Pitt HC Pat Narduzzi Not Ready to Name Week 1 Starting QB

PITTSBURGH — Pat Narduzzi won’t name a starting quarterback for the Pitt season opener against Kent State on Aug. 31, but he’s happy with the competition.

And Nate Yarnell is the starter… right now.

“They’re getting a ton of reps out there with the 1s and the 2s, we’re mixing it up … Nate’s our starter right now, and there’s a battle going on.”

Yarnell, who started the final two games of the 2023 season (and performed well), entered the summer as the starter. Or at least, he was named the starter entering the the spring and then leaving the spring.

Holstein, who arrived from Alabama in December, started the spring so slow after picking up an injury early. But he finished the spring strong and hasn’t looked back since. He’s a legitimate option to start Week 1 against Kent State.

Yarnell may have entered the summer with the “upper hand,” attending ACC Kickoff in Charlotte, N.C. last month and having collegiate experience of any kind, but Narduzzi is taking a fresh look at the summer.

“You can say upper hand like what’s the percentage, I think any time there’s a period of time where something has finished, you finish spring ball — hey, this is the guy,” Narduzzi said. “But then you go into another period, and you come out fall camp and you’re going to do the same thing. And that’s at every position. You could be a starter at the end of spring ball, that doesn’t mean you’re a starter. And that’s every position, I’m not talking about the quarterback.

“But there’s a battle going on, and I think they’re both pressing, working at it, working their tails off, coming in late, spending more time just to be the best. Sometimes that can fail, sometimes that can backfire on you. But we’re seeing them compete everyday, I love the competition, you gotta love what you see out there in two really good quarterbacks battling.”

Narduzzi doesn’t have a timeline for naming a starter, saying that the competition is ongoing and the coaching staff is evaluating every day.

And while he doesn’t have a set “leash” when it comes to whoever wins the starting battle, it’s something he’s talked about with offensive coordinator Kade Bell.

“We’ve talked about it, and I trust Kade,” Narduzzi said. “But you live and learn, you think about things, you live and learn. Again, I trust Kade, but you live and learn. And sometimes you can trust too much in this world, but I’ll be on top of it.”

Pitt kicks off the season in a little over two weeks, and the final scrimmage on Sunday could go a long way in determining the starting quarterback.