In his first collegiate start, Eli Holstein looked, acted and played like a Division I starting quarterback and now he'll get to be one moving into the rest of the season.
Just two days after Holstein passed for 336 yards -- the most by a Pitt redshirt freshman since Alex Van Pelt threw for 366 against West Virginia in 1989 -- and three touchdowns to go with one interception, Pat Narduzzi announced that the Alabama transfer would be the starting quarterback moving into the rest of the season, ending a months-long quarterback competition with redshirt junior Nate Yarnell.
"You look at the tape and he just made really good decisions," Narduzzi said Monday. "He's calm. It's his first start; you never knew what was going to happen. But Eli was impressive on game tape."
Holstein completed his first seven passes in Pitt's romp of Kent State at Acrisure Stadium and went on to complete 30 of his 40 pass attempts, including a 46-yarder to Kenny Johnson on the first drive of the game that put the Panthers on Kent State's one-yard line. But he also anticipated throws and operated the offense efficiently en route to a 55-24 victory.
Just look at the body of work that he put together:
And that really doesn't even include some of his best throws.
Narduzzi said Holstein's composure throughout the afternoon was special as he was able to change the pace of the offense and keep the defense off-balance without committing penalties. He also was able to get all of his playmakers involved as nine different receivers caught passes and five finished with four or more receptions.
"It was a clean start," Narduzzi said. "That's tough to do for a redshirt freshman."
While the Panthers are now transitioning to Holstein, Narduzzi said they still have full confidence in Yarnell, who completed four of his eight pass attempts for 33 yards and a touchdown against Kent State. When asked how Yarnell handled the news, after being named the starter heading into the spring and again heading into the fall, Narduzzi said he "is a pro in my opinion."
"He's as great a kid as you're going to be around," Narduzzi said. "He knows it's a long season. We all know it's a long season. If we get our quarterback hit like we did last week, Nate will be the guy in there, and we've got a heck of a lot of confidence in him. Nate has handled it well. I'm sure it's not easy. It's not easy making the decisions, not easy taking it, but he's a supporter. Just like he was last week, I expect the same support this week of him encouraging and coaching like he does."
It's Holstein's turn to step up now and it's something that he's been waiting a long time for. When he was named the starter for the season opener last week, Holstein said he "shed a tear" thinking about all of the people who helped him get to this moment because it's something that he's been working toward since joining the program.
That showed on Saturday as one could see the anticipation and the trust he had in his receivers as he would often throw the ball before the receivers were out of their breaks and still hit them with pinpoint accuracy. While there were some mistakes and throws that Holstein himself admitted he wanted back, that type of chemistry is developed on the practice field and in late-night sessions at the facility, something he's been doing with receivers since he arrived in Pittsburgh.
"When I first got here, me and Kenny were going up to the facility late at night just throwing balls like that," Holstein said Saturday. "Me, Pop (Raphael Williams), CJ (Censere Lee), we’d just go up there and go through, we had a list of what we were going through -- quick game, RPO, intermediate, some deep stuff, red zone -- and we were just getting the timing down because we knew the time was going to come where we were going to be out there playing together and we needed to be on time to make the play."
That time has now arrived for Holstein and he'll get another opportunity to showcase his talents, and more, moving forward.
