OC Kade Bell Breaks Down Pitt Quarterback Room

It isn’t unfair to say that former offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. largely lost his job because of his inability to find and develop a quarterback during his two seasons at Pitt.

Quarterback is the most important position on the field, obviously, and new offensive coordinator Kade Bell — who may not be new anymore, not after four months on the job — agrees. In fact, he feels a quarterback is the difference between winning a championship and not. It rings true in Pittsburgh, certainly.

The task for Bell upon arriving at Pitt was to find out who his quarterback was going to be and build the new offensive scheme around him. It’s Nate Yarnell right now, who was named the starter before the spring session kicked off and has done nothing to lose his job, but there are five guys in the room.

Bell touched upon all five of his quarterbacks Thursday after practice, at just about the midway point of the spring, and his comments were interesting. I’ve listed the remarks in order of where I think the depth chart currently stands:

Nate Yarnell — redshirt junior quarterback

“The thing about Nate is he’s a pro. He’s in here — I go home to my wife and daughter pretty late, and he’s walking into the building to watch film, two or three hours a night until about 9 o’clock. He’s just one of those guys that is a true leader at quarterback. He loves football. He wants to be great. He doesn’t just want to be average. He doesn’t just want to win six or seven games, he wants to go to the ACC championship. That’s his goal. The one thing I love about Nate at practice is it’s never anyone else’s fault. I think that’s what great quarterbacks are, they take responsibility. ‘It’s on me, I have to get it fixed.’ I think the kids see that. When you have a guy back there that, everything’s on his shoulders and he’s willing to take responsibility, it makes everybody else play with more confidence because they know that he’s the leader out there, and he’s going to be the guy that everybody wants to follow.”

Eli Holstein — redshirt freshman quarterback

“Eli Holstein has really taken it to another level. He’s gotten better and better and better. Very calm, operates very well, understands what’s going on — a lot like Nate. And he gets the ball out of his hands. He knows where to go with it. He’s a guy who — he was a little but behind because he had a hamstring in February, so he didn’t get a lot of reps when they were doing stuff. So for him, he’s just got to keep getting reps, just keep getting more opportunities experience-wise.”

Christian Veilleux — redshirt junior quarterback

“Christian is developing when it comes to understanding what I want. For him, he has a lot of talent. That’s what is sometimes frustrating with Christian because you all watched it at Pro Day, he can absolutely spin it. But he has to understand, hey, it’s okay to check the ball down. It’s okay to take the flats. It’s okay to just find the completions because in this system, when the big plays are there, they’re going to be there. They’re going to be open. We get guys open, I think that’s the biggest thing we do. We don’t just throw the ball up and hope our guys make a play. We want to help them get open. He just has to understand the process of what I want as an offensive coordinator, and he’s trying to. He’s getting better. And I think for some quarterbacks, I truly think it’s hard when you’ve been through three or four different offenses. You’ve had to reprogram your reads, reprogram what an offensive coordinator wants because when it comes down to it, when I call a play, you want the guy who’s pulling the trigger to know exactly why I called that play. What does coach Bell want out of this play? What does he want to get accomplished? That’s the process we’re in with him right now.”

Ty Dieffenbach — redshirt freshman quarterback

“Ty’s a guy who’s still a pup. He got hurt last year, he broke his collarbone the first week of camp. I think it really hurt him as a true freshman. He didn’t get really any of the reps all of fall, so he’s basically like a true freshman again. So, he’s a guy who’s getting back used to the college speed, really get back to throw the ball how he needs to throw it with the injury he had to his shoulder, so we’re just trying to develop him and speed up the process because he has a lot of ability. And Ty’s a lot better of an athlete than people think. I’m just trying to get him to understand that, hey, you’re a really good athlete. Use it. You don’t have to stay in the pocket. Get out of the pocket, make plays and understand that you can use your athletic ability.”

Julian Dugger — freshman quarterback

“Dugger’s just a baby. He’s basically still in high school, but he’s a who’s always paying attention and asking good questions in meetings. He’s a guy who you see the athletic ability. He’s just got to keep developing and speed up the process. The game’s a lot faster at this level for him, but he’s a great kid and he wants to be good.”