‘Christian’s a Baller’: New Pitt Quarterback Impresses in First Career Start

It took Christian Veilleux six pass attempts to finally complete one Saturday night. And it wasn’t until Kenny Johnson took a jet sweep for six yards — the 10th Pitt offensive snap against Louisville — that the Panthers hit positive offensive yardage.

But Veilleux didn’t let any of it get to him. He stuck to what he’s been taught and when an opportunity arose, he took it — and it resulted in a 46-yard touchdown.

“I’m pretty sure I didn’t have a completion before that one, so I was just missing throws, being too antsy,” Veilleux said Saturday night following the win. “On that one, I got back there and I trusted it. I watched in the locker room, and it’s like I really stood back there and waited for him to get open and then got him the ball, and definitely getting that throw off settled me down and made me feel comfortable.”

Veilleux loaded up as the Cardinals’ pass rush closed in, stood in the pocket and took a hit to deliver a perfect ball to Bub Means on a deep post. It was a perfect play, and it breathed life back into a stagnant offense.

Means, who had his best game of the season Saturday with Veilleux under center, wasn’t surprised at all to see the offensive success.

“He’s just laser focused … I seen laser focus from Christian,” Means said Saturday night after the win. “So, we came out here and we performed. We’ve been doing that, we’ve been executing in practice and we just came out here and executed on the field.”

Following the 0-of-5 start, Veilleux completed 12-of-21 pass attempts (57%) for 200 yards and two touchdowns. It was a solid if unspectacular showing — in the rain, no less. But he executed the plays he needed to, and more importantly, he was the one to lead Pitt to a win. And that’s what he values over all else.

“Great, you know what I mean?” Veilleux said. “We just beat the No. 14 team in the country. … Our team needed this, we needed this to pick us up and get us back to playing the ball we know we can play. So, it feels amazing and I would not sacrifice anything else to celebrate this with my teammates.”

It, obviously, was Veilleux’s first college start — taking over for Phil Jurkovec during the bye week. And it was a very encouraging debut.

PFF credits Veilleux with two big-time throws and one turnover-worthy throw against Louisville. He pushed the football downfield, with an average depth of target of 10.7 yards, and his completion percentage would looked even better without three recorded Pitt drops.

He got the ball out quickly, with an average time to throw of 2.31 seconds, and he didn’t turn the football over.

Perhaps the most encouraging part of Veilleux’s game was the proficiency of his deep ball. He completed 3-of-5 pass attempts of pass attempts at least 20 yards downfield for 111 yards and both touchdowns.

Pittsburgh Panthers quarterback Christian Veilleux (11) October 5, 2023 David Hague/PSN

“It felt great to start connecting on some of those,” Veilleux said. “We talk about, ‘Take what they give you,’ and I felt like we did a good job of that. I definitely missed a lot of throws today which I want to have back, especially some wide-open ones which I just led the receiver or threw it behind.”

Pat Narduzzi pointed to some of the out routes that Veilleux missed on, most of which came early, but he said that it’s an area Frank Cignetti Jr. will coach him up in the future. It comes down to timing and consistency but also footwork. Narduzzi pointed to footwork as a major factor.

According to PFF, Veilleux was just 5-of-13 for 42 yards on his pass attempts short of the sticks (that also went beyond the line of scrimmage), and Veilleux will need to be able to hit those throws going forward. Narduzzi knows it, Cignetti knows it and Veilleux himself knows it.

But, again, it was an encouraging debut. Veilleux stepped up in a tough situation, took the reins of an offense that needed a spark and provided that spark himself.

“He stepped up,” Shayne Simon said Saturday following the win. “To come into this midseason, to start as a quarterback, playing quarterback is hard, as a defensive guy we try to kill him each and every day in practice, and so seeing how he stepped into this game with the poise and presence he had, you can’t coach that, you can’t teach that.”

Means, who is the vocal leader in the wide receivers room, saw the way Veilleux stepped up firsthand. He caught 4-of-6 targets from Veilleux for 71 yards and a touchdown, but he benefited from Veilleux’s new style of leadership, too. Veilleux, he said, kept Pitt focused when it wasn’t coming easy in the beginning.

And, at least in Means’ eyes, Veilleux has the sort of swagger that’s required to be a leader and a starting quarterback.

“He got swag,” Means said. “He got a little swag about him that a quarterback gotta have. I like his swag, I like his game, I like his preparation, I like his work ethic. He’s a baller. Christian’s a baller.”

Veilleux himself said the belief and confidence in the offense as a whole grew stronger and stronger as the game against Louisville wore on, and there were a couple of drives — a 10-play, 71-yard touchdown drive late in the first half, and a 13-play, 61-yard drive midway through the third quarter — that point toward what the offense is capable of.

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. And 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 Saturday. 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 Monday at his weekly news conference. “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.”

Veilleux has shown signs, and he has made believers out of his coaches and teammates. It’s been just two weeks since he took over as the starting quarterback now, but he’s looking forward to stretching that out indefinitely — and it continues with Wake Forest this weekend.

“It’s been a great two weeks, just being around my teammates and these coaches and getting prepared for this game,” Veilleux said. “It was a fun ride. But we gotta do it all over again for Wake Forest.”