Yarnell again shows promise in third career start
DURHAM, N.C. — The 2023 Pitt football season ended on Saturday with a 30-19 loss to Duke. Pitt finished the year with a 3-9 record and it ended on a sour note in Durham, but for sophomore quarterback Nate Yarnell, the game against Duke represented an opportunity in the present, but it also provided something for the future as well.
Yarnell sat through the first ten games of the 2023 season and watched Pitt’s offense struggle mightily, but he was finally given a chance to run the show in the final two games of the season and he embraced the opportunity. Yarnell went 25-of-35 for 265 yards and two touchdowns against the Blue Devils. He did throw one interception and was sacked four times, but in the game he certainly showed promise, and maybe something this offense has been lacking all along.
“Just trusting the play calls,” Yarnell said of what allowed for the passing game to click at times on Saturday “We got moving fast, I think we were in our hurry-up there and I think it really got Duke out of position, so we were able to make some plays.”
Yarnell was able to spread the ball around against the Blue Devils. He completed passes to nine different receivers and was able to incorporate Pitt’s biggest weapon in the passing game (Bub Means six catches for 85 yards and a score) and also work in the tight ends (Karter Johnson/Malcolm Epps 7 catches for 77 yards and a score). Yarnell also had some success against a defense despite them making Pitt’s run game a non-factor, leaving the pressure up to the redshirt sophomore quarterback making only his career third start.
“He protected the ball for the most part and he threw one in the end zone, and again, missed opportunity down there,” Narduzzi said of Yarnell’s performance. “So we’ll look at that and see, but I thought Nate played well. I like what I see out of him. And again, he can get better. Third start ever and I think he’s just going to keep getting better.”
Yarnell’s second career start occurred the week prior, where he led Pitt to a win over Boston College and threw for 207 yards and a touchdown and also ran for one. In these two starts to end the season, plus with mop-up duty in two other games, Yarnell finished the year with 595 passing yards, four touchdowns, and only one pick. He completed 66% of his passes as well, much higher than his two predecessors, Phil Jurkovec and Christian Veileux, who combined to start the first ten games and both had completion percentages hovering around 50%.
Pitt’s next game is not until August 31, 2024 when Kent State comes to Acrisure Stadium. Between now and then there figures to be a lot of important decisions facing this program, but identifying a starting quarterback for next season is one of the more important ones. Did Yarnell shown enough in the final two games to be the No. 1 option heading into spring ball?
According to the head coach, he did.
“No question about it,” said Narduzzi. “I mean, he’s a guy who can win a lot of football games for us. He’s smart, takes coaching, he’s tough and he made some good plays out there and made his mistakes too, but we have a lot of faith in him.”
For Yarnell, he appreciates the unwavering faith Pitt has had in him, even if it does not look that way. Yarnell played like the best quarterback on the roster down the stretch and he even showed in 2022 that he was a capable game manager, but the coaches opted to bring in two transfers who seemingly passed him up instantly.
A situation like that could frustrate a player and even a team. Yarnell looked like he could have provided competent quarterback play all along and the coaches did not have to go to the transfer portal to find him.
“I’ll leave that up to the coaches,” he said on whether he should be looked at as the starter heading into next year. "I’m going to be the best quarterback that I can be and be the best leader to this team that I can be.”
Yarnell’s journey to Pittsburgh in general was a unique one. Perhaps that is why his path to potentially being the program’s starting quarterback is one he has been able to show patience for over the past three years.
He was a three-star recruit in the class of 2021 and committed to Pitt without ever having visited, due to the pandemic. Yarnell was a backup to a Division-1 quarterback as a junior, which is common for Texas high school powerhouse Lake Travis, a school that turns out Division-1 quarterbacks annually. He then missed his senior year with an injury, but Pitt still stuck with him and it is something he hasn’t forgotten.
“They gave me an opportunity to play power-five football, Narduzzi, I mean I played six games in high school,” Yarnell explained about his appreciation for Pitt. “I played at Lake Travis, but I didn’t have a ton of tape and I knew that I was really good at quarterback and Coach Narduzzi went off those six games and gave me an opportunity and I’ll be forever grateful for that.”
Yarnell looks like someone in the quarterback competition to be taken seriously this offseason, which is perhaps something the coaches should have considered 365 days ago. He will be there and presumably so will Veilleux, who also showed promise in his five starts amid some of his struggles.
Yarnell is going to approach this offseason as a team leader. In the age of the transfer portal, that may mean lobbying for some of his teammates to stay with him for 2024.
“Pitt’s a family, I’ve seen that,” said Yarnell. “I’ve seen the culture that we have and it’s my job as quarterback to build on that culture and make it stronger.”