PITTSBURGH (AP) — Kade Bell's first spring as Pittsburgh's offensive coordinator was chaotic. And crowded. Way too crowded.
The Panthers had more than a half-dozen quarterbacks on the roster this time last year, far too many to get any real sense of who could do what and who could be what.
“How (was) I supposed to get everybody reps ... and then try and develop them (at the same time)," Bell said.
Things are far calmer now. Eli Holstein emerged from the masses to eventually become the starter and was putting together one of the finest freshman seasons in recent memory before injuries set in as the Panthers saw a 7-0 start fade to a 7-6 finish.
Holstein is healthy now, and there's a little more space in Pitt's quarterback room, which now just consists of Holstein, Julian Duggar (who started the Panthers' bowl game loss in place of Holstein), David Lynch and Mason Heintschel heading into Saturday's annual Blue-Gold spring game.
The upshot is that Bell had a chance to teach more this time around rather than focus on getting everyone's name right, as was the case a year ago. Bell estimates Holstein and company have thrown 900 passes over the last month, plenty of opportunities for them to learn, Bell to guide, and confidence to build.
Holstein certainly sounds eager to get moving after being forced to sit out bowl prep while he recovered from a leg injury. Bell made it a point to praise Holstein for the way he remained mentally engaged even as he rehabbed. The proof that Holstein has been listening comes during meetings, when Holstein sometimes knows the questions before Bell even asks.
“As a QB, when you can answer the questions before the OC tells you something, we’re going to be in a lot better situation,” Bell said.
Bell's up-tempo attack requires quarterbacks to think and move quickly. Holstein still wants to be a threat with his legs, even though he took a fair number of shots last season playing behind a line that at times had trouble protecting him.
While Bell doesn't have a problem with that, he's also just fine if Holstein takes the snap, makes the right read and gets rid of it to a group of playmakers that Bell believes could be better than what the Panthers had a year ago. Outside of running back Desmond Reid and the occasional big play from wide receiver Konata Mumpfield, there weren't a lot of big plays to go around.
“Last year, it felt like we only had 4-5 guys that could play that we trusted,” Bell said. “This year I think we’re going to be in the 7-8 range. ... The goal is to stretch the defense vertically as opposed to 13-play drives.”
Holstein needed to beat out Nate Yarnell to win the starting job last summer, a decision that wasn't made official until the start of the season. There are no questions this time around, making Holstein more comfortable trying to be a leader, though he noted getting people in line has rarely been a problem.
It wasn't uncommon during Holstein's childhood for his father, Scott, a strength and conditioning coach, to ask his preteen-aged son to go tell much bigger, much older college athletes where to go and what to do. All that practice has paid off.
“I’ve had the guys (here) tell me, ‘Hey, I need you to be on me this year,’” Holstein said. “And I told them, 'I’m going to be honest with you, but you’re not going to like me sometimes.”
Holstein isn't interested in winning any popularity contests. He wants to prove that the Panthers are much closer to the team that ripped off seven straight wins to start 2024 than the one that limped to the finish.
It seems that Holstein is in for the long(er) haul. The Alabama transfer insists he enjoys Pittsburgh, and after Bell signed a three-year contract extension during the offseason, Holstein jokingly told Bell he thinks he deserves one too.
“I respect (Bell) a lot,” Holstein said. “He respects me a lot. It’s another guy that I can talk to about stuff other than football. We have a really close relationship now, which I’m really, really grateful for. Now we’re able to go out there and make a lot of plays. I’m excited for it.”
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
FILE - Pittsburgh quarterback Eli Holstein (10) looks to throw during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Virginia Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed, File)
A tense calm hangs over Venezuela after the U.S. military operation that deposed President Nicolás Maduro, who was brought to New York to face criminal charges.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. would “run” the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.
Maduro and his wife landed late Saturday afternoon at a small airport in New York. The couple face U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.
The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on Venezuela’s autocratic leader and months of secret planning, resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Legal experts raised questions about the lawfulness of the operation, which was done without congressional approval. Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, demanded that the United States free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader as her nation’s high court named her interim president.
Here's the latest:
Associated Press video on Sunday shows a banner now on display in Iran’s capital warning the United States and Israel that their soldiers could be killed if they take action in the country.
Trump’s recent comment that the U.S. “will come to their rescue” if Iran kills peaceful protesters has taken on a new meaning after the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the “illegal U.S. attack against Venezuela.” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said adversaries of the U.S. should note that “America can project our will anywhere, anytime.”
From California to Missouri and Texas, protestors are planning demonstrations Sunday and through the week against President Donald Trump’s military operation and capture of Maduro, which one protest description called “the illegal, unconstitutional invasion of Venezuela.”
Dozens appear to be organized by chapters of Indivisible, a left-leaning group, and many take umbrage with Trump’s plans to take control of Venezuela’s oil industry and ask American companies to revitalize it.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa who serves as Senate president pro tempore, posted on X Saturday that Maduro is a narco-terrorist and his drug trafficking resulted in the deaths of too many Americans. He likened the Trump operation to then-President George Bush’s decision in 1989 to capture Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega following his indictment for drug trafficking.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat and one of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics, posted that U.S. military action in Venezuela is unconstitutional and is putting troops in harm’s way with no long-term strategy. “The American people deserve a President focused on making their lives more affordable,” Pritzker wrote.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, posted a statement on X calling the strikes illegal and criticizing Trump for taking action without congressional approval. “The President does not have the unilateral authority to invade foreign countries, oust their governments, and seize their resources,” she wrote.
France’s foreign minister says the departure of President Nicolás Maduro “is good news for the Venezuelans” and called for a peaceful and democratic transition of power.
Jean-Noël Barrot said “Maduro was an unscrupulous dictator who confiscated Venezuelans’ freedom and stole their elections.”
“Then, yes, we pointed out that the method used infringes the principles of international law,” Barrot said about the U.S. military operation on France 2 national television.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, called Maduro “a horrible, horrible person” but added, “You don’t treat lawlessness with other lawlessness. And that’s what’s happened.”
“We have learned through the years that, when America tries to regime change and nation-building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and results,” Schumer told ABC’s “This Week.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says President Donald Trump’s conversations with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez now are ”very matter-of-fact and very clear: You can lead or you can get out of the way, because we’re not going to allow you to continue to subvert American influence and our need to have a free country like Venezuela to work with rather than to have dictators in place who perpetuate crimes and drug trafficking.”
Noem tells “Fox News Sunday” that the United States wants a leader in Venezuela who will be “a partner that understands that we’re going to protect America” when it comes to stopping drug trafficking and “terrorists from coming into our country.”
She says that “we’re looking for a leader that will stand up beside us and embrace those freedoms and liberties for the Venezuelan people but also ensure that they’re not perpetuating crimes around the globe like they’ve had in the past.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to back off Trump’s assertions that the U.S. was running Venezuela, insisting instead that Washington will use control of the South American country’s oil industry to force policy changes and, “We expect that it’s going to lead to results here.”
“We’re hopeful, hopeful, that it does positive results for the people for Venezuela,” Rubio told ABC’s “This Week.” “But, ultimately, most importantly, in the national interest of the United States.”
Asked about Trump suggesting that Rubio would be among the U.S. officials helping to run Venezuela, Rubio offered no details but said, “I’m obviously very intricately involved in the policy” going forward.
He said of Venezuela’s interim leader: “We don’t believe this regime in place is legitimate” because the country never held free and fair elections.
Venezuela’s capital Caracas was unusually quiet Sunday with few vehicles moving around. Convenience stores, gas stations and other businesses were mostly closed.
The presence of police and members of the military across the city was notable for its smaller size compared with an average day and even more so with the days when people protested against Maduro’s government in previous years.
Meanwhile, soldiers attempted to clear an area of an air base that had been on fire along with at least three passenger buses following Saturday’s U.S. attack.
The Brooklyn jail holding Nicolás Maduro is a facility so troubled that some judges have refused to send people there even as it has housed such famous inmates as music stars R. Kelly and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Opened in the early 1990s, the Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC Brooklyn, currently houses about 1,300 inmates.
It’s the routine landing spot for people awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, holding alleged gangsters and drug traffickers alongside some people accused of white collar crimes.
Maduro is not the first president of a country to be locked up there.
Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, was imprisoned at MDC Brooklyn while he was on trial for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the U.S. Hernández was pardoned and freed by President Donald Trump in December.
▶ Read more about MDC Brooklyn
Residents look at a damaged apartment complex that neighbors say was hit during U.S. strikes to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A soldier stands atop an armored vehicle driving toward Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Shoppers line up at a supermarket in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
