Adding a quarterback to the 2020 recruiting class was very much in doubt for the Pitt football program one month ago. While technically a high school quarterback never committed, the Pitt coaches got the next best thing - or perhaps something even better in Arizona State transfer Joey Yellen.

Yellen was a three-star recruit in the class of 2019 and committed to Arizona State coach Herm Edwards. He entered the Arizona State program along with fellow quarterback Jayden Daniels, who eventually won the starting job and had a breakout freshman season.

Yellen started one game this past season due to a Daniels' injury and he performed very well with four touchdown passes in a loss to USC. Despite the strong showing, it was apparent Arizona State was set to move forward with Daniels at quarterback for the foreseeable future.

Yellen opted to enter the transfer portal and not long after doing so, he started to hear from the Pitt coaches.

“Pretty immediately,” Yellen said of his first contact with Pitt. “I posted on Twitter and it was within an hour or two.”

It did not take long for the two sides to connect, especially with offensive coordinator Mark Whipple.

“Right when I was first started talking to him it kind of clicked and everything just kind of made sense,” he said.

Yellen’s decision to transfer coincided with the dead period. He also wanted to enroll in January. It made for a unique recruitment all around, as he was in a hurry but wasn’t able to take any official visits.

Pitt got creative and found a way to host Yellen anyway.

“Because it was the dead period we weren’t able to make a real trip out and see everything,” Yellen explained. “So we did like the facility tour through FaceTime just so I could see everything and kind of just get a feel for the area just around the facility and all that sort of thing. I talked to a lot of the people over the phone and stuff like that, but we just did the facility tour over FaceTime.”

Even though his visit happened over the phone, he mentioned his comfort level with the program several times on Friday.

“There was a lot of different factors,” Yellen said. “Really it came down to I’m comfortable here. I really liked talking to the people here and I just really thought I could grow as a person at Pitt.”

His comfort level was likely enhanced due to some personal connections. Former Pitt quarterback Trey Anderson is currently on the staff at Arizona State and Yellen was able to go to him to hear what he had to say about Pitt.

“That’s a big part of how I was able to come here without a visit,” Yellen explained. “It’s the people that I’ve known have come here. Everybody was giving me a positive related to it. So I asked him a lot about the school. He actually knows Coach Whipple pretty well, so I was asking a lot about him. My old strength coach at ASU used to work under Coach Whipple, so I got to ask him about coaches and stuff like that and everybody only had positive things to say.”

In all likelihood, Yellen will have to sit out the 2020 season and will have three years to play in 2021 and compete for the starting job. He did note that he is working on getting a waiver to be eligible right away, and that process is still pending. While he awaits a ruling on that, he is going about his work and spending time with the other quarterbacks on the roster and getting used to working with those guys.

“It’s been great; Kenny’s a great leader and we’ve been doing a lot of throwing, obviously we’ve been lifting with the new staff, but he’s been a great leader, Yellen said. “Really the whole quarterback room has been great and just really supportive and have helped me out a lot.”

Yellen has been able to adapt to the football side of things right away, but there are some other factors as well moving across the country. Members of the Pitt football team were at an event on Friday to raise awareness for families that struggle with paying heating bills in the winter. Yellen’s interview took place inside of a house made out of ice. As a California native, he was wondering what the weather would be like in Pennsylvania.

“It’s definitely a small adjustment,” Yellen laughed off. “Honestly I thought it was going to be a bigger issue. If it’s cold I’ll just put on another layer.”