Narduzzi's apology was warranted ... but will it be accepted?

Pat Narduzzi took four minutes and 31 seconds Monday to address the elephant in the room ... and the storm cloud that swirled around his head since the closing minutes of Saturday's catastrophe at Notre Dame. 

After that 51-point loss, the largest blowout in the Narduzzi era, the ninth-year coach and the second-winningest coach in program history spoke of a "tough situation" with respect to his team's struggles. The Panthers sit at 2-6 overall, 1-3 within the ACC, and are on track for the worst record in the Narduzzi era. A loss to No. 4 Florida State at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Acrisure Stadium would drop Pitt out of bowl eligibility for the second time in those nine seasons.

With four games left and the season virtually over before the calendar flipped to November, could this "tough situation" be turned around? Or were Narduzzi's comments a nail inside of the coffin for this cycle?

Narduzzi would hope for the former. That goes for the short- and the long-term.

Here is Narduzzi's full comment from after Saturday's game with respect to Pitt's "tough situation:"

"Obviously, the team's going through a tough situation right now," he said. "We're not playing as good, we've got a lot of young football players out there. We'll stick together as a football team, we'll lock back in. ... When you lose like you lost today, you had a tough one last week, why is it? I'll go back as a football coach ... you lose a lot of football players a year ago, you think as a coach you're going to replace them, we obviously haven't. It starts with me. I didn't do a good enough job of coaching today. Put it on me. We've got to make plays. It comes down to making plays and doing a better job of coaching."

On Monday, a four-minute, 31-second spiel was given by Narduzzi in his first meeting with the public eye since his post-game message. Narduzzi spoke heavily, apologetically, and with regret about the topic:

"We had a great Sunday night meeting in here, you know, after an emotional Saturday afternoon and evening," Narduzzi said in part. "But, you know, started off with my players, first thing I said as I sat here at the podium was you know apologizing to our football team and to our guys about my post-game comments, which didn't, obviously, come out the way I intended them to come out. And sometimes that happens. But when I looked at it over the last, really, 48 hours, 24 hours, you know, there's nothing worse than a loss. A loss hurt. And the first thing I do is jump on the plane, and I'm watching the video on my iPad. But the loss hurts. And everybody in that locker room was hurt. 

"But when you feel like your players are hurt by something the head coach said, that hurts you even worse. It makes you sick to your stomach. So I didn't get a whole lot of sleep on Saturday night. I can promise you that. But, you know, I talk (to) our guys all the time about our program goals. And I won't get into (all) of them, which have been here since I've been here eight and a half seasons. (The biggest one) is relationships. It's the number one thing we talk about all the time. And the relationships that I have with our players is critical. And that never, ever can change.

"And when you don't have a relationship with your team, you've got an issue. And, again, I had a great team meeting with them last night. I think they know where I'm coming from or where I was coming from. I think they get it. Relationships are everything. It's why I coach. It's what I do. It's what I've done for years. And, you know, to me, it's always been, you know, the players love the coaches and the coaches love the players. If you don't have that, you’ve got issues."

Here is the video of Monday's press conference, in full: