At Pittsburgh, Pat Narduzzi era will be built with steel

Paul Myerberg | USA TODAY Sports

PITTSBURGH — There's something apropos about the fact that Pittsburgh's football offices are built atop the ruins of a former steel mill, just as there's something fitting about the Union Pacific trains that still huff and puff their way along the south end of the Panthers' practice field, clicking and clacking in cadence on the hour, every hour.

Those trains border one edge of the field, their heavy loads in tow. To the north is the Monongahela River, with its fleet of barges, and a surviving structure from the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company, no longer spewing smoke and energy.

Beyond the whistles, the barking coaches and the clap of pads, this city continues to provide the soundtrack for Pittsburgh football. Yes, even as the city reinvents itself, lightening its blue collar with an admired investment in technology and innovation, the cliché lingers.

And it's such a cliché, tired and worn out, but within the cliché — that of hard hats, dirt-caked fingernails, lunch pails in tow — stands a kernel of truth, as do all such chestnuts: There's still something tough about Pittsburgh.

This helps explain why Pat Narduzzi now occupies a two-room office above the Panthers' weight and locker rooms, preparing for the next stage of a career defined by a stint at a program, Michigan State, that shares Pittsburgh's basic ethos of inelegant toughness.

"That's what we've been about at Michigan State," Narduzzi told USA TODAY Sports. "It's not been pretty, it's just tough. That's why I came here. That's part of it. Besides all the players in the area and the surrounding areas, it's the toughness. That's how you build a football team, with toughness. That was one of the keys to coming here."

Narduzzi himself bears the fingerprints of Youngstown, Ohio, where he was raised, and Michigan State, where he spent the past eight seasons as the Spartans' defensive coordinator under coach Mark Dantonio.

Soon, the same mindset should take hold at Pittsburgh — if in baby steps.

This has recently been a program of individual accolades — Larry Fitzgerald, LeSean McCoy, Aaron Donald — but middling team success; the Panthers have won six games in three of the past four seasons, treading water under a combination of offensive woes, defensive struggles and coaching turnover.

The process of reclaiming the program's stride will borrow liberally from Michigan State's blueprint, beginning with the Panthers' offseason training program — one built around winning the fourth quarter, utilizing early-morning workouts designed to strengthen inner resolve — and continuing through a defense built in the Spartans' image.

"I'd seen what Coach Dantonio had done for all those years," Narduzzi said. "What other blueprint do you use? What we do will be what we did there."

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Pittsburgh wasn't the first program to identify Narduzzi for a potential job opening; Connecticut did the same, among others, drawn to both his defensive background and the front-row seat he held in Michigan State's climb. When contacted by other schools, however, Narduzzi would first go to Dantonio, asking for his thoughts — but he didn't with Pittsburgh, certain that he'd found the best fit.

"I wasn't like, we better get the heck out now because next year it's falling apart," he said. "It wasn't like we did it by a fluke. I didn't need to rush into a job that wasn't perfect. Because you can rush into it and it can be a dead end, and you can be a position coach in the MAC somewhere as your next job."

Narduzzi's reputation, finely honed in East Lansing, can be seen in the path the Panthers' new coordinators took to the program. After two seasons in the same position at Arkansas, offensive coordinator Jim Chaney reached out to a friend of Narduzzi's to inquire about a spot on the staff.

Defensive coordinator Josh Conklin called Narduzzi last summer with two goals: one, to pick his brain about his defensive-line schemes, and two, to ask for recommendations for the open linebacker coach position at Florida International — a spot filled by Rob Harley, then a graduate assistant on Michigan State's staff. Months later, Conklin and Harley moved north to join Narduzzi.

"You're always trying to emulate guys that you believe in," Conklin said. "One thing I admired about Pat was his loyalty to (Dantonio) up at Michigan State. I want to be part of that same thing. I know he's going to be loyal to me and I'm going to be loyal to him."

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Themes of toughness and loyalty alone aren't enough, but they're a start. And these themes, so tied to the image of Pittsburgh itself, seemingly paint this newfound coach-program relationship as the perfect marriage of style, culture and philosophy.

"There couldn't have been a better fit," Narduzzi said. "I knew it was the one. There wasn't any doubt. It's got everything.

"I think you've got the ability to do big things here. How long will it take? Who knows. There's no guarantee on success. But I think we can build here. I think we've got the tools to get it done."

Winning championships, Narduzzi's long-term goal, will be a long-term process. Yet with a roster growing in experience at his disposal — Pittsburgh will return 15 starters in 2015, among the most in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and has stars in running back James Conner and wide receiver Tyler Boyd — there's some reason to think the Panthers won't hit a learning-curve wall in his debut season.

And then there's the idea that toughness, so rooted in Pittsburgh's DNA, will find quick studies among a roster, program and coaching staff only too happy to embrace the clichéd.

"That's what we want to be," Chaney said. "I don't think you need to reinvent the wheel. The culture of Pittsburgh is what it is. The university fits in that culture. We do. We'll be the different team. We'll be the tough kids on the block."

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