Sometimes during the college football preseason, a head coach will drop a story about a player that feels like it raises more questions than answers. On Monday, longtime Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi gifted us with one such lore drop. When talking about the Panthers' training camp in a press conference on Monday, Narduzzi took a moment to shout out wide receiver Tyreek Robinson's training camp. But he also cracked jokes about the redshirt sophomore's tendency to do odd things. "The guy (we) probably never talk about is, Tyreek Robinson's starting to turn a corner. You know, he still gives me chest pains at times, as an old coach, but Tyreek has been really good," Narduzzi said. "We cleaned up some things off the field, just little things he drives me nuts with, like eating fish out of the river. That's not a good, thing, 'kay? Don't do that, Tyreek. "He does some stuff Louisiana-style," Narduzzi added.
Robinson, who is from Shreveport, Louisiana, is a redshirt sophomore who saw a little bit of action in his first season. He did not play last year. It's unclear exactly how Robinson's impromptu fishing experience went down, but Pitt's training facility, the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, is located on the banks of the Monongahela River — a river that is safe but generally not considered the cleanest.
Even with the unusual anecdote, Narduzzi stressed that he's "impressed" with Robinson's progress, and later added that he wants to incorporate him more into the game to see what he can do. "I wanna see if he can play consistently — like fast, I wanna see him play fast all the time. I don't want this sometimes up-and-down stuff, that's not good," Narduzzi said. "He's a great player, does a great job blocking, he gives great effort, I wanna see it all the time."