QB Nate Yarnell reveals transfer plans after up-and-down Pitt career
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In four seasons at Pitt, Nate Yarnell has served four distinct roles at the game’s most important position.
He has been a quarterback-in-waiting, hope for the future, an afterthought and, finally, an insurance policy. But all of that will end for Pitt’s bowl game and in 2025 after he revealed Friday on X that he is entering the NCAA transfer portal as a graduate student. He has two remaining seasons of eligibility.
— Nate Yarnell (@NateYarnell) December 6, 2024
His announcement robs Pitt of quarterback depth but leaves the position next season in the hands of rising redshirt sophomore Eli Holstein, who was coach Pat Narduzzi’s preferred choice in the first place.
Yarnell, who came to Pitt from Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas, in January 2021, has been with the team long enough to sit in quarterback meetings with Kenny Pickett. Yarnell also started for injured Kedon Slovis and Nick Patti as a redshirt freshman in a 2022 victory at Western Michigan, slid to third string behind Phil Jurkovec and Christian Veilleux in 2023 and served as a fill-in for Holstein this past season.
Through it all, he showed the kind of toughness coaches typically seek in their quarterbacks, taking a pounding behind an offensive line weakened by injury, playing through pain and less than a month ago nearly defeating Clemson, a team that will play for the ACC championship Saturday night.
Approaching spring ball and summer camp this year, Yarnell was the apparent favorite to open the season as the starter, even after Narduzzi signed Holstein, a transfer from Alabama. But Holstein seized the job this summer and held onto it through most of the first nine games until head and leg injuries ended his season Nov. 23 in the first quarter at Louisville.
Yarnell relieved Holstein in the Syracuse, SMU, Virginia and Louisville games, but he started against Clemson and Boston College. He leaves Pitt after appearing in 15 games over four seasons, with five starts (2-3), completing 149 of 273 passes (65.6%) for 1,846 yards, 15 touchdowns and six interceptions.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science before the ’24 season.
Defensive tackle Elliot Donald, a Central Catholic graduate and the nephew of Pitt great Aaron Donald, also entered the portal.
Officially in the portal as a grad student????????
— Elliot Donald (@ElliotDonald3) December 6, 2024