Pitt’s Narduzzi still mum on starting QB vs Iowa

A 48-yard bomb on 3rd-and-crazy long.

Who’s your pick to win the game on Saturday? And on and on. Beathard is capable of making those types of plays. Pitt will be the biggest challenge Iowa’s rush defense has faced by far. The week before, Youngstown State had touchdowns of 27, 75, and 77 yards. Narduzzi remains in no hurry to settle on someone for the long-term, content to treat the quarterback situation like any other where two players are vying for one spot. Should the Hawkeyes and the Panthers be taken more seriously? Furthermore, the starting quarterback has not been named for Pitt. The Panthers plan to use both quarterbacks, Nathan Peterman and Chad Voytik, and clearly miss Conner.

His name is Tyler Boyd, and he’s rewriting Larry Fitzgerald’s receiving records at Pittsburgh. In one game he had as many receptions as the team did in their first game (when Boyd was suspended).

Iowa’s run defense has looked pretty stout this season and I believe they were in the top ten in terms of rushing yardage defense. While Pitt’s kicker has missed two field goals already this year, Koehn is 2-for-2 and made a 49-yarder look easy against the Cyclones. In fact, the starter for Saturday’s game at Iowa will be a “game-time decision”, according to Narduzzi. Iowa State didn’t even really try to run the ball very much and when they did it went poorly. But could this be the week that Desmond King starts to figure out kick returns too? He is a LOAD to bring down, but if the Hawkeyes stop him, they’ll win the game.

I think Peterman will get the nod as starter tomorrow night, and I hope he responds positively.

If I’m Kirk Ferentz, I see these next two weeks as meaningless exhibition games since I’m not a national title contender. The second half Saturday against the other ISU was more of the same. “They’re close. We have a tight-knit football team”.

Will Drew Ott play? “I’m not going to shut down a kid’s dream if he wants to go”. Iowa should have a chance to do the same against Pitt. Pitt is 2-0 yet hasn’t played a team of Iowa’s caliber.

“Obviously, we told our guys, ‘The preseason’s over, ‘ ” Narduzzi said.

The leading receiver for Iowa is Matt VandeBerg who has 15 catches for 173 yards and 2 touchdowns, so the Pitt secondary will need to be ready for the Beathard to VandeBerg connection. Because of an illness, that was the only game Mabin didn’t start last season. “But you know what, we’ve got four years of them and maybe they’ll change their mind after that, who knows?” Taking out all seven first downs by penalty, though, the D shoots up to 11th in the nation. “But he saw something I didn’t see”.

And while playing a Big Ten opponent in a raucous road environment should provide the Panthers with plenty of motivation, they also will have the revenge factor on their side for the third week in a row. But Ferentz threw a curveball in January, releasing a post-bowl game depth chart (the first time he had ever done that) that had Beathard atop the depth chart and Rudock as second-string.

Hawkeye columnist Rick Brown is a 10-time Iowa Sportswriter of the Year.