This is what losing control sounds like:
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi may need to find a new holder for his kicking game next season, but he otherwise barely is affected by the NCAA’s transfer portal that ushers free agency into college athletics.
But that doesn’t mean he likes it.
“It’s become really a mess,” he said Friday morning. “I don’t know if I’d say it’s good, bad. It’s free agency. It just gives kids a way to find a different place if things don’t go perfectly. I really don’t like it at all.”
Narduzzi met with reporters inside an ice house in Market Square where the Dollar Energy Fund, with the help of Pitt football players, was raising money to help Pennsylvanians with their winter heating bills.
He offered some strong opinions about the portal that was instituted by the NCAA on Oct. 15 and allows schools to initiate unrestricted contact with student-athletes who enter their names, even if they eventually decide to stay.
“I think kids are going to make a lot of bad decisions,” he said. “We’re just teaching the kids that there’s an easier way to get out of this, instead of working hard and trying to improve your status.
There’s the reasoning I’ve been looking for! Transfers are bad for kids because they’re making bad decisions, while coaching transfers are, by their very source, born of sensible wisdom. Because, you see, the only way a player should improve his status is working his way up the two-deep. You can’t expect a coach to accept the same standard, can you?
“I’m sure if there are reasons to transfer … but when you have 20 guys on your team transferring, whatever it is, really?”
“If”? LMAO.
I can’t say I’m enamored with the concept of player free agency, but, damn, every time somebody like Narduzzi sputters this sort of bullshit, I find it harder to object.
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UPDATE: Compare and contrast with this.
Get The Picture 
We are probably headed me sort of contract based system. What does that look like? I have no idea but like it or not change is coming. How long will it take? Probably not too long. I see no reason why there has to be a “portal”. A couple of anti trust lawsuits and it’ll be a free for all. There is always teams looking to get relevant that will push the envelope.
And over the past decade or more there have been strong voices against football in the political realm. Not clearly seen always, but it’s been chipping away at the game as we know it. My conspiracy side says that the anti football forces are involved here. But the game is changing fast in college. If we start paying then we should be able to start trading them. And then we have minor leagues for the NFL. It’s gonna be a mess.
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Who do you think is anti-football to the point they are actively trying to kill the games?
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There are plenty of nuts that would like to see it killed. So far they are pretty passive in their wishes. Sooner or later they will make a futile effort to go active.
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The same mentality as the PETA crowd. They are pseudo intellectuals who view football as gladiatorial combat and want to outlaw it. They usually keep their mouths shut around people like us because they know they would get shouted down but there are more of them than you would think and if it became politically correct they would come out of the woodwork in massive numbers very loudly.
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The same mentality as the PETA crowd. They are pseudo intellectuals who view football as gladiatorial combat and want to outlaw it. They usually keep their mouths shut around people like us because they know they would get shouted down but there are more of them than you would think and if it became politically correct they would come out of the woodwork in massive numbers very loudly.
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Probably doctors and families of former players who deal with CTE, suicide or a number of other things.
There was a time when I thought it was supposed to be tough but being smart is equally as important. I mean, how tough are you when you’ve suffered brain damage?
Are these people TRYING to kill the game? I think they’re doing what they should, especially doctors. It’s just education but some call it the pussification of America.
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If there are 20 guys from a team transferring I’m guessing there sure is a good reason for it
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Not even Marylad had 20 players transfer, and they had the biggest beef of all.
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Yeah, but Va. Tech is getting close.
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Mizzo a couple of years ago.
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Lol, you mean coaches might actually have to work hard to instill core values in their programs that encourage the players to work hard and persevere? To view transferring as a legitimate win-win for some players and coaches? To be honest with the players? To foster sincere team values that teaches kids to view their college experience as a multi year development where their commitment is self motivated as opposed to externally motivated?
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I can’t stand Saban, but he seems to be speaking some good words there. His point about the coaches not building relationships was interesting. Plug and play has worked for his coaching staff but you got to figure wholesale turnover is damaging to the program at some point.
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For all this wholesale turnover, Saban is bringing coaches back that took bigger jobs outside of Bama and were available again. It isn’t wholesale turnover in that he has to teach majority of the new hires the process.
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I don’t know what the answer is regarding players transferring in a free agency type environment. I don’t believe the NCAA has an answer or a structure in place to support it either. I can say that my view point around paying players has shifted over the last few years quite dramatically though.
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Coaches complain about players in the portal but all the players are doing is entering their name. Transferring takes two sides to make it happen. These portal players are being contacted by rival coaches, but yet none of the coaches that speak out complain about their colleagues contacting their players. Are they not contacting any players themselves? Are they just complaining that other coaches are getting the transfers and not them? I can tell you without a doubt Miami fans are ecstatic about the portal because they’ve gotten way more that they lost. get Manny Diaz’s reaction to the portal and I bet you it would be a lot different from Narduzzi. in a way it’s just like continuing to recruit players that have verbally committed; they were coaches that used to complain about that. So in short it might take time to adjust – change is never easy – but people should be where they want to be.
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I agree with the words. Not sure about the messenger:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-dolphin-says-nick-saban-walked-over-convulsing-player/
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“just teaching the kids that there’s an easier way to get out of this, instead of working hard and trying to improve your status.” I really don’t see how anyone can disagree with his point. It is a fact. Like I’ve said before there are legitimate reasons to transfer. Not getting your way especially in your undergraduate years is not one of them. You can’t build much of a relationship with coaches or teammates if your only concerned with yourself.
As for coaches “coaching transfers are, by their very source, born of sensible wisdom”. Coaches earned the right to have job opportunities by their performance. When ever Saban leaves you can bet the position won’t be filled by a coach in his first year of coaching. Coaches have contracts that they or someone pays to break if they are broken. Comparing an occupation to students is not an accurate comparison. Just like comparing a
practicing attorney to a first year law student is not the same.
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Give me a break. Do you think the fact that a kid may make a bad decision gives you ( or their coach) the right to make the decision for them? They are adults with the same right to make decisions about their lives that you have.
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Is this Saban clip recent? Is he referring to the 2018 team? Because if so, then I think Light buried the lede.
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Late last week, I believe
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To me the important comment was Saban saying that his coaching staff didn’t do a good job this year connecting with the players which makes sense considering they just turned over practically the whole staff. Look at the way that Enos left.
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I’m feeling a little verklempt………..talk amongst yer selves.
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How does any of this big business benefit the colleges/universities anymore?
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When the goose that lays the golden eggs (the fan and the cracks are already showing) starts having to have a cheat sheet just to find out who is left, things will not be good for college football!!!
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Doubtful. The NFL has rosters that change constantly and it is doing fine.
Afterall, it’s the G on the helmet, not the name on the back of the shirt.
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Oh well the coaches do it …..please. Equating player transfers to coaching changes is absurd. Here’s why :
1) When coaches break a contract , there is a financial penalty. Schools have large sums of money invested in the players , and when they transfer the school just has to eat it.
2) Coaches have 40 year careers , and nearly every one has twists and turns in it. A coach can afford a couple bad years of a bad decision where to coach. A college player has only 3-5 years to make their mark for the next level. It is a career threatening decision to stay or to transfer.
Like Tate Martell said , you better not swing and miss the second time. Risk is much higher for Fields now that he transferred , no?
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I think you’re right about Fields. Big mistake. He could have been the backup at Georgia and still red-shirted and had 3 full seasons of eligibility left. If Fromm leaves a year early and Fields doesn’t get to start next year at tOSU he’s really going to look stupid.
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I agree that Fields made a mistake, but that is his decision, not yours or mine.
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A coach leaving and a player leaving aren’t the same thing. Find another argument
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So, Todd Graham spends 1 year at Pitt and jumps to Arizona State, where he eventually gets fired. That opens the door for Paul Chryst, who spends 3 years and then jumps to Wisconsin. Which opens the door for Pat Narduzzi.
Transfers made Pat’s dream of a head coaching gig possible. He gets paid will over $2 mill a year to slip into a second-rate bowl and lose it.
Pat, by the way, has 7 different coaching stops on his 29 year resume.
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He seems well-compensated to deal with it.
https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/Pitt/2018/05/14/pat-narduzzi-contract-salary-kevin-stallings-pitt-basketball-pittsburgh-panthers-heather-lyke-ad/stories/201805140110
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Add this to the list of things I respect about Nick Saban.
But come on, with the amount of money the man is pulling down you’d think he wouldn’t have to shop for sweaters at Bill Cosby’s yard sale.
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