10/23/2017 football Edit

DiNucci gives Narduzzi 'no reason' to change QBs

Chris Peak • Panther-lair

Publisher

It turns out, Pat Narduzzi’s plan for using his quarterbacks in Saturday’s game at Duke boiled down to changing from starter Ben DiNucci to backup Kenny Pickett when he had a reason to.

And the Pitt head coach didn’t feel like he had a reason to.

“I thought he was playing well enough,” Narduzzi said after the game, a 24-17 win for Pitt. “I mean, zero turnovers. He did a good job with the ball and made good decisions. He threw a couple away - I wish he would’ve thrown one more away, I think we took a sack where we didn’t want to - and he scrambled when he should, maybe he could’ve had one or two in there. So, he protected the football and made good decisions. There was no reason to.”

That unexpected lack of a change comes after a week of speculation and discussion about how Narduzzi and offensive coordinator Shawn Watson would use the quarterbacks. The position had been thrown into upheaval two weeks ago when redshirt senior Max Browne suffered a shoulder injury at Syracuse that ended his season and left the coaches looking for a new starter.

They went with DiNucci for the following week’s game against N.C. State and stuck with him until late in the third quarter, when they changed to Pickett, a freshman whose on-field experience consisted of one pass thrown on the final play of the Syracuse game.

Pickett didn’t light the world on fire against the Wolfpack, but the flashes of arm strength and running ability seemed enticing enough that many expected him to see the field in Durham. And when DiNucci completed just three passes in the first half against Duke, it seemed like a certainty that a change would be made.

But it wasn’t.

And when Pitt's first possession of the third quarter resulted in a punt after the only two pass calls on the nine-play drive resulted DiNucci running out of bounds for a four-yard sack on a roll-out and then effectively throwing the ball away on a third-and-15, change again seemed like a certainty.

But it wasn’t.

It wasn’t a certainty after the second drive, when Watson called three pass plays - the first was stopped at the line of scrimmage, the second turned into a nice 17-yard pickup when Maurice Ffrench made a defender miss and picked up extra yards and the third was incomplete - nor after the third drive, when Watson was content to hand the ball to freshman running back AJ Davis four times before turning the ball over on downs.

Against N.C. State, Narduzzi changed quarterbacks to give the offense a spark, and Pitt did get a spark when junior running back Darrin Hall broke a 92-yard touchdown run on the final offensive snap of the third quarter. But no such spark came from the passing game, not until the first drive of the fourth quarter when DiNucci hit a pair of big passes to set up the Panthers’ third touchdown.

In those instances, he connected with redshirt senior Jester Weah, who caught the first pass - a second-and-11 throw from the Pitt 15 - and held onto the ball despite taking a big shot. And on the very next play, Weah wisely got enough of his hands on a 49-yard pass to draw a “simultaneous possession” ruling from the officials. Two snaps later, Hall was into the end zone for a score.

DiNucci had one more big pass in him. On Pitt’s final possession, as the Panthers were looking to run the clock and close out a victory, the redshirt sophomore from Pine-Richland hit a third-and-6 pass to Rafael Araujo-Lopes for 20 yards, extending a drive that ended in a field goal.

DiNucci finished the game with 149 yards on 8-of-18 passing. He also rushed for a net gain of 22 yards and, perhaps most importantly, he didn’t turn the ball over.

“Every game is not going to be perfect,” DiNucci said Saturday. “There are still things I need to work on but all in all we won.”

Pitt won, but questions about the decision to not rotate quarterbacks have persisted since the weekend. Narduzzi said after the game that the decision wasn’t just his, though.

“He walked off the (practice) field and I said, ‘Hey, when’s Kenny getting in the game?’” Narduzzi said Saturday, recalling an exchange he had with DiNucci during the week. “He says, ‘He’s not.’ That was his attitude and that’s what I want: a competitor. It’s him putting [Pickett] in the game, not me, and that’s the attitude he had and I’m fired up for him. And he’s just going to keep getting better.”

“When coach Narduzzi asked me that,” DiNucci said Saturday, “I said I’m going to play well enough that you’re not going to have to put him in, so able to stay in the whole game, it was good, moving the ball and just having trust in myself and confidence in myself to kind of get the unit going. I was kind of rough on myself in that first half. I wasn’t necessarily making the throws I’ve normally made. For whatever reason it just wasn’t coming off well. Second half we were able to put up 17 points and close the deal. it’s big time.”