Mueller: Narduzzi's faith in Jurkovec puts Pitt's season on the brink

Success as a head coach at the highest level of college football requires a plethora of qualities. Most of them have a positive connotation: focus, passion, resilience, creativity, and drive are just a few. There are countless others. There are also a handful of required personality traits that aren’t typically desirable in everyday life. Stubbornness is one.

Pat Narduzzi is a stubborn man. That stubbornness has no doubt served him well on many occasions.

Right now, though, it’s threatening to destroy Pitt’s season before it really gets started.

Pitt’s 17-6 loss to West Virginia in this year’s Backyard Brawl wasn’t just an ugly football game, it was one that featured some of the worst quarterback play I’ve ever seen in college or the pros, and I say that as someone who just watched Kenny Pickett against the 49ers.

Phil Jurkovec’s encore for perhaps the most unimpressive three-touchdown performance in history was to complete eight passes, throw three interceptions, all of them putrid, and cause the small contingent of Pitt fans who made the 75-mile drive south to boo him as the game hit its waning minutes.

I would imagine West Virginia fans were inclined to cheer for Jurkovec. He was one of the Mountaineers’ best weapons all night.

West Virginia corner Beanie Bishop, who had a 40-yard interception return, said of Jurkovec, “I mean, we knew coming into the game, too, that their quarterback, he wasn’t that good at his job, or whatever.”

Think about that quote. I’m certain that players think – or know – that players on the opposing team aren’t good. I’m sure they think it before the game, and think it after the game. Rarely do they say it out loud.

Bishop does have the truth on his side, though. Jurkovec is horrible right now. I can’t imagine a player inspiring less confidence. If something good happens in the passing game for Pitt, it feels accidental. Whatever chemistry and familiarity he was supposed to have with offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti is nonexistent.

Jurkovec made headlines for all the wrong reasons after the Cincinnati loss – by the way, the Bearcats lost to Miami (Ohio) on Saturday – by calling out home fans for booing during the game. It was a tone-deaf performance at the podium by a man who will turn 24 in just over a month, and therefore should be more experienced and poised in such settings. He was not made available to the media Saturday night. Presumably, Pitt was trying to protect him off the field the way the offensive game plan tried to protect – maybe hide is the better word – him on it.

All this brings us back to Narduzzi. He alone has the power to switch quarterbacks, to give Christian Veilleux a chance. He seems completely uninterested in doing so.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in Christian, got a lot of confidence in Nate Yarnell as well,” Narduzzi said when asked after the game about his backups. “But you guys are fast to want to pull the plug on somebody, and that’s not how we do it. I’m a positive guy, I try to stay positive.

“It’s never one person. I know you guys want to point the finger at one person. It’s not,” Narduzzi said. “We all had a part in it, and it starts with the game plan, and we’ll get it right.”

Narduzzi might not want to give up on Jurkovec, but what kind of message does that send to the rest of the team? Jurkovec’s body language looks terrible, and every time one of his teammates speaks up to say what a good leader he is and how much belief the team has in him, it seems like they’re trying to speak it into existence.

Narduzzi kept speaking about how he would have a better handle on things once he and his staff watched the game tape. I don’t know how anyone could come away from it with a conclusion other than, “we need to make a switch at quarterback.”

At this point, Narduzzi shouldn’t be worried about alienating Jurkovec or hurting his feelings, or sending a bad message to other potential transfers. He should be worried about sending a bad message to Veilleux, and losing the rest of his team in the process.

As long as Pitt’s passing game looks like this, they won’t win more than one or two games the rest of the season. Their defense should be good enough to keep some games close, but the roof tends to cave in when your offense is unproductive and one-dimensional. More three-and-outs leads to more time on the field for the defense, which leads to tired players and reduced effectiveness. This isn’t hard to figure out.

At least, it isn’t hard to figure out for just about everyone watching Pitt. Pat Narduzzi must need more convincing. Phil Jurkovec is his guy, and unless there’s a dramatic mid-week change, he’s going to stubbornly stick with him, even if it costs Pitt their season.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Mueller: Narduzzi's faith in Jurkovec puts Pitt's season on the brink