Vukovcan: Did Pitt Make Right Decision with Julian Dugger?

The biggest Pitt football news yesterday had nothing to do with any Panthers that were selected in the 2025 NFL Draft.

News that maybe didn’t surprise the Pitt coaching staff but certainly got a reaction from the fan base was the announcement that freshman quarterback Julian Dugger placed his name in the transfer portal.

After long & careful consideration I have entered the transfer portal w/ four years of eligibility remaining. This was an extremely difficult decision to make, but is best for my future & development as a QB.
Thank you Pitt, Coach Narduzzi, staff, & all my teammates. pic.twitter.com/pLxHWdDydD

— Julian Dugger (@JulesDugger02) April 26, 2025

Dugger’s performance in the GameAbove Sports Bowl game against Toledo no doubt whet the appetite of Pitt fans and had them envisioning what he could do in 2025.

However, that’s not going to happen as Dugger made the decision to move to a program where he’d have more of an opportunity than he would be receiving at Pitt.

From all indications, incoming freshman Mason Heintschel had surpassed him on the depth chart following his spring performance and barring an injury, Dugger’s opportunities would be minimal.

If Dugger entered the season as the backup, chances are that he would’ve stayed but that wasn’t going to be the case.

Dugger possesses plenty of God given talent and believes that he can succeed now and wants the chance to do it.

Pittsburgh Panthers quarterback Julian Dugger (12) December 26, 2024 David Hague/PSN

In today’s world of college athletics and with money no doubt involved, I don’t blame Dugger.

At the same time, I don’t have an issue with how Pitt is handling things.

Kade Bell and Pat Narduzzi have witnessed every practice and every throw made by both quarterbacks over the last year. I realize that fans are excited by what they saw from Duggar but it was a very small sample size and didn’t involve a ton of throwing down the field.

None of that is a knock on Duggar, it’s just the facts. It’s also not to say that he’s not capable of a heavy pass load or will be a better quarterback than Heintschel because he certainly could be.

But, from everything the Pitt coaches have seen in practice, they’ve made the determination that Heintschel is the eventual successor to Eli Holstein.

Is it right decision, no one knows the answer to that question but Bell certainly knows what he needs out of a quarterback more than I do.

While Duggar certainly could’ve been useful this season in certain packages and that aspect will be missed, I caution fans to not be enamored with the running ability of a quarterback.

It is it nice and beneficial, of course it is but at the end of the day, the top job of a quarterback is to be able to move his offense primarily with his arm not his legs.

At this stage of their development, Pitt obviously felt Heintschel was ahead of Duggar. Time will tell if that was the proper evaluation.

While I don’t blame Pitt because they still wanted Dugger on the roster and didn’t encourage him to transfer, it’s disappointing to see him leave because he’s a local player with potential.

Years ago, another left-handed quarterback came to Pitt and was first known as a runner before being developed into a good passing quarterback.

That player was Rod Rutherford.

College coaches are paid a lot of money to make tough decisions such as this one. It’ll be interesting to follow the development of both Dugger and Heintschel to see if Pitt made the proper evaluation.