Pat Narduzzi has no plans to leave Pittsburgh, he said Monday in his weekly press conference.

The Panthers' fifth-year head coach was asked about reports linking him to the Rutgers job, which opened Sunday after the Scarlet Knights fired Chris Ash four games into his fourth season at the helm, following last Saturday's 52-0 loss to Michigan.

Narduzzi, whom Pitt hired in December 2014, is signed through the 2024 campaign after an extension was agreed upon two years ago.

"I signed a long-term contract here a few years ago and my daughter's a senior in high school right now, she'll be a freshman next year in college and I'm here at Pitt," Narduzzi said. "I'm staying at Pitt. It's real simple."

Narduzzi — a New England native by way of New Haven, Connecticut — is among the abundance of names to surface in published reports and hot boards over the past two days.

Mississippi State second-year head coach Joe Moorhead, who responded to Rutgers rumors as well Tuesday, is another name to have been reported.

Narduzzi's name has come up previously with Rutgers, which was said to have been interested in the former Michigan State defensive coordinator (2007-14) after its firing of former head coach Kyle Flood (2012-15), but could be a potential successor for 13th-year Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio.

"I'm looking for the very best coach who will make Rutgers football competitive and compete for Big Ten championships," said Pat Hobbs, Rutgers' fourth-year athletic director, Monday. "That's why I came here. I want to go to a Rose Bowl, right. So I want a coach that I believe is capable of making us competitive on the field and competing ultimately for Big Ten Conference championships."

Nearing the halfway point of his fifth year at Pitt, Narduzzi is 30-26 overall and 20-13 in ACC play.

He has taken Pitt to three bowl games, but lost each one of his postseason appearances at the helm — most recently including the 14-13 defeat in the Dec. 31, 2018, Sun Bowl against Stanford.

Pitt won the Coastal Division after its 6-2 mark in ACC play, but it went 7-7 and lost the Dec. 1, 2018, conference title game 42-10 to then-No. 2 Clemson.

"I think it's kind of a new year now," Narduzzi said of Pitt (3-2, 0-1) before Week 6's game against Duke (3-1, 1-0) Saturday at 8 p.m. from the Blue Devils' Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, North Carolina. "It kind of starts — we opened up with an ACC team (in Aug. 31's 30-14 loss to Virginia), which is always tough, I think, for either team, if you lose the game. But now we're back into trying to go back to Charlotte sometime (for the Dec. 7 ACC Championship Game). Each one of these next games counts, and I think our kids understand what they're playing for the next several weeks. I'm excited about getting back in the ACC. You're familiar with who they are, kids know who they are, they can watch tape from last year and see what they did or didn't do, and go, 'Okay, I'd better strap it up and get ready to go.'"