Pat Nardouche
- Thread starter The_Unit
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Could be why Pat’s recruiting has gone down hill in direct proportion to Franklin’s success. Negative recruiting only works if you have something negative to use.
This was in the PPG this AM. Nothing specific but it sure seems that there is a story behind Ox’s departure.
https://www.post-gazette.com/sports...football-ox-pat-narduzzi/stories/201807250123
https://www.post-gazette.com/sports...football-ox-pat-narduzzi/stories/201807250123
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By early Tuesday, Tim “Ox” Enright had already been scrubbed from the staff directory on the Pitt athletics website, with nothing more than a Google result that goes nowhere indicating he ever worked for the university.
A profile page detailing his more than 30 years as a student or employee, and 20-plus seasons as the football team’s head equipment manager, is now replaced by a dead link. You can still find him in the 2018 media guide, which was released just last Wednesday, but Enright, 49, resigned from his position this past Monday.
In talking with former players, it doesn’t even feel right to refer to him as Enright. He was simply “Ox,” and a staple of the Pitt program — if not an institution — well before coach Pat Narduzzi took over three seasons ago.
“To me, just to be honest with you, it won’t be the same going back to South Side and going to Pitt,” Scott McKillop, an All-American linebacker who played from 2004-08, said Tuesday. “I just don’t know the rhyme or reason behind it.”
Training camp is just around the corner for the Panthers — opening in early August, as is tradition — and McKillop called the move “interesting timing.”
“It’d be almost like a CPA leaving an accounting firm two weeks before taxes are due,” McKillop said. “I’m sure other people, like myself, are questioning the timing of it and what Narduzzi could’ve done or not have done to help the situation.”
Enright didn’t respond to a request for comment as of Wednesday afternoon, but Narduzzi offered up a statement wishing him well.
“Tim is one of those people I’ll always be personally indebted to for helping me transition to Pitt and Pittsburgh,” Narduzzi told the Post-Gazette via a school spokesperson. “He was an invaluable member of our staff and so many Pitt staffs before our arrival.
“Tim always put other people first, starting with our players. I have the utmost respect and appreciation for him. We all wish Tim and his family the very best in his next chapter. Pitt football will always be his home and these doors will always be open to him.”
Andrew Taglianetti, a former safety from 2008-12, put the departure in the context of recent turnover for Pitt athletics. Men’s basketball alumni weren’t pleased that their longtime athletic trainer, Tony Salesi, was removed from that role two months ago. Athletic director Heather Lyke named Jennifer Brown, who worked with Lyke at Eastern Michigan, senior associate athletic director for sports medicine June 25. She also was appointed head trainer for the men’s basketball team.
On the football side, Narduzzi has steadily seen changes in his front office, though from the outside it’s hard to tell which ones he made and which were made for him. Dann Kabala, Pitt’s player personnel director/recruiting coordinator from 2012-16 and a former graduate assistant from Fox Chapel, was replaced last offseason. He spent last season out of football but is now Penn State’s recruiting coordinator. Mark Diethorn, Pitt’s recruiting director the past three years and a Belle Vernon native who was on staff since 2012, left in early June to become director of player personnel at his alma mater, Virginia Tech.
And none of that includes the six head coaches who have resigned, retired or been fired since Lyke was hired in March 2017, most recently the baseball and softball coaches.
Neither McKillop nor Taglianetti wanted to comment on reasons they heard for Enright stepping down, but “I do know something must’ve happened that just sent Ox over the edge; I don’t think it was necessarily fair to him,” Taglianetti said.
McKillop and Taglianetti spent part of Tuesday chatting with old teammates — John Malecki, Dom DeCicco, Adam Gunn and Jason Pinkston, to name a few — and reminisced. They spoke to the Post-Gazette about the loss of Enright and what it means to them as alumni, but dozens of others — former players, equipment staffers and fans — voiced their respect for him on Twitter.
Even current redshirt senior tailback Qadree Ollison posted, “Woww not my dawg Ox.”
“It’s crazy to see,” Alex Officer, an offensive lineman who used up his eligibility last season, wrote in a text message. “He was a great person. Treated me right from my first day to my last.”
While Officer is a more recent graduate, McKillop and Taglianetti are well aware — perhaps painfully so — that they’re no longer as connected to the program they loved playing for as they used to be. They still do love it, but it’s just getting harder and harder to recognize it.
They both mentioned associate athletic director/football administration Chris LaSala, director of player development/high school relations Bob Junko, and head trainer Rob Blanc — all of whom have spent at least two decades with Pitt football — as the lone stalwarts left to return to. McKillop gave a shoutout to Danny Kozusko, Enright’s longtime assistant equipment manager, who is still listed on the team website.
“The way I like to look at this is, over the past 30 years, Ox is the only one who’s been there,” Taglianetti said. “All the coaching changes, every cycle of players, Ox has always remained constant. Through all that time, through every coach, he’s always been loyal. … It really sucks that as important as Ox is to that program and what it means to the alumni and players in there, these top guys can kind of do what they want and there’s not much Ox can do.”
To be clear, Taglianetti insisted that Pitt’s alumni outreach efforts are genuine, and that he doesn’t expect Narduzzi to have time to connect with him individually — “I wasn’t a first-round draft pick. I’m just a washed up guy,” he quipped — but seeing Enright go is a major blow to morale.
When he wasn’t comfortable around new coaches or new players he never met, he still visited the old guard, the same equipment manager “who would talk you off a cliff, make sure you’re doing well after a bad practice when you had no one else to vent to.”
“Any time you stepped into the equipment room with Ox,” Taglianetti recalled, “it was like all was well with the world.”
McKillop, who spent the 2015 season as a graduate assistant under Narduzzi, thought back on stories he’d heard about one coach or another needing something to be fixed last-minute, “and Ox had his connections and people that were able to get it done.”
“The only thing constant in life is change,” McKillop said. “But I don’t know, something doesn’t seem right. … I guess they’ll never appreciate how much Ox did until the first game of the season, or the first away game, or when a problem presents itself. I loved Ox as a friend and on a professional level.
“He probably had the biggest heart I ever met for someone connected to Pitt football.”
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
A profile page detailing his more than 30 years as a student or employee, and 20-plus seasons as the football team’s head equipment manager, is now replaced by a dead link. You can still find him in the 2018 media guide, which was released just last Wednesday, but Enright, 49, resigned from his position this past Monday.
In talking with former players, it doesn’t even feel right to refer to him as Enright. He was simply “Ox,” and a staple of the Pitt program — if not an institution — well before coach Pat Narduzzi took over three seasons ago.
“To me, just to be honest with you, it won’t be the same going back to South Side and going to Pitt,” Scott McKillop, an All-American linebacker who played from 2004-08, said Tuesday. “I just don’t know the rhyme or reason behind it.”
Training camp is just around the corner for the Panthers — opening in early August, as is tradition — and McKillop called the move “interesting timing.”
“It’d be almost like a CPA leaving an accounting firm two weeks before taxes are due,” McKillop said. “I’m sure other people, like myself, are questioning the timing of it and what Narduzzi could’ve done or not have done to help the situation.”
Enright didn’t respond to a request for comment as of Wednesday afternoon, but Narduzzi offered up a statement wishing him well.
“Tim is one of those people I’ll always be personally indebted to for helping me transition to Pitt and Pittsburgh,” Narduzzi told the Post-Gazette via a school spokesperson. “He was an invaluable member of our staff and so many Pitt staffs before our arrival.
“Tim always put other people first, starting with our players. I have the utmost respect and appreciation for him. We all wish Tim and his family the very best in his next chapter. Pitt football will always be his home and these doors will always be open to him.”
Andrew Taglianetti, a former safety from 2008-12, put the departure in the context of recent turnover for Pitt athletics. Men’s basketball alumni weren’t pleased that their longtime athletic trainer, Tony Salesi, was removed from that role two months ago. Athletic director Heather Lyke named Jennifer Brown, who worked with Lyke at Eastern Michigan, senior associate athletic director for sports medicine June 25. She also was appointed head trainer for the men’s basketball team.
On the football side, Narduzzi has steadily seen changes in his front office, though from the outside it’s hard to tell which ones he made and which were made for him. Dann Kabala, Pitt’s player personnel director/recruiting coordinator from 2012-16 and a former graduate assistant from Fox Chapel, was replaced last offseason. He spent last season out of football but is now Penn State’s recruiting coordinator. Mark Diethorn, Pitt’s recruiting director the past three years and a Belle Vernon native who was on staff since 2012, left in early June to become director of player personnel at his alma mater, Virginia Tech.
And none of that includes the six head coaches who have resigned, retired or been fired since Lyke was hired in March 2017, most recently the baseball and softball coaches.
Neither McKillop nor Taglianetti wanted to comment on reasons they heard for Enright stepping down, but “I do know something must’ve happened that just sent Ox over the edge; I don’t think it was necessarily fair to him,” Taglianetti said.
McKillop and Taglianetti spent part of Tuesday chatting with old teammates — John Malecki, Dom DeCicco, Adam Gunn and Jason Pinkston, to name a few — and reminisced. They spoke to the Post-Gazette about the loss of Enright and what it means to them as alumni, but dozens of others — former players, equipment staffers and fans — voiced their respect for him on Twitter.
Even current redshirt senior tailback Qadree Ollison posted, “Woww not my dawg Ox.”
“It’s crazy to see,” Alex Officer, an offensive lineman who used up his eligibility last season, wrote in a text message. “He was a great person. Treated me right from my first day to my last.”
While Officer is a more recent graduate, McKillop and Taglianetti are well aware — perhaps painfully so — that they’re no longer as connected to the program they loved playing for as they used to be. They still do love it, but it’s just getting harder and harder to recognize it.
They both mentioned associate athletic director/football administration Chris LaSala, director of player development/high school relations Bob Junko, and head trainer Rob Blanc — all of whom have spent at least two decades with Pitt football — as the lone stalwarts left to return to. McKillop gave a shoutout to Danny Kozusko, Enright’s longtime assistant equipment manager, who is still listed on the team website.
“The way I like to look at this is, over the past 30 years, Ox is the only one who’s been there,” Taglianetti said. “All the coaching changes, every cycle of players, Ox has always remained constant. Through all that time, through every coach, he’s always been loyal. … It really sucks that as important as Ox is to that program and what it means to the alumni and players in there, these top guys can kind of do what they want and there’s not much Ox can do.”
To be clear, Taglianetti insisted that Pitt’s alumni outreach efforts are genuine, and that he doesn’t expect Narduzzi to have time to connect with him individually — “I wasn’t a first-round draft pick. I’m just a washed up guy,” he quipped — but seeing Enright go is a major blow to morale.
When he wasn’t comfortable around new coaches or new players he never met, he still visited the old guard, the same equipment manager “who would talk you off a cliff, make sure you’re doing well after a bad practice when you had no one else to vent to.”
“Any time you stepped into the equipment room with Ox,” Taglianetti recalled, “it was like all was well with the world.”
McKillop, who spent the 2015 season as a graduate assistant under Narduzzi, thought back on stories he’d heard about one coach or another needing something to be fixed last-minute, “and Ox had his connections and people that were able to get it done.”
“The only thing constant in life is change,” McKillop said. “But I don’t know, something doesn’t seem right. … I guess they’ll never appreciate how much Ox did until the first game of the season, or the first away game, or when a problem presents itself. I loved Ox as a friend and on a professional level.
“He probably had the biggest heart I ever met for someone connected to Pitt football.”
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
A Pitt student’s estranged ex-boyfriend climbed the wall of the house, broke into her bedroom and killed her with a hammer.
Maybe this OX guy just woke up one day and finally realized what the rest of the world already knew... Pitt sucks.
I know you didn't post the picture and haven't been disrespectful in any way, so to everybody, can we all please agree to leave the senseless murder of a bright young woman out of this? It's got nothing to do with football. It's a tragedy with lives ruined and parents living the rest of their lives without their baby girl, who they had to bury after she died violently. I know that Pitt's coach cynically tried to use the horror of what Sandusky did for the advantage of his program, and that many Pitt fans absolutely delighted in the terrible things that happened to children because to them anything that hurt PSU was a wonderful thing, but this is too much and I had to speak up. I'm going to bow my head for a moment for the young woman and the people affected by that crime.
Oh, absolutely no disrespect intended from me. I followed the story as it occurred and how tragic it was. The sad reality is that domestic violence can happen anywhere and on any college campus - whether it’s Penn State, Pitt, or anywhere else. My intention in describing the crime was to indicate that it had zero to do with Pitt, Oakland, or anything other than an estranged domestic partner deciding to do something monstrous.
Let's just pretend that you've been on the job for decades.... always giving extra, never saing "no." You do some research and discover that you are terribly underpaid AND understaffed. You make reasonable requests for redress, that seemingly fall on deaf ears. Even the primary beneficiary of your demonstrated willingness to go above and beyond deserts you.
When I began as a teacher/coach, I made it a priority to treat groundskeepers, custodians and team managers as stakeholders in the program. Did HCPN go to bat for his equipment manager?Or did he let him twist in the wind? Perhaps the job was so lucrative this man decided to retire aT 49? LOL
When I began as a teacher/coach, I made it a priority to treat groundskeepers, custodians and team managers as stakeholders in the program. Did HCPN go to bat for his equipment manager?Or did he let him twist in the wind? Perhaps the job was so lucrative this man decided to retire aT 49? LOL
Did he at least get a "going away" key chain?
It’s amazing that it is obvious that something happened to the equipment manager that very clearly makes Former Pitt players angry and the circle jerkers on the lair and doubling down on Narduzzi. It is going to be a delight watching Pitt start 1-3 and see the fanbase bring out the pitchforks and then every thing will be pat’s fault.
No, but he did claim a going away national championship.
Too bad, if only he had stayed until the end of Pitt football, he would have received a beverage.
48-14 was the end of Pitt football. What you see now is just the residual twitching like after an animal dies.
The Oklahoma State game was over in the first quarter, but you had to stay through the residual twitching to get the free beverage. This is no different.
It really was amazing the physical and mental ass whooping PSU put on Pitt the week before in their super bowl. It made OSU's job very easy.
The Douche sure can recruit. Just beat out Old Dominion and Bowling Green for a top 1500 recruit.
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Or they like a shortened season and don’t have to be bothered with those extra bowl practices.
They are also in the process of luring away OL Matt Gonglaves from Villanova, Bryant, and Toledo. It could be a big week for Pitt.
It was awesome the way Mason Rudolph
played, he will eventually be a special player for the Steelers.
Oklahoma State led the Panthers 49–14 at the break after quarterback Mason Rudolph completed 20 of his 28 passing attempts for 423 yards and five touchdowns with zero interceptions. Tailback Justice Hill added 91 rushing yards on 11 carries with two rushing touchdowns. Rudolph was pulled as Mike Gundy called off the dogs in the third quarter, finishing with 497 yards in a 59–21 Cowboys win.
Some of us doNarduzzi usually announces that someone committed via Pat Signal and then let’s the kid announce publicly that he’s the commit. I don’t like putting it out there before the commit out of respect for him. Don’t like to steal his thunder, like you said.
"Pat signal" is awfully derivative. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
Dude, tell us about your apology to the Pitt premium board. What was that all about?
So, you know the commit before the other nimrods and continually overhype Pitt players and coaches. The only question that remains is are you Chris Peak, Karlo, Mike Vukovcan?
Yet all I hear about is how Journey Brown is some sleeper. This kid doesn’t look bad and had very similar if not better offers.
I hear very little about Journey Brown. I hope he does well, but I’m excited about Sanders and Slade. Seriously man. Brown might do well, but pitt’s Entire class is made up of kids like this not just a backup running back
Recruiting in the lower 1/3 of all P5 schools is not the path to competing for any championship, even one as weak as the Coastal ACC.
Hey they beat out Monmouth, Elon and something called a Campbell (possibly a soup making university?) too.
No, not true. This kid did not have a PSU offer. This kid didn't have a 700 yard rushing game, either. Brown was totally under the radar because of where he played, in god-forsaken District 10. Pitt's kid is entirely different. The only thing they have in common is that both of these kids are fast.
Brown may or may not turn out to be a player, but to use him as a tool to minimize our amusement at Pitt's recruiting plight was off the mark.
He's a good player, I would assume he would get some other P5 offers and may not even stay with Pit. Real fast and plays in a tough montgomery county league in MD.
PSU was his only good offer. Outside of that he had Duquesne and Temple the same as the Pitt kid.
As I noted, Brown was buried in the worst district in the state, where nobody ever saw him play. This kid plays in a front-and-center league in Maryland. Brown's high school stats were ridiculous. He gained over 7000 yards rushing in high school. If he had played in the WPIAL, it's very likely is offer list would have been significantly different.
It is irrelevant to point out that ONE commit to PSU mirrors the quality of the ENTIRE class at Pitt.
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