Pat Narduzzi, the longtime Michigan State defensive coordinator, gestures as he speaks at a news conference in Pittsburgh where he was introduced as the new head football coach Friday at the University of Pittsburgh. Narduzzi replaces Paul Chryst, who left Pitt last week after three seasons to become the coach at Wisconsin.

PITTSBURGH — Pat Narduzzi stood just outside the doorway, hands stuffed inside his pants pockets, and glanced at nine national championship trophies highlighting the proud history of a program churning in mediocrity.

The youngest gold football is nearly 40 years old. By the math of the latest coach charged with restoring Pittsburgh to relevance, that’s far too long.

“We need to put another one in there,” Narduzzi said.

The work begins now.

The Panthers officially named the longtime Michigan State defensive coordinator as their fifth head coach in five years on Friday, the search committee unanimous in its belief the energetic 48-year-old can give Pitt the traction it desperately needs to find its place in the new-look ACC.

“He was head and shoulders above the group we were looking at,” said executive vice chancellor Jerry Cochran. “He’s got this high energy level. He’s somebody that is going to love this institution and he’s somebody that this institution is going to love.”

And, Cochran hopes, somebody the Panthers are going to keep.

The head coaching job at Pitt has been a revolving door since 2010, with Dave Wannstedt, Mike Haywood, Todd Graham and Paul Chryst all holding the title. Chryst bolted after three years to take over at Wisconsin, his alma mater, last week.

Chryst’s departure coincided with the firing of athletic director Steve Pederson, putting Pitt in the unenviable spot of trying to fill two high-profile positions at once.

While a replacement for Pederson is still in the works,

Pitt wasted little time closing in on Narduzzi, who spent the last eight years as the architect of the Spartans’ relentless defense. Narduzzi has been a coveted candidate for several head coaching jobs in recent years and turned them all down.

He was in the mix at Colorado State but took himself out of the running after interviewing at Pitt, which offered something no other opportunity could match: a chance to come home.

“I knew this was the place,” he said. “This is a place I wanted to go after and I wanted the job.”

Narduzzi grew up about an hour northwest of Pittsburgh in Youngstown, Ohio, where his father served as head coach of Youngstown State from 1975-85.