Pitt football: Is Pat Narduzzi plan for Eli Holstein, Nate Yarnell at QB a good one?

hello and welcome to another episode of the pit mailbag show here from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette where your pit beat Riders Chris Carter and Stephen Thompson here at the Pittsburgh Post cazette you can read all of our work at postgazette.com where we're reporting on the pit Panthers all day every day throughout the week and it's week one foot college football it's finally back we saw week zero games over the weekend pit did not have a week Zero game they have a week one game Kent State noon kickoff aater Stadium this Saturday August 31st both of us will be on hand as well as Abby Schnabel she'll be joining us so it'll be a fun time here in Pittsburgh for sure uh Stephen I personally am excited because we get to finally actually talk about football not about practice not about practice but about a game and that gets that gets me going at the start of the week yeah and I mean I think we're going to see some revolutionary stuff on the field at aure Stadium uh this weekend we're going to see not only this new offense Cade Bells bring into Pittsburgh it's going to be fast it's going to be spread Concepts it's going to be exciting but we're also going to have two quarterbacks there um a a a interesting move from Pat Nardi that we'll talk a little bit about more later but a two quarterback system coming to Pittsburgh uh this weekend it should be if nothing else very interesting it should be a fun weekend on the NorthShore uh and we should get to uh to see some exciting stuff on the field at ax Stadium this week and with that let's get to our first question of the pit mail bag by the way email either of us or hit us up on Twitter uh if you want to get your questions on the show this first question comes from Heath who asks is Pit's plan of using two quarterbacks a good plan now if you read our story from Monday's press conference with Pat Nardi he indicated that there are two starting quarterbacks on the team right now in both rer Jr Nate Yarnell and Richard freshman uh Eli Holstein and the two of them neither of them are the start are just the singular starting quarterback uh he would indicate who would start just yet but he did say both would play against Kent State now Stephen uh this plan that he's putting forth uh he seems to be very excited about it that is Pat ardi asking about it but to Heath's point is this a good plan for pit because there's the classics saying if you have got two quarterbacks you've got none coined by the great uh John Madden yeah I mean look they are clearly unsure of who their best quarterback is um so to that extent I think this is a good idea um I think it's also increasingly clear why Kent State was chosen to be the the season opener this year uh Kent State finished 133rd out of 133 teams in FBS in uh ESPN's S&P plus ranking which if you're unfamiliar is basically uh the football version of kenpom um and they enter this year rank 130th in that same metric uh they are plain and simple one of the worst teams in FBS so uh for a college team uh you don't get a preseason at all you don't get any exhibitions like or or preseason games like you would either you know the high school level or even the NFL they all get games that don't matter to kind of iron out the details a little bit uh College doesn't and I think this is the closest thing that pick can get to an exhibition game to a preseason game to uh you know a scrimmage between with another opponent um so you know they hope they can kind of walk to a win here but also uh maybe learn something by going up against a different defense so um you know I think Ken state is for lack of a better term going to be used as a punching bag a little bit they're going to be used as an experiment a little bit and pit is going to see which of their quarterbacks perform the best in a more controlled but game like uh not even game like but a controlled game uh environment before you got to hit the road to face a power Conference team in Cincinnati and then you get West Virginia the next week um so is this a good idea I mean I think if it was a different opponent I would have other questions um but since it is Ken State since they are clearly not sure of who their best quarterback is I I guess it's a pretty good plan I mean you got to figure this out somehow and I don't think a week of practice is going to prove anything to anyone I think uh clearly four weeks of practice in training camp hasn't proved anything uh yet so why not one more week and when you've got an opponent like this coming to town why not use it uh and use every opportunity uh every piece of data that you can put together to figure out who your best quarterback is I think the only question I have is uh if it's necessarily smart to walk into week one of the regular season without a clear leader of the offense I think that's the only thing uh that that you question I don't want to overstate kind of the emotional impact of you know still having an ongoing quarterback competition I think all these players are professional they'll they'll know what to do when either quarterback is in but um I just think it's it's a little odd to walk into a season opener and be rotating your quarterbacks um after these guys have been on campus with each other for eight months now um they've gone through Spring ball they've gone through training camp I think it would have been valuable to walk into the regular season knowing who the guy is I expected you know even if they didn't share it with us publicly that everyone kind of knew who the quarterback was going to be the starting quarterback was going to be walking into week one but I guess that wasn't the case I guess not and I agree with you it would have made a lot of sense to have that sense of who who's leading who's going to be that guy who's the who's the leader the face of your offense they don't have that right now and that I think is kind of kind of a you know an alarm but you know you know again it is like you said Kent State and they have a chance to get right against Kent State and figure this out um so that they're not uh you know up against uh that they're not up against you know the wall like when they're playing like West Virginia if they were playing West Virginia week one I think this would be a different story but you get Kent State at home before you go to Cincinnati on the road this is a chance for that experiment and Pat to Pat's credit did bring up the a time that they had the same situation now granted this was his first year coaching pit when this this happened back in 2015 but it was Chad votic and Nathan Peterman back then and the two kind of went back and forth for two games and then eventually Peterman was kind of just cemented in as the starter in the third game of the season and then he held on for the rest of the year and the year after so um this pit has been there before they have done this but is it a good plan to he question I mean time will only tell and you know Pat because I asked Pat directly that was like the the first thing I asked him I said you know you don't have to give you you have two quarterbacks you have none I said you know you think you have two quarterbacks why does why do these guys beat that saying and he was like well I thought I had one quarterback last year and look where that got us I'm like I was like okay you know if that's the the route we want to go there but um you know to his point I think the thing is that he feels really confident in his quarterback granted you I think he felt pretty confident in his quarterback last year I think one thing that you said touches on this Stephen Pat Nardi is not the offensive guy in fact he works kind of hard to not be the offensive guy the one thing he wants to have to do on offense is say hey go score score me some points or go be physical or do that but Kade Bell is going to be calling a lot of those shots and I think that with this offense you're gonna see Kade Bell being being the one who kind of like you know is the person that has that has more of the shots to call here so I foresee Pat Nardi um waiting this out I'm I know that he said that they're waiting to see how these guys look in practice I feel confident that they know who's going to start this game but they both are going to split reps and they're going to see what both have in live action cuz like like you also said they don't get the benefit of like in the NFL where like you know the Steelers get to play three preseason games you could see them against the bills and the Texans and all these other guys they they play each other for like three weeks and then they go out there and they start playing other teams so this is their chance to kind of have the semi- preseason feel it out type of situation and who knows if Eli Holstein just comes in as a baller as a gamer because we also he didn't play at all in Alabama so if he comes and does that that changes everything but if Nate Yarnell comes out and he is polished looking good understands the offense then maybe that buys him some more time to figure things out and you know get messy make mistakes so um I just I I'm with you I don't know if this is a good plan just yet uh but it certainly seems like the one pit is committed to I just I do believe in having a a starting quarterback um and I thought it would have made sense just make Nate Yarnell you're starting quarterback and then if he does poorly then you could put out Eli Holstein but this way you're not sanning uh uh jarnell right away and you're giving him the chance to prove himself and if he doesn't then you go get the younger guy but hey we'll see how they play this out yeah and I think this also means that the leash might be a little bit longer uh on whoever does win this starting job going into the the Cincinnati game um given that you're kind of giving everyone you're giving both of them a trial run going into week one um I think if you had declared a starter right out of the gate there might have been a quicker pull if they didn't perform up to your standards I think now maybe instead of you know two or three weeks uh you'll maybe get four or five weeks out of your first starter before you start to consider maybe pulling the guy if he's not playing up to the standard absolutely let's move on here we have another question this one from Doug what are the biggest surprises on pittsbur depth chart now you know we've had assumptions about pits depth chart we finally got to look at it as always it's dropped like minutes before patard literally walks in the room and starts his presser so we had a quick amount of time to assess it uh going forward but one thing that stands out that obviously stands out Stephen is how many different ores there are and for those don't that means or is just when they're saying this player or this player are the starter for a position and there are seven such positions on this year's roster including quarterback with Nate y Allen Eli Holstein but also running back with Rodney Hammond or Desmond Reed wide receiver with Kenny Johnson or djan Reynolds defensive tackle with nikai Johnson or Francis brewu or Anthony Johnson or Nick James or Isaiah Neil literally five players listed as an or there um money linebacker brilin lovelies or rashim bil free safety Javon McIntyre or Philip O'Brien uh and then kick returner Des or k Ken Kenny Johnson or Desmond Reed um lots of lots of ores there Stephen is there one of those that surprised you more than anything else yeah I think the five ores defensive tackle might uh you know when you think about it I guess not necessarily surprising given how many bodies they had there how much time tent they've got there and just I guess in general just how unsure that Pat hardi seemed throughout Camp about who the best two out of that defensive tackle spot were uh but it is pretty funny to see just a full depth chart a three deep defensive tackle depth chart uh that has five different listed starters so I think that was surprising I thought you know he would defer to some experience with you know maybe Anthony Johnson and nikai Johnson um but doesn't seem like that's the case he's leaving it open uh going into the Kent State game and I think that kind of tracks with what we were talking about uh with the quarterbacks it isn't just the quarterbacks that are kind of going through this as a try out I think there are a couple other positions uh where maybe guys have to prove that they are the starter that they are the guy before they can kind of earn the honor of being named uh a clear and cut starter on the roster and you know sticking with the defensive line I would say the only other one is Jimmy Scott establishing himself as a starter at defensive end ahead of Chief borders we heard Chief borders who came in from Nebraska mid year was uh excuse me during the summer had a really great Camp he was showing a lot of great things um he's a more experienced guy than I think Jimmy Scott is so I was a little surprised that Scott was able to kind of edge ahead and and get that starting job ahead of Chief BS but I I see the defensive line is where the most surprises were to me yeah I I I think that that's certainly a surprise I among that is that the surprise for me is that Francis bre is listed as a starter like that's a true freshman and listen we've talked about how this guy's yoked He's listed as a freak athlete clearly he is built special but I don't think i' we've been covering pit together you and I Stephen I mean not on the same beat but not of the same Outlets but we've both seen each other on on the beat for years we've seen plenty of depth charts I don't think I've ever seen a true freshman start week one with you know with with their name Bolden as a starter there I think that speaks volumes to France to Francis and the pro progress that he's made so that that's that's one of my surprises here um if I was to pick another surprise I mean in general it's just it it it is but a surprise but it's not a surprise about how they handle the quarterback situation I thought that uh um I thought you know pat pat likes to keep everything close to the vest um I guess my biggest surprise is that uh I thought I thought rasheem biles was going to be just straight up the starting money linebacker with the way that he looked in Camp Lovel is an or with him but I think that again speaks to the the volume and the depth that this roster has at multiple positions including linebacker which you and I wrote several times about during training camp as one of the more impressive groups on this team maybe it just speaks to how strong that room is in total yeah and I think that that kind of tells you I think it's kind of I think you're right that it speaks to the depth of the room and how strong it is uh and I think it just speaks to I mean I I thought rashim biles was really the strongest uh money lineer backer that they had but brillin LEL I think is just kind of one of those guys who's too good to keep on the bench um so they are going to rotate through all of these guys all these six linebackers that are listed on the two deep um so you know while while those guys are the only ones listed as an or you know key Thompson is still G to play at Mike linebacker Jordan bass is still gonna play at Star linebacker too they're gonna they're going to rotate these guys heavily guys are going to play different positions so uh you know if you are a brilin love laser rashine Bas fan don't worry you're going to see all of them uh if you're key Thompson a Jordan bass guy like you're gonna see all of these guys in the mix uh pretty frequently I will also say I mean I quite honestly maybe this was a little offthe wall but I was a little surprised that Rodney Hammond was also listed as a starter alongside Desmond Reed um you know just we have just heard so many good things about Desmond Reed I thought the coaching staff would kind of you know respect him and and and give him that starting job uh kind of solely right away but I mean Rodney Hammond just quietly seems like he's continued to have a good camp continue to hold on to that starting job that he held in name for a lot of last year that's the other thing I mean look Rodney Hammond was the top running back on the depth chart for most of last year but and even though he took the vast majority of the carries he was splitting them at certain times with CBO flemister and Daniel Carter and some other guys as well so um I'm interested to see how the running back rotation shakes out uh on Saturday um because that was one that I I didn't really expect as well and you touched on the quarterbacks I mean I I thought you know I I'm not necessarily surprised that we got an or but I kind of expected that pit would know who their guy was and they just weren't telling us um yeah and that we would learn on Saturday who the who the guy was um but I I'm pretty surprised that they're going with this rotation um they're going with uh both guys getting some reps against Kate as opposed to just kind of keeping things that they already know under WS um which I think is interesting certainly uh let's move on to another question this one comes from Gary who emailed us this question can Pitt's offense joke quicker than last year and the defense also be better which I guess Gary's question can pit just in general be be a much better team this this season um Stephen I think one they kind of have to gel faster than last year because they didn't gel at all right but um but I I look at Pitt's offense and I do see a potential for a completely new identity you know for how they they've worked on things like last year last year I mean if you go back off of the first year Frank Signet with pit uh in this in this in the most recent iteration that offense was izy aananda takes over the game and then you kind of play play off that that energy and when you didn't have izy aananda and that offensive line dominating it kind of took away from everything and and the quarterback play also wasn't good and that kind of just all all fell apart this year you have several things that could go I think in your favor you have you have um you have talented running backs you have talented receiving options you you have quarter a quarterback that you that that you feel might be able to distribute the ball well in Nate Yarnell maybe you also have that in Eli Holstein but you have a new system that's going to try to naturally open up some of some more of these guys with their own schematics I I I think there's there's promise there um but with these types of offenses when you get a new one it can be it can be tough take some time for guys to kind of find their footing in here despite how confident they might sound about it in training camp uh I do think this defensively better than last year's because I think that their their depth is improving just as far as young athletes that they have and guys that can fly around the field but I I think the question is still going to be about this offense can that come together faster than what they've seen past couple years yeah I think this team is going to be significantly better at the end of the year than they will start um I think the defense is going to take a little take a minute to come together um you know they are not I'm not going to expect them to look particularly good against Kent State or Cincinnati um they're just too many new faces as talented as I think they are for them to Jael really quickly um the offense I think I'm also a little skeptical on their ability to to to get everything organized and get everything together right away um like I said just you know not only too many new faces but too many new uh the scheme system yeah exactly um and too many new coaches too um that they're just organizational things on game day that I think you got to work out as well uh before you can feel really confident in what they're able to do um but I think this also points to I do think that pit is going to be better than last year um I think we've talked about that a little bit but um I I just think the the level of Talent on this team is higher than it was a year ago um and I think there was such a low bar set last year that it'd be really hard for them to not be better than last year so um I'm all in on the defense being better than it than it was last year I think the offense kind of remains to be seen but it'd be hard to get much worse than they were last year or hard to be worse period than they were last year so um to Gary's question and I think the point that he's making overall I don't I don't think it's unreasonable to expect improvements and and probably some bigger improvements um I think you know the the start of the schedule is really favorable um and then it gets a little bit harder as the year goes on but that that plays to pits Advantage when you have new faces giving them some time to Jael and maybe easing them into the back half of their schedule a schedule that overall does not look that difficult on paper at least as we stand here on August 26th right now um doesn't look that difficult I think uh it's fine to be a little optimistic and it's fine to think about um the fact that pit could be a lot better than they were last year I I I I do think there's there's a chance but like you said I think one of the biggest things you said the details of this offense we've heard so much about how Cade Bell demand is you know he demands a lot of detail detailed work in it it takes time for details to set in uh times to to to you know you know experiment trial by fire you know figuring things out and then learning from them and stepping forward that's probably going to be a big part of the pit football journey in 2024 last question comes from Ricky who asks will pit keep the offensive playbooks simple like past season openers against non power conference opponents now of course pit has let off they're leading off against Ken State Ken state is one of the not greatest uh programs right now just their current situation they're in the second year of a head coach they had a rough year last year they don't have a lot going on for them to become a major Contender or anything uh in in their division uh but uh this is this isn't new they they you they face wford last year um they faced Austin P in the start to start other Seasons P has used this warm-up games in different in different years to try to gauge the gauge where they are in several in several positions and I do think that's by Design but I do think also when you looked at those games yeah they've kept it simple in a lot of those games because they didn't need to show a lot if if patard do won't let us watch practice and he won't even name his starting quarterback on the Monday of the week that they're about to play their first game of the season of course of course he's going to keep things simple on offense when he does when he when he can because he doesn't want if he doesn't want us to know the simplest of things he don't he doesn't want any coordinator defensive coordinator to know what the heck's going on with with Pit's offense and all the different tricks that they have up their sleeves yeah but I think this is kind of a different situation um um you know not only is there a new offense that you've kind of got to get down pat before you start facing off against some better opponents um but also you're trying you're giving these two quarterbacks a try out I think it wouldn't be fair to Eli holste and Nate Yarnell if you didn't give them the full Playbook to command um and the the full Playbook to kind of show what they're able to do with this offense at full capacity I think that doesn't do you any favors in terms of figure out who your best quarterback is and it doesn't do them any favors in terms of what they're able to show so you know I don't think they're going to completely empty the Playbook I don't think we're going to see a ton of trick plays or anything like that but I I don't think uh it's going to be like you know Villanova in 2016 or um or something like that where pit clearly was hiding something with a better opponent kind of uh on in the uh on the horizon um I think pit can't really afford to keep things as vanilla as they were as they have been in past openers I think they really it would beoo them to give Mell give Holstein give Cade Bell full operation of their full offense and you know who cares about what shows up on film because you need to not only get a win but you need to find out what this offense can do with either guy leading the system a agreed I I think this is a this is a pit offense that needs to figure out a whole lot um so when you look at um at how they are they need they need to be able to execute the basic things before they get to the advanced things and you know one thing I often say about offense is you need to find your bread and butter you need to find certain things that you rely on more than others and that's where I think that um that pit has to find those things in in the in this game things they do really well that they think can translate when they go up against Cincinnati on the road in two weeks but we have a long way before there let's focus on this week they got a game against Kent State on Saturday Stephen and I will be at practice all week long Tuesday Wednesday and then Thursday for Pat Nardo's final press conference of the week we'll have you covered with previews all the things that you could take a stick at for to get ready for college football here from the Pittsburgh Post cazette from Chris Carter from Steven Thompson thanks again for tuning in for the pit mailbag show we'll be back next week with another episode on Tuesday right here on your favorite podcasting apps and on YouTube like this video if you enjoy it subscribe to this channel to get all of our Tuesday episodes 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