Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi still searching for QB1, will use Nate Yarnell, Eli Holstein in opener
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If you’re looking for clues to help uncover the winner in Pitt’s quarterback derby, you’re probably wasting your time.
Coach Pat Narduzzi said Monday at his news conference that Nate Yarnell and Eli Holstein will play Saturday in the opener against Kent State at Acrisure Stadium. Someone must take the first snap, and Narduzzi said that will be determined through practice and who best handles the game plan this week.
“The plan right now is to play both those guys Saturday and let the competition begin on the field,” he said.
That doesn’t mean the coach will continue his indecisiveness throughout the season.
“I’d like to know as soon as possible. I don’t want to drag it on,” he said.
Right now, however, it’s too close to call, he said.
“It’s one of those (things) that I think is just too close to say, ‘Hey, this is what it is, let’s take a chance at it.’ I think both of them are very capable. I think they both are guys that can win football games for us, and I’m excited to watch both of them play.”
Narduzzi’s depth chart, released Monday, showed Yarnell and Holstein listed with an OR next to their names, the coach’s way of naming co-starters. Yarnell’s name was listed first, but Narduzzi said it’s inaccurate to read anything into the fact that he didn’t list them alphabetically.
He said he did it that way “because I struggle with the alphabet, I guess.”
What seems clear is Pitt’s coach feels better about his quarterback situation than he did at this time a year ago.
“Last year at this point, I didn’t feel like we had two quarterbacks. I thought we had one quarterback (Phil Jurkovec). I thought. I really love our quarterback situation (now).”
The situation was created after Holstein, a redshirt freshman transfer from Alabama, recovered from a hamstring injury that curtailed his mobility in the spring but never sent him to the sideline. Yarnell, a redshirt junior, was considered QB1 since the final weeks of the ’23 season — when he made two of his three career starts — and throughout the winter and spring months.
Then, summer happened and Holstein started displaying the ability that made him a four-star prospect coming out of Zachary (La.) High School in 2021. Recruiting services ESPN, Rivals, On3 and 247Sports ranked him nationally as high as No. 5 and no lower than No. 11 among high school pocket and pro-style quarterbacks.
“Eli made some major, major improvements (since spring). He caught up,” Narduzzi said. “Obviously, he did a great job in the summer, spending time in the classroom learning it.”
With the way college football’s monthlong training camps are structured (without preseason games against other schools), Narduzzi wants to see more from his quarterbacks than what occurs in practice where defenders are not permitted to hit the quarterbacks. He wants to be especially careful this year after sticking with Jurkovec through a 1-4 start in 2023.
“(In practice), you get used to playing against one defense and one coverage,” he said. “That doesn’t mean you’re the best quarterback. To me, that thing needs to be put over into a game-like situation and let it go from there.”
Making sure he was speaking about all positions on the field, Narduzzi said, “Until you have that opportunity to do it in a real game and not in a scrimmage and in front of people when the lights go on, I think it’s critical (to wait).”
Narduzzi said he isn’t waiting because he wants to put indecision in the minds of Kent State’s coaches.
“They’re preparing for both of them, anyway,” he said.
The offense will look the same no matter who is under center.
“Same package,” Narduzzi said. “Coach (Kade) Bell (offensive coordinator) will sit down with both of those guys and say, ‘What do you like?’ Each has things they like better, but they can operate and do everything the same. It’s not like (Bell) is going to have to change. They both run pretty darn good.
“They can operate and manage the offense at a fast tempo. That’s the first thing. It’s not like one’s going to be slower than the other. We’ll find out what skills come out on game day and who’s got those intangibles on game day, who’s going to bring us the best package.”