Blue-Gold game: Offense still a work in progress at spring's conclusion

Shortly after Pitt lost its 2023 season finale at Duke in November, Nate Yarnell received commitment from Pat Narduzzi that the program was about to become his. This offseason has brought sweeping changes to try to correct a 3-9 record, the worst in the Narduzzi era, and rebuild a program that hoisted an ACC Championship banner in 2021. To spark those changes, Narduzzi went against the grain in bringing in 31-year-old coordinator Kade Bell, whose offense was the talk of water coolers around Football Championship Subdivision last season.

The offense built its foundation through its 14 spring practices with Yarnell leading the transition. Though the Gold team beat Bell and Yarnell's Blue team 17-10 at Acrisure Stadium Saturday, the internal belief following the annual spring game is this offense took strides but is still a work in progress.

"Definitely taken a huge leap," Yarnell said. "From Day 1 to now it's unrecognizable for me and for the whole team. We're playing so much faster and so much more confident. We have a long way to go but I'm sure we're going to be there by the time the fall hits."

Bell was not going to turn to the 100th page of his play book in this spring game. The simplified version brought some of the explosiveness that had been promised from within the walls of the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, but the growing pains were visible from multiple angles. 

There was a 5 minute, 40 second stretch to begin the second half when the offenses went three-and-out five consecutive times -- three times by the Blue team. A scoring drought of nearly 8 minutes was snapped when Ty Dieffenbach connected with Kenny Johnson on a screen pass that turned into an 18-yard touchdown and a 17-3 lead for the Gold team with 2:25 left in the third quarter.

That's the offense that wants to be recognized. Bell's ability to scheme receivers open brought great success at Western Carolina. There are tweaks to make in order to tailor it to Yarnell and Pitt's skill players, but a few glimpses of that were shown Saturday. If Yarnell is suggesting the offense is 'unrecognizable,' from Day 1 until Saturday, then that should carry over from Saturday through the fall.

"Just the way that we're able to process is and how fast we're going to play," Yarnell said. "Obviously the offense hasn't changed but the way that we're able to understand it and translate that to the field has been a big change since we first started. ... I think we have a lot of improvement to be made in the next four months and that's going to be made. Got a lot of potential left in our offense, a lot of work to still do."

Dieffenbach, Yarnell, and Alabama transfer Eli Holstein each threw touchdown passes Saturday. Holstein found Daniel Carter for a six-yard score at the end of the first half, and Yarnell arced a 34-yard touchdown to a wide-open Lamar Seymour to end the third quarter. 

Yarnell completed 12 of 16 passes for 108 yards for the Blue team, and Holstein completed 10 of 23 for 128 yards, one touchdown, and a tip-drill interception for the Gold team. Narduzzi said Yarnell and Holstein managed their respective huddles well, and Yarnell impressed with getting the ball out quickly while having the second-string offensive line protect him throughout the game. 

Up next for Narduzzi is a spring and summer of recruiting and filling gaps within the transfer portal. While there could be some turnover once the portal opens Tuesday, Narduzzi assured the offense has more to tune up regardless of who is in it.

"I don't know if there's a 'next step.' It's just polishing it up," Narduzzi said. "It's continuing to polish. Our kids are still learning it and there's a lot of conversion going on out there. There's a lot of learning to go. We're not even close to where we could be. This is just the first install. We'll have a summer install as far as in the middle of the summer we'll go through the same thing on both sides of the ball. Then we'll have fall install and we'll be ready to go."

In Saturday's spring game of four 10-minute quarters and a fourth-quarter running clock, Yarnell's Blue team net 85 yards of offense. The Blue team had the Panthers' second-string offensive line to protect Yarnell, Christian Veilleux, Julian Dugger, and David Lynch. Dugger completed a pass for three yards, Veilleux did not complete a pass in six tries, and Lynch's lone passing attempt fell incomplete.

"I thought Nate, again, just made decisions," Pitt tight ends coach and Blue team head coach Jacob Bronowski said. "It's always hard as a quarterback when you're in there with a lot of different pieces because of the draft, whether it's the O-line, whether it's different receivers that maybe haven't been with the ones as much, so it's difficult for a quarterback. I thought Nate went out there and -- one thing about Nate, he's a positive dude. He goes about his business every single day, he cares about his teammates. I think he won the award at the Pitt Panthers award ceremony as the best teammate. That says everything you know about him and his peers voted for that. That's who he was today. Obviously he's got a huge jump to make in this summer which he knows because he's a leader, he cares, and he's going to push everybody around him."

The Gold team posted 196 yards, with 162 coming through the air. Dieffenbach completed 4 of 7 passes for 31 yards and his touchdown to Johnson, and Jake Frantl completed 1 of 3 attempts. Johnson, the first overall pick in Wednesday's Blue-Gold game draft, caught six passes for 77 yards to go with his touchdown. Gavin Bartholomew had two catches for 45 yards, and Daejon Reynolds had four catches for 41 yards.

Narduzzi, Bronowski, and Gold team coach Archie Collins each touted the lack of turnovers with the exception of the interception by Javon McIntyre off of a tipped ball in the second quarter. Yarnell showed more of what caught Narduzzi's eye in the first place last season, and that was his ability to take care of the ball and made smart decisions with it.

With 140 days until Pitt's season opener against Kent State, it's up to Yarnell to accelerate the growth of Bell's offense. The vote of confidence came from Narduzzi in November, and Narduzzi re-affirmed after Saturday's game Yarnell will be the starting quarterback heading into fall camp.

"It just allowed me to play football and focus on coming to the facility every day and grinding and I don't have to worry about anything else," Yarnell said of Narduzzi's endorsement over the offseason. "That meant everything, and to have that trust from him is huge."