As announced on the Miami football pregame show Pittsburgh will be without four-year starting quarterback Kenny Pickett Saturday.
The Miami football team will play Pittsburgh with four-year Panthers starting quarterback Kenny Pickett out with an ankle injury. Pickett did not make the trip to Miami according to Alex Donno on the Miami pregame show on WQAM. Pickett was injured last week in a 31-30 Pittsburgh loss to Boston College.
Donno reported that Joey Yellen a former Arizona State QB is expected to start in place of Pickett. Yellen is 2-3 for 19 yards in 2020. All of those attempts came in the season-opening 55-0 Pittsburgh victory over Austin Peay. Beville’s other attempt was against NC State. Yellen started one game for Arizona State in 2019.
Yellen was 28-44 for 292 yards with four TDs and an interception starting for the Sun Devils in a 31-26 loss to USC. Miami WR coach Rob Likens was the offensive coordinator for ASU in 2018-19 and their WR coach from 2017-19. Yellen will not put the same pressure on the Miami defense that Pickett would have.
Pickett pushes the ball down the field with the verticle passing game and is an adept runner. Yellen is more of a pure pro-style QB. With Yellen playing expect Miami to bring a lot of pressure. The Miami football team is 16th nationally this season with 11 sacks in four games. Three Hurricanes are tied for the team lead in sacks.
Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Jared Harrison-Hunte, redshirt senior linebacker Zach McCloud and graduate transfer defensive end Quincy Roche each have two sacks. Roche and Jaelan Phillips have pressured the QB this season, but not as many sacks have followed.
Phillips has nine tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, one sack, one interception and two pass breakups this season. Roche has 14 tackles, 5.5 TFLs and two sacks. Yellen has only three carries in two career games for a loss of 18 yards. Those came on sacks. If the Hurricanes can pressure Yellen they can make it a long afternoon for Pittsburgh.