There are season openers, and then there are scouting problems disguised as season openers. Pitt football is getting the second kind on Saturday, because Miami (Ohio) quarterback David McComb has not thrown a pass in a college game — which means Pitt is preparing for a starter it cannot study in the usual way.
That changes the entire feel of the matchup at Acrisure Stadium. Pat Narduzzi said his staff has had to dig for scrimmage tape and whatever other film it can find, including material from Kansas, because there is no college game film to break down. That is a rare place for a defense to be in, especially in Week 1, when most of the uncertainty usually comes from your own roster rather than the opponent’s quarterback.
McComb’s path explains why the file is so thin. After one season at Kansas, he entered the transfer portal and landed at Miami (Ohio), where an incumbent quarterback in Thomas Gotkowski was in place before a non-contact season-ending injury changed the competition in the summer. Chuck Martin has said this week that he is trying not to put too much on McComb’s plate for his first college game, while also stressing that the quarterback understands the offense.
What Pitt knows — and what it does not
The challenge for Pitt is not that there is no information at all. It is that the most useful information is incomplete. Narduzzi described McComb as a good player who makes all the throws and can run, while also calling him a cerebral kid from what Pitt can gather. He also noted that Kansas was upset to lose him, which tells you enough to make the quarterback a legitimate concern, even if the film library is limited.
Cory Sanders added another layer to the picture, saying McComb has good speed, is very fast from A to B and shows arm talent throwing the ball down the field. That matters because it hints at the kind of dual-threat profile defenses must respect even when they do not have a full college sample to study. Pitt can see the traits. It just cannot see how they will show up on Saturday against its own structures and coverages.
That is why this opener is more complicated than a normal first game. Sanders said if a quarterback has not played, the staff goes back and watches high school tape and gathers whatever else it can find. Raion Strader put it simply: you look for formations, the system and scheme, then plan for that. In other words, Pitt is not preparing for one fixed quarterback so much as a profile of possibilities.
The scouting edge is limited, but the danger is real
The obvious temptation is to treat the lack of film as a built-in advantage for Pitt football. That would be too simple. If anything, the uncertainty makes the opener more volatile. A quarterback with no college game tape can still fit quickly into an offense, especially if the coaching staff is careful about what it asks him to do early. Martin’s comment about not putting too much on McComb’s plate suggests Miami (Ohio) understands that.
And that is the real tension in this game. Pitt is not just facing an unproven passer. It is facing a quarterback whose first college attempt will also be his first college pass, which means the Panthers have to prepare for a player whose ceiling is visible but whose in-game habits are not. That is not a normal evaluation problem. It is a genuine football problem.
So while the broader story of Pitt football’s opener is about getting the season started, the immediate tactical story is about uncertainty. The Panthers have enough tape to know McComb is talented, mobile and capable of throwing the ball down the field. They do not have enough tape to know how he will react when the game actually starts to move. On Saturday, that may be the most important unknown in the building.
