New Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said on Saturday that he was close to finding his offensive coordinator.
According to reports he has and that man is Arkansas Razorbacks offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jim Chaney, as according to reports he will be announced as the Panthers new OC.
Narduzzi said that he is looking not only for a good football coach to lead the offense, but the right person as well.
Apparently Chaney meets all of Narduzzi’s qualifications.
“I’m looking for someone to come in and run the offense,” Narduzzi said on Saturday. “I’m also looking for a good person. There are plenty of good football coaches out there, but we are looking for a quality person as well.”
Chaney came to Arkansas in 2013 after spending the previous four seasons as the offensive coordinator at Tennessee. His offenses at Arkansas averaged only 26.5 points per game in his two seasons at the school, but the Razorbacks went from scoring 20.7 points per game in 2013 to 31.9 in 2014 in a very tough SEC.
He will have plenty of talent to work with at Pitt as he can lean on ACC Player of the Year James Conner to start.
Conner should be thrilled with the hire as Chaney produced not one, but two 1,000-yard backs this past season at Arkansas.
In addition Chaney will have one of the top wide receivers in the nation in Tyler Boyd, a quarterback in Chad Voytik who started to improve towards the end of last season and a solid offensive line coming off a pretty good season.
Narduzzi’s search was extensive, but his main priority was to find a guy who has been an offensive coordinator in the past.
“I’m looking for a guy who has called plays before,” said Narduzzi. “That’s what I am looking for. He will have free reign of the offense unless I want to get my hands dirty and mess things up.”
While an official announcement has yet to be made by Narduzzi, it looks as if Chaney is that man.
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