Difficult to miss the 7-man class of quarterbacks on 1st day of Pitt’s spring drills
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Add about 20 degrees to the morning temperature and you’d have a difficult time believing Pitt didn’t start summer drills Monday morning on the South Side. The sun was shining, the grass was green and coaches’ sharp words filled the air.
Coach Pat Narduzzi brought his 110-man team outside Monday on the first of 15 practice days. Credit the mild winter for keeping the Beano Cook Fields dry enough for Pitt to practice outside on the fourth day of March.
D line drills at Pitt spring practice still intense, but a little strange without Charlie Partridge. pic.twitter.com/41HOwZdZMA
— Jerry DiPaola (@JDiPaola_Trib) March 4, 2024
The most striking sight was the proliferation of red jerseys — seven of them — in the middle of the calisthenics line that signal the start of practice. Quarterbacks wear red to protect them from overly zealous pass rushers; no need getting anyone hurt six months before the first game.
Narduzzi apparently wants to have as many options as possible this season and into the future.
What’s interesting about the quarterback room under offensive coordinator Kade Bell is that five of the seven are on scholarship, led by starter-at-the-moment Nate Yarnell. Also getting a free education this semester are returning quarterbacks Christian Veilleux and Ty Dieffenbach and freshmen Eli Holstein and Julian Dugger.
Holstein is actually a redshirt freshmen after spending 2023 at Alabama. Dugger gave up the spring of his senior year at Penn Hills — typically the best of times for high school students — to enroll at Pitt in January and start learning the nuances and complexities of the most difficult position in sports.
It’s yet to be determined how good Pitt’s quarterbacks will be, but they are tall. Yarnell and Dieffenbach are 6-foot-6, Veilleux and Holstein are 6-4 and Dugger looks small next to his teammates, but he’s actually 6-3. There are two walkons: David Lynch (6-3) and Jake Frantl (6-foot).
That should keep Bell busy this spring sorting through everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.