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Pat Narduzzi Liked What He Saw in Christian Veilleux’s First Start

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Pitt quarterback Christian Veilleux. Narduzzi.

No one can say Christian Veilleux played perfectly against Louisville — Veilleux himself wouldn’t even say that. But he did provide Pitt with a new look Saturday.

Veilleux, who made his first start in an upset win over No. 14 Louisville, provided Pitt with a winning look actually. He wasn’t perfect, no, but he didn’t actively drag the Panthers down. In fact, he did more than enough to lift Pitt toward a victory.

He completed 12-of-26 pass attempts for 200 yards and two touchdowns, and that’s not exactly a flashy stat line, but if you account for an 0-of-5 start and steady rain throughout the night Saturday, it was a pretty solid performance.

But Pat Narduzzi didn’t look back upon the performance and give the conditions much consideration. Instead, it was the Pitt personnel.

“We had a drop — (Veilleux) hit under 50 percent. I don’t even know what his percentage was,” Narduzzi said Monday afternoon at his weekly news conference. “He hit Bub (Means) one time on a pass right here. Those guys made plays for him.

“But I’m trying to think of some of the other — missed a couple in the out area there. Then when you’re throwing it deep, you’re not going to hit them all. You talk about 50/50 ball, and we threw a couple deep, too, that were missed throws. Some of them were routes. It’s a little bit of everything. One time Bub releases inside, he should be releasing outside. Christian thinks he’s running a comeback, and he runs a vertical route. Those will get all cleaned up, just missed IDs.”

Veilleux has completed 24-of-53 pass attempts (45.3%) for 345 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions this season. Not great, and certainly not great accuracy, but he has just one start under his belt. But the deep ball has looked good, with all three touchdowns coming on passes of at least 30 yards. “Just keep throwing it deep, I guess,” Narduzzi said.

Narduzzi didn’t see any nerves out of Veilleux. He’s seen the same level-headed, even-tempered quarterback from Day 1. Any struggles didn’t result from nerves.

“I think it’s really more of his feet and how he’s pointed, and I think Coach Cigs can get that fixed,” Narduzzi said. “We’ll find out this week because we’ll throw a lot more out routes just to see what he does with his footwork, but I think that’s just being a young guy and trying to figure it out still.”

After taking the chance to watch Veilleux on film after the win over the weekend, really diving into how he played against the Louisville defense, Narduzzi liked what he saw — but he still saw room for improvement, of course.

“Christian threw some nice balls,” Narduzzi said. “He got the ball out quick as well. He made good decisions with the ball. You think about the weather, and you think about what that (Louisville) quarterback did and what our quarterback did, I liked the decision-making he made. I liked where he placed the ball, especially the Bub one and the Konata one, those are two. But he can do a better job on some of his out routes, which coach (Cignetti) will fix his feet and do all those things, but I thought he had a really nice day.”

Veilleux threw both of his touchdowns on deep balls. One to Bub Means on a 46-yard-deep ball in the first quarter, his first completion of the night, and one to Konata Mumpfield for 31 yards to put the Cardinals away in the fourth quarter.

And it wasn’t Narduzzi himself but Frank Cignetti Jr. who schemed up those opportunities.

“I don’t do any of that,” Narduzzi said. “Coach Cigs does. But it’s game planning, knowing what you’re going to get, and they could have changed it up and you might have nothing. But you guess right, and you’re hoping that’s what you’re going to get is fourth down, and you kind of have an idea of what they like to do, but nobody is 100% on fourth down. No one is 100% this coverage or that blitz on third down and long.

“Sometimes you’re lucky with calls. Sometimes you’re good with them. Same thing on defense. You’ve been making calls, you’re trying to change it up.  ‘Hey, last time I did this, I want to do this next time,’ and sometimes you guess right and sometimes you guess wrong. But even if you guess wrong, if you execute you can still make plays. That’s what we expect, whether it’s running the ball or throwing the football.”

There’s certainly plenty of work to be done, but Veilleux has shown that he’s capable of leading Pitt to victory. And now — with a half-season to work under Cignetti — he’ll have the chance to grow.

Pitt is still looking for its starting quarterback of the future, but Veilleux has the chance to show that he can lead Pitt this season and beyond.

And it continues with Wake Forest this weekend in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Sandy Schall, Coldwell Banker
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On Campus Stadium Please
On Campus Stadium Please
1 year ago

Let PSU recruit and coach the QB’s then you can have our guys who can’t get off the bench. We recruit 5 star QB’s like Allar and Grunk

cdouble92
cdouble92
1 year ago

and you play hide the monkey with youngsters..

On Campus Stadium Please
On Campus Stadium Please
1 year ago
Reply to  cdouble92

rapier wit

srs28704
srs28704
1 year ago

Apparently Ohio State and Michigan recruit 5-1/2s given PSU’s record against them these last few Years. Have fun this weekend, another Unrewarded season for y’all.
Which begs to question whether OCSP is a generic name all PSU haters use on this site to troll #h2p followers. About time Mike V. and Karl L. make the Username official for commenters tied to a single e-mail address.

On Campus Stadium Please
On Campus Stadium Please
1 year ago
Reply to  srs28704

cancel culture is strong with you huh?

Joe
Joe
1 year ago

PSU hasn’t had many QB’S recently or otherwise reach the pros. But every squirrel gets an acorn once in a while. Better to develop your own.
Time to get back to thinking more about being 1-0 each week.

On Campus Stadium Please
On Campus Stadium Please
1 year ago
Reply to  Joe

McSorley and Clifford are the two latest in a long line. CV will be ok for pitt after he was coached by PSU staff. However, with the pitt OL he will be running for his life every week.

Rooster
Rooster
1 year ago

Why don’t you just go haunt a house ?

srs28704
srs28704
1 year ago

Yes, PSU trained them well to carry clipboards and wiggle their hands for playcalls with headsets and Red vests on the NFL sidelines.

srs28704
srs28704
1 year ago
Reply to  srs28704

M.Robinson did real well in Seattle as a fullback.

On Campus Stadium Please
On Campus Stadium Please
1 year ago
Reply to  srs28704

Pro Bowl

On Campus Stadium Please
On Campus Stadium Please
1 year ago
Reply to  srs28704

best job in the world, the backup QB. Catch up silly

srs28704
srs28704
1 year ago

I would take Steve DeBerg’s pension from the NFL if I could. Career back-up with nearly 20 years as a Pro.

On Campus Stadium Please
On Campus Stadium Please
1 year ago
Reply to  srs28704

exactly. Always the most popular with the fans, never get hurt and make a ton of money

Dixon
Dixon
1 year ago

Well, four starters on the OL were sidelined for their week seven game (you know, when most schools are playing real football teams) and yet a makeshift line consisting of a freshman, rs freshman, rs sophomore and
rs junior allowed a grand total of one sack against the 14th ranked team in the country. And after the game, CV appeared to still be alive and well as he climbed the ladder to direct the marching band.

On Campus Stadium Please
On Campus Stadium Please
1 year ago
Reply to  Dixon

direct the marching band, awesome

Dixon
Dixon
1 year ago

In case you’re not aware, you are not required to respond to everyone’s comment with a cutesy quip, but whatever turns you
on pal.

On Campus Stadium Please
On Campus Stadium Please
1 year ago
Reply to  Dixon

Thanks for replying to mine!

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