Nick Patti had a sense he might be starting this week against Delaware. The redshirt freshman quarterback had been taking reps with the first team all week as starting quarterback Kenny Pickett was still recovering from an injury that occurred last week against UCF.

While Patti had that sense, it was still a game time decision when he actually found out for certain he was actually getting the start.

“Probably about 45 minutes before the game,” Patti said on when he knew for sure that he would get his first career start.

Despite the short notice, Patti finished the day with 23-of-37 for 271 yards and a pair of touchdown passes and led his team to a 17-14 win over Delaware. The New Jersey native executed an 8-play 90-yard drive in the fourth quarter to give Pitt the lead on a 12-yard scoring strike to Taysir Mack.

While it was Patti’s first career start, he did see some game action last week in Pitt's upset win over UCF, which gave him some confidence heading into Saturday. Patti was part of the game plan last week with some designed runs, and had to step-up when Pickett left the game with an injury. The freshman quarterback thinks those moments helped prepare him for today.

“Coming into a game where it was a crucial time and kind of having to make a play showed me that I can do it and I had a lot of confidence this week,” he said.

The Pitt coaching staff wanted to show Patti they had confidence in him right away. On the first offensive play of the game, Pitt dialed up a deep ball and Patti delivered a nice throw to Mack for a 46-yard gain.

“We know we wanted to take a shot and we’ve been practicing that play all week, so it was something that I was comfortable with and I got a lot of reps with Taysir so it was a play that we liked and we executed,” Patti recounted of that first throw of the game.

Over time, Patti settled in and delivered some timely throws and that caught the attention of some of his teammates.

“For his first career start, I think he did well,” Pitt running back Todd Sibley said. “He’s a tough guy, so he’ll probably be a lot harder on himself, but I think for his first start, first game I don’t think he did too bad. I think he made plays.”

Pat Narduzzi was pleased with Patti in his first career start. “Remember this: It's a lot different starting a football game as opposed to jumping in there,” he said. “There’s the pregame nerves, and I don't know if he knew he was going to start or not. I didn't know. But he looked sharp in pregame, and I think he did an admirable job.”

Of course there were mistakes, the Pitt offense sputtered at times and he did throw an interception which led to a Delaware score. It’s expected that a freshman will make mistakes, but he dusted himself off and let that big drive in the fourth quarter.

“He really did, he stayed cool,” Narduzzi said of the scoring drive. “He was composed. He didn't take any sacks today and made one really bad decision. Protect the football and we'll have a chance to win every football game if we do that.”

Patti trusted his playmakers on that possession. He was 3-of-4 with two completions to Mack, and a 13-yard pass to Maurice Ffrench as well.

“Just giving it up to the playmakers, Taysir made some great plays and the line blocked great and the receivers were getting open and it was just kind of getting it to them,” he said.

So Pitt survived with a backup quarterback on Saturday, but that only leads to more questions for next week against Duke.

Can Kenny Pickett go?

Narduzzi wouldn’t really say. He was asked if the opponent was bigger today, could Pickett have played?

“It comes down to health, and I don't want to put anybody in harm's way,” the Pitt coach said. “If he goes out there and tweaks it again, we'll all be kicking ourselves in the tail. I thought we could go out there with Nick Patti and win the football game, and we obviously did. Not in a pretty manner, but we got the W.”

Patti proved he can make some throws and will head into practice next week preparing the same way.

“As a quarterback you try to do that every week, just being mentally prepared to go in,” Patti said. “So I don’t know what’s going to happen this week, but whatever coach needs I’ll go out and do it.”