(This is a weekly series of articles entitled “Monday Morning Quarterback”. I will try to post them two days after the football games are played so as to have our wilder emotions under control by then. It will be my take on the positives and the negatives we saw happen and a chance for commenters to agree or disagree and to add their own thoughts.)
Now that we are in the middle of the 2014 schedule let’s take a moment to look at what we fans have liked or disliked about the staff, team and players after six games have been played. We stand at 3-3 with a 1-1 record in ACC conference play. Last week we lost a close one to Virginia Cavaliers on their home field and this coming Thursday evening we play the Virginia Tech Hokies at Heinz Field. It is safe to say that we need to start the second half of the season with a conference win if we want to have any chance at a Coastal Division championship.
POSITIVES
1. Our defense. Yes, we have given up some big plays and yes, we have allowed the other team to score more points than us in three games but there were a lot of factors that went into that. One factor that stood out and pretty much crippled us in our recent three games losing streak was our crap offense (see “Negatives #1″ below).
But we are holding our own on defense this season and while it doesn’t seem like it at times it’s true. Granted we stumbled a bit against Akron when we let a team not know for its run game tear up the field but that was mainly due to a couple of long runs through pretty poor arm tackle and angle taking attempts.
Here are the not so surprising national rankings for our Defense this year to date:
| Category | National Ranking | Numerical Values |
| Total Defense | 4th | 278.7 ypg |
| Passing Defense | 6th | 152.2 ypg |
| 3rd Down Conversion Defense | 15th | 29.3% |
| Passing Efficiency Defense | 16th | 104.36 |
| Scoring Defense | 17th | 19.0 ppg* |
| Rushing Defense | 37th | 126.5 |
I’ve placed an asterisk by the scoring defense to break it down just a bit further. Against D1 opponents we have allowed 22.2 ppg which is still pretty good and standing by itself would be 43rd in the nation. Although I caution that anytime we compare our team to others like this you can’t delete certain opponents because they were ‘inferior’ because every team schedules those games in the beginning of the season.
Take away that Pick-6 that Voytik threw against VA and we are looking at our D giving up 19.6 ppg against the better teams, which is damn good. For me a key aspect of a good defense in how well the opponents do on their 3rd down conversion tries and PITT has done very well in holding them to a 29.3% success rate.
Here are some other bright spots and good rankings for our defense: 12th in opponents Time of Possession at 26.77 minutes; 14th in 1st Down Defense (opponent’s total 1st downs) at 92 and 21st with eight INTs.
So, all in all I’d say that even with the youth in key positions we have on defense it is playing certainly well enough to win ballgames. I give DC Matt House credit for this. First his schemes are working and secondly they are working with some inexperienced kids out there. The bottom line with our defense is really how well the offense plays. If it can get to playing at least deceny FBS level football then we’ll see wins, if not then we better brace ourselves.
2. The way the youth on our team has been playing so far. There is no getting around that we are the youngest team in D1 this season and, by the nature of the attrition we have had since Chryst arrived as head coach, those young players have been thrust into key starting positions. We see this mostly on offense but in some defensive spots also.
It is two different things to say that a player is ‘new’ because he is starting for the first time and that a player is ‘new’ because he is a true or redshirt FR or SO who basically just got into PITT’s football program.
Case in point; Voytik is a new starting QB but not a new player on the roster. Avonte’ Maddox is new to both the program and to college football playing time. Off the top of my head here are some of the youth we have either staring of getting major playing time so far this year:
Defense: FR Maddox, FR Blair, FR Amara, SO Galambos, SO Mitchell, SO Webb, etc…
Offense: SO Conner, SO Boyd, rsFR Officer, rsFR Jones-Smith, FR James, rsFR Johnson, etc…
Obviously Conner and Boyd had enough game time experience last season to step right back up to bat and keep producing (more on Boyd later) but those other kids are being thrown into playing before their time for the most part.
3. Our Kicking Special Teams, meaning K Chris Blewitt and P Ryan Winslow. Blewitt has been a placekicker par excellence for us this season as a true SO. His Field Goal tries have been done at a 100% success rate, 9 for 9 and have played out like this: 2/2 from 20 yards to 30 yards; 4/4 from 31 to 40 yards and 3/3 from 41 to 50 yards. That is money.
His kickoffs have been just as impressive with his kicking off 37 times for 2301 total yards (62.2 average yards per KO, or in other words he averages kicking the ball to the 2.8 yard line. However, with that he has 22 touchbacks and two kicks out of bounds. Out of 37 kickoffs the opponents only had chances to return 13 of them. Now – we fall on our face with kickoff defense but that’s no fault of Blewitt.
Our Punter Ryan Winslow is a mass of contradictions. On the face of it he’s the 93rd ranked punter with 39.8 yards per punt. That looks pretty bad but when you drill down into what he’s doing with those punts you see a completely different story.
Out of his 29 punts so far he’s had three Touchbacks, nine Fair Catches and 10 punts downed inside the opponent’s 20 yard line. That is 22 out of 37 punts (60%) that weren’t able to be returned for positive yardage by the bad guys.
Honorable Mention: Any Running Back not named James Conner (See Negative #3 below)
NEGATIVES
1. Our offense in all its tattered and faded glory. There is just no getting around the fact that life rears its ugly head sometimes in the game of football and our passing game is strong evidence of that. We talk an awful lot about Chad Voytik on this Blog because he is the ‘straw that stirs the drink’ as the QB and leader of the offense.
I think we are all pretty level-headed when we discuss Voytik but more and more the discussions, both ours and in the local media, have been sliding more toward the negative as each week passes and he doesn’t show concrete, consistent progress or growth. Because of that mediocre play we have put up these stats on offense:
| Category | National Ranking | Numerical Values |
| Rushing Offense | 19th | 243.8 ypg |
| Scoring Offense | T-62nd | 30.5* |
| Total Offense | 73rd | 405.3 ypg |
| Passing Effeciency Offense | 77th | 125.71 |
| Passing Offense | 114th | 161.5 ypg |
* As in the ‘Defense’ table there are a few things that have to be looked at more closely here. That Scoring Offense rank and points per game is completely skewed by those two wins over Delaware and FIU. We scored 102 points against those teams which makes the 1st half of our season’s offense look much better than it was.
Take those 102 points away (again for accuracy’s sake) and we scored 70 points against the D1 teams which averages out to 19.75 ppg. Re-rack the QB’s passing numbers to include only the four D1 games and his Passing Efficiency drops to 119.90. Both of those are horrid production and accounts for the three losses we have so far, at least in my opinion.
That is ugly and you cannot win games like that given that the scores are higher in college ball these days. We started off so well on offense, even if in a bit of one sided competition, over the first three games but it has been shot full of holes ever since.
(End of 3rd Quarter intermission)
2. The wasting of Tyler Boyd’s talents. Forget about Dave Wannstedt smacking Dorin Dickerson around from position to position like a billiard ball back in the day, or the fact that Jon Baldwin looked like a superstar with Bill Stull throwing to him, then was shot back down to earth by Sunseri; this is the worse situation I can remember with a true star player going from great success one season to stagnant the next. The saddest part is that, as with the two guys just mentioned, it has nothing to do with Boyd himself.
Boyd is by far the most important and all-around talented young man we have on the roster. We all knew, as did all of the college football nation, what he was not only capable of but what he actually did as a true freshman last season with his 85 catches for 1174 yards (13.8 ypc) and seven TDs, and that was with a star receiver in Devin Street across from him.
It isn’t so much that he’s statistically behind last season, surprisingly he really isn’t with only 11 less catches, 63 less yards and the same number of TDs (4). No, it is the inability to get the ball to Boyd on what were his bread and butter plays last season – the deep routes where he could use his speed to get open and then his amazing hand-eye coordination to haul in even the more inaccurate passes.
Instead of being able to progress and build on that 2013 production he’s been handcuffed by the QB play and has had what is perhaps the best aspect of his receiving skills nullified. The irony in all of this is that some of Voytik’s best passes were made into completions by Boyd bailing out some pretty poor throws with his superior talent.
3. I’ll have to point a finger to the coaching staff here and it may not be because of what other fans would think of first. Reading our comments on this blog from day one it seems that the two biggest complains about the coaching staff so far has been the HC’s personnel choices and the OC’s offensive play calling and then anything at all to do with Matt House. I made it pretty clear above that I don’t think House is doing a poor job at all, quite the opposite in fact.
I can’t say the same thing about the offensive guys though. It isn’t the play calling so much in my mind either. Given the type of play we’ve seen for the QB position, and diminishing play of the Offensive Line, so far the OC has had to call plays with the highest percentage of any sort of success and that has hurt our ability to try to keep one step ahead of the opponent’s defense. There is only so much he can do when there are neon signs pointing directly to our inconsistent passing game and the knowledge that it isn’t going to be the part of an offense that will beat you.
I look more toward the fact that Chryst, and by extension Rudolph, have become stuck on a railroad track of keeping doing the same things that we have done week after week. Conner has done well for us but it is plainly seen that the last two teams we faced figured out a way to stop him – and that is bringing the LBs up into the box so that it is flooded at the line of scrimmage.
Conner has been declining in production on a regular basis since our opening game and in the last five games he’s done this carrying the ball: 214 yards (5.9 ypc); 177 yards (5.7 ypc); 155 yards (5.3 ypc); 92 yards (3.7 ypc) and 83 yards (4.0 ypc). Another telling point is that after scoring eight TDs in his first three games he’s scored just one in the last three games.
Pretty clear what is happening and not so clear on why the staff isn’t doing anything about it. In previous articles and comments we have all agreed that we need to use our other talented RBs for a variety of reason, the two main ones being a chance of pace to throw at the opponent and to give Conner a chance to sit out a series here and there to be fresh for the 2nd half of the games.
What we have seen with Conner in the 2nd half of the last three games is that his yards per carry have pretty drastically diminished after halftime. In each game he’s gotten more carries and more yards in the 1st half and his ypc average in the 3rd and 4th quarters went from 5.9 to 4.5; 5.0 to 2.7 and 3.6 to 4.1 (a slight rise there).
Granted we had to pass a lot more in the last two game’s 2nd halves due to being behind, but in doing so that should open up more room for the RB when he does carry the ball, but the opposite has been happening.
Our other guys, “The Lost Legion”, consisting of Ibrahim, Bennett and FR Chris James are all talented, have all contributed in meaningful ways each time they have gotten playing time, and with Ibrahim and Bennett they give the OC another receiver good receiver to call plays for Voytik to throw to them coming out of the backfield.
Something has to change or we will meet the definition of insanity in doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Hey, every game day can be Groundhog Day if we try hard enough.
Ying & Yang
This is a special weekly section dedicated to the quarterback play of Chad Voytik so that we can look specifically at how he’s doing, whether he is progressing or not, and what his impact on the team and games are week to week at this point in the season.
Earlier we spoke about our Head Coach’s offensive system and our Offensive Coordinator’s actually play calling, discussing that it has been it has been modified to match Voytik’s level of play going into the season.
Jerry DiPaola of the Tribune Review posted an article Saturday night on Voytik and in it Voytik mentions Chryst’s offense and his role in it so far. Chryst’s offenses, going back to his Wisconsin days, have
Voytik, 20, admits the transition (from his HS ‘read-option’ spread offense) has been difficult, but he prefers coach Paul Chryst’s pro-style offense.
“It’s an upper-level offense,” he said. “Once you do master it — which I haven’t — you have a lot of control over the game in general because you have so many options. “You have the whole field to work with, and you have guys working for you everywhere that you can go to in every situation.
“Once you master it, it empowers a quarterback. I feel like I have the capabilities and intelligence to do that.”
This offensive theory is why we aren’t seeing more called rollouts or ‘moving pocket’ plays. Those plays will shut down half of the field of play and eliminate some potential targets. We fans may not necessarily like that the staff wants him in the pocket more but the fact is that because he’s still taking off out of his protection too early on a regular basis it is harder for the OL to form that pocket for him to step up into the OL
Here is an interesting quote I found from Sunseri describing just what Chryst’s offense was when Chryst first got to PITT, instilled it and ran it out for Sunseri to execute:
“Last year (under Graham), there weren’t a lot of plays, there weren’t lot of different formations, there weren’t a lot of different motions,” Sunseri said. “This offense, it’s coming from making sure you understand shifts and motions and making sure you understand different routes and converting vs. different coverages. Guys had to make sure they got in their playbooks, which they did.”
I say that is ‘interesting’ because we did see that in 2012 and also in 2013… but this season it has gone almost plain vanilla. Granted Chryst has a first year starter to work with but he also has a guy who watched and practiced, as a 2nd string QB, that more comprehensive offense for the last two years.
But because this is a mid-point review let’s look at what progress Voytik has made, and there is some, so that Chryst and Rudolph might be able to layer in more of the offense they want to put on the field during the games. There are marked differences in his play between the first game against Delaware and his last against Virginia, most notably his willingness to throw more intermediate range passes.
Since we discussed both units above, here is our past decade’s W/L record and scoring averages for both offense and defense:
| YEAR | O AVG | D AVG | YEAR | O AVG | D AVG |
| ’13 7-6 | 26.3 ppg | 27.2 ppg | ’08 9-4 | 27.1 | 21.5 |
| ’12 6-7 | 26.6 | 21.1 | ’07 5-7 | 22.8 | 24.2 |
| ’11 6-7 | 24.2 | 22.8 | ’06 6-6 | 31.8 | 22.8 |
| ’10 8-5 | 26.3 | 19.0 | ’05 5-6 | 24.3 | 22.1 |
| ’09 10-3 | 32.1 | 19.8 | ’04 8-4 | 27.1 | 24.0 |
Note: Here is a good article that describes Chryst’s offensive strategy and how he worked with his QBs, previous to when Russell Wilson joined the Wisconsin squad, and how Wilson would fit as a starter there.
That’s it – three thumbs up and three thumbs down. How did you see it?
Another change I’d like to see is some form of hurry-up offense. Play Chad and Trey on rotating series to start the game and stay with the hot hand. While one is on the field, the other can have the headset on with the booth coaches pointing out the defensive weaknesses live, while the action is happening.
There is talent and hope. We just need to make some changes – doing the same things has proven not to work – we have film.
It isn’t just me who believes Bertke isn’t ready. It is unusual for a HC to be interviewed in public and say that a player, any player, won’t play unless there are two major injuries in front of him – yet that is what Chryst said last week about Bertke… and that is from a guy who doesn’t hesitate to play true freshman at all. Quite the contrary, as Chryst throws true freshman into the fire after they just stepped on campus and had only three weeks of fall camp.
I think the reason we may see Conner at DE is because Chryst and Rudolph have finally come around and realized the can fill any void left by Conner on offense even if it is for a series or two during the game. I still don’t like the idea either unless the above happens and we see Bennett, Ibrahim and James more often.
I also still believe that if we played Bennett full time he’d be racking up yards at a great rate also and certainly would break off more long runs.
Here is a DiPaola Trib article on the offense. Sounds familiar:
Here is a weekly “podcast” from Sam Werner and a sidekick discussing pITT football.
Johnny Football and Jameis Winston were both REDSHIRT freshmen when the first played, and look how talented they were. It would be nuts to even consider taking Bertke redshirt right now.
Next year at this time, see how much Tennessee has improved from a couple of years ago.
Yes, PC can continue to get the recruits he likes and mold him, but eventually there needs to be improvement. And just because he did it as an assistant there, doesn’t necessarily mean he can do it as HC here.
This team is young and needs to grow — it better.
If you know his history, you know this is a SPECIAL kid… especially when it comes to being MATURE beyond his years and MENTALLY TOUGH.
There are a couple of reasons Chryst is reluctant or even adamanant about not playing Bertke.
One reason is Chryst not wanting to burn Betke’s Redshirt.
The other is… again… Chryst’s personal commitment to LOYALTY.
He’ll stick with Voytik until it looks like the turning point at which the Season could become a loser. That’s would be ths week when a loss to VaTech would put PITT at 3 and 4.
AFter Voytik… the LOYALTY then naturally extends to Trey Anderson.
Whether it’s this year… or next… I’m predicting SOLID PERFORMANCES from Adam Bertke. And a MUCH BETTER PITT Team as Chryst finally has HIS Quarterback running HIS Offense.
It is natural for a QB to take most of the blame when an offense is failing, but it has been a team effort. Connor gets the accolades, but it is the O-line at fault when he has failed to pick up needed first downs. However it is the QB that takes the blame even if he has to throw to early because of the rush.
Not that Voytik’s play has been above the line it hasn’t, especially vs Akron.
But the coaching has not done it’s job either. The over-reliance on Conner has hampered the the growth of the team. The other three running backs need and deserved more carries. They appear to be more capable of the “big play”. Also Conner has worn down in the second half multiple times.
More passes should have been thrown by Voytik vs. Delaware to work on timing and pass blocking for when it would be needed. Only letting Voytik pass on third downs when it is obvious also slowed his development. The lack of balance in the offense caught up to us.
I am not sold on the defense. Stats can be misleading. First, we have not played any offensive juggernauts. Second they could not hold off Iowa when needed, they gave up two bombs and could not stop their running game giving up many third and short plays. Overall they give up too many big plays per game.
There is no pass rush or pressure on the QB from the D-Ends. There are few TFL’s. Pitts consistently fails to look back at the QB, gives up plays or penalties.
They have not given the offense good field position or scored many points on their own.
They have not risen to the occasion when the game was on the line.
Akron made them look bad. My bet is that the defensive stats get worse as the year goes on.
Right now we are a very poor football team. I do agree that we won’t win many more games if the offense does not get better.
We need to see the offense from the first half against Iowa, or the one that scored before the half vs BC.
The strength of the O was supposed to start with Clemmings and Rotherham. They need to pick it up.
I forgot that Anderson has another year of eligibility, really not sure why Chryst does not give him at least two or three series a game. How do you know that he is not more of a game day player than Voytik if you don’t give him a chance.
Everyone’s been clamoring for the next Dan Marino.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m NOT saying that about Bertke.
But what I am saying is that this Kid’s RELEASE… although much more SIDEARM than Marino’s… is just about as QUICK.
If you want to be excited about something… start looking forward to seeing Adam taking the snaps as Pitt’s Starting Quarterback.
I am saying that he is not ready right now to take over, especially when Pitt faces the toughest part of their schedule. (In fact, right now it’s likely that only against Syracuse will Pitt be favored.)
This is also the reason why I am hesitant to claim that the defense is a success. The best offensive teams are all ahead.
Against Akron, the fault lies with House.
The Captain of the Defense said as much when he publicly stated that Akron was doing things they weren’t expecting.
This is the same House who said he didn’t have to stay late at the office like Huxtable.
And the same House who NEVER played a lick of College Football.
Bertke’s upside is the NFL.
Not gonna happen, but how about some wildcat with Boyd? These are desperate times.
Let’s not carried away with Bertke. Yes, he won 3 straight state titles but it was all in the lowest division. He has a lot to learn.
Remmeber how we all thought Voytik had so much potential just a few months ago.
In addition to your point about Voytik and his well-noted INNACURRACY… he has another problem.
He does NOT SEE the Field.
When Voytik goes back to pass and then looks to throw… it seems like it’s all a BLUR to him.
That’s whey so many passes to Boyd and so few to anyone else… especially the Tight Ends.
With all seriousness… Voytik would be BEST in the SHOTGUN. The trouble is… that’s not Chryst’s Offense.
I was right about Voytik. I’m also right about Bertke.
And yes… I’m EXCITED.
I watched Bertke win the state title game last year and came away with a very favorbale impression. He had a strong arm and was physical … but on the other hand, he may have been the biggest player on the field (certainly one of them). Now, he is literally playing with the big boys … give him some time to mature and learn.
You hit the nail on the head. Some QBs don’t have the field vision. Voytik doesn’t seem to have that.
He also needs to stay in the damn pocket when there is no rush.
There are plenty of open receivers he just misses seeing. It is not the offense, it is the player.
You know Va Tech will be applying the pressure (like last year) and I will be disappointed if I don’t see some type of counter offensive tactics to slow them down.
However, I’m tired of hearing (certainly not from you) from others on here and on the radio and in the paper,
Pitt can’t win, it’s a Northeastern school, kids don’t want to come here, blah blah blah.
There are lots of schools in the North that have good teams, and great traditions.
They all recruit kids from the South.
And that’s not even my point.
We’re paying people B-I-G money to make Pitt a winner, right??
I mean, Steve and Paul are making over
1 Million dollars a year, right??
Maybe I’m wrong.
Maybe it can’t be done anymore at Pitt.
I’ll buy that.
Just come out and tell me the truth.
All schools in the cold and blustery parts of the country.
All with great traditions, sure. A shame, we used to have one too.
Speaking of Penn State, as much as I despise them, and don’t think much of Franklin, let’s be honest here…..
the worst scandal to ever rock a college football program, having to do with child molestation no less, one of the most disgusting things you can imagine
stuck in the middle of nowhere
temps colder and more snow than Pittsburgh
and a couple years after the scandal
gonna have a top 10 or top 20 class in the nation, and has pretty much cleaned our clock on recruiting.
Steve, just tell me we’ve de-emphasized football.
Maybe we did years ago, and I just never got the message.
He can’t scan the field. PC has stated that plays are there and CV is not physically seeing them.
It’s not like this team is on the fast track to the ACC championship.
Getting Bertke reps isn’t giving up on Chad either..
It lays the foundation for some competition at the position in the Spring… Unless you’re planning on just handing it to Chad again.
Is it fair to say that Chad might be father along had he gotten more than 2 quarters of snaps against live competition?
I guess what the hell do I know about developing a QB? Just frustrating watching another one struggle… At least with Tom, there was a shot at big plays.. if the Oline could keep him off his ass long enough to let the receiver run 30 yards down the field.
Totally agree. I never understood concern about burning a redshirt.
Listen, if a player who is redshirting can come in and make an impact, I’m all for it.
But we here are great at predicting just how great a new player will be without ever seeing him practice, let alone seeing him in game action. And there is great deal of evidence that in positions of QB and OL, it is prudent not to rush him in.
In 2009, the coach and the QB was heartily booed in the opener despite winning 38 to 3, because they were all convinced that back-up QB was better. That team went on to win 10 games with that QB.
I’m okay with shelving him ’till next season but sometimes, certain guys only learn through actual play and not so much in practice…seems counterintuitive, but think it falls into someone’s comment about ‘gameday’ player vs. practice hero. I played a fair amount of sports with guys who looked like world beaters in practice or in the locker room, but clutched up big-time when the real thing was on…I think sadly this is what Voytik might be. Good kid, hard worker, but not good under pressure…and Anderson strikes me as a guy who might, given enough playing time, show more natural, free-flowing ‘instinct’ and playmaking…just a guestimate, but would love Chryst to take a chance on something with QBs. Sadly also, I have very little argument with any other moves he has made since coming here regarding players, but this year he is showing himself to be pretty conservative with QBs and its hurting the team.
Don’t know if this was directed at me, but I’ll take a stab at it…
Yes, Dorian should have been getting snaps last year. He’s undoubtedly more prepared player this year because of it…and if nothing else, they didn’t have to waste any time this year figuring out that he’s a better guard than tackle.
I don’t think Pitt is in position to let guys just sit around for a year, lifting, eating, and running scout team… if they’re able to, they need to get on the field and get meaningful reps… that’s how you get better, by playing the game. That’s how you figure out what you need to work on, and where you need to get better. The game will show you.. You can’t replicate that stuff in practice.
Again, I’m not saying guys like Bertke, Bookser, and Grimm should be STARTING and playing the entire game right now… But would they be more prepared to contribute at a higher level next season, if they were getting on the field this year? I think the answer is undoubtedly ‘yes’.
Now ideally, would you rather have them all for their 5th year, senior season… Of course… You would expect all of those guys to be better as 23 year olds than they are right now..
But if I’m Chryst… I can’t worry about how good Bertke is going to be in 2018, and how I’m going to wish I didn’t burn that RS.. I need a QB for 2015, and if getting Bertke some snaps this year improves his chance to be that guy, then I’m not thinking twice.. I need these guys to be as good as they can, as fast as they can, or I’m not even going to be around to see their RS Senior seasons.
I also find it kind of funny that all of a sudden Bertke has been lifted to NFL status by at least one poster here. Where did this come from?
Freedbeck was considered by some rating services to be the better prospect but, unless that he did something this past Saturday, he has been lost this year when he played (and he certainly played against a better brand of competion in HS than Bertke did.)
As I said, I think Bertke has a bigger upside than our other QBs … but that’s not saying he is the next Unitas.
Strong arm aside, he’s had three weeks in camp with no work with either the 1st or 2nd string offense. He’s just nowhere near good enough to play this season. Anderson is way ahead of Bertke.
You can’t blame Chryst for Voytik not passing to his TEs… Voytik is still not getting his eyes and head past his primary receiver. Believe me, when you have Boyd on the field and start targeting the TEs primarily we’ll have a problem. They almost always are outlet receivers who get the ball when others are covered.
Hell, why throw short passes to the TEs when you can throw short passes to Boyd and get YAC?
Anyway – you guys seem to think that somehow Chryst is controlling Voytik’s movements out there and he isn’t.
Freebeck– who’s admittedly taking some lumps in the SEC and off to a rough start (34/72 for 376 yards,1:5 TD:INT with 7 sacks), but is getting meaningful snaps, snaps on the road as a true frosh…and FWIW he’s taken more snaps that I would have wanted to see, given the results.
or
Bertke– Who’s on the sideline eating sun flower seeds with the backup special teamers, running Akron’s offense during the week.
Clearly we are not in an optimal place here so there are no ‘winning’ solutions obvious. But to me, shaking it up and giving Trey a few starts to see what happens and then making things wide open amongst the three of them next year for the starting job might be the best we can do now.
Man, even a guy like John Congemi…who was good…could take this team with this schedule to a really good year.
We all seem to go off the deep end.
We had our 3 year run in 30 years with DW.
It will more than likely be another 30 years before we win 10 games in one season.
A lot on here wanted him gone.
How’s that working out for you.
He can’t even beat out a kid who only had an offer from Bryant college. (Bryant doesn’t play D1 football )
@ Reed I don’t know how good or bad Anderson is.
But if he was really good, he would have transferred someone else to run a spread offense.
Which is what style offense he played in HS and what he’s suited to.
There are tons of colleges that go all the way down to C-USA, the Sun Belt, etc that run spread offenses.
Surely one of these colleges around the whole United States needed a spread QB.
Yet nobody offered him a scholarship but Bryant, which isn’t even close to Bethune-Cookman in football.
Are they all wrong ?
If he gets into a game, I hope he’s the 2nd coming of Alex Van Pelt. And leads Pitt to victory.
And I hope Bertke is the 2nd coming of Marino and leads us to a 42-14 win over Creepy Valley State and prevents them from being #1.
And then plays in 4 Super Bowls and is MVP in 3 of them.
I don’t care who plays QB for Pitt, as long as it’s not anyone named tiny or tiny’s son.
I am not talking about check downs and the coach most certainly calls those plays.
I agree that Voytik only looks for his primary receiver down field and does not does not make it much further than that. But Boyd can’t be the first option on every play and I would rather send a tight end over the middle for a short pickup than get Boyd killed. You are laying all the poor decision making on Voytik, he doesn’t call his own plays.
He obviously isn’t executing the ones they call at a high enough percentage. It is up to the coaches to call more plays that he can execute.
It looks too much to me like they are trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. Give Voytik high percentage throws like the ones they gave Kenny Anderson, Joe Montana and even Tom Brady. The playbook looks like the same one they gave to Savage.
I was screaming for swing passes to Ibrahim for weeks, we finally got one against (can’t remember now).
Went for 13 yds.
Then he didn’t see another one.
Same thing with Bennett as a receiver out of the backfield.
These are nice easy completions for Voytik, pretty safe passes and they seem to work when they remember to call them.
Last 2 games Bennett has 5 receps for 60 yards that is a nice 12 yd average.
Still think they should move Connor up to FB where he hits the hole quicker and then rotate Ibrahim, Bennett & James as TB.
This alignment gives us many more options in play calling.
As an offense you want to get as many playmakers on the field AT THE SAME TIME.
Much harder to defend.
Just to remind you – here is what he did in HS:
link to pittsburghpanthers.com
You make it sound like the kid never succeeded at anything, but the opposite is true. The reality is that our 4*, Elite 11, QB barely beat out Anderson for a starting job. Here we have a QB who had all the recruiting kudos that you seem to love – and he’s doing a rather poor job at actually playing football. But we fans, for some reason, shut the door on a player who played as well as our ‘star QB’ in the camps and played, and succeed, in a much better HS competition then Voytik did during their High School years.
I think it’s great he wanted to stay and get a great education at PITT.
But you know he won a state championship in HS in Texas, highest classification. Don’t need a link to remind. Pearland HS I believe.
If it was me and I was a spread QB, I would want to play somewhere that ran the spread AND GET A GREAT EDUCATION.
You can only play in organized sports for so long.
Usually you try to stretch it out as long as possible.
And as I said above I don’t care who plays QB, I just want us to win.
I’ve actually questioned on more than one occasion, why PC didn’t put Anderson in. Like at halftime of the Akron game. I suggested that on the Akron game thread at halftime of that game live, right on here on the Blather.
Obviously Chryst doesn’t think TA is a viable option.
And by the way I think if they ran the same plays for TA as they did for CV he and PITT would still be 3-3.
I think that rather than Chryst thinking Anderson is not a viable option, it may well be that Chryst doesn’t believe Voytik is as big a problem as we fans do. Look, Chryst has had Voytik pencilled in as the starting QB for three years and so far nothing serious enough has happened that has changed his mind.
I’ve said before that until Voytik starts drastically LOSING games he’ll be the starting QB. Now, IMO that Pick-6 against VA comes very close to that criteria but Chryst and Rudolph may look at Voytik’s stats and overall play feel that he’s not doing so badly – and statistically he kind of isn’t.
You know that I’m not a big fan of Voytik’s play but if you look at his box scores (only) then you can see why he’s starting; completing 59% of his passes, more tDs than INTs. As you guys point out to me on a regular basis stats sometimes don’t tell the whole story and I think that is the case with Voytik this season.
But it is rare in college FB to completely sit down a starting QB and make that switch to another starter in mid-season. It does happen but in the main starters usually go until they are a complete liability. That said college football fans have the quickest hook since vaudeville and always want the 2nd, or in PITT’s case, the 3rd stringer to play.
Besides – when in the past gazillion years have we seen a PITT HC sit down the starting QB no matter how poorly he was playing? Palko was the starter from Day One, as was Stull and Sunseri.
We know Chryst is a conservative coach, we’ve see that in (in)action over and over. Obviously he has Voytik on a long leash and still feels that Voytik is the better option than Anderson… but that doesn’t mean that Chryst doesn’t see Anderson as a viable option at all. It means that Chryst still feels that Voytik is the best answer out there.
Personally, I think we’ll see Voytik as the starter in 2015 also because I’m not as sold on Bertke being The Answer as other PITT fans are – time and the practices and camps will tell there though, but I still see it as Voytik, Anderson then Bertke going into the fall camp. Let’s hope that the staff offers up a true and open competition for that starter’s job.
As far as what would have happened if Anderson had started the season… I think we’d be at the same record or maybe 4-2, without that Pick-6 against VA we win that game. One thing for certain is that we’d see more deep pass completions and Boyd would be in action more often. Anderson has a much better feel for ‘situational awareness’ than Voytik does so I also think we’d see the 2nd and 3rd receivers getting the ball on checkdowns more often also – plus Anderson can run almost as well as Voytik.
On the flip side Anderson may very well get in there and stink up the joint, who really knows? I don’t think he’s a lock for success either.
But at this point yeah, I’d like to see Anderson get a shot out there but again, Chryst and Rudolph seem to see things differently. I have a gut feeling that we’ll be seeing more of the same out of the QB position over the next six weeks as we already have. It isn’t that I think Anderson is that great either – more like we have two average at best QBs on the roster and available to play.
We see some of the same things, like for instance the square peg into round hole and assorted other things.
I think UVA plays the 2nd half much differently had they not been up by 3 TD’s.
And I totally agree that Anderson and Bertke might both be holding clipboards if PC recruits some real stud at QB. As well as Voytik.
But it’s ok if we disagree on some things, as that is what makes the Blather the Blather. I respect your opinions and most everyone’s else’s. We all can get frayed upon occasion.
And we all don’t march in lock step like some automatons. 🙂
Look forward to meeting you some day !
Like at a first rate Bowl game which involves the Blue & Gold !!!
When he gets time to throw a pass, stare down your best receiver and throw into double coverage and hope he makes a catch. Also best if you can avoid the sack. That is the only difference between the two in my opinion.
The defense didn’t play well against Va. The Va coach said they were going to run clock at halftime and did just that. In their last 4 games, Va threw 17, 32, 58 and 30 passes. The 17 was against Pitt and they completed 10. Va. rushed 41 times against Pitt even running on 1st and 20 and 2cnd and 16 on one possession in the 3rd quarter and running on 3rd and 20 in the 4th quarter. When a team only attempts 7 passes in a half, they are purposefully running the clock….out!
Va did the same thing against Louisville and almost lost in the end. They were up 20-7 going into the 4th and sat on it. They end up winning 23-21.
