It seems as though Pitt may have another quarterback controversy on its hands with two games to go.
After three second half turnovers, Christian Veilleux was benched in the fourth quarter of a 28-13 loss to Syracuse at Yankee Stadium Saturday afternoon, and Pat Narduzzi pointed to the turnovers as a reason for finally making the change.
“You turn the ball over three times, threw a pick-six, that’s a 15-point final gain there,” Narduzzi said following the loss. “Then we had two fumbled exchanges, so we had three turnovers. Like I told you, we’ve got a lot of faith in Nate Yarnell, and then we go and turn it over again. (Yarnell) goes three-and-out, I think he had two series but got faith in both of those guys.”
Veilleux completed 13-of-22 pass attempts (59%) for 161 yards with a touchdown and an interception but most of that production came in the first half — and he botched two handoff attempts throughout the second half.
Yarnell was inserted late, with the outcome all but decided considering the flow of the game, and he completed 3-of-5 pass attempts for 48 yards in relief.
It was a dreadful day for the Pitt offense, racking up just 269 yards (60 yards on the ground) and turning the ball over four times. Pitt went 3-of-10 on third down, was out-possessed by nearly 15 minutes and killed any and all of its own momentum.
“We have a nice drive going, first series of the second half, we drive all the way down there and put the ball on the ground with a ball handling deal, which just can’t happen,” Narduzzi said.
It would be one thing if it was a one-off performance, but with 13 points, it was the most prolific performance from the Panthers offense in weeks. But, obviously, it was still a dreadful all-around performance from an offensive unit that will sink even lower down the national rankings.
When Pitt returns home to host Boston College for Senior Night on Thursday at Acrisure Stadium, there isn’t a certainty that Veilleux will still be under center. Narduzzi admitted he doesn’t know who will be under center.
“We’re gonna look at the tape and find out,” Narduzzi said. “We’ll look at the tape.”
If there’s just one thing — and there’s certainly much more — Pitt needs to figure out for next season, it’s if next season’s starting quarterback is currently on the roster, and that’s looking less likely by the week.
“We’ll look at the tape.”
He says that after each loss, and yet nothing changes. He’s a simpleton.
Pitt needs to bite the bullet and fire this idiot.
Blind men who look at tape produce zero results…