Pitt offensive coordinator Kade Bell has been immersed in quarterback competitions as player, coach

If you believe the old dictum that if you have two quarterbacks you really have none, perhaps you think Pat Narduzzi is wrong to take his two-headed quarterback derby into the season.

After all, scrimmages are finished, experimentation is for training camp and game outcomes will matter starting Saturday when Pitt meets Kent State at Acrisure Stadium.

But for Pitt’s first-year offensive coordinator Kade Bell, these quarterback competitions are almost a way of life.

Bell was a four-year starting quarterback for his father, Kerwin, at Jacksonville University, from 2011-15. He began his career as a backup his redshirt freshman season, taking all the second-string reps in camp.

Then in the opener, he rotated every quarter with another quarterback. The rotation didn’t last long.

“I ended up playing the best, and I ended up being the starter the next week and ended up playing really well,” he said Wednesday after the second day of preparing Nate Yarnell and Eli Holstein to start Saturday.

The following year, Bell faced more competition and an appendectomy.

“I missed three or four games, and I had the backup come in, who was a transfer who lit it up for a game,” he said. “I got a chance to come back and played really well and had a good year.”

Bell retained the job for the rest of his time at Jacksonville and finished his career throwing for 9,613 yards.

“You’re always competing,” said Bell, happily pronouncing the words.

When Bell was coaching with his father at Valdosta (Ga.) State in 2018 and later in 2023 at Western Carolina, two quarterbacks were competing at the outset of each camp.

In ’18, one of the quarterbacks, Roland Rivers III, ended up transferring to Slippery Rock and winning the Harlon Hill Trophy (the Division II Heisman) the following season. Valdosta did OK, too. The Blazers finished 14-0 and won the national championship.

At the outset of the 2023 season at Western Carolina, two quarterbacks competed before Cole Gonzales eventually won the job and finished with an FCS-best 28 touchdown passes.

What does Bell’s past have to do with Yarnell’s and Holstein’s present and future?

The competition appears to have made Holstein, who was slowed by a hamstring injury this spring, into a better quarterback, Bell said.

“As a young guy (Holstein won’t turn 20 until seven games into the season), he’s very mature, and that’s because of Nate,” Bell said. “Nate’s a very mature guy. Nate’s a pro. If you want to compete for this job, you would have to attack every day like a coach, like a pro. That’s what caught (Holstein) up.”

Bell said the competition between the two continues every day at practice.

“They love to see the completion percentage (every day at practice),” he said. “I think that stuff matters. You have to keep up with who’s the most consistent. They’re both pros. They both are competitive, and they both want to play.”

Yarnell has “a good feel of the offense,” Bell said. “When he has a good pocket, he throws a nice ball. He can anticipate throws. You saw that last year.

“Eli is a guy who makes some plays. He also has a good feel for what’s going on and gets the ball out of his hands. Both of them mentally are really good. They’re starting to really understand what I want, where I want the ball to go, what the expectation is (when the defense blitzes or not).”

Football being the ultimate team game, both players must depend on the offensive line to provide a level playing field.

“To me, the difference is up front,” Bell said. “For us to be an explosive and very efficient offense where we’re standing in good down and distance on first and second down, we have to go control the line of scrimmage. We have to find ways to run the football with success, put our linemen in position where they do well.

“The pass rush, you’re playing some werewolves at this level. Protection-wise, we have to find a way to keep the quarterback clean. Me playing quarterback back in the day, when I got hit a lot, I didn’t play very good. When I didn’t get hit a lot, I played very well. If we can keep the quarterback clean and find ways to get the ball out of his hands quicker and not hold onto it and take hits, we’re going to play a lot better on offense.”

Yarnell and Holstein will split the workload Saturday, but first Bell and Narduzzi must sit down and identify the starter and how the rotation will work. Before that, there will be a third day of practice Thursday to, presumably, break the tie if the coaches haven’t already decided.

Meanwhile, Bell’s quarterback school will continue.

“I’m on them every day to be perfect. That’s my expectation,” he said. “Our expectation here is not to just be a good quarterback. It’s to be an all-conference quarterback. It’s to get drafted. I’m going to push them. I want them to be mentally tough.”