pittsburgh Coach Pat Narduzzi is never afraid to share his thoughts on college football hottest topics, and now he’s put Deion Sanders and his use of the transfer portal to review Colorado’s roster ahead of his debut season in his crosshairs. In a recent interview with Brandon Marcello of 247SportsNarduzzi criticized Sanders’ tactics after the Buffaloes saw an unprecedented number of players leave the program while “Coach Prime” uses the portal to replenish talent at will.
“This is not how it should be,” Narduzzi told Marcello at the ACC spring meetings. “That’s not what the (transfer portal) rule was intended to be. It wasn’t to review their roster. We’ll see how it works out, but that, to me, looks bad on college football coaches across the country. The reflection is on a guy right now, but when you look at it in general, those kids that have moms and dads and brothers and sisters and goals in life, I don’t know how many of those 70 who left really wanted to leave or were expelled in the back to get out.”
While Narduzzi isn’t the only one who raised concerns about this particular issue, Sanders made his intentions clear in a team meeting in December after returning from jackson state.
“I want everyone to get ready to go ahead and jump into that portal and do whatever they have to do, because the more that come in (into the portal), the more space they make because we bring in kids who are smart, tough,” Sanders said.
The program has seen 51 scholarship players enter the transfer portal since Sanders took over the program. Sanders replaced that production by adding 47 players (and counting) from the transfer market, by far the highest roster turnover since the NCAA adopted its new transfer rules two years ago.
“I grew up in a profession where you can’t tell a guy that he has to leave based on his athleticism,” Narduzzi said. “I think you’ll be surprised that you probably had some pretty good football players in that room. When I came to Pitt in 2015, I didn’t kick anyone out. Zero. Those are your guys. When you become a head coach, you inherit that team and you coach that team. If someone wants to leave, that’s great. You don’t kick them out. I don’t agree with that whole process. That’s not why I got into the game.”
This isn’t the first time Narduzzi has criticized a team’s use of a portal. In 2022, Pitt wide receiver and current Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison transferred to USC. Narduzzi listened to USC’s talk before Addison was traded and allegedly called Trojans coach Lincoln Riley multiple times to express his displeasure and discuss the potential for manipulation. according to ESPN. Riley later responded and denied Narduzzi’s accusations..