Pitt’s quarterback situation has been, in short, a mess all season.
The Panthers got disappointing play from starter Max Browne earlier this year before replacing him with Ben DiNucci. When DiNucci struggled, Pitt turned back to Browne, only to see him play well before suffering a season-ending injury. In last weekend’s loss to Syracuse, the Panthers were forced to play true freshman Kenny Pickett for the game’s final play after DiNucci inadvertently lost his helmet and, by rule, had to exit the game.
The Panthers’ quarterback situation took another strange twist in Saturday’s loss to NC State. In that game, Pickett relieved DiNucci, despite the game being close and DiNucci playing relatively well. Afterwards, head coach Pat Narduzzi and DiNucci gave conflicting accounts about the plan for playing time in the game.
In his post-game statements, Narduzzi insisted that both DiNucci and Pickett knew of the plan to play both during the contest.
“It wasn’t a taking Ben out because he wasn’t getting the job done,” Narduzzi said. “We had talked with them prior to the game so there was communication prior to the game on what we going to do and what the plans were.”
His starter, however, saw things differently and was taken aback by being removed from the game.
“A little bit surprised,” DiNucci said in response to being asked about if he was surprised by being taken out of a close game. “I wasn’t necessarily aware going into this week that they were going to try to get him a series, but that’s ultimately their decision.”
A follow-up question was asked about any conversations he may have had with Narduzzi and offensive coordinator Shawn Watson, perhaps to jog his memory. DiNucci’s response?
“I didn’t know anything about it going in beforehand.”
Some of the stuff that’s happened this year with quarterbacks, like Browne’s injury, wasn’t really preventable. But here, we’ve either got someone stretching the truth a little or just a flat out miscommunication between a coach and a quarterback.
This also isn’t the first time the two have clashed, you might recall. Earlier, DiNucci said that Narduzzi told him he was still ‘the guy’ after the Georgia Tech loss. Narduzzi said, instead, that DiNucci was one of their guys. That this type of miscommunication between the two has now happened twice is mind-boggling.
Whether or not you believe DiNucci should have been replaced with Pickett is really irrelevant here. The key takeaway is that Narduzzi said all along there would be a plan to play Pickett while DiNucci says he wasn’t aware of the plan.
What’s my take?
Personally, I find it hard to believe that a quarterback would come out and blatantly say something to the media that would completely contradict what his coach told him. The coach, not the player, has the power. And if you’re DiNucci, wanting to play, making up false statements from your coach probably isn’t something you just up and decide to do. And we’re not only supposed to believe that it happened once, but twice now. The question you have to ask is, why would DiNucci fabricate something entirely on two occasions? It just doesn’t add up.
Is Narduzzi lying about what happened this week? Did a conversation happen that was more casual in nature, confusing DiNucci? Who’s telling the truth here? Beats me but I don’t even particularly care. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
One thing, however, is clear to me. I fully believe that Narduzzi has chosen Pickett as his guy.
For one thing, last week, Narduzzi made it pretty clear what he thinks of Pickett’s progress to this point compared to DiNucci’s at the same time last year:
“I don’t know if I mentioned this in the staff meeting or to our team or to my wife - we got a lot of confidence in Kenny Pickett, as well. … Kenny’s probably as mentally prepared as any freshman quarterback in the country, I think,” Narduzzi said. “He’s way ahead of where DiNucci was when he was a freshman, mentally, so he’s a guy we had confidence in from the beginning. He pays attention to the details, as well, so he’ll be our backup and we’ll progress that way.”
That might not mean much on its own. But in the reality that we now live, with Pickett quickly replacing DiNucci even while the latter was playing pretty well, it means much more.
To me, Narduzzi just isn’t real sold on DiNucci. It’s the same way he wasn’t sold on Chad Voytik two years ago when he gave him a quick hook despite not playing all that poorly. Many of us didn’t understand it then but the thing is, it worked out. I think Narduzzi has it, set in his mind that Pickett is his guy and the success of the Peterman/Voytik switch will only give further validity to playing him.
Look at how DiNucci’s been handled to this point. He did replace Browne pretty early in the season but that didn’t last long and only came after Browne had done so little on offense. Consider, too, that he was replaced before the Rice game. If DiNucci really was Narduzzi’s guy, you give him that game against an easier opponent to build up his confidence and some momentum going forward. For better or worse, Narduzzi decided that it was Browne, not DiNucci, that gave the best chance for success going forward.
Even in a game where DiNucci was playing halfway decent and Pitt had a chance to pull of an upset, Narduzzi still benched him in favor of a true freshman getting his first real snaps. I know that Narduzzi spoke of rotating them to play them both but plans change in the middle of a game. Even if that was the plan going in, it would have been easy to just ride DiNucci out and see if he could have won the game.
What should Pitt do going forward? Personally, I think Pitt should start Pickett at this point and see what he can do. I believe that DiNucci is closer to his ceiling than Pickett is. DiNucci’s arm isn’t going to suddenly get stronger and while I would expect his decision-making to improve, I think Pickett provides the most upside. But it doesn’t matter what I think. If Narduzzi is convinced that’s the guy, then he should play him at this point. The season is a lost one and this right now is more about preparing for next year. Pitt still has something to play for and you should win as many games as possible. But if the two are relatively comparable in their abilities, you play the guy that is more likely to start next year - and that seems to be Pickett.
And like I do, I believe Narduzzi also feels his upside is better. In addition to the statement above about Pickett being ahead of DiNucci was at this time last year, Narduzzi said after the game, with some degree of emphasis, ‘he’s only going to get better.’ The overwhelming belief that it seems like the coaches have is that they have to get Kenny reps to see what the status of the position will be next season.
Don’t forget, there’s still a chance that Pitt could bring in another grad transfer next year, even if that’s not the plan right now. That has mostly worked for the program, after all, with Tom Savage and Nathan Peterman - both now in the NFL. But Narduzzi won’t know if he needs to do that unless they see what they have with Pickett. And that’s why, if I was guessing, I’d say we’ll see more Pickett than DiNucci in the final five contests.
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