Kenny Pickett took a lot of heat from his week one performance in a 30-14 loss to Virginia. The junior from New Jersey struggled to operate the Panthers’ offense with a stat line that read 21-of-41 for just 185 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.

Beyond those numbers, Pickett was misfiring on some passes and he ran into some sacks, which proved to be drive killers. He showed some improvement in week two against Ohio, but the real test for him would obviously come against Penn State.

In the face of adversity and uncertainly, Pickett delivered a solid performance against one of the nation’s top defenses. He set a career-high in completions as he went 35-for-51 for a career-high 372 yards.

Pickett stood in the pocket and made plays against a heavy Penn State pass rush all game long in the team’s 17-10 loss to the Nittany Lions on Saturday. That’s something he has not always done in his career - stay in the pocket and not scramble away from pressure, and Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi noticed that from his junior quarterback as well.

“I just thought his eyes down the field, when you compare it to week one against Virginia when you saw those scrambles, what's that tell you; okay, he's a great scrambler, but it tells you he's looking at the rush and getting the heck out of there,” Narduzzi said. "He didn't trust his protection. And when you look at where he was from week one to week three, it's totally different because Shaka Toney is coming off the edge still, but his eyes didn't leave, and he's making shots, and you look at our receivers making plays, man. I think we had four drops, and if they don't drop those four balls, I believe we win the game, period. It just keeps drives going.”

Now heading into Pitt’s Saturday game against 15th-ranked Central Florida, Pickett ranks second among ACC quarterbacks with passing yards per game with 292 yards, and with a slowed down rushing attack from the Panthers - he is now someone that Pitt is going to have to lean on to deliver production on a consistent basis.

So what’s the difference? Pickett struggled last year, but he wasn’t asked to do a lot with a powerful rushing attack. But in the season opener against Virginia, there wasn’t a marked sign of improvement from 2018. The offseason coordinator change from Shawn Watson to Mark Whipple may have played a factor in that, but a lot of lingering issues persisted in that game.

So now, career-highs in completions and passing yardage with no help from the running game in that environment against the defense - what gives?

“I think it's being comfortable with what we're doing and how we're doing it,” Narduzzi said. “We talked about the new offense, new plays, new formations, new concepts, new reads - it takes time to get all that stuff down. It doesn't happen overnight. We'd like it to get done in camp, but it doesn’t.”

So in that sense, is it a slow progression for the junior quarterback, or a fast one? Narduzzi tends to think his progression under Whipple is going pretty well.

“I think it comes down to just him being comfortable and Coach Whipple and the offensive coaches just knocking it in his head that this is how we…and he gets it now,” he said. “Just slowly coming. And I wouldn't even say slowly, it's come faster than maybe you'd think it might come.”

It still may be premature to say Kenny Pickett is a changed quarterback three games into the 2019 season, but that game against Penn State is eye-opening if nothing else.

Narduzzi is definitely one to use ‘coachspeak’, and he always talks in that manner during press conferences, but he did say about improving from week one to week three, and with Pickett it does look like something is clicking now that wasn’t on August 31st. It’s still unclear what that means for the rest of the season, but it’s a step forward if nothing else.