The switch is official.
Pat Narduzzi confirmed Christian Veilleux will start a quarterback for Pitt in place of Phil Jurkovec Saturday when No. 14 Louisville visits Acrisure Stadium for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff.
The move signifies a turning of the page for the Panthers program. The bridge built by transfers Jurkovec and Kedon Slovis from the Kenny Pickett era until now comes to the Penn State transfer for the foreseeable future. The beginning of this next era for Narduzzi is coming in a "better-late-than-never" scenario, as the Panthers are 1-4 with Associated Press Top 25-ranked teams on the schedule in three out of the next four weeks.
Veilleux -- pronounced "VAY-er" -- is up to the challenge.
"Obviously anything like this doesn't have ideal timing," Veilleux said Wednesday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, "but I will say having the bye week to prepare an extra week is definitely helpful. Definitely thankful that I get that extra week to prepare. I think that it was good to have that bye week to help me get situated and comfortable with everything. Definitely helped."
Narduzzi swung and missed twice on transfer quarterbacks to begin the post-Pickett era, and the court of public opinion has since begun to question Narduzzi and Frank Cignetti Jr's abilities to scout and develop quarterbacks. The 2023 class brought in three-star prospect Ty Dieffenbach and the 2024 class will see three-star Penn Hills product Julian Dugger enter his name into the quarterback carousel. The redshirt sophomores Veilleux and Nate Yarnell round out a room that will shape the future of the position for Narduzzi and the Panthers.
Narduzzi emphasized, however, that this move is more about the "now" than the "later."
"No, it's about right now," he said Monday. "The future is next Saturday at 6:30 on the CW Network. That's the future. We're not worried about next year. We've got plenty of time to worry about next year."
Narduzzi is correct in that regard, but this move is also committing to his future in the present.
It was obvious this 2023 team was going to go nowhere with Jurkovec at the helm. He completed a career-low 50.9% of his passes for 818 yards (163.6 per game), six touchdowns, three interceptions, and a career-low 124.6 rating in five games. The switch comes at the right time with two weeks to prepare for the Cardinals, which boast the third-best scoring defense in the ACC.
"Yeah, I just think you've got to change it up at some point, and you've got to figure out if that's going to help at all," Narduzzi said. "I can't tell you it's going to. We've got to execute around him. I think that's the key. I've said that for five weeks, and I'm going to stick to it because it's a fact. Everybody's got to execute around together.
"... Christian has got a great release. You've seen a little bit of him play this year so far. He's got a great quick release. He throws a great ball. He can sling it around. He's athletic, and he's fired up. So I think he wants to have his opportunity, and we're going to find out what he looks like Saturday night."
Narduzzi was hesitant to have a quick hook on Jurkovec, and he will not have a quick hook on Veilleux in this 2023 season. Cignetti and he went back into the portal for Slovis in 2022 and Jurkovec and Veilleux in 2023 and now has to see a return on at least one of those investments.
"I came to Pitt for -- the city's awesome," Veilleux said. "I believed in coach Cignetti, coach Narduzzi's program. I believed in the guys in the guys in this room, and for me it was the best fit to stay close to home. I don't regret my decision. I love this place, love this team, love these coaches, and I'm super happy to be here.
"... I think I bring my own personality and my own leadership style to this offense. Whether that's beneficial or not we'll find out, but I do think that I can definitely help this team win by being the starting quarterback."
The big-picture-politics of the transfer portal is at stake here, but the commonality between Narduzzi and a recent lack of success with his offense is the coordinator.
Cignetti's systems have not benefitted two quarterbacks in a season and a half, and it remains to be seen if Veilleux can pick up what the coordinator puts down in the final month and a half of the season. Narduzzi has previously said he spends approximately 85% of his time with the defense. This thought came up amid these struggles within the 2023 offense.
Narduzzi seems just fine with pinning this quarterback situation on his coordinator.
"Frank ultimately is going to make that decision," Narduzzi said. "But, we had conversations for sure. I think any time you step overboard and say, ‘Hey, I think you need to do this,’ I just don't think it works well. But Frank ultimately makes that call, and I'll either say 'yay' or 'nay.' Again, like I said, we've got faith in Phil, and you were hoping to see what you saw in practice. Again, like I said, we're going to find out where we move from here. Again, Phil's an unbelievable guy. Phil will do whatever you ask him to do. He just wants to win. He doesn't care.
"Phil took (being benched) like a champion, like I expected him to. Like I said, Phil will do anything we ask him to do. He'll run down on a kickoff. He'll play defensive end. He'll do anything."
The livelihoods of the coordinator and the future of the program are at stake once again after Cignetti and Narduzzi pushed Slovis out of the door by bringing Jurkovec in.
Notice this dig at what that transfer portal situation brought to Pitt: Cignetti admitted in August that Jurkovec was brought in to compete with Slovis for the starting job. Slovis didn't want to do that, so he transferred out.
While Narduzzi was being asked about his usage of the transfer portal Monday, he slid this comment into the middle of the reporter's question:
"I liked Kedon a lot. He was a good football player."
Isn't that interesting?
