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Pitt football head coach Pat Narduzzi and UTEP head basketball coach Joe Golding shared a story about flight cancellations leaving Pitt football players stranded in El Paso to ESPN Staff Writer Dave Wilson. Three players had to embark on a 600-mile road trip in preparation for the upcoming Sun Bowl.
“Joe Golding, head basketball coach at Texas-El Paso here in town … him and his wife and child, they picked up and took our three guys and drove them because the flight was delayed to get them here for practice,” Narduzzi said on Monday. “They got here late last night. Just want to give a shoutout to those guys.”
Narduzzi said Pitt football freshman defensive lineman Samuel Okunlola, freshman quarterback Jake Frantl and junior defensive back Hudson Primus were stranded when they “bumped into” Golding as he was trying to get home to El Paso.
“I see these guys; they have Pitt bags on. They start talking about playing in the Sun Bowl and having to get to El Paso and there wasn't any cars left. And I was like, ‘Hey, if we can find a big enough car, I'll take you guys home.' And they were like, ‘Who are you?'” Golding said, laughing. “[The rental car employees] showed up with a minivan first of all. It was too small, and we couldn't all fit in it. Then they had like a big Ford Explorer. I said, ‘Who's using that one?' He said, ‘Nobody right now. But you can't afford that one; it's too much money.' I said, ‘Just give it to us; we got to get home, man.'”
The two-year UTEP head basketball coach said he “didn't think twice” about picking up the Pitt football players, saying he wanted to leave a good impression on behalf of El Paso.
“Out here in West Texas, that's what we do,” he said. “I would hope someone would do that to Cason and Chase if they were stranded somewhere on Christmas night.”
