Across the board, Pat Narduzzi and his staff have pulled in a rock-solid baseline for what the future of the Pitt football program could hold.
The 2024 recruiting class is the largest in college football, with 23 giving their pledge to Pitt with four unannounced to this date. The latest shockwave was sent through the South Side on Thursday from about 26 miles away, as Aliquippa four-star linebacker Cameron Lindsey announce he will be attending Pitt over Penn State, West Virginia, and Cincinnati.
Narduzzi's 2024 class is currently a consensus top-10, with Rivals ranking it ninth overall and 247Sports placing it 10th. Of the announced commitments, Pitt has pulled in one running back, one wide receiver, one tight end, four offensive linemen, four defensive linemen, one linebacker, five defensive backs, and two classified as "athletes."
Note one missing hole.
Where is the quarterback?
Getting the pieces around the position has not been an issue. One of the four four-stars in this class is receiver Ric'Darious "DayDay" Farmer, who keeps improving in his technical skill and route running by the day, from the reports coming from his area in Florida. Three-star running back Juelz Goff was coveted by multiple ACC schools for his services, and three-star Eric Ingwerson is ... 6-foot-7 and 225 pounds as a junior in high school.
While he is listed as an "athlete," the expectation is three-star Cameron Monteiro will stick at wide receiver, though he rose as a recruit after rushing for 1,000 yards and 15 touchdowns last season.
Narduzzi and Frank Cignetti Jr. have built everything around the quarterback position, without grabbing a quarterback for this class. Of course, there was the de-commitment of 2023 four-star Kenny Minchey in mid-November, which forced a pivot into Ty Dieffenbach, a fringe three-star who ditched a six-month-long commitment to UNLV to commit to Pitt in early December, two days after he was offered.
(In fact, Dieffenbach didn't take his first official visit until four days after he committed. He signed his National Letter of Intent to play at Pitt 16 days after de-committing from UNLV.)
Had Minchey stayed, this wouldn't be as much of a deal because he would have been the unquestioned piece to build this class around for the next three to four years. Minchey was set to become the best quarterback prospect Narduzzi had pulled in his tenure at Pitt, but instead he will vie to be the heir apparent to Sam Hartman at Notre Dame.
So, yes, Dieffenbach was the backup plan and a reaction to help make up for losing Minchey. Dieffenbach and walk-on David Lynch are the incoming freshmen at the position, with Phil Jurkovec set to commandeer the 2023 offense in his redshirt senior season, his last in college football.
That is not to say there aren't any options on the table for 2024, however.
According to 247Sports' rankings, the highest-rated uncommitted 2024 quarterback is California four-star Elijah Brown, though four of his top five options are on the West coast and the fifth is Alabama. The rest of 247Sports' top 20 quarterbacks are verbally committed. Just from looking at in-state prospects, three-star Samaj Jones remains uncommitted, but Pitt has not offered him. The 247Sports "crystal ball" projection believes he is destined for Penn State.
That doesn't leave Pitt in the dark altogether on the position.
Three-star Florida native Trever Jackson visited Pitt June 2, and Massachusetts three-star Henry Hasselbeck is scheduled to visit this week. Hasselbeck, however, is already committed to Maryland for lacrosse, so he would have to also commit to jumping back into football. Jackson remains uncommitted but holds 23 offers, including from Missouri, Texas A&M, Boston College, Illinois, Penn State, and West Virginia. Pitt also has an outstanding offers out to Georgia three-star Jakhari Williams -- who de-committed from Georgia Tech in May -- and Texas three-star Drew Devillier.
Also, just as Minchey did to Pitt, a quarterback already committed elsewhere could always flip. The Panthers offered three-star Miles O'Neill before he committed to Texas A&M and three-star Tyler Cherry before he committed to Duke, and neither of those commitments are necessarily set in stone.
What about what's in between?
Penn State transfer Christian Veilleux and Western Michigan game hero Nate Yarnell are in their redshirt sophomore years and have as much of a right to become the heir apparent following Jurkovec as the other. The future of the room without a quarterback in the 2024 class is far from gloomy, though keeping continuity in gaining at least one quarterback in the class could break.
The 2022 class didn't have a freshman quarterback, as Kedon Slovis was the lone newcomer to the position after he transferred in from USC. Yarnell was a redshirt freshman, though, and at least retained four additional years of eligibility beyond being the third-stringer to Slovis and Nick Patti.
Yarnell was Narduzzi's freshman quarterback get in the 2021 class, Hawaii transfer Joey Yellen was the quarterback get in 2020, and Davis Beville was the highest-rated recruit in the 2019 class. Patti came in 2018, and Kenny Pickett flipped from Temple to Pitt in 2017.
So, at least dating to Pickett, Narduzzi has pulled in at least one quarterback via the freshman class or via the transfer portal up until the 2024 class. But, not getting one in the 2024 class would make for the second time in three seasons Pitt did not bring in a freshman quarterback prospect.
Having Veilleux and Yarnell to compete as redshirt sophomores helps remedy that, slightly, but there also isn't a guarantee that either or both will pan out longterm. By the time either will have a shot to start, they will be in their redshirt junior seasons and it cannot be ruled out that the loser of that competition transfers away. That would leave that competition's winner and Dieffenbach as the two remaining scholarship quarterbacks, if that happens.
