Report: Pitt Benching Starting QB Phil Jurkovec
PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers have reportedly made a major, surprising alteration to their starting lineup during the bye week.
With the Panthers mired in a 1-4 start and struggling offensively, they have decided to bench starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec, according to a report from Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and will start back up Christian Veilleux in their next game against No. 25 Louisville in Week 7.
What's more, Jurkovec has been demoted to the No. 3 quarterback on the depth chart behind redshirt sophomore Nate Yarnell, who will back up Veilleux moving forward.
Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said following the Panthers' 38-21 loss at Virginia Tech that he would consider changes to the offense, but had maintained that the struggles of the supporting cast around Jurkovec, particularly along the offensive line, have contributed to his poor play.
“I’m going to reevaluate where we are," Narduzzi said. "I see a lot of things we need to change on offense. We got nine first downs. It’s hard to win a football game when you have two explosive plays and that’s all we got. So we got to look at what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and fix it. That’s my job as a head coach to fix it. It doesn’t come down to one guy. It’s a team loss.”
Jurkovec has completed just over 50% of his passes this season for 818 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions. When he left the Panthers' Week 4 game against then-No. 17 North Carolina game early with an injury, Veilleux replaced him and completed seven of 18 passes for 85 yards and was picked off twice.
Pitt hosts Louisville in two weeks for Homecoming at Acrisure Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on The CW.
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