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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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Sale, Crochet named comeback players of year

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Sale, Crochet named comeback players of year

LAS VEGAS — Left-handers Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves and Garrett Crochet of the Chicago White Sox won Major League Baseball’s Comeback Player of the Year awards on Thursday.

Cleveland right-hander Emmanuel Clase won his second AL Reliever of the Year award and St. Louis righty Ryan Helsley won the NL honor.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani joined David Ortiz as the only players to win four straight Outstanding Designated Hitter awards. Ohtani and the New York YankeesAaron Judge won Hank Aaron Awards as the outstanding offensive performers in their leagues.

Major League Baseball made the announcements at its All-MLB Awards Show.

Sale, 35, was 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts in 177⅔ innings for the NL’s first pitching triple crown since the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in 2011. He earned his eighth All-Star selection and first since 2018.

Sale helped Boston to the 2018 World Series title but made just 56 starts from 2020-23, going 17-18 with a 4.86 ERA, 400 strikeouts and 79 walks over 298⅓ innings. He was acquired by Boston from the White Sox in December 2016 and made nine trips to the injured list with the Red Sox, mostly with shoulder and elbow ailments. He had Tommy John surgery on March 30, 2020, and returned to a big league mound on Aug. 14, 2021.

Sale fractured a rib while pitching in batting practice in February 2022 during the management lockout. On July 17, in his second start back, he broke his left pinkie finger when he was hit by a line drive off the bat of the Yankees’ Aaron Hicks. Sale broke his right wrist while riding a bicycle en route to lunch on Aug. 6, ending his season.

Crochet, 25, was 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA over 32 starts for a White Sox team that set a post-1900 record of 121 losses, becoming a first-time All-Star. He struck out 209 and walked 33 in 146 innings.

He had Tommy John surgery on April 5, 2022, and returned to the major leagues on May 18, 2023. Crochet had a 3.55 ERA in 13 relief appearances in 2023, and then joined the rotation this year.

Sale and Crochet were chosen in voting by MLB.com beat writers.

Clase and Helsley were unanimous picks by a panel that included Hall of Famers Trevor Hoffman, Mariano Rivera, Dennis Eckersley and Rollie Fingers, along with John Franco and Billy Wagner. The AL award is named after Rivera and the NL honor after Hoffman.

A three-time All-Star, Clase was 4-2 with a 0.61 ERA, 66 strikeouts and 10 walks in 74⅓ innings, holding batters to a .154 average. The 26-year-old converted 47 of 50 save chances, including his last 47.

Voting was based on the regular season. Clase was 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in the playoffs, allowing three home runs, one more than his regular-season total.

Helsley, a two-time All-Star, was 7-4 with a 2.04 ERA and 49 saves in 53 chances. He struck out 79 and walked 23 in 66⅓ innings.

Ohtani became the first player with 50 or more homers and 50 or more stolen bases in a season. A two-way star limited to hitting following elbow surgery, Ohtani batted .310 and led the NL with 54 homers and 130 RBIs while stealing 59 bases.

Ortiz won the DH award five years in a row from 2003-07.

The DH award, named after Edgar Martinez, is picked in voting by team beat writers, broadcasters and public relations departments. MLB.com writers determined the finalists for the Aaron awards, and a fan vote was combined with picks from a panel of Hall of Famers and former winners to determine the selections.

Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers and 144 RBIs while hitting .322.

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QB Castellanos exits after losing BC starting job

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QB Castellanos exits after losing BC starting job

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.”

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Gators’ Lagway ‘ready to play,’ will start vs. LSU

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Gators' Lagway 'ready to play,' will start vs. LSU

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.

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