think we're doing this or that.’ It was more like they just kind of kept to themselves.
“To me, I need a guy [like Sanders] -- I need 10 of them that are like that. I need 10 assistant head coaches that are going to come in and say, ‘Coach, I'm just thinking that.’ That's what I did for (Mark) Dantonio [at Michigan State]. I think that's what got me the assistant head coaching role when I was there.
“But I want 10 of those guys. I don't want a bunch of yes-men. I want guys who are going to tell you what they feel, whether they're right or wrong. To me, you're really good when you've got that.”
The Panthers open their season Aug. 31 against MAC program Kent State before back-to-back games against regional rivals and former Big East foes Cincinnati and West Virginia.
Pitt starts ACC play Oct. 5 at North Carolina.