Pat Narduzzi threw out some pretty serious tampering accusations about Mario Cristobal and the Miami Hurricanes to The Athletic. I don't know if Cristobal is going to respond to it any time soon, but the Miami Hurricanes will address it for him on October 24.
In case you missed it, and today's slate of speakers in Charlotte wasn't exactly worth giving up plans for, Narduzzi said that Miami made an offer for Pitt quarterback Mason Heintschel that the sophomore quarterback turned down, and then he warned Manny Diaz that the Hurricanes were coming for Darian Mensah, who did transfer from Duke to Miami in late January after a contentious situation that got the courts involved.
READ MORE: Darian Mensah just confirmed Miami's quarterback pitch is working to perfection
“The tampering has gotta end, especially in conference.”@coachduzzpittfb talked about outside attempts to get his QB to transfer on the portal’s final day at #ACCKickoff. pic.twitter.com/Qbc7fEhPh7
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) July 17, 2026
“Miami tried to get Mason [on] Thursday before (the portal closed Friday), and we were able to hang on to him and shut them down,” Narduzzi told The Athletic on Friday. “Shoot, I talked to Manny that Thursday afternoon and said, ‘Hey, watch out. I hear he’s going for your guy next.’ And sure enough, they stole him,” Narduzzi said.
Pat Narduzzi calls out Miami for alleged tampering
Narduzzi said that Miami supposedly made Heintschel a "crazy offer" and he admits that Pitt didn't match this number, but they did whatever they had to do to keep him with the Panthers.
Now, I'm not going to defend Cristobal or Mensah because they don't need me to do that. Narduzzi's comments on SiriusXM could be taken a few ways and a lot of it was lobbying for a shorter transfer window, which of course would give student-athletes less time to make the decisions that are best for themselves and their livelihood. The Panthers coach wants to claim that this shorter transfer window needs to happen because of "tampering", but more than likely it's part of a greater desire for these coaches to go back to their prehistoric ways and lock out all player movement. Because, you know, the guy that's making over $7 million annually wants to "save" the sport.
"Last year we had two portal windows, this year it's just one in January. We need to get that window closed down," Narduzzi said. "We want a 10-day portal window, which would eliminate that. The tampering has got to end, especially in conference. One way of eliminating it...the longer the portal is open, the more tampering is going to happen."
Yeah, I'm sure that's why Narduzzi wants to eliminate the transfer portal...because of tampering. His comments on Miami's reported "crazy offer" to Heintschel can also be read as he doesn't believe his young quarterback should be valued as highly as he is. Interesting. I wonder how Heintschel feels about that?
Anyway, I doubt Cristobal will say anything about this, but I guarantee he's seen and heard it. His memory is long and there's a very good chance he's going to remember those words when Miami welcomes Pitt to Hard Rock Stadium in late October.
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