(Note: For some time I’ve been wanting to do a separate piece on Chad Voytik, his recruitment and what he was like in the camps and practices leading up to his winning the starting job. This is that article and I’ll remind readers that if what I write isn’t a solid fact like a statistic or a direct quote then it is my opinion. That said, here are Voytik’s current statistics: He has started all four games and has a 3-1 record; He’s passed 48 completions in 79 attempts (60.8%) for 534 total yards and 133.5 ypg along with 5 TDs & 3 INTs for a 130.83 QB efficiency rating.)
Now is the time, with four games into the 2014 regular season behind us, that we should take a minute to review the question marks we had going into this year and we all felt that QB play was the biggest of those. Let’s look at the background and history that brought Voytik to his starting position at PITT and while we do that let’s also remember that Voytik has been in the program for over two years and is a first year starter at QB.
After attending some of the 2012 spring practices, and watching Voytik in practices and scrimmages since then, I’ve paid close attention to his play and skills because it wasn’t too hard to figure out that he would be our starting QB sooner or later. Sunseri was going into his last season at PITT back in ’12 and we had Trey Anderson as the only other valid QB on the roster for ’13. Tom Savage wasn’t on PITT’s radar screen yet so the field was open for Voytik to fleet to being a rsFR starter in ‘13.
When watching Voytik in passing drills at that first camp I had to step back and review exactly how the recruiting gurus evaluated him coming out of HS in Tennessee. We all remember that he was highly ranked by Rivals.com as the #4 QB nationally and that he attended the “ESPN RISE Elite 11” camp for QBs which is a real mark of honor. Rivals also had him rated at 59 quality points which is only two points away from being a “Franchise Player” and a 5*s.
ESPN had him a 4*s and 9th nationally, Scouts.com also had him a 4*s and ranked 12th, and only 247 sports.com had Voytik as a 3* and ranked a lower 28th. So, three out of four recruiting services were highly impressed not only with Voytik’s play in HS but also with his potential in the college ranks. The other recruiting service seemed to have a better handle on things. That potential, or the expected impact they will make in college is what the recruiting sites say is the basis of awarding their stars but I find that too crystal ball-like and don’t believe it – they basically look at what the kid did in HS and slap down numbers.
Most of those good recruiting reviews revolved around a decent senior year Voytik complied at Cleveland HS when he threw for 1850 yards and 17 TDs while also rushing for 439 yards and seven TDs. Those are pretty impressive numbers all around and helped him to be recruited by seven other D1 schools in addition to his eventually commitment to PITT.
So it is important to see what was actually said and written about him by the recruiting sites during his senior year. First of all, he is mostly listed as a “Pro-style” passer which he really hadn’t been in HS but who’s splitting hairs. Some other descriptors were (emphasis mine):
“He gets rid of the ball quickly, he throws with very good accuracy, and he spins the ball well. He is a true consistent passer.”
“The strong-armed signal caller with the quick feet and ability to read a secondary completed 121 of 211 passes for 1,850 yards, 17 touchdowns and had five interceptions in an injury-shortened season in 2010. “
“He shows a strong, accurate arm, a quick release, he sets up well, and is proving to be a quick and athletic signal-caller,” Lemming said when Voytik was courted by Pitt in 2011.
“He does a good job of escaping the pocket once it collapses, keeps his eyes downfield, does a very good job of finding open receivers, and throws a nice, catchable ball, but also shows the arm strength to throw the deep out with authority. He has a smooth delivery and clean arm action.”
We’ll address those positive thoughts and see if they hold true now a bit later on, but even with those good reviews it was evident after watching Voytik’s work in camp that our QB position would be woefully inadequate if the staff were forced to trot Voytik out as a rsFR starter in 2013. We needed immediate help at the position and that’s when, in June of 2012, Chryst and Tom Savage agreed that Savage would transfer into the program and be the 2013 starter.
That was a crucial and successful move and it kept us from tanking as a team, and maybe even somewhat as a program, during that ’13 season and in my opinion we dodged a huge bullet by making good administrative decisions. Fast forward to the present and we see that some of those flattering recruiting observations were valid and some, even if they were true while he was playing against HS competition, are not happening for him yet in a PITT uniform.
While all the observations about his mobility and his running game in HS are true and have been of real benefit to him and the team this year, you have to look at certain aspects of his passing game and wonder what they saw then that we aren’t seeing now. The highlighted phrases in those quoted descriptions are the real head scratchers because we aren’t seeing those passing strengths in action now and really haven’t, in any venue, since he came to PITT.
One of the biggest disconnects Voytik is having is trying to adjust to actually being groomed as a ‘pro-style’ QB as required by Paul Chryst’s offensive plans. It is evident that under pressure Voytik will habitually default to rolling out or scrambling rather than stay in the developing pocket his offensive line is creating for him. This was obvious over our first three games but was a bit better in this last game against Iowa. He still needs to get to a higher level of trust in his OL so that he can calm down, step up into the pocket, let the pass rush slide around behind him and then make his throw… which leads us to his second problem.
When Voytik gets to the point where he can do the above naturally and buy himself that extra second or two in the pocket, he should then be able to run through his play call ‘progression reads’ and quickly see the receivers’ coverage status downfield. Right now Voytik has a real problem with locking into his 1st progression receiver, which is almost always our star WR Tyler Boyd as his security blanket, and that naturally draws other defenders into the play. Voytik has to force himself to release Boyd from consideration quickly if he’s not open and get to the other receivers downfield. That is a key element in good QB play and he’s not done it consistently yet. This isn’t a case of rookie jitters out there either as he’s settling in pretty well under center, he’s calmer now and he’s staying in the pocket more from game to game.
When that lock-in happens Voytik has already spent so much of his short decision making time that he can’t get his eyes on the other receivers in his progression. We have seen wide open receivers, guys other than Boyd, who are being missed on a regular basis because of this tendency. Chryst has publically mentioned that our TEs are not being used the way the offensive game plan has them incorporated. As it stands our TEs have a total of five catches in four games which is due to Voytik not being able to get his head around to them.
(The) tight ends had no catches against Iowa, but J.P. Holtz was open in the Iowa secondary at one point. The ball didn’t get to him. “We want to get everyone involved,” Chryst said. “I’m no stranger to (throwing to the tight end).” (Note: that quote is a bit ironic in itself as we haven’t used PITT’s TEs like he did at Wisconsin at all.)
Other key issue the recruiting services focussed on were his great arm strength and accuracy, which hasn’t shown itself for the most part. The longest pass in his career so far was a deep ball to Boyd down the right side for a TD against Bowling Green in ’13. That was all well and good and the pass covered a nice 54 yards in the air, but if you look at how he had to take a running start at the end of a rollout to launch that pass it does make you wonder. You get the feeling he could never throw the ball that far while set in the pocket.
We all knew he wasn’t going to have a Savage-like arm but watching him in the preseason I was hesitant to think we were going to see many deep completions at all from him and so far that has been the case. His only one of this current season is the 41 yarder to Boyd against BC and that pass covered 42 yards in the air. Four and a half games under his belt and he has two completions over 40 yards. We have to get better than that from him as the run game starts to get jammed up.
However, there is a realistic skepticism of his overall arm strength to execute those bigger plays, and his not having that ability wastes Boyd’s major strength. It isn’t just the deep balls either but a lot of his intermediate passes are getting to the receivers later than they should. We are seeing receivers having to either go down to the ground for the pass or stutter-stop to make the reception as the DB closes in.
On the flip side, two fantastic aspects of Voytik’s play is his good short passing while rolling out and his scrambling ability, or having his number called, to get big yardage on the ground. That ability can win us games down the road and greatly helped us carry the days against BC and FIU. Whatever tweaks will be done to the game planning have to take that strength into serious consideration also.
An important thing to consider here is that this coaching staff honestly can’t be surprised that our passing game is at the level it is because Voytik is passing with the same skill level as he was in the past years’ camps. We saw what happened in 2011 when Todd Graham tried and failed to change Sunseri into a type of QB that he couldn’t be and the issue for this staff with Voytik is not to replicate that mistake. If Chryst truly believes that Voytik can change his playing style and progress to become that Pro-style pocket passer Chryst wants, then that’s fine – if it is feasible. If it isn’t then the Head Coach needs to re-evaluate his own plans and act accordingly.
So what do we have at this point? I believe Voytik is a smart, young, ‘gamer’ QB who will be able to understand what he can and can’t do and allow the coaches to incorporate his strengths into their offensive game plans. I think he’s intelligent and mature enough to do that. However, this isn’t on the coaching staff alone although they do need to get on the ball with it. They can game plan until kingdom come but they don’t take the snaps. Right now they are purposefully rushing the ball way more than passing it and, in the long run, that’s no way to run a train.
I think Voytik is very gifted in some ways and has the ability to learn on the fly. He’ll begin to realize that there must be a better way than trying to force the ball to Boyd at the expense of other receivers and also to understand that the pocket is there to give you better decision making time – when he gets those aspects of the game down I think he’ll start to grow into a competent or perhaps even a good D1 QB and the passing game will be a strength more than a liability soon.
The question is how long that learning curve will be and if our opponents are seeing the same things we are. If so, which of course they are, they will scheme to force his hand during the games and totally unbalance our offense. If he learns and adapts sooner rather than later then we’ll have a solid passing game along with that monster running game and thus keep defenses from overloading one or the other.
Bottom line? PITT fans always want immediate gratification from our QBs but in Voytik’s case it will be more of a waiting game with incremental improvements in his play. Then he’ll settle in to be able to really help win games with his passing instead of it just being a second thought in the offense.
Great piece. One thought on the lack of TE usage beyond simply not making the reads.
Voytik has struggled with accuracy passing in the middle of the field. He is very mindful of making mistakes and turnovers. I can’t help but wonder if some of the lack of going to the TEs has to do with not wanting to risk too many passes in area because interceptions have a greater chance of happening. All three of his interceptions have been passes that sailed going over the middle.
Most of his passes tend toward sidelines where the boundary helps to minimize risk. This favors the wide receivers — especially Boyd. Or the short pass to a RB in the flat.
I though one of HCPC strengths was to take qb’s and work with the ability he had??
I am however going to offer the counter-narrative, not because I think you’re wrong but for the sake of eliciting further opinion.
Chad Voytik is going to show a dramatic improvement in year 2 as a starter. He is somewhat stunted this year because of the conflict between his natural style and our offense, but he has only played in 4.5 college games and in his most recent, which was the first time he got to throw more than 25 times he passed for 250 yards and completed 60%+.
I would also add this: he has shown glimpses of genuine elite talent. The 2 minute drill at the end of the second quarter at BC was beautiful. The pass to Spoon on the roll out to the left in the Iowa game at the end of the second was amazing. I am not sure he’ll have an impressive year this year, but when you look at what he’s done so far, I bet he passes for 2000 yards, runs for 600, and leads us to the most wins in 5 years. Next year it’ll be 3000 passing and 1,000 running.
I am not always sold, and I will complain a lot going forward. But I see Taysom Hill in Chad Voytik and I think he may turn out to be that near-5 star recruit by his senior year.
I don’t think the long passing game is going to be a big part of our offense, at least this year, and that’s too bad as it is Boyd’s bread and butter play. We’ll see but his arm strength isn’t what was advertised when he came into the program IMO.
As can be seen already, Chryst is recruiting his pro style quarterbacks. We have one red-shirting now and will have another one available for spring practice. If Voytik does not develop as most of us hope he will, he is going to be, at the most, only be our quarterback this year. I personally wish the best for him and hope that we all bear with him. It is unfortunate that Sunseri did not have the benefit of studying under Chryst as he would have fit his system well. While we are at it, just imagine how well Savage would be doing if he was entering his senior year this year with one year of playing experience under Chryst and a much improved offensive line.
I guess the reason for this article is that when I was filing my ‘camp reports’ and discussing what I saw with Voytik I got a lot of pushback and questions like “Why do you hate Voytik” etc…
That hasn’t ever been the case – I’ve liked him as a young man very much especially since the hard work he did in keeping his recruiting class together after Graham’s Midnight Ramble.
What I was trying to do then, and since the fall camp this year is try to manage fan’s expectations on what kind of a QB he’d be for us. Lots of college fans get too wrapped around the wheel when it comes to recruiting grades and stars – witness our past experience with Mark Myers for instance – and then when the reality of the player’s abilities hits they automatically think he’s a bust.
I really didn’t want the tide to turn against Voytik in his first year so I tried to get across in my articles that he isn’t the star QB people thought he was going to be as soon as he became the starter.
I really do think he can do well for us down the road and we may be seeing his game-to-game progress quickly accelerate now that he, and the staff, have a grasp of what he can and can’t do.
Will he be a star this year – no, not in my mind. Over the next two years? Personally I think that is a reach but he may easily become the type of QB we appreciate playing for our team.
As an aside: I took a $100 bet from a friend who thinks that Voytik will better better Sunseri’s 2012 STATS (stats only !!) in five passing areas: Total Yards, Completion %, TD, INTs and QB rating – 3 out of 5 areas wins the bet. I think I’ve got an excellent shot at it but will be very glad if I lose.
Thank you for such a well thought out and informative article. Fantastic!!! It is also spot on, keep up the great work young man.
Pittman4ever
PS “young” is a relative term. :>)
Keith – what Chryst & staff have done so far with Voytik since he first came to PITT is remarkable in my mind. As I said in the article when I first saw Voytik in practices and running the 2nd string offenses back in 2012 I was surprised at how poor a QB he was, and those sentiments were echoed by a few other observers. Actually, I deleted some negative adjectives from that part of the article as I thought it would be like piling on.
He’s way better a QB now than he was then and as we are seeing he’s getting a little bit better every week, at least so far, and I attribute that to Chryst’s coaching him in the weeks between games.
Let’s remember that once our old QB Coach Brooks Bollinger, who was an excellent QB coach and did wonders with both Sunseri and Savage to get their best years out of them, left the program Chryst took over the QB coaching position. But the truth is that Chryst, being a college QB once himself, was intimately involved in Voytik’s learning process.
This is why when fans just assume Chryst short armed it in selecting an original staff I try to remind them that Bollinger was a real diamond in the rough for us. Both Sunseri and Savage played way better for us than anyone, media included, thought they would. I watched Bollinger with Savage in practices and he was going back as far as teaching Savage the fundamentals of throwing the ball. That might be hard to believe but it’s true. That’s why Savage’s completion % jumped from a 52.0% pre-PITT to 61.5% in his one year with us. That is a huge increase in what I think is one of the most important QB stats.
I look upon what you have written here about Voytik as fair and balanced reporting. Furthermore, I think what you wrote about his performance in your article about the Iowa game was essentially postive. So you come no where near the bombastic and negative commentary of Chris Dokish, who, in his evaluation of Voytik’s Iowa performance, said that if Voytik doesn’t improve, he will be replaced by Adam Bertke next year. In contrast to this, your reporting approach and style are greatly appreciated.
Think Sunseri against WVU in 2010 when he fumbled a few times, got himself sacked a few times and made horrendous decisions with the ball and we lost by a big score. If Voytik starts playing like that – which he certainly isn’t now – then maybe I could see a change but I’d bet a dollar right now Voytik’s the starter in ’15.
His other stuff has become increasingly negative over the years IMO and he seems to enjoy finding small faults and magnifying them. But again, he’s pretty knowledgeable about local football.
Great write up. I have to admit I doubted your original evaluations of Voytik during camp. After seeing him in person I totally agree.
The high star rankings are a joke. There never was or will be a strong arm on the kid. Doesn’t mean he still can’t be a good QB.
Not sure how you can tell he is locking onto his first read unless you know the play book. Too many factors go into it like the defensive alignment, personnel in the game, etc. Nevermind…I have learned not to doubt you, LOL.
Ideally, I think Chad should operate from the shotgun with a run-pass option. I think Rudolph and Chryst are trying to find out if they can mold Chad into the type of Qb to run their preferred pro style offense. Hopefully they will eventually use a combination of the two offensive types.
I agree with your positive observations about Dokish’s reporting about recruiting for the most part. He is certainly knowledgeable and informative about players, their skills, and which schools are recruiting them. But when he talks about this or that player being a “must get” and then blasting the coaches if such a player goes elsewhere or when he gets on his ongoing hobby horse about the recruiting deficiencies of Chryst and his staff, he is back into the bombastic and negative, which really gets tiresome.
When you watch Voytik’s head stay on one receiver waiting for that guy to get open and see other WRs & TEs running free elsewhere then you can assume he’s locking in. At least I think so.
I think we have a two-edged sword here as others have stated. First we have a fantastic receiver in Boyd who needs to get the ball in his hands for us to win games. Second, we have a fantastic receiver in Boyd who our QB knows and trusts to the exclusion of all others.
This isn’t every play of course and you are 100% correct when you state that the playbook might just have Boyd as the only viable receiver, deep patterns for instance where the intent is to get Boyd the ball way downfield. There also may be other calls for just the TE or a quick slant, wheel route, etc where there is a primary only. Plus when you have Chryst and others mentioning it you can be sure it is happening.
But it is evident that for the majority of passing pays Voytik has options and whether through inexperience or whatever he’s not using them.
As to his arm – I don’t think we’ll see 2-3 deep completions a game at all but more like deep for a change of pace.
As I said, I personally think it is inexperience and he’ll get better ‘as the game slows down’ for him as they say.
It looks like Conner’s early season success has been detrimental to the development of a balanced attack.
Let’s not forget that CV has now started 4 college games in hie career, even Savage had a year experience before starting last year.
Iowa was his first loss, although a couple of better passes from him would have won the game, the loss was a team effort caused mostly by the inability to run the ball when it mattered most and the defenses inability to stop Iowa in the second half.
My criticism is not of the current players who chose Pitt, it is of the coaches inability to get more of them and yes a few 4’s and 5’s.
I’d also take exception to your opinion that Voytik has yet to be classified as a “competent” D1 QB. My argument is based on the fact that Iowa forced Pitt’s hand to have the QB generate offensive production when they limited Pitt’s ground attack to mere mortal numbers. Even without the “perfect” TD pass to Witherspoon that Spoon squandered due to poor footwork when he stepped on the end line during his catch, Voytik’s stats for that game were “competent”. In fact, IF Spoon had simply been “competent” enough to have dragged a foot on that catch we probably would be discussing Chad’s 300+ yard passing performance that resulted in us remaining undefeated! That’s how important that little misstep was, IMO.
I also think that you are discounting Voytik’s potential to improve as well. Even if his arm strength and throwing mechanics remain his limiting factors, his ceiling for in game performance remains very high, IMO. Chad’s experience is miniscule, at this juncture! Because of this fact, you will continue to see a real improvement in his decision making and performance as the season progresses. Voytik playing against Miami in November will not be the same Voytik that we witnessed against Iowa.
Now for that improvement to transpire, you are right on with the assessment that Chad has to improve his pocket presence and receiver progressions. In that regard, I wonder if the coaches can actually change the manner in which he goes through those progressions. By that I mean, can plays be constructed in practice to “force” Chad to look to other receivers like the TEs FIRST with homeboy Boyd being a second or third option in that progression sequence? This could assist Voytik in breaking his tendency of opting for his security blanket receiver more often than not, wouldn’t it?
But it is true that Pitt’s fortunes for this year will be directly related to the success of our QB, and barring injury, that QB is going to be Voytik for this year, so I’m hoping for the best from Chad. Now going into 2015, all bets are off, especially if Chad comes up short in his development during the remainder of this season.
There is no doubt about it, Bertke is Chryst’s boy and is the prototypical QB to plug into his system, if Bertke is ready to go come September 2015. So next year I think that there will be some true QB competition to discuss in fall camp. Time will tell.
The right plays and correct routes are there. The QB has to execute it.
I actually think the D line will be very good next year. They are one year behind the O line as far as experience and development.
The DB development and depth is hurting the D the most as many have stated.
One thing to note, the pass rush and DB play go hand in hand. There was no pass rush against Iowa. Matt House has to change some things up.
Personally, I’m not particularly concerned with Voytik’s arm strength. While he’s not Savage in that department, he has plenty of zip to be a successful college qb.
The big question is whether he will develop and improve with his progressions. I like getting the ball to Boyd as much as possible but certainly he will have to spread the ball around to really maximize the passing game. I hope (and think) that this will come with experience but that is not a guarantee (see Gary Nova).
One last note, I really like Voytik’s intangibles. He seems like a bright, balanced kid who players respect. He’s tough, doesn’t make excuses and seems eager to learn. All-in-all, to me he seems to have the makeup of a leader.
HTP!
I think the 2010 Pitt-WVU turned more on Ray Graham’s and Dion Lewis’ fumbles than Tino’s miscues. Those fumbles occurred during deep drives in the first half of the game. If Pitt scores on those drives, who know how the game turns out. However it probably doesn’t turn into a 25 point beat down.
“I don’t think the long passing game is going to be a big part of our offense, at least this year…”
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Passes that travel 5-20 yards in the air are much more successful than those that travel 30-50.. regardless of the QB.
I mean really, given the success of a drive, how many shots are you ideally taking? Once, maaaybe twice a quarter?
While I agree that they’re not going to take many shots, or at least effective ones… it’s not like it’s a huge part of any teams game plan.. Especially one with a RB leading the nation in rushing.
I included deep balls in the article above as one of a few things I think have to get better for us to have the best offense we can… not the only thing.
But yes, I’d love to see two or three deep tries to Boyd per game. This is exactly what he built his young superstar reputation on. It isn’t his getting shorter passes and getting YAC, it was him flying past the DB and hauling in long passes.
Two long calls a quarter would be a lot for me, as I said two or three a game is good – more if they tend to work.
Amazing how so many of the people who make a living off of Scouting Players or writing about them can be SO WRONG.
Looking at the positive, Voytik is a GOOD, STRONG Athlete. If anyone he reminds me of former Syracuse Quarterback and current Duquesne Coach Bill Hurley who gave some Great Pitt Defenses some serious fits.
However, there is enough negative to be concerned.
This QB, has a good up side. I’m comfortable in just letting things play out. That’s why these coaches get paid the big bucks.
It is proven you have to have some deeper passing threat to keep these defenders back where they are supposed to be. Right now Voytik’s yards per attempt is a rather poor 6.75 and his yards per completion the same at 11.1.
Let’s hope those numbers get better as the harder part of the schedule goes on because this short, short passing game needs to expand downfield more… IMO.
Nothing wrong with the guy’s arm and has great mobility and a pretty quick release — its just the hesitation through his progressions that’s getting him now…might improve, might not.
