Pitt Take 5: Who do you want? Kenny Pickett or Sam Howell?

The sky above Heinz Field will be bright Thursday night when Pitt plays North Carolina, and their fans hope the stars on the field, likewise, will shine.

Pat Narduzzi said there will be 36 representatives from NFL teams at the game, perhaps a Heisman voter or two and many more talent evaluators watching on ESPN. Among others, they’ll be eyeballing Kenny Pickett of Pitt (7-2, 4-1 ACC) and Sam Howell of North Carolina (5-4, 3-3).

Pickett downplayed the matchup of quarterbacks.

“It has nothing to do with me and Sam, one on one,” he said.

But Pickett is No. 1 in Mel Kiper’s 2022 NFL Draft quarterback rankings. Howell is No. 5. How each performs Thursday night will matter to many wearing an NFL team’s logo on his shirt.

Don’t forget what it means for No. 21 Pitt and its hopes of winning the ACC Coastal. A Pitt victory helps, but a loss increases the possibility that Miami (5-4, 3-2) will overtake the Panthers.

Here a few notes, quotes and anecdotes in advance of the biggest Pitt game this season — until the next one.

1. Who do you want?

The Pickett/Howell confrontation reminded former Pitt quarterback Bill Stull about his matchup with Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen in 2009 and Pitt offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr.’s part in it.

During the “BLEAV In Pitt Football” podcast, Stull told the story of how Cignetti was “always wanting to see where my head is, making sure it was on straight, or at least as straight as possible.”

One day, Cignetti walked up to Stull and said, “Bill Stull or Jimmy Clausen. Who do you want on your team?”

“And, then, he just walked away,” Stull said. “He got the competitive juices going.”

Clausen threw an interception, Stull did not and Pitt won 27-22 to raise its record to 9-1.

2. Get them off their feet

Offensive line coach Dave Borbely made a smart decision when he gave left guard Marcus Minor the day off at Duke — he was a bit sore, Narduzzi said — and inserted Blake Zubovic (Belle Vernon) in his place.

“Marcus Minor will be ready to go this week. I can promise you that,” Narduzzi said. “He could have gone (at Duke). We had him there, emergency only.”

Narduzzi doesn’t like to talk about injuries, but he made an exception when queried in this case.

“If I didn’t answer your question, you might think Marcus maybe missed bed check or something, which he didn’t,” Narduzzi said. “I’d take a bus full of Marcus Minors. We were able to get him fresh and he’ll be ready to roll. Good strategy by coach Borbely.

“We were trying to purposely keep our guys fresh. We did that at every position.”

In the ninth game of a long season, Narduzzi found an appropriate time to rest his starters.

In the Miami game, safeties Erick Hallett and Brandon Hill played every snap.

“We can’t keep doing that.” Narduzzi said. “We’re going to hurt ourselves like we did against Boston College (with tired players) a season ago.”

3. ‘Money’ man

Sam Scarton is paying tuition at Pitt — and also paying off in a big way.

A walk-on kicker from Hermitage and Hickory High School, Scarton has been — in Narduzzi’s words — “money on game day.”

After winning a training-camp competition with Ben Sauls, who is on scholarship, Scarton successfully has converted 12 of 13 field goals, including four of five from beyond the 39. His 92.3% rate is second in the ACC.

“I’m proud of the way he’s played,” Narduzzi said. “He’s just calm and cool, and that’s what you need at that position. He’s only going to keep getting better.

“He’s a guy who was a walk-on here, and he beat out a guy on scholarship. It’s a good message for all our kids. We’re going to play the best player, the guy we trust on game day to go out and do it.”

Scarton has had far fewer field-goal opportunities than Alex Kessman had last year (23 of 29), thanks to an offense that leads the nation in touchdowns (53). He has missed 2 of 49 conversion kicks.

4. ‘I’m sorry’

You’ll remember that Narduzzi accused Duke of trying to steal signals by using offensive lineman Carson Van Lynn’s knowledge of Pitt’s play-calling system. Van Lynn transferred from Pitt to Duke in the offseason.

“You feel like they’ve got our signals,” Narduzzi said after Saturday’s game. “Carson Van Lynn is over there staring at our signalers. We changed some things up. Maybe we didn’t change it up good enough. You’ve got a spy on the other team.”

Two days later, Narduzzi apologized to Van Lynn.

“Super kid. Couldn’t be a nicer kid in the world, always smiling,” he said Monday during his news conference. “I want to apologize to him for what I said. I didn’t mean to make anybody feel bad. I shouldn’t have said a word. That’s my fault.”

What was most interesting was Narduzzi admitting that “(Van Lynn) didn’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

In any case, you can bet Narduzzi will be extra careful the next time there’s one of his former players on the opposite sideline.

5. Don’t touch the goalposts

After North Carolina’s epic 58-55 victory against then-No. 9 Wake Forest last week, Tar Heels fans stormed the field, creating what coach Mack Brown called a “pretty magical scene.”

The goalposts were untouched, but Brown remembers the day — in his first stint as Tar Heels coach — when students stormed the field after a victory against nationally ranked Georgia Tech and ended up carrying a goalpost into town.

“And I got in trouble because the next time we had a home game, I said something like, ‘C’mon, students. Let’s win and you can tear down the goalposts again.’ ”

“Chancellor (Paul) Hardin called me in and said, ‘That’s very dangerous. Don’t be encouraging those students to tear down goalposts.’ “

Even though there was no parade last Saturday with the goalposts as a centerpiece, Brown said the victory and its aftermath was a sight to behold. After all, the game featured a total of 1,161 yards and 113 points, and North Carolina trailed 45-27 in the third quarter.

“What players are doing is building memories for the rest of their lives,” Brown said. “I told the players, ‘You’re 49, sitting around with your buddies and your best friends will be the guys in this room. You’ll be talking about the upset of a top-10 team when the students stormed the field.’ ”