Pitt redshirt freshman quarterback Eli Holstein won his fifth ACC rookie of the week award Monday in as many games played this season. The transfer from Alabama threw three touchdowns in Pitt’s 34-24 win at North Carolina on Saturday, his fifth time doing so in five starts for the Panthers. That’s arguably the biggest factor into Pitt’s 5-0 start for the first time since 1991 that has the Panthers ranked as the No. 22 team in the country.
But don’t tell Pat Narduzzi that. He was in no mood to celebrate the team’s early success during his Monday press conference at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.
“I don’t care about the ranking,” Narduzzi said. “The only ranking we’ll care about is our postseason ranking. If you get caught up and start saying, ‘Look at us,’ good luck to you.”
Instead, Narduzzi was more focused on how Pitt can improve upon its early success. That includes Holstein, whose 313.4 yards per game and 15 touchdown passes both rank third in the ACC, while his three interceptions thrown is tied for sixth-fewest in the conference.
“[Holstein’s] done a remarkable job,” Narduzzi said. “Redshirt freshman playing his first season. He’s done an unbelievable job.”
But are there situations Holstein can show more maturity? Narduzzi believed so, as he recalled a third-down pass Holstein floated into danger late in the fourth quarter that would’ve been intercepted and spoiled a field goal that gave Pitt a 34-24 lead. Junior running back Desmond Reid broke the pass up and saved the moment, but it was still a teachable lesson Narduzzi wants his quarterback to learn.
“Those are things we still have to work on, understanding the situation that,” Narduzzi said of the play. “Hey, it’s like I told [defensive coordinator Randy] Bates, our staff, ‘Coach Bates, you feel better with a 10 point lead going into two minute or seven-point lead?’ As a defensive coordinator, you want that 10 points.”
But as far as the play calling leading Holstein to even be passing in that situation, Narduzzi was fine with the aggressiveness from offensive coordinator Kade Bell.
“I want to go get them. I want to be aggressive, and I don’t want to handcuff a coordinator where he’s stuck running the ball up there and everybody’s going, ‘What are we doing here?’” Narduzzi said. “But we’ve got to be smarter there. And it’s rookie mistakes there. And the last two plays we get our quarterback hit. I don’t want him hit, either.”
Narduzzi also focused on Holstein’s decision making when it came to the distribution of the football. Out of Holstein’s 25 completed passes, 11 were to Reid, with no other player recording more than four receptions. Reid made up 29 touches in Pitt’s offense Saturday, which was more than half of the combined rushes and receptions of the entire team. It poses a potential future issue that could wear down arguably the team’s best player in a long season.
Narduzzi acknowledged that it’s not Pitt’s plan to feed the ball to Reid as much as it has, but that he’s been open and Holstein’s job is to find the open man.
“It’s not like we’re trying to get him 11 catches,” Narduzzi said of Reid. “It’s in two-minute, and he gets two or three catches right there in a row. Again, I think it comes down to just being smart with the football. Eli can take some shots and throw it down the field and distribute it more. But at the end of the day, I want the ball completed. Put it in our players’ hands.”
After five games, Reid leads the team with 24 receptions, is tied with redshirt junior receiver Raphael “Poppi” Williams for the team’s most touchdown receptions with four, and his 322 receiving yards are second on the team, only to senior captain receiver Konata Mumpfield’s 426.
“You could look at it and say it’s four receivers [on the field] but there’s a running back in the game,” Narduzzi continued on Reid’s receiving abilities. “He’s a slash-type guy that can do it all. He’s a receiver and he’s a running back, and he’s deadly at both. That’s what makes him so exceptional.”
That’s impressive production, but if Pitt wants to keep Reid fresh the rest of the season, some of those numbers could be better spread out among teammates. Narduzzi noted that the lack of production for Pitt’s senior tight end Gavin Bartholomew hasn’t been for a lack of trying. Bartholomew has 14 catches on 18 targets for 117 receiving yards and has yet to score a touchdown.
“It’s about what’s the smart play,” Narduzzi said. “It’s like, we’d like to get the ball to Gavin. Gavin is probably the unluckiest tight end in the country. When you watch some of the plays where he’s open, we have chances to get him the ball and we haven’t had a chance to get it to him. But he’s open. And we have some nice plays called.”
Bell’s offense regularly gives opportunities across the board for players to be open and plenty of throwing options for Holstein. That’s been a positive for the Panthers that could yield even better results than what they’ve seen — a historic start, becoming the first Pitt quarterback since Dan Marino to win his first five starts.
FitzSimmons rises
Pitt saw good production from redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Sean FitzSimmons, who saw his first action of the season Saturday since suffering a preseason injury. The 6-foot-3, 285-pound defensive lineman from Central Valley only finished the game with two tackles and half a tackle for loss, but he also finished with four pressures on the game. He consistently got in North Carolina’s backfield and looked ready after sitting for Pitt’s first four games for an injury.
His performance vaulted FitzSimmons to co-starter along with a rotation of five others at defensive tackle.
“Every week we’re going to start the guys that have the best week of practice,” Narduzzi said. “Fitz, he had the best week of practice. Francis Brewu did some great things, as well. He only had nine plays. Maybe we should have got him more. As a coach you’re trying to get as many in there as you can, see what they’ve got. But there’s some — Ghost [Isaiah Neal], he’s a screen killer. … He turns and goes. He sniffs it. He feels it, makes a great tackle on a screen that’s out there in the flats.”
