Pitt QB still not set, but Pat Narduzzi won’t wait until game day to reveal his choice
Share this post:
While Pitt enters the final two weeks of training camp, the question on the lips of many fans remains:
Who will be the starting quarterback for the opener against West Virginia and — in a perfect world — the rest of the season?
My answer, only partially in jest: “What time is kickoff?”
Coach Pat Narduzzi shot down that scenario Wednesday morning when he said he won’t wait until game day Sept. 1. But he also didn’t say when he planned to reveal his choice between Kedon Slovis and Nick Patti.
“Don’t really have a timetable,” he said. “We’ll name it when it’s time.”
After more than two weeks of camp, there’s a chance Narduzzi knows who it will be and, perhaps, he has told the most important people involved (coaches and players). Reporters fall into a distinctly different category. Everyone knows they can’t keep a secret.
There’s a reason behind Narduzzi’s secrecy. Why give West Virginia coaches the benefit of preparing for only one quarterback when they already have spent the whole summer getting ready for two?
“It’s not knowing,” Narduzzi said. “We’re going to go back and watch (WVU quarterback) J.T. Daniels, every pass he’s ever thrown at USC and Georgia. You go back and look at different stuff. How deep do you go? What are you looking at?”
Pat Narduzzi, on quarterbacks and the advantages of keeping a secret. pic.twitter.com/ql65c9Ls4R
— Jerry DiPaola (@JDiPaola_Trib) August 17, 2022
Meanwhile, Mountaineers coach Neal Brown and his staff must do double that amount of work. Narduzzi could cut that in half by naming a starter. But why would he want to do that now?
Asked if the uncertainty might force his opponent to work harder, Narduzzi said, “Little bit.”
Then, he added, “Or, maybe they don’t work hard at all. I don’t know. Who knows?”
Meanwhile, Narduzzi had a more immediate issue to handle after he didn’t like what he saw at practice Tuesday.
“We had an OK day,” he said before practice Wednesday. “I was kind of a little disappointed.
“I related it to having a good Saturday (scrimmage) and everybody’s feeling good about themselves. The head coach says ‘Hey, you did a nice job, guys. Good job. Good work.’
“Then, they come out (Tuesday), just sloppy. Not as much detail and focus as I wanted. But we’ll crank it up (Wednesday) and get it right.”
And the first 30 minutes Wednesday did seem to have the crispness and intensity Narduzzi demands.
The coach said he addressed his concerns to the entire team.
“I pull the whole team aside and say, ‘C’mon, let’s go.’ Then, the leaders will take it from there,” he said. “I don’t have to pull them individually. They get it.”
(He declined to provide details on what one of those talks actually sounds like.)
“It happens,” he said. “Every day’s not going to be perfect. You have to fight through it and push through it.”
That means, he said, “watching the tape afterwards and realizing coach is right.”
“And then we (coaches) fix it the next day. That’s what we do. We’re the fixers.”