Pitt's offense has fallen to 12th best in the ACC as it averages 25.7 points per game as the team is 3-4 and getting ready to face Florida State Saturday in Doak Campbell Stadium at 4 p.m.
After listening to Pat Narduzzi speak Thursday about the upcoming game, it does not appear that Kenny Pickett will return to aid Pitt's offense on Saturday. Pickett had been on a good pace with eight touchdown passes over Pitt's first five games, including a touchdown in overtime that gave Pitt a chance to tie Boston College.
But Pickett's injury has kept him off the playing field since then, missing both of the team's losses to Miami and Notre Dame in the following weeks. That's put redshirt freshman transfer quarterback from Arizona State Joey Yellen in, who Narduzzi says is still getting the vast majority of first team reps for Pitt in practice.
"Yesterday Kenny Pickett didn't take many snaps," Narduzzi said on Thursday. "Joey Yellen took most of them. Today, Kenny said he felt better. I felt like it would be risky, but who knows? We'll see where he is, because today's only Thursday. You don't want to put a guy out there without a whole lot of reps."
In Yellen's first two starts for the Panthers he's completed 32 passes on 73 attempts for 378 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Those aren't the best rates with a completion percentage of 43.8 and an average of 189 yards per game.
Even with those numbers, Narduzzi feels positive about how Yellen is practicing before having to start in his second road game of the his collegiate career. He was quick to point out that the two defenses Yellen faced were tough and part of nationally ranked teams.
"Joey looked good this week and last week," Narduzzi said. "But when the fire gets lit it's hard for young guys to go out there sometimes. Give credit to Notre Dame's and Miami's defenses. Those guys are a lot better than any scout team defense. We probably get 16 reps of the ones on the ones where we get good reps in eleven-on-eleven play. Joey's looked good. He's confident and makes good decisions. But when you get into a game and things aren't going well you start pressing and bad things happen and then it turns bad for everybody."
Still, Narduzzi thinks the issue with the offense isn't necessarily Yellen, but the lack of consistency around him. Even when counting the games that Pickett played, Pitt's rushing offense has sputtered throughout the season, currently ranking 13th in the ACC with an average of 98 yards per game.
Narduzzi sees the improvement on offense needing to come from that department to help Yellen and balance the offense to take the brunt of the weight off the freshman's shoulders who would be in for just his third start for Pitt this Saturday.
"We've got to generate a run game with Joey in to help open up the passing game, period," Narduzzi said. "It's hard to against Notre Dame because nobody had."
That run game has failed to get going in each of the team's four losses. In Pitt's first three games which the Panthers all won, the team averaged 143.3 rushing yards per game. But in the four losses that followed, Pitt's rushing offense averaged just 64 yards per game.
The team's leading rusher is Vincent Davis with 263 yards and three touchdowns on 91 carries for an average of 2.9 yards per game and just 37.6 yards per game. Pitt's next leading rusher is Pickett, who's also missed the last two game but has 119 yards on 45 carries with a team-leading five touchdowns.
That's how rough it is for Pitt right now, as its rushing offense struggles to find any answers. Heading into this weekend's games, there are eight ACC programs that have multiple players who each more rushing yards than Pitt's leader in Davis. Those teams include North Carolina, Wake Forest, Duke, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State, Florida State, Virginia and Miami.
Despite this, Narduzzi seems to stick with Pitt's plan on the ground as it stands, using primarily Vincent Davis and A.J. Davis as the team's primary running backs.
"I feel good with the Davis guys," Narduzzi said. "A.J. has had one of his best weeks and I really like where he is right now. Vincent Davis has been that guy all year and he's still there. To me, it'll be those two guys back there and we'll ride those two guys for a while and keep them healthy. The other guys might get a snap here and there, but for right now it's Davis and Davis."
The answer Narduzzi is looking for change in is his offensive line. During those games, Pitt's running backs haven't been given much room to run by the line and it's prevented of any consistent presence of a ground game.
"There's a lot of things we can do better," Narduzzi said of the offensive line. "Sometimes you become too physical and it looks easier than it is. You can beat the guy overtop trying to be physical but then a quick guy swims underneath and crosses your face and you're beat. Sometimes it comes down to fundamentals but sometimes it comes down to the guys you're playing against."
From what Narduzzi provided Thursday, there's no evidence that Pitt's running game will have any additional schemes or tweaks to its plan to run the ball other than hoping its linemen and running backs perform at a higher level.
Florida State's defense ranks 14th against the run in the ACC, allowing an average of 208.7 rushing yards per game. If Pitt's rushing offense makes a surge on Saturday it would potentially signal a chance for a change of pace in how its performed this season. But anything short of consistent production against such a low ranking defense would be another disappointing blow in a season with a series of letdowns.
• Following up on my story on the ascension of safety Brandon Hill to start in place of Paris Ford, Narduzzi followed up with more comments on his confidence in Hill as a player.
"Brandon's been really good," Narduzzi said. "He runs to the ball and he's got a motor. It's scary, he reminds me of a safety we had at Michigan State in Elijah Lewis. Same number, same body type and really same type of motor. He hits you, he's energetic and he's got that personality that people gravitate towards. Brandon's played a lot of football here, he's practiced a lot more than he's played. I've talked about how physical he is and how well he runs but what I haven't said enough of is that he's a great communicator. That's another one of his positives because he knows what's going on, he knows why and we feel really good about where he is as a communicator."