Pat Narduzzi addressed Pitt’s unsettled quarterback situation Thursday afternoon, leaving open the possibility Kedon Slovis might play Saturday night at Western Michigan.
“Game-time decision,” he said. When he was asked if Slovis is part of that decision, Narduzzi gave a quick and definitive, “Yes.”
Slovis was hurt late in the first half of Pitt’s 34-27 overtime loss to Tennessee last Saturday at Acrisure Stadium. He was slammed to the ground by Volunteers defensive end Tyler Baron, who is 45 pounds heavier than the Pitt quarterback. Slovis left the game and did not return.
Nick Patti played the second half and overtime, hurt a lower appendage when he was sacked by Tennessee defensive end Byron Young early in the fourth quarter and limped through Pitt’s final two offensive series. Slovis appears to be a more likely participant Saturday night than Patti.
Slovis, a transfer from USC, has completed 30 of 48 passes for 503 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, pushing him over 1,000 career attempts (1,001). His completion percentage (62.5%) is lower than his career mark of 68.4% entering the season.
Beyond Slovis and Patti, Pitt has two scholarship quarterbacks: redshirt freshman Nate Yarnell and graduate transfer and sixth-year senior Derek Kyler, formerly of Dartmouth.
For what it’s worth, Yarnell is listed as the third quarterback on Narduzzi’s depth chart. Kyler started 20 games at Dartmouth, leading the Big Green to a 9-1 record and the Ivy League championship last season when he completed a school-record 70.7% of his passes.
“They are both mature,” Narduzzi said. “Both of them got better the more reps they got this week because, obviously, they got more reps.”
First road game
After Saturday, Pitt won’t play another game away from Acrisure Stadium until Oct. 22 at Louisville. Then, it’s four of the last six on the road.
“I’m looking forward to see how our guys respond going on the road, how they play in a different atmosphere,” Narduzzi said. “I’ve educated them on where Kalamazoo is (about 146 miles northeast of Chicago), where we’re staying.
“I think it’s really good to get a road trip in before we get into ACC play. What better place than up at Kalamazoo?”
Expect the unexpected
Pitt players have acknowledged Western Michigan’s run/pass option (RPO) plays caught them by surprise last season (a 44-41 loss), but Narduzzi said the real surprise was their effectiveness.
“We worked on RPOs. Just the way they executed it was better than what we saw out of most people,” he said. “(Quarterback Kaleb Eleby) was perfect (23 of 34, 337 yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions). Maybe surprised by how good they were at executing them.”
Narduzzi said every week opponents try to utilize new plays and alignments.
“There are going to be stuff that we did not practice,” he said. “They’d be fools, and we’d be fools, to go in there and just do things that we practiced (against) all week and that they practiced (against) all week.
“We are going to be sold out on (stopping) the run. Hopefully, our guys do their jobs, and we have answers. We have more answers right now than we’ve ever had.”
Oh, those RPOs
Western Michigan quarterback Jack Salopek, a Norwin grad, said the Broncos still run RPOs, just not as frequently as they did with Eleby.
Narduzzi said his video study indicates the Broncos use them 40% of the time, compared to 70% before last year’s game.
“If you don’t stop them, 40 turns into 50 or 60,” Pitt’s coach said.
