Pitt QBs Yarnell, Holstein to both play vs. Kent St.
PITTSBURGH — Nate Yarnell and Eli Holstein have spent the past eight months jockeying for position in the fight to be the starting quarterback at Pitt.
Coach Pat Narduzzi is in no hurry to name a winner.
Yarnell, a redshirt junior, and Holstein, a redshirt freshman transfer from Alabama, will both play during Saturday’s season opener against Kent State, a nod to the inroads Holstein has made since the spring when a hamstring injury limited his grasp of first-year offensive coordinator Kade Bell’s up-tempo attack.
The players have an “OR” listed next to their names on the depth chart, a longtime Narduzzi tactic that is equal parts gamesmanship and a way of rewarding reserves pushing for playing time.
Yarnell, who threw for 595 yards with four touchdowns and an interception in four games last season, seemed to be well ahead of Holstein when training camp began. That gap has closed significantly.
“Eli has made some major, major improvements,” Narduzzi said. “It’s like he caught up.”
So much so that Narduzzi wants to see how they respond to game action before making any sort of firm commitment one way or the other. Narduzzi pointed out that practice can sometimes skew things, and just because you light it up against teammates, that doesn’t mean “you’re the best quarterback.”
“To me, they need to be put into a game-like situation and let it go from there,” Narduzzi said.
Ideally, Narduzzi would like one quarterback to separate himself from the other fairly quickly. Pitt is coming off a 3-9 season in which its offense was the worst in the ACC. The Panthers almost completely overhauled their offensive staff, bringing in the 31-year-old Bell from Western Carolina, where his no-huddle approach led the Catamounts to average more than 37 points per game last year.
Pitt will have little time to get it together. While the Panthers open against a Golden Flashes team picked to finish last in the 12-team MAC, the schedule gets more difficult quickly. A trip to Cincinnati and a visit by rival West Virginia loom for Pitt once the calendar flips to September.
This isn’t the first time in Narduzzi’s lengthy tenure with the Panthers that he has entered the season with uncertainty at quarterback. Narduzzi jockeyed between Chad Voytik and Nate Peterman during his first season on the job in 2015, with Peterman — a transfer from Tennessee — eventually winning out.
Yet Voytik and Peterman offered a contrast in styles. Yarnell and Holstein do not. They are about the same size — Yarnell is 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds; Holstein is 6-4 and 225 pounds — and have a similar skill set.
“We have two conscientious, smart, talented, athletic quarterbacks,” Narduzzi said.
Bell won’t ask them to run around as much as he will ask them to make quick decisions in an offense built around getting the ball to playmakers in space as fast as possible.
Whoever does it the most efficiently will likely get the gig on a full-time basis. At the moment, that appears to be anyone’s guess, Narduzzi included.
“Both those guys are going to play on Saturday,” he said, “and let the competition begin.”
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who lost his starting job earlier this week, will not be returning to the team, he announced Thursday night.
Castellanos, who started 12 games last season and retained the top job under new coach Bill O’Brien, wrote on X that “unfortunately, all good things come to an end, even though it’s sooner than I would like.” He did not mention the transfer portal in his departing message and has not officially entered it. The junior from Waycross, Georgia, started his career at UCF and appeared in five games in 2022.
O’Brien said Tuesday that Grayson James, who replaced Castellanos in last week’s win against Syracuse, will start Saturday when Boston College visits No. 14 SMU. Castellanos “wasn’t real thrilled” with the decision, O’Brien said, adding that the quarterback decided to step away from the team for several days.
Castellanos had 2,248 passing yards and 1,113 rushing yards last season under coach Jeff Hafley, passing for 15 touchdowns and adding 13 on the ground. He had 18 touchdown passes and only five interceptions this season, but his accuracy dipped in recent weeks, and he completed only 2 of 7 passes against Syracuse before being replaced.
In his statement, Castellanos thanked both coaching staffs he played for at Boston College and wrote that he had “some of the best experiences of my life in the Eagles Nest and I will truly cherish these memories forever.”
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida quarterback DJ Lagway is “ready to play,” coach Billy Napier said Thursday on his weekly radio show.
Napier removed Lagway from the team’s injury report and penciled him in to start against No. 21 LSU in the Swamp on Saturday.
Lagway practiced every day this week while progressing from a strained left hamstring. The highly touted freshman was carted off the field against Georgia on Nov. 2. Tests revealed a “less significant” injury than initially feared, and now he’s back in time to face the Tigers.
The Gators (4-5, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) need him. They have to win two of their final three regular-season games to become bowl eligible.
LSU (6-3, 3-2) has struggled mightily against dual-threat QBs, including Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, who ran for 185 yards and four touchdowns last week.
Lagway returns after walk-on and Yale transfer Aidan Warner started in his place against Texas. Warner threw two interceptions and was 12-of-25 passing for 132 yards in a 49-17 loss.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
No. 12 Georgia will be without leading rusher Trevor Etienne for Saturday’s showdown against No. 7 Tennessee.
Etienne was downgraded from questionable to out on Thursday night’s SEC availability report.
Etienne left Georgia’s win over Florida with an upper-body injury on Nov. 2 and did not return. He played limited snaps in last week’s 28-10 loss at Ole Miss, carrying the ball six times for 24 yards.
Etienne leads the Bulldogs with 477 rushing yards and seven touchdowns this season.
The loss is another blow to Georgia’s banged-up backfield. Cash Jones is also listed as questionable while Branson Robinson remains out after missing the past three games with a knee injury.
That leaves true freshman Nate Frazier as the only healthy Bulldogs running back who has played meaningful snaps this year. Frazier is second on the team with 333 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
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