KALAMAZOO, Mi. –Nate Yarnell will start for Pitt against Western Michigan tonight, earning the starting nod over Dartmouth transfer Derek Kyler and a seemingly not-yet healthy Kedon Slovis.
Yarnell, Slovis and Kyler all warmed up before the game, but Yarnell took a majority of the first team reps during warmups and was the first quarterback to run through drills. Slovis apparently wasn’t quite healthy enough to start, and it’s Yarnell’s time to shine.
Yarnell, a second-year freshman who did not see the field last season, hasn’t played a lot of football since arriving in Pittsburgh. He hasn’t played a lot since his junior season at Lake Travis High School in Texas, to be honest. An injury ended his senior season before it began, and he played in six games as a junior behind now-Texas quarterback Hudson Card.
Despite missing the entire spring practice window, Yarnell has done enough through the spring and over the last week of practice to emerge as the firm No. 3 — and now starter — ahead of Kyler.
It’s nearly impossible to predict what to expect from Yarnell tonight. He’s big (6-foot-6, 215 pounds), but he’s not a threat to run the football and his arm talent and decision-making are unproven. He’s unproven as a whole.
It should be expected that Israel Abanikanda, coming off a 26-touch performance against Tennessee, should receive a workload just as, if not heavier, than he did against the Volunteers. It remains to be seen if Rodney Hammond Jr. will be active, but Vincent Davis and Daniel Carter could also receive heavier workloads.
It’s the first game action for Yarnell since he was a junior at Lake Travis in 2019, and he’s simultaneously making his first Pitt start — on the road against WMU.
What’s the luv affair with Ben Sauls. Cost us the Tennessee game with the 2 misses….and now a chip shot against WMU
Our OC does not have an outside run, jet sweep, trick play. He has nothing.
It was the defense’s time to shine and they did. Except for the punt fiasco turnover, few mistakes otherwise. Abanikanda gets his own whirlpool tomorrow., he earned it.
yes, great job beating up a MAC team