The saga of Tom Savage is cautionary, sad, bad luck, poorly thought. Pick your descriptor. Here was one of the best dropback, pocket passing QB recruits in the class of 2009. He chose Rutgers because their offense fit, it was close to home, the chance for early playing time, the whole “team on the rise,” situation and relationship with the coaches.

Well he certainly got in there right away. Immediately being the starter. Even had a nice first year for a true freshman. Yeah, he made mistakes, but he also set the Big East record for passing yards and touchdown for a freshman.

In 2010, the Rutgers O-line was a mess. A big hot flaming mess. They struggled to run the ball (barely 100 ypg), and they couldn’t protect the QB — 61 QB sacks that year. Savage took a beating and was sidelined with rib and wrist injuries. Chas Dodd was forced into action. The more mobile Dodd did better on the field and Savage not only did not return to the field the rest of the year, he saw Schiano name Dodd the starter for 2011. Seeing that, and having NFL aspirations, Savage transferred.

Now here’s where he needed to do a little more thinking about his future. While the Big East was out of the picture because of the prohibition on transferring within the conference, there were plenty of options for a tall, big armed, slightly immobile QB with experience. Instead he chose to go play for a coach with little fan support left, and firmly on the hot seat in Mike Stoops.

Arizona came out in 2011 and was a mess. Stoops was fired and Arizona hired DickRod — which meant the spread offense. Savage, who sat out 2011 under transfer rules, knew he would never have a chance in a spread offense opted to transfer once more. (Savage claims it wasn’t the spread, but being homesick that led to his second transfer.)

He appealed to the NCAA for a waiver that would allow him to return to Rutgers with immediate eligibility, but the NCAA rejected it.

Most people, including myself, figured he would go to 1-AA so he could get on the field right away rather than sit out another year. It has worked for plenty of other QBs who took that route to the NFL. Play two years at somewhere like Delaware and see if he can be the next Joe Flacco. Rather than drop down a notch, he surprised everyone by constantly saying he wanted to go to Pitt.

Sure enough, he enrolled and is now at Pitt. Once more, he will sit out a year. Only this time he only has one year left of eligibility by the time 2013 comes.

There is no guarantee that he will be the starter in 2013. No promises can be made to a QB who has not played in a game since early in 2010. Mark Myers will (presumably) still be around. Plus, Chad Voytik will be in the mix.

In addition, there is the outside chance that he could be prohibited from playing in 2013 if Pitt somehow still found themselves in the Big East. Remember those transfer restrictions for the Big East? They still apply. Savage is paying his own way this year to Pitt, which is how he got around the transfer restrictions while sitting out this year. (Hey, at least it’s in-state tuition for Savage.) If Pitt somehow failed to negotiate the settlement with the Big East and/or lost the lawsuit they filed to leave after this year for the ACC, Savage could be royally screwed.

Okay, that is a completely ridiculous scenario. Extremely improbable, but technically still possible.

The fact is Savage is not just betting on being the starter for Pitt in the ACC in 2013. He is betting on Coach Chryst (and QB Coach Brooks Bollinger) to be teaching him everything this year to springboard him for a big 2013 that gets him into the NFL Draft.

It’s a quite a gamble for Savage. One that doesn’t seem like the best odds, but he must really believe in Chryst. For Pitt and Chryst this is a low risk, big reward situation. Not just for what Savage might be able to do in 2013, but in a wider impact.

Chryst has the rep for the power offense. Not simply a strong running game and fundamental football, but scoring points and using the passing game aggressively. Even before Russell Wilson, the Wisconsin offense put up 41 and 32 ppg in 2010 and 2009. Those numbers with Scott Tolzien. With Wilson, the Wisconsin offense jumped a few more points. Chryst’s reputation rose on that. Not just because of Wilson’s play, but because he adapted to the player and modified the offense so quickly and seemingly easily.

(For the record, a case could be made that the bigger reason for the huge ppg jump in 2010 & 2011 more to do with a classic — and much derided by me — Wannstedtian principle of taking care of the ball as Wisconsin was +14 and +16 respectively in turnover differential in the past two years. In 2009 Wisconsin averaged only 28 fewer ypg than in 2010, but the turnover differential was only +3. That year they averaged nearly 10 points less than in 2010.)

Success with Savage would make Pitt that much more attractive to recruits and transfers at the QB spot. That would be two transfer QBs with very different skill sets to immediately succeed under Chryst. Success with Savage might even be bigger with recruiting, because it would be with a kid on his third program and multiple coaches.  That promise of immediate success — and knowing they would have the opportunity to win the starting job — would be enticing to any kid.