DURHAM, N.C. -- This debate shouldn't be a long one this offseason.
Once might be an accident and a happy occurrence. Twice might be a coincidence. Thrice, though, should be a clear indicator of a pattern of a norm.
If Pat Narduzzi wants to get a head-start on his offseason, a committal to Nate Yarnell should be given immediately with the actions that are about to follow.
If it didn't take guidance in wins over Western Michigan in 2022 or against Boston College a week ago from Thanksgiving Day, let this performance in Pitt's 30-19 loss to Duke Saturday at Wallace Wade Stadium be the indicator.
"I thought Nate played well, and I like what I see out of him," Narduzzi said. "He can get better. Third start ever, and I think he can just keep getting better. ... He's a guy that can win a lot of football games for us. He's smart. He takes coaching. He's tough. He made some plays out there, but he made his mistakes, too. Got a lot of faith in him."
Otherwise, buckle up for a busy offseason for the Panthers after this 3-9 season.
With a chance to gain some momentum for the offseason, Yarnell was the only Panther who sprung any plays worth mentioning for this stagnant bunch. Without looking to broadly, let this one scoring drive in the first half be the indicator.
Backed up on Pitt's own 7-yard line, Yarnell led way to a 15-play touchdown drive across 7:31 that should set the table for 2024 and 2025, with or without Frank Cignetti Jr. guiding the ship as offensive coordinator.
Yarnell began the odyssey with a nine-yard strike to Bub Means on the far sideline. After a Rodney Hammond three-yard run picked up a first down and another Hammond run went for a loss of a yard, Yarnell's three-yard completion to Kenny Johnson earned a bonus 15 yards via personal foul from Duke's DeWayne Carter to place the ball on the Pitt 36.
Yarnell then kept it for two yards and found Johnson for seven more, setting up a third and 1 from the Pitt 45. This is where Christian Veilleux, Phil Jurkovec, or Cignetti would have over-thought the process. A Pitt offense in a previous life would have deferred to Hammond or C'Bo Flemister for that yard on a simple dive up the middle.
Not Yarnell, though.
Yarnell kept the ball on a designed run, and the 6-foot-6 redshirt sophomore scrambled for daylight and smartly went down just after the line to gain. First down at the 46.
Hammond rushed it for six yards and Yarnell for 1 to set up another third down with three to go at the Duke 47.
This is where Yarnell turned up the dial.
He fearlessly rifled a ball into the basket of Means across the middle of the field for a 15-yard gain and a first down at the Duke 32. The ball sizzled through the air 12 yards downfield, and Means was the only player who had the chance at the catch despite blanket coverage from Al Blades Jr.
Three plays later, Yarnell stared down a 3rd and 10 from the Duke 32. This time, he looked to his later reads and found Flemister in the flat, and Flemister was able to bowl ahead to the 21 for the Panthers' sixth first down of the drive.
Two plays later, on a second and 10 from the 21, Yarnell did this:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) November 25, 2023
This 21-yard strike to Karter Johnson on a rollout proves exactly why Pitt should not walk into this offseason with any a doubt of who the starting quarterback will be in 2024. This 15-play, 93-yard drive that spanned 7:31 across the first and second quarters was marked by a commandeering effort from Yarnell. On this drive, he completed all seven passing attempts for 66 yards. He converted three third downs via his legs or his arm.
Yarnell finished this day by completing 25 of 35 passes for 265 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception.
In three starts as quarterback at Pitt, Yarnell has completed 45 of 66 passes (68.2%) for 651 yards (217.0 per game), four touchdowns, and one interception for a 168.0 rating.
He should not be the question mark in this offseason, no matter how tempting it will be to turn to Christian Veilleux or incoming freshman Julian Dugger. Forget the three-game sample size. Results are results. He showed appropriate awareness, arm talent, and ability in those starts -- and the most-recent two, in particular -- to be given the reins over the offseason.
"I'll leave that up to the coaches," Yarnell said. "I'm going to be the best quarterback I can be and be the best leader for this team that I can be. ... Just getting the opportunity to play for Pitt, I couldn't be more grateful stepping onto that field. I was extremely disappointed we lost today. I just want to win, super bad, for Pitt, and I couldn't be more grateful for that opportunity."
In a world where Pitt has committed to everybody ahead of him -- Kedon Slovis, Nick Patti, Jurkovec, and Veilleux -- Yarnell has continued to be loyal to this program that gave him a chance.
Yarnell is not a stranger to this. Even in his high school days at Lake Travis in Texas, he was passed up for the perceived "better" option. He backed up former top recruit Hudson Card at that program, which has produced the likes of Baker Mayfield and Garrett Gilbert as top-flight recruits in the college football world.
His loyalty knows no bounds.
"Pitt's a family," Yarnell said. "I think I've seen that, I've seen the culture that we have, and it's my job as a quarterback to build on that culture, make it strong. ... They gave me an opportunity to play Power Five football. I played in six games in high school. I played in Lake Travis, but I didn't have a ton of tape and I knew that I was good at quarterback and coach Narduzzi went off of those six games and gave me an opportunity, and I'll forever be grateful for that."
That should mean something, no matter how much of a business this sport has become.
And, he continued to show that with how much he was handicapped. The Panthers finish the season with 10 games of 30 or fewer points scored and six games of 20 or fewer than points scored.
"We're going to look at that and find out what that is, but we've obviously got to score more points, we've got to convert in the red zone, and we'll find out what we've got to do," Narduzzi said. "But, we've got to score more points. That's a fact."
That stat alone -- Narduzzi's remarks, withheld -- don't exactly endorse Cignetti beyond this season.
Pitt didn't begin a drive past its own 25-yard line until there were 6:40 left in the game. Their starting field position to that point reads as follows: Own 17, own 25, own 10, own 4, own 12, own 25, own 14, own 25. A drive with 6:40 left began at the Pitt 37, and it ended with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Yarnell to Means.
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) November 25, 2023
"We didn't help ourselves a whole lot with field position," Narduzzi said.
Field position was a footnote in a comedy of errors for the Panthers in this loss, but those details are nothing new to this team throughout the season. Badly timed penalties, inconsistent calls to put the defense in a position to stop Duke, and a special teams unit that has much to be desired.
Here comes the offseason. One which should be filled with change and just about everything on the table.
"Oh, boy, there's a 14-page (list of) takeaways," Narduzzi said. "It's a list of things that we need to clean up, and just keep getting better. I think we've got a young team that's played a lot of -- played a lot of young guys all year. There's a lot of takeaways that we probably don't have time time for."
I followed up by asking Narduzzi what he thinks is at the top of that list, as of this moment:
"There's a bunch of them," he replied.
And, he was followed up with a question of changes to his staff:
"We're going to digest this and watch the video tape, and evaluation goes on year-long," Narduzzi said. "Every Saturday, every Sunday, every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, through Friday. Just evaluating where we are, what we can do to get better. It starts with the coaches and then, you know, period."
That evaluation process begins Monday, for the players and the staff. That will include the quarterbacks, but Yarnell made a strong impression in these final two games as a building block for what ever changes might be coming.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Team feed
• Scoreboard
• Schedule
• Standings
• Statistics
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE SCHEDULE
The season is over. The record book will show Pitt with a 3-9 overall record and a 2-6 record within ACC play in 2023.
THE CONTENT
• Visit the Pitt feed for more from Wallace Wade Stadium.
