For two weeks, Pitt has rotated quarterbacks during its two wins. Despite backup Nathan Peterman playing most of the game on Saturday against Akron, the Panthers aren't yet ready to declare him 'the guy.'
After the Akron game, head coach Pat Narduzzi said he wasn't sure which direction he'd go in naming a quarterback. He reiterated that during his weekly press conference with the media on Monday and said he would take some time to decide. Specifically, he was going to let things play out in practice this week and decide in a few days.
"We'll find out who has a better week at practice and we'll try to make a decision," Narduzzi said. "Everyone has good and bad days and this happens with quarterbacks, too. Neither one of them had that in the past two weeks but it's just whoever has the hot hand."
Narduzzi added, "We're going to wait until Thursday. We want to make sure we're sharp and detailed because this is important. There's no question that we'll wait until the end of practices this week. We do that with every position."
He later said, too, that he'd like to settle on one guy, FWIW.
My guess, as I said before, is that Peterman starts against Iowa. With him playing the bulk of the game against Akron and doing reasonably well, I just happen to think he's going to get the nod. Personally, I don't buy the whole 'we'll see in practice thing.' The coaches are likely going to make actual game performances more a part of their evaluation (as they should) and I have a hard time seeing them go to Chad Voytik this week to start when they sat him for the bulk of the game on Saturday. I would expect Voytik to get at least a couple of series and the team will see where it goes from there.
I would feel a lot more confident about this weekend's game if Pitt had settled on a quarterback by now. Instead of having one guy with two games under his belt, you've got two guys that have basically played only a full game a piece. And with the degree of difficulty ramping up this weekend, one has to wonder if the lack of reps (or even more in-game switching during the game) will affect whoever is back there.
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