While the Big 12 Conference is known for having some of the best home-field advantages in all of college football, on Friday, one stadium caught some stray shots from an opposing head coach.
Ahead of their Week 2 matchup, Pittsburgh’s Pat Narduzzi detailed the lack of crowd noise among fans inside Cincinnati‘s historic Nippert Stadium.
Narduzzi worked with the Bearcats from 2004 to 2007 under Mark Dantonio as both an assistant coach and a defensive coordinator.
“Not really,” Narduzzi said, describing how much his team is impacted by crowd noise. “It really doesn’t matter; we go there all the time, and we’ve got crowd noise out there during practice every day. I mean, it’s loud, but it doesn’t bother us.”
“We expect Nippert to be loud as well, so we practice loud, but I don’t know how loud it’ll be down on the field,” Narduzzi continued. “I would imagine we were louder out there today than it’ll be there. I don’t remember it being that loud, but I was in the press box back in the day.”
While stadium noise can be a significant factor in winning on the road, Narduzzi has more than the environment to worry about. After experiencing a tough 2023 season, Cincinnati built through the transfer portal and brought in veteran quarterback Brendan Sorsby to spearhead the passing attack. Sorsby put on a show in Week 1, tossing 383 yards through the air.
With the Panthers listed as a 1.5-point underdog heading into Nippert Stadium, Narduzzi will have his hands full with much more than just crowd noise.
Saturday’s game between Pitt and Cincinnati kicks off at 11:00 a.m. CT on ESPN+.
