Report: Pat Narduzzi names former Alabama transfer Eli Holstein as Pitt's starting quarterback

Former Alabama quarterback Eli Holstein has won the starting job at Pittsburgh, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Thamel reported that Holstein beat out veteran Nate Yarnell, who started the team’s final two games for Pittsburgh last season. Holstein will be making his first college appearance when the Panthers take on Kent State on Saturday.

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A former highly touted recruit, Eli Holstein transferred to the Panthers this offseason after spending one year with the Crimson Tide.

The No. 84 overall recruit in the 2023 cycle and a four-star prospect, Holstein did not see playing time in 2023 with the Crimson Tide. The true freshman quarterback was fifth on the depth chart and Alabama returned Jalen Milroe, Ty Simpson and Dylan Lonergan. He sought a different option elsewhere.

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The Panthers finished this past season 3-9, struggling at the quarterback position. Eli Holstein, if he’s as good as advertised, could certainly help improve that mark.

Jim Phillips boasts about strength of the ACC

The ACC has been mired in negative headlines this offseason thanks to ongoing litigation by Clemson and Florida State as the two programs seek a way out of the league’s Grant of Rights.

There’s been no shortage of speculation about what that means for the league. Of course, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips thinks those narratives are missing the bigger picture.

“We’ve never been stronger as a league,” Phillips said during an appearance on SportsCenter last week. “Again, if you take a look at results — when you take a look at the financial results, we distributed over $700 million, a record, to our institutions. We won more national championships over the last three years than any conference in the country. We have some of the elite academic institutions, again, across the United States and across the world. We have also been very innovative. We have a success initiative plan this year that will allow teams that do well in the league in the sports of football and basketball, to have additional dollars distributed to them, in an unequal fashion for the first time.

“I am totally bullish about the future of the ACC. We will work through these legal issues. But that can’t continue to be the narrative. It just can’t be. Because I think people are missing a really good story called, ‘ACC sports. ACC football and success that everyone’s having.”

Teams like Pittsburgh, now led by Eli Holstein, will have a chance to begin changing the narrative on the field starting on Thursday night.

On3’s Barkley Truax also contributed to this report.