Is There Time for Pitt to Evaluate Both Quarterbacks?

Nate Yarnell has never truly seemed to be in the plans for the Pitt coaching staff.

Yarnell, a third-year sophomore, made his first career start against Western Michigan last season after both Kedon Slovis and Nick Patti were unable to play due to injury. He didn’t see the field after that until the Sun Bowl three months later, after Slovis entered the transfer portal and Patti took a hit that forced him to miss a few plays.

He completed 10-of-14 pass attempts for 195 yards and a touchdown last season, running a toned-down offense to a win over the Broncos in Kalamazoo, Mich. and throwing just two passes against UCLA.

And then Pitt brought in Phil Jurkovec and Christian Veilleux. Jurkovec quickly won the starting job over the spring, and Veilleux eventually won the backup job.

But throughout the entire process, and even into the season, Pat Narduzzi and Frank Cignetti Jr. have been unwavering in their praise of Yarnell — despite the fact that he was immediately bypassed by two transfers over the offseason.

“There’s a lot of faith in Nate Yarnell; I can tell you that,” Narduzzi said before the Virginia Tech game. “I love Nate Yarnell. He’s a competitor. He’s a leader. But you kind of — you’ve got to give Christian his chance to go get it done, period. I’ve got a lot of faith in him, as well.”

Yarnell was good last season — in limited opportunities. He wasn’t asked to do much against Western Michigan, relying upon Israel Abanikanda to fuel the offense, but in the process — according to PFF — he made three big-time throws, averaged a depth of target of just over 12 yards and got the ball out in just over 2.5 seconds from when the ball was snapped.

He was good deep, completing all three attempts over 20 yards for 111 yards, and he was good in the intermediate game, completing five-of-seven pass attempts for 69 yards and a touchdown.

But — again — it was against Western Michigan. And it wasn’t as if Pitt asked a whole much out of him either. But he did complete a 16-yard dart against UCLA.

Yarnell has played in just one game this season, in garbage time late against Notre Dame, and he completed 2-of-3 pass attempts for 75 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Pitt lost to Notre Dame, and then Florida State and now there are just three games left this season. And Narduzzi said he doesn’t know if Pitt will try to get Yarnell more snaps over the next three games.

“I haven’t thought about it,” Narduzzi said Monday at his weekly news conference. “Good question for coach Cignetti.”

Pitt is in a pickle now. With three games left, both Veilleux and Yarnell would need all three to really see what exactly it has in its two third-year sophomore quarterbacks.

Unfortunately, though, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Jurkovec played poorly for five games and eventually gave away to Veilleux, who everyone was calling for throughout Jurkovec’s struggles. But Veilleux, while he’s shown flashes and played against far superior competition, has worse numbers than Jurkovec did.

It does boil down to the offensive scheme at some point, in the midst of the third starting quarterback struggling in Frank Cignetti Jr.’s offense, and it’s hard to judge a player too harshly in a failing system, but Pitt has one main thing it needs to figure out for next season: Is the starting quarterback currently on the roster?

Veilleux has started four games this season, and it’s been a tale of two halves. He completed 40-of-71 pass attempts (56%) for 502 yards with four touchdowns against Louisville and Wake Forest. He completed 29-of-64 pass attempts (45%) for 371 yards with one touchdown and five interceptions against Notre Dame and Florida State.

In six games this season, Veilleux has completed 81-of-162 pass attempts (50%) for 1,018 yards with six touchdowns and seven interceptions — and the offense has been entirely inept over the last couple of weeks. Again, it’s been against tough competition over the last couple of weeks, but Pitt needs to see how Veilleux fares against (easier, to be fair) ACC opponents.

But at the same time, Yarnell has even less experience. He has just one start under his belt, just 17 pass attempts at the college level, so he needs these three starts, too. It’s probably just about time to pick one or the other and just see what that quarterback is able to do down the stretch.

Narduzzi has said that he feels Veilleux is ready, but not just Veilleux. Yarnell, too.

“He sits in there and soaks information up in meetings in there,” Narduzzi said. “He knows what’s going on. So, I feel really good.

“I feel better about him than anybody knowing what to do because he’s done it before. You’ve got that evidence when we pulled him up last year at Western Michigan. You knew this guy — he wasn’t sitting there going, ‘I ain’t going to play, I ain’t going to pay attention and not take notes.’ Nate Yarnell was taking notes and he was ready, and that’s impressive.”

Pitt has three games now to figure out if either Veilleux or Yarnell is ready enough to be the starting quarterback of the future, or whether the coaching staff will need to dive into the transfer portal to add another transfer quarterback — and it may need to anyway.

But, according to Narduzzi, it will ultimately come down to Cignetti’s decision — at least, this season.