Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi apparently wasn’t too upset with having to replace former Panthers offensive coordinator Mark Whipple.

Whipple, who is now at Nebraska, was Pitt’s offensive coordinator last season when the Panthers won the ACC and quarterback Kenny Pickett made it all the way to the Heisman Trophy ceremony.

But according to Narduzzi, the Panthers didn’t run the ball enough. He told Bazzy’s Black & Gold Banter — which is a podcast for a local Ford dealership in Pittsburgh — that Whipple “refused” to run the ball more.

“Our old offensive coordinator had no desire to run the ball,” Narduzzi said. “Everybody knew it. He was stubborn. Wake Forest was 118th in run defense and we threw the ball every down. When we ran it, we ran it for 10 yards but that wasn’t good enough.”

Narduzzi also indicated that Pickett was banged up at the end of the year due to how many passes he threw. He said that was a major reason why Pickett opted to not play for the Panthers in the Orange Bowl.

“I wouldn’t have said this before the draft, but he was banged up,” Narduzzi said on the podcast. “I think when you throw the ball 85% of the time, and you’ve got people just teeing off on the pass rush and the O-line.

“We didn’t make it easy on Kenny. I think the most impressive thing about Kenny Pickett is everybody knew that we were going to throw the ball, and we threw the ball.”

The Pickett/Whipple portion of the podcast begins at about the 3:00 mark:

Last season, Pittsburgh ran 1,069 plays and attempted 544 passes — good enough for a 50.8 percent pass rate. If you include Kenny Pickett’s 97 rushing attempts, that number rises to 59.9%.

In the Wake Forest game that Narduzzi referenced, the Panthers averaged 4.27 yards per carry. Pickett completed 20-of-33 passes for 253 yards as the Panthers won the game, 45-21.

Narduzzi replaced Whipple with Frank Cignetti Jr., who spent the past 2 seasons as Boston College’s offensive coordinator. Cignetti was also Pitt’s offensive coordinator from 2009-10.

Pitt opens the season with West Virginia on Sept. 1.