PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett told the PM Team on 93.7 The Fan on Wednesday he was caught off guard by Pitt offensive coordinator Mark Whipple leaving Tuesday for a job at Nebraska.
“Yeah it was surprising,” Pickett told 93.7 The Fan. “We talked about it. Everyone has their reasons. I can’t thank him enough for all of the things we’ve done together. I will have a very, very close relationship with Coach Whip the rest of my life.”
Did the timing off it catch Pickett off guard?
“Yeah, I would say so,” Pickett said with Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller. “We were so focused on winning the championship, it’s unbelievable when everyone is on the same page to go win something, do something special. Everyone’s focus was that. We were so focused. The talks of anything after that didn’t take place until after the game and things were kind of done.”
Peach Bowl
Will Pickett play a final game for the University of Pittsburgh December 30 in the Peach Bowl?
“I can’t give you an answer on that,” Pickett told the PM Team. “It’s something I have to sit down with Coach Narduzzi and my family and make the best decision I can. I can’t go too much farther than that, I really haven’t had a chance to sit down and breathe.”
Pickett admitted he said right after the ACC Championship that he would play in the bowl. Even before knowing which bowl or who they would play. Pickett said he got caught up in the moment.
“I never had any discussions about that decision,” Pickett told 93.7 The Fan. “You asked me 10 minutes after I walked off the field. That was just the answer at that time.”
Pickett said he will research this decision like he did the one to come back for a final year. He will seek outside opinions and then go back to the inner circle before deciding.
“I think a lot go into it,” Pickett said Wednesday. “I haven’t had that conversation yet. I trust the people that I trust. I will sit down with Coach Narduzzi and my family.”
Slide Fallout
“It’s actually crazy because everyone is freaking out about it,” Pickett told Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller. “I’m like the 50th guy to do it. It wasn’t preplanned, I don’t know how I would even think about doing it going into a game. It was just an instinct thing, I just saw them pulling up before I was going to slide. That’s the only way I would have had time to react to do that.”
“Maybe this bowl season we will see 100 guys fake-sliding all over the place.”
Pickett said no one from Wake Forest said anything to him about it during the game. The record-setting quarterback laughed when asked if they will call it the Kenny Pickett rule if they make a change based on that play.
“That would be cool”
Pickett is back home in New Jersey, an hour away from the Downtown Athletic Club where on Saturday, Pickett joins Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s CJ Stroud and Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson as finalists for the Heisman Trophy.
Regardless of the outcome, Pickett tells 93.7 The Fan they are having a huge party with family and friends afterwards in Manhattan.