Here’s the situation. No one is happy with Tino Sunseri as Pitt’s starting QB. The thought of a third year of brain locks. Of holding the ball too long. Of staring down receivers. Of not setting feet. Of not being able to make accurate throws of more than 10-15 yards down field. Well, no one wants that. Not the fans. Not the coaches. To quote a race of hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional beings, “The prospect of doing it all over again… quite frankly gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies, you know what I mean?”

Unfortunately, at the present the options on the roster are limited. That means Pitt needs another QB for 2012 who can play right away.

There’s incoming freshmen (and hopefully stud) QB Chad Voytik. There’s Trey Anderson. There’s Anthony Gonzalez. And possibly Mike Myers. In other words, Pitt needs another QB who can compete immediately for the starting QB job.

The belief is that Chad Voytik will be Pitt’s QB in another year, but as much as Coaches Todd Graham and Dodge seem to believe that, they are also rational enough to know you don’t place all your eggs in one place by putting all the pressure immediately on a freshman. Ideally, they would love to give him a redshirt year and bridge 2012 before really being ready to truly having him compete for the job.

This leaves two options for Pitt. Go JUCO or 5th year senior transfer.

The 5th year senior seems most appealing because it is truly a one-year deal. A fifth year senior transfer is a player at the 1-A level who has already graduated, but has one final season of eligibility remaining. A fifth year senior that is pursued has already shown that he is at least competent at this level, but is in search of more playing time or some other reason for a change. He can transfer immediately to another 1-A school without having to sit out the year as a normal transfer. The other conditions, though, are that he has to be released by his present school. The school he is transferring to, has to offer a course of study that he cannot pursue at his present school.

Someone like Dayne Crist is not likely to be a Pitt option because while he will graduate with a 5th year of eligibility this year, Notre Dame would have to release him to play at Pitt. Considering Pitt and ND will be playing each other in 2012, that doesn’t seem likely.

The other downside to the 5th year senior is that they cannot transfer — and direct contact is prohibited — until after they have finished their final semester in the spring and have graduated. So that means more twisting in the wind and waiting. That also means less time for them to learn the terminology and too much of the system. There’s no guarantee they will choose Pitt. And honestly, the odds of any program having a Russell Wilson level talent fall into their laps is, well, highly improbable.

The other option is the junior college route. The advantages are obvious. The signing period for JUCOs starts on December 21. They can be on the campus by the winter semester. Get into the program. Be there for spring practices and compete right away. There’s a lot more certainty about knowing whether you have the competition heading into the next year.

The risks, though, are substantial. There’s the ongoing concern of academic eligibility with any JUCO player. The big risk though is actually being able to handle the leap in competition. At the JUCO level, competition is uneven at best. You just can’t be sure what you are getting with the player — especially at the QB position. The QB spot is not one where you see a lot of JUCO players come in right away and play — let alone play well. Cam Newton is the obvious exception, but remember he went JUCO after having to leave Florida. Again, the odds of getting that kind of talent is not exactly commonplace.

And in both options, there’s no guarantees it works. They could be a bust. They could get hurt. Lots that can go wrong.

Nonetheless, at least for the moment, even with the risks for either route seems more palatable than not taking a chance. So, I’m going to try and start an infrequent series, that looks at some of the possibilities.