Pitt Recruiting Class Positional Breakdown: Quarterback
PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers added 22 players - to their 2023 roster this past week on Signing Day. Inside the Panthers will be diving into each addition - who they are, what they do and where they'll fit into the Panthers' roster now and later.
We'll begin with the quarterbacks, where Pitt made its biggest additions.
There is a balance to the renovated quarterback room Pitt will have next season. Kedon Slovis is off to the transfer portal, Nick Patti is likely to follow and Derek Kyler is set to graduate.
In their places, the Panthers' coaching staff brought in three new signal callers. Phil Jurkovec, a former four-star recruit and three-year starter at Boston College, became the first when he committed to Pitt the same day he entered the transfer portal. Ty Dieffenbach, a two-star high school recruit that filled the void left by Kenny Minchey's midseason decommitment, came after. Christian Veilleux, another transfer from Penn State and former three-star recruit, rounded out this crop of quarterbacks.
Jurkovec has one year of eligibility remaining and is the favorite to start this coming year after three productive, but uneven and injury-hampered seasons in Chestnut Hill. Christian Veilleux and Nate Yarnell both have three seasons to spare and Ty Dieffenbach will arrive as a freshman - likely to redshirt - holding a full four years to play.
In short, there's room for everyone and while you can't rely on planning that far out in the age of the transfer portal, there is a logical succession plan from Jurkovec to either Yarnell or Veilleux and then Dieffenbach. Wrenches of various shapes and sizes are bound to be thrown into that system but for right now, Pitt is prepared for the short and long-term future in a way they weren't when Kenny Pickett left at the end of his fifth season.
The transition will happen quickly, with Patti set to depart after the Sun Bowl this week and Jurkovec, Veilleux and Dieffenbach expected to enroll in time for the beginning of the spring semester in January, giving them plenty of time to become familiar with their new home before the work gets serious in the summer and fall.
There will be little if any, competition between the four quarterbacks on the roster. Jurkovec is as safe a bet as any to be the starter while Veilleux and Yarnell juggle backup duties and Dieffenbach grows into his 6'5 frame. That's good news because a lot will be saddled on Jurkovec at the final stop of his college career.
Jurkovec is an essential piece of this puzzle - an experienced player Pitt will plug in immediately to bridge the gap between the present day and a future full of Veilleux, Yarnell and Dieffenbach. With some of the Panthers' best skill players - namely Israel Abanikanda and Jared Wayne - expected to declare for the NFL Draft, Jurkovec will have to carry an outsized portion of the responsibility for his unit's success.
This is not a position Pitt can afford to take lightly. From Rod Rutherford to Bill Stull to Kenny Pickett - quarterback play has dictated this program's ceiling for the better part of this millennium. Historically, strong signal-callers have been the difference between seven or eight wins and nine or 10.
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