Pat Narduzzi will start the 2024 Pitt season with a question mark at the game’s most important position. Quarterbacks Nate Yarnell and Eli Holstein will play in the opener Saturday against Kent State, the coach said. He has yet to name a starter.
It isn’t ideal. Narduzzi didn’t have this problem when Kenny Pickett was the unquestioned starter for four seasons. But this doesn’t have to end badly.
It didn’t in 2015 when Narduzzi was confronted with a similar situation. Back then, it turned out well for Nathan Peterman, the transfer, the new guy in town. Meanwhile, Chad Voytik, who had strong support in the locker room, was looking to hang onto the job he held in 2014.
In his first season at Pitt, Narduzzi and then-offensive coordinator Jim Chaney went out and found Peterman, who was with Chaney at Tennessee in 2012. The quarterbacks shared the position for the first two games — victories against Youngstown State and Akron — before Peterman won the job in Week 3 and ended up leading Pitt to consecutive 8-5 seasons in 2015 and 2016. ”It was a stressful time for me,” said Voytik, 30, now a financial advisor for Northwestern Mutual in Chattanooga, Tenn.
, his native state. “Everything changed. I started the 2014 season.
Not to say that we had an amazing season, but we had a pretty, solid powerful offense. We scored a lot of points.” Pitt scored 30 or more points in each of the last five games in 2014 while running back James Conner became an All-American and AC.