With vets, new faces, a few wrinkles, Pitt prepares to debut Kade Bell's 2025 offense

Much of the talk surrounding Pitt’s prospects this season centers around Eli Holstein’s performance.

That’s unsurprising and an accurate place to begin the conversation about the Panthers.

Holstein’s play — and his health — carry major implications for Pitt football this fall, good or bad.

For coordinator Kade Bell, Holstein and some fellow key offensive players should be set up nicely, thanks to the continuity from 2024.

“Just the comfortability in the system, how much faster we can make our calls and communicate as a whole offense, understand the signals, understand the tempo and understand the type of urgency we want to play with,” Bell said Wednesday at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side. “That’s what’s been really good about this camp, seeing all that growth that we had from last year.”

Back with Holstein are tailback Desmond Reid, receivers Kenny Johnson and Poppi Williams, offensive linemen Lyndon Cooper, BJ Williams and Ryan Baer, plus tight end Jake Overman.

Sprinkled around them are transfers such as receiver Blue Hicks, left guard Keith Gouveia and left tackle Jeff Persi.

While Bell is doubtless thrilled to return so many key players, he did note that it took a concentrated effort throughout spring ball, summer and fall camp to bring all the new faces aboard.

Additionally, once those players got down the basics of Bell’s scheme, it became time to add new wrinkles and features to Pitt’s offensive attack.

“Even though we do have guys coming back that are main parts of our offense, obviously it helps but it’s still different,” Bell said. “What I’ve learned the last couple years is you still have to change the way you install and change the way you do things.”

Bell’s high-paced tempo was a particular offensive element that required mastering from the Panthers’ first-year players.

“The tempo part took awhile, something I was definitely not used to,” said Persi, a Michigan transfer. “But it’s been great. I feel like we’re in a good spot there with the tempo. I think it’s extremely beneficial when it comes to (opposing) D-lines, just getting guys who are tired, not allowing D-lines to rotate as much and get fresh legs in there.”

The play of Pitt’s offensive line will correlate directly to what Bell is able to do this fall, to say nothing of the potential health of critical weapons such as Holstein and Reid.

Narduzzi expressed confidence in his starting line (left to right) of Persi, Gouveia, Cooper, Williams and Baer, as well as the next men up behind them, such as Ryan Carretta and Torian Chester.

“We need to see them execute,” Narduzzi said. “We need them to identify (and) block the right people. I feel better about this offensive line. Probably the top five guys this year and last year, I feel the same. I felt really good going into last year’s opener with the starting five. (But) we have more depth, more guys that are prepared to go in there and take care of business than we did a year ago.”

Pitt’s first opportunity to showcase the product Bell’s been cooking up for Year 2 in Oakland comes at noon Saturday, when the Panthers host Duquesne at Acrisure Stadium.

A few days ahead of kickoff, Vegas Insider lists Pitt as a 37.5-point favorite. Action Network favors the Panthers by 33.5 points.

Without question, Saturday’s season opener is a game Pitt is expected to win by a significant margin.

Bell is less concerned with the oddsmakers’ opinions than he is with his unit going out and executing cleanly versus the Dukes.

“I just want to see us play hard,” Bell said. “You can’t take anybody lightly. Everybody has good players. I think (Duquesne) is a veteran team that has a lot of guys on defense that’s played a lot of football. For us, I want to see us come out and play hard.

“That’s who we want to be: We want to play really, really hard. I want to see us be efficient and play good football. I don’t want to see sloppy stuff like penalties and turnovers. I want to see us take care of the football and gain positive plays every play.”

Bell told reporters Wednesday that Holstein looked good over the course of fall camp and even took another leap over the last 10 days or so.

But, with Holstein’s injuries keeping him either limited or totally off the field for much of Pitt’s second half last season, Bell said it’s been some time since his quarterback played in a “true game.”

Saturday should present that scenario, and Bell is hoping to see Holstein play freely.

“We’ve got to trust the protection, the plays we’re putting in, and he’s got to let it rip,” Bell said. “I think he’s been doing that this camp and summer. I think he’s been more aggressive throwing the ball down the field.”