Christian Veilleux enters transfer portal
Pitt redshirt junior quarterback Christian Veilleux announced his intentions to enter the transfer portal on Tuesday morning. Veilleux marks the second player to depart Pitt for the transfer portal this spring, following the announcement of senior defensive end Dayon Hayes last evening.
Veilleux, a redshirt junior, will have two years of eligibility to play at his next stop. He joined the Pitt program last offseason after spending his first two years at Penn State. Over his three-year career combined with the Panthers and Nittany Lions, he has 1,461 yards, 10 touchdowns to eight interceptions while completing 53% of his passing attempts.
The 6-foot-4 quarterback opened the 2023 as a backup to Phil Jurkovec, but took over the starting role near midseason. Veilleux earned five starts as Pitt’s quarterback in 2023 and it opened in impressive fashion, as he engineered a 38-21 win over No. 14 Louisville with 200 yards and two touchdowns.
It got a little more difficult after that for Veilleux. Pitt went 0-4 over the next four contests with Veilleux as the starter, playing a difficult stretch with games against Notre Dame and Florida State. He threw four interceptions in a 58-7 loss to the Irish, and was relieved by Nate Yarnell in the final quarter. In Veilleux’s final starting nod, Pitt lost 28-13 to Syracuse in Yankee Stadium. He did not finish that game, either as Yarnell took over before starting the final two games of the 2023 season.
For the 2023 season. Veilleux threw for 1,179 yards and seven touchdowns to go along with eight interceptions.
Pitt looked to Yarnell to be the team’s top quarterback entering spring practice, which wrapped up over the weekend. The addition of Alabama transfer Eli Holstein also added competition to the room as well. In the Blue-Gold game on Saturday, it was clear Veilleux was behind both players, as he did not see a snap in the first half and went 0-for-6 in his brief run in the third quarter.
The departure here does not necessarily come as a surprise, and it will not be the last one before the transfer portal closes on April 30th. Pitt is still over the 85-man scholarship limit and will need to get down to 85 prior to June, when the rest of the class of 2024 arrives on campus.