Given medical clearance by Pitt doctors, quarterback Eli Holstein will play Saturday against Louisville after a one-game absence.

This situation marks the second time in the past 3½ weeks Holstein has been cleared by doctors to play. He was injured in the Syracuse game Oct. 24, but played at SMU the next week.

That was the first of Holstein’s two head injuries. He did not play against Clemson on Nov. 16 after he was injured the week before against Virginia. Nate Yarnell responded by completing 34 of 54 passes for 350 yards in his first start of the season, a 24-20 loss to Clemson.

Coach Pat Narduzzi is hoping for better protection for his quarterback after Yarnell was sacked eight times last week.

Yarnell’s start against Clemson was the fourth of his four-year career at Pitt. He won two and lost two while completing 79 of 120 passes (65.8%) for 1,001 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. Overall for his career, he is 115 of 178 (64.6%) for 1,454 yards, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions.

Yarnell redshirted in 2021, but started one game the following year, a 34-13 victory at Western Michigan. He was third string last year before starting the final two games of a 3-9 season.

Pitt’s quarterback room is finally shaping up in the third season without Heisman Trophy finalist Kenny Pickett. Narduzzi plucked Holstein, a redshirt freshman, from the transfer portal — by way of Alabama — and recruited Yarnell, a redshirt junior, from Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas.

Holstein won a quarterback derby with Yarnell in summer camp, and he responded by throwing three touchdown passes in each of the first five games. His overall season totals are 2,177 aerial yards, 17 touchdowns and six interceptions.

But injuries to Holstein and others and overall offensive ineffectiveness have limited him to a total of two touchdown passes in his four most recent starts.

Pitt has lost three of its past five games, thanks in large part to penalties on offense and an inability to control the opposing pass rush.

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