Well, that was certainly one way to start the week.
We knew that this period between the end of the regular season and Signing Day - two weeks from tomorrow - would be filled with activity, but Monday took it to a new level. Pitt had three major personnel moves, all at the quarterback position, and they considerably changed the outlook for the coming season.
The first, of course, was
Kedon Slovis. The former USC quarterback has decided to play at his third school in as many years and will finish his collegiate career somewhere other than Pitt. We will all probably spend some time debating Slovis’ career at Pitt, but the numbers pretty much tell the story:
7-4 record as a starter with 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Maybe he was never the same after that hit against Tennessee. Maybe the offense didn’t work for an Air Raid quarterback going to a pro-style/West Coast system. Maybe it just wasn’t a good fit overall.
Whatever the source of the failure - and I think there are a few sources of this particular failure - Pat Narduzzi and Frank Cignetti would do well to learn some lessons from this experience.
In the meantime, they’re moving on. And they did move on rather quickly, as it didn’t take long to go from Slovis entering the portal to a new solution coming back to Pitt from the portal.
That’s
Phil Jurkovec, the former four-star Pine-Richland standout who went to Notre Dame for two seasons and Boston College for three but will finish his career as a Panther.
Like Slovis, I think we all have opinions on Jurkovec. We’ve all followed his career, to some extent, and we all have some idea of the ups and downs. There was the “up” of 2020, when Jurkovec completed 61% of his passes for 2,558 yards, 17 touchdowns and five interceptions in 10 games.
And there was the “down” of the last two seasons, when he played a total of 14 games due to injury and threw 18 touchdowns and 12 picks.
Health is a big factor here. He missed eight games over the last two years, so keeping him on the field is the first step. But the bigger picture, of course, is his connection with Cignetti. That standout season - 2020 - came with Cignetti running the offense, and the hope here, obviously, is that Cignetti and Jurkovec can recapture whatever worked that year.
Physically, Jurkovec is a plus-prospect. He’s got a big arm and he can run. He rushed for eight touchdowns in 2020 and 2021 with 472 net rushing yards over those two seasons. That’s a valuable part of his game, and certainly something that seemed to be missing from Pitt’s offense this year.
There are question marks, to be sure, but if those are largely centered on health, then it seems like a worthwhile investment for Pitt, even if it’s only for one year.
And then there was the third piece of the puzzle: the high school prospect. For that, Pitt landed Agoura (Calif.) quarterback
Ty Dieffenbach, who committed to the Panthers Monday night.
We’ve talked a bit about Dieffenbach over the last three or four days after he emerged on Pitt’s radar as a potential target. Kenny Minchey’s decommitment last month sent the Pitt staff out searching for a replacement, and I think they looked at a lot of options. By the end of the weekend, Dieffenbach had clearly emerged as the No. 1 target for Cignetti, who watched Dieffenbach throw in-person during a visit on Saturday. Two days later (Monday), tight ends coach Tim Salem visited Dieffenbach, and by the end of the day, Dieffenbach had decommitted from UNLV and committed to Pitt.
Dieffenbach is a 6’5” 200-pound drop-back passer who can run fairly well for a guy his size. He was limited by injury this season when he suffered a broken tibia after a lineman fell backward into his leg early in the year, but he returned and finished the season, so there don’t seem to be concerns about any lingering effects of the injury.
His best season was last year, though, when he stepped into the starting lineup and completed 62.8% of his passes for 2,669 yards, 34 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 10 games.
As a prospect who can develop for a year or two before competing for the starting job, there’s a good amount to like about Dieffenbach. With Jurkovec coming in, Pitt doesn’t need Dieffenbach to step onto the field right away, which is good for the Panthers and for Dieffenbach. Still, he’s planning to enroll in January so he can get a head start on learning the offense.
That’s three fairly big moves at quarterback, all in the same day.
And Pitt isn’t done.
The offensive staff set three goals for itself with quarterbacks over the next two weeks:
- Get a veteran transfer to be the starter in 2023.
- Get a high school prospect to develop over the next few seasons.
- Get a younger transfer to fill out the room and compete with the high school prospect.
Jurkovec fills the first objective. Dieffenbach fills the second. That leaves the third: the young transfer.
Who fills that spot?
Yesterday, we mentioned Penn State transfer
Christian Veilleux as a target for that last opening, and the noise around that one has only climbed in the last 24 hours. I said yesterday that I have been hearing Veilleux could visit this weekend, and there are some rumors that he could even make a decision sooner than that.
I’m not sure if that will happen or not. I do think Veilleux has serious interest in Pitt and the Panthers appear to be one of his top options. But at the same time, a lot of quarterbacks entered the portal yesterday, and a lot of them are young signal-callers who fit what the staff is looking for.
So, for now, I think they still have Veilleux at the top of the list and I think Cignetti visited him on Monday. But I also think Cignetti and company are looking at some other options. Two that jumped out to me: West Virginia’s
Will Crowder and Oklahoma’s
Nick Evers. Those two come to mind from an early glance at the quarterbacks who entered the portal yesterday, and we’ll work today to see what other young quarterbacks could get a look.
That said, I think Pitt will probably decide today on what path to follow. Either way, I think we’ll see more news and developments throughout the day.
Still recruiting
It’s not all about transfers, though, as the Pitt staff is also working to fill out the 2023 recruiting class, too, and there are two names I want to highlight here.
The first is
Cruce Brookins. The Steel Valley standout has been on the Panthers’ radar for a long time, as you might expect with a local prospect. So when
Brice Pollock decommitted and Pitt needed another defensive back in the class of 2023, Brookins got the call for an offer at the end of November.
On Monday, Brookins announced that he was decommitting from Kent State. Maybe that’s due to KSU head coach Sean Lewis being linked to the offensive coordinator job on Deion Sanders’ new staff at Colorado; I think it’s more a case of being the next step toward a flip.
Pitt safeties coach Cory Sanders watched Brookins play in Steel Valley’s playoff game on Friday night, and I expect Brookins to see Pitt in person this weekend. I don’t know if it will be an official visit, but I think he’ll be in the South Side for a visit, and my expectation right now is that he’ll commit.
Here’s another one to watch:
Jackson McGohan
The three-star tight end from Miamisburg (Oh.) committed to Cincinnati last January but reopened his recruitment yesterday, and I think Pitt is very much a school to watch. Really, Pitt has been a school to watch for the last nine months, since he took an unofficial visit to see the Panthers in spring camp and then returned for an official visit in June - both of which happened after his commitment to the Bearcats.
In the wake of Luke Fickell’s move from Cincinnati to Wisconsin, McGohan has become a hot commodity and has quite a few schools after him. But Pitt is prominent here - prominent enough, in fact, that there’s a very real chance something could happen quickly. I know McGohan has talked about taking another official visit or two, but I think it’s possible Pitt lands him before that happens.
As we all know, things can and do change quickly in recruiting (high school prospects and transfers), so stay tuned.
