Let’s get the general atmospheric stuff out of the way first. It was a fantastic weather day at 80o and sunny with enough breeze to cool the skin and blow away the scent of the bullshit being thrown around in conversations… in other words a perfect football day for a Spring Game.
The Station Square Riverhound stadium was jammed packed with fans wearing Blue & Gold and who were very involved in the day’s events. PITT officials had said that they would allow the first 4,000 fans into the venue, a number which I was a bit skeptical of seeing, but the reality is they squeezed 5,300+ into the seats, standing room only spots and under the bleachers where a lot of moms and kids ended up because of the shade.
You guys know I don’t go off the deep end with positivity or expressing things in bold stokes but I will say this in all honesty, of all the scrimmages and spring games I have attended this was the only one with a true electric atmosphere in the alumni rooms, the sidelines, the media areas, the stands and most importantly with the coaches and players involved. It buzzed all afternoon.
This wasn’t a case of just great logistics and advertising the football program for more season ticket sales, although it served that purpose also I’m sure, but it created a genuine excitement in the fans due to the numerous changes we have had since last Dec 26th when Narduzzi was hired. Interestingly enough the students and the fans in the stands actually stayed put until almost the end of the game and then left early only because the parking lots were jammed and there was a traffic jam in store.
Also, and maybe more importantly, there were beers to be had in the bars nearby afterward. The athletic Media Department has done a very good job of highlighting the changes and using its resources to drum up interest and excitement for the 2015 season.
No, fans wanted every bit of PITT football they could get yesterday and PITT gave it to them.
The only drawback was there really wasn’t much good football to watch. While everyone was onboard with the ‘actual game’ set up with coin toss, referees, cheerleaders (thank God) and 12 minute quarters, it was what it was – another spring scrimmage where almost everybody who could walk out there and play did so.
While the outcome between the Blue and the Gold teams didn’t matter to anyone but the players who ended up eating steak and lobster there was still a pretty fierce battle between both offenses against both defenses. The defenses won handily overall.
Just for the record the final score was 17-10 Larry Fitzgerald’s Blue Team that had Voytik, Conner and Boyd on its roster, beat Aaron Donald’s Gold Team who didn’t have the three offensive stars and was probably doomed from the start. I am hoping Aaron used some of that NFL money to treat his team to something better than hot dogs and beans after the game.
Other than some individual highlights (more on that later) it was rather non-descript showing by players who were more under the duress of executing the schemes and making the right moves according to the spring coaching then they were to ‘just get out there and play with passion to win’. But that’s OK as the last scrimmage really is test for the players to see who is going to be penciled in on the two-deep listing going into fall camp.
DiPaola of the Trib had this up first thing soon after the game ended. Here are his “Notes” at the end of the article:
“Wide receiver Dontez Ford was named the spring’s most-improved offensive player. He finished with two catches for 52 yards. … Narduzzi said he liked the atmosphere at Highmark Stadium, but he said he wants to play future spring games at Heinz Field. “I want our guys playing in the arena they have to play in,” he said. …
Cornerback Lafayette Pitts lined up at wide receiver in the fourth quarter and made a 25-yard reception but was called for pass interference. It was just for fun. There are no plans for Pitts to play both ways. … Along with honorary coaches Larry Fitzgerald and Aaron Donald, there were more than 50 former Pitt players introduced at halftime, including Pro Football Hall of Famer Curtis Martin, LeSean McCoy, Jimbo Covert and Rod Rutherford”.
He also posted his last spring football blog article with this. One thought DiPaola expressed, and is contrary to how almost every fan I talked to felt, was this:
I was glad to hear coach Pat Narduzzi say he wants to bring the spring game back to Heinz Field. Highmark is a nice place, but the game belongs at Heinz where the Panthers play. Here is Narduzzi’s exact quote” “I want our guys playing in the arena they have to play in,” he said”.
A point in fact here: PITT was allowed by NCAA waiver authority to have the Spring Game away from Heinz Field and be allowed to meet with the recruits on Spring Game day. That was done because there is construction on new stands going on at Heinz Field. Next year will be a different story. I think this must be a relatively new NCAA rule because both Wannstedt and Chryst chose hold a spring game in high school stadiums in the past.
In the article there is a passage that sums up Pat Narduzzi’s baseline desire of on what he wanted the kids to learn:
When backup running back Qadree Ollison, a redshirt freshman, had runs of 11 and 12 yards for the Blue team in the fourth quarter, they didn’t impact the outcome of the game, but Narduzzi still voiced his displeasure. And he wasn’t shy talking about it later.
“I had to go scream at the Gold defense,” he said. “They were letting them run the ball. (I said), ‘You can’t do that. What are you doing?’ “They were kind of going through the motions. I just had to put my foot somewhere.”
The next series? Ollison was stopped for consecutive 3-yard losses by defensive tackles Tyrique Jarrett and Darryl Render.
Sam Werner of the P-G wrote a good recap of the afternoon with this piece. It is nice to read as the players mentioned are at positions where we really need help. The last thought expressed by Bertke was right on point.
Gold defensive tackle Tyrique Jarrett, one of the stars of the spring, tied with Bam Bradley for a game-high three tackles for a loss. He also tied with Mitchell for a game-high six total tackles. Jarrett and receiver WR Dontez Ford were named Ed Conway Award winners as the most improved players of the spring.
“With a new coaching staff and stuff, [the defense] started off a little slow, you could tell just learning their defense and stuff,” said quarterback Adam Bertke, who played all but a handful of snaps for Gold and finished 14 of 30 for 162 yards, one touchdown and one interception. “By the end [of spring], they didn’t have it mastered, but they had it fine-tuned so they were flying around by the end of spring ball and out here today.”
Werner’s Red Shirt Diaries Blog holds the ‘official stats’ of the game. Take a look at the blog to see all the stats but here are a few of note:
Passing:
(B)Chad Voytik: 11/25, 177 yds, 1 TD, 0 INT
(G)Adam Bertke: 14/30, 162 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT
(G)Rachid Ibrahim 1/1, 22 yds
Rushing:
(B)Qadree Ollison: 20 car, 54 yds
(G)Rachid Ibrahim: 11 car, 28 yds
(G)Chris James: 9 car, 18 yds
(B)James Conner: 5 car, 11 yds, 1 TD
Receiving:
(B)Tyler Boyd: 6 rec, 112 yds
(G)Zach Challingsworth: 4 rec, 79 yds, 1 TD
(G)Chris James: 3 rec, 34 yds
(G)Dontez Ford: 2 rec, 52 yds
Werner also had a nice little recap of some of the 50+ returning alumni football players who came back to Pittsburgh from all points of the compass to attend the game:
Overall, it’s hard to say this was anything other than a very successful spring game. Highmark Stadium is a great venue, and Pitt did an excellent job of bringing out notable football alumni, including Larry Fitzgerald, Aaron Donald (two honorary coaches),LeSean McCoy, Curtis Martin, Jimbo Covert and many, many others.
(Add one more important name to that list; past PITT star HB Lou “Bimbo’ Cecconi who I’ll talk more about later)
So on and so on. Both QBs looked liked that weren’t ready for the opener save for a nice pass here and there. Most of the better passes were thrown by Voytik who hit Boyd on a long pass and had some nice throws on the run. Bertke has a very strong arm but is erratic. Here is his post-game interview and I believe it is the first one of its kind on the internet. Dan72 commented yesterday that Bertke didn’t look ready to play at this level and that’s most probably true. He was on and off with an average showing.
Which is why QB Nathan Peterman is coming in from Tennessee as a two-year eligible transfer to compete for playing time. One conversation I had with an ‘insider’ was that that our OC Jim Chaney is bringing Peterman in to absolutely compete for the starting job and I believe that. The staff is very high on him. If you’ll remember Paul Chryst did the same thing with Tom Savage when Voytik wasn’t ready to start as a rsFR.
Here is a good article written back when Peterman made his decision in PITT’s favor. I direct your attention to this info:
Why Pittsburgh?
Coach (Jim) Chaney, who’s the offensive coordinator there, was my offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach my freshman year and he recruited me out of high school. I just really thought that was going to be the best option for me – to go to a system I already know, to play against great opponents in the ACC. They also have a great academic program that I’m looking to get into for grad school with an MBA, they’re top ranked in their MBA program, a lot of benefits that I saw from it, something I’m really excited about.
How many other schools did you look into for transferring?
About five to eight. It was an interesting process there after the season. Some other schools came in after (I announced my transfer to Pittsburgh). Things were kind of under the radar before it came out in the media I was going to Pittsburgh. Some other schools contacted me after that. I was set on going to Pittsburgh. (Note: those other schools were in the FBS including an SEC school I was led to believe.)
In other words do not discount the weight of importance of Chaney and Peterman’s relationship from the recruiting trail until Chaney came to PITT. The difference between Savage’s journey and Peterman’s is one the length of time to play QB here (2 years vice 1) and the fact that while Savage had no real contact with Chryst before his wanting to transfer Peterman is very well known by our OC.
This isn’t to say Voytik is on his way to the bench, not at all. He played QB well for us last season, especially in the second half of the season. But he has to show that he’s progressed from where he left off against Houston in the bowl game before the coaching staff puts that coveted lock on his starting position.
Back to the game; some things to keep in mind are that while the setup was as a real game competition the truth is the coaches treated it as a last allowed practice and deployed personnel to that end. For example, Conner played maybe the whole first quarter and had three carries before they pulled the bell cow.
But there were some very interesting things happening out on the field also. The chatter about WR Jester Weah having stone hands rang true as he dropped three passes from Voytik that were all catchable passes, two which hit his hands. Not a good showing at all and I can’t see him being a strong contender of a stating position this season.
Sticking with the WRs Dontez Ford make a case for that WR2 job with two nice catch and runs for 52 yards, but who really benefited as far as the depth chart goes was WR Zach Challingsworth who had four catches for 79 yards and a very nice TD on throws from Bertke. I watched former PITT WR and now Grad Assistant Mike Shanahan and Zach Challingsworth talking on the sideline and you can see the similarities between the two. Shanahan was heavier and probably stronger during his playing days but Challingsworth has more speed that Shanahan did. Challingsworth can get downfield on deep balls really well. No sighting of all of WR Chris Wuestner. I hope that wasn’t purposefully done but he may have drifted out of the two-deep picture.
On receiver who got kind of screwed yesterday was rsFR WR Elijah Ziese who had some poorly thrown and uncatchable passes targeted to him by Voytik even though he had his defender beaten on the route and was open. One would have been good for a deep ball TD. Zeise still ended up with one catch for a 26 yard TD so his afternoon wasn’t a waste, but it sure could have been a coming out party with some better passes his way.
On defense the kid I really like, Nose Tackle Tyrique Jarrett, made his mark rather emphatically with his six tackles, four of them being solo and his three tackles for loss (TFL). Sacks weren’t recorded as the QBs were wearing the White “Don’t you dare touch me! Don’t even look at me!” jerseys but two of Jarrett’s TFLs would have been sacks and some other defenders, DB Pat Amara specifically, would have had a sack or two also. Amara didn’t look injured or unhealthy at all as he was when he had missed some practices earlier and he played well on the day.
LB Bradley, DE Ejuan Price who looks like a bulldog out there and is really short and squat for the DE position especially, Safety Reggie Mitchell and DTerrish Webb all looked very active also and were the leaders, along with aforementioned Jarrett, in tackles on the day.
Now, onto some personal and fun notes on the day. Right after I got my Media badge I walked out onto the sidelines and talked with EJ Borghetti and said hello the local beat writers; Rivals’ Chris Peak, Trib’s Jerry DiPaola, Steve Finn, etc and the ones I talked to were all looking forward to seeing how fall camp and the season is going to shake out.
I’d say that whoever I asked their opinion of the staff and the season’s chances each was very positive. That is a good indication that we’ll see at least a little progress. When asked about the player’s attitudes the theme of ‘energy and attention to detail’ was talked about.
Soon after that I sat down on a sideline bench and Mr. Lou “Bimbo” Ceconni, the PITT starting halfback during the 1946-48 seasons sat down with me. We had a very nice and extremely informative talk for about 20 minutes. If you old timers remember Lou Ceconni was also the PITT offensive Coordinator with HC Carl DePasqua in the years before Johnny Majors arrived with Jackie Sherrill in tow for the turn-around 1973 season. (Click on the photo of the ball carrier in Lou’s link above for a zoom view).
I couldn’t get enough of his complete openness in talking about the PITT AD at the time Cas Mylinski and his firing them at season’s end before Majors’ hire. most of our conversation was ‘not for public consumption’ as they say but Ceconni was treated like a visiting rock star by the PITT personnel and I appreciated that new friendship. Talk about a “PITT Guy”! He is it personified. Plus his son, Lou Ceconni, JR played at DB and HB at PITT in 1971 and ’72 under his dad as the OC.
As we got up to leave he asked me to repeat my last name and said “Was your father at PITT after the war?” and I said yes he was in in grad school and I that looked just like him. He then said he knew my dad back then and remembered him. My dad died when I was 13 so that was a real nice thing to hear but just to clarify, PITT was a much smaller school back then and I got the distinct impression they knew each other by getting progressively drunk over over kegs of beer on numerous occasions.
Another kind of sweet thing was that Ceconni was carrying around a small duffel bag and when I asked what it held he said he brought a new football so that he could get some autographs of Fitz and other alumni players, which I thought was somewhat ironic as Ceconni was a real star player for PITT in his own right.
I also had a talk with Rachid Ibrahim’s brother outside of the stadium at halftime. He’s a nice kid from an apparently a good and loving family and he’s proud as can be of his brother and his brother’s success at PITT. He, like a lot of other PITT fans, wants to see Ibrahim get more touches this coming season, especially passes out of the backfield.
Interestingly enough as I walked around with my Coast Guard hat on down on the sidelines, in the stands and in the bar after the game, about 10 or 11 guys came up to me and introduced themselves as Blather readers. Almost everyone I met was a reader but not a commenter. Of course I told them we needed their input and lo and behold “Rayhpgh” chipped in with a comment on the 4/17th article when he got home – he was one of the guys at the “Blather Round Table” even though it was rectangular.
So, a tip of that hat to Chuck, Dan72, Ray, Bob, and Robin for taking the time to meet and drink a beer or two while talk PITT football after the game in Bar Louis’. We will do this again after the Youngstown game but will expect a lot more Blather guys to show up.
One last note. Since I had some drinks early on in the day I decided to not drive to MD but to stay over in PGH one more night. So I drove down to my old neighborhood, Shadyside, to walk around and bar hop a bit for old times sake. First off, when I practically lived in the bars on Walnut Street in the early to late 1970s there were almost no PITT or CMU students there at all on a Saturday night. Not so now as the place is flooded with them and that evening they were in fine Pasado form. Quite a change from the much more real Lawrenceville scene where I had a burger moments before. If you would told me 40 years ago that Lawrenceville would at one time be a cooler place to hang out than Shadyside I’d have slapped the face off the face of your face and had you committed. (My mother actually screamed that at me once while in a rage).
Anyway, so who walks out of a restaurant across from where I was parking but young Mr. Chad Voytik himself? Totally sober in case anyone is wondering. We talked a little bit about the day was and how he was doing with all the changes (very well). I can tell you he is the epitome of a Southern Gentleman. He looks you right in the eye and focuses directly on the conversation and who he is talking with. Not an easy thing to do with three lovely, and I mean lovely, co-eds and a guy friend waiting to start walking around to check out the scene. Interesting end to the evening.
Here is the actual football info that was distributed by the Media Dept on the Pitt website. You all can watch the videos below yourselves and draw your own conclusions. At this point I’m pretty saturated with coach speak and player speak from the last four weeks.
Pitt Football Blue-Gold Game: Postgame Interviews
Coach Narduzzi, Avonte Maddox, Tyler Boyd, James Conner and Chad Voytik. Here is a nice long Photo Gallery of the day’s festivities found on The PITT Live Wire also.
I know people tend to pooh-pooh spring games and discount their value to the team itself but if you could have attended and chose not to I believe you missed out on a great day of PITT football. It was a good day all around and one that PITT can be proud of staging almost to perfection. The team itself might not have benefited from the day but the program sure as hell did.
In BB, Pitt in the running for 6’9 Brown transfer Rafa Maia, who will visit this weekend. He averaged about 10 & 7 the last 2 years albeit weaker competition.
–Whitehead is definitely needed at DB. It’s questionable whether Briggs has the speed to cover anyone going deep. Avonte is tough as nails, but he’s only 165 pounds soaking wet.
Go Pitt.
I know he’s top 20 in salary. Maybe higher ?
~ upitt…such a thing as SlogHockey !
Royal and Mustard. Script. Pitt needs to rebuild its brand. Our uniforms of the 70’s and 80’s were recognizable anywhere. I am glad we looked like all the other teams in the 90’s and 0’s. We were terrible and blended in with other terrible teams. But now, you gotta go royal and mustard baby!
The more I read about J Dixon’s recruiting, the more I get disheartened. We seem to be scrambling for 2 stars and 3 stars. Ugggh!
I thought long and hard about just this subject on my drive up to PGH on Friday and asked about the Peterman transfer on the sidelines and what I believe is that if Narduzzi feels Peterman is a better choice going into the game prep week prior to the opener then he’ll go with him. I already had the impression that Cheney brought Petermen in just for that reason which is why I put so much background info on the two’s history together in this post above. Peterman is no slouch and Chaney knows that.
One thing to understand is that while we PITT fans see things with a real Blue/Gold tint this new staff does not. We tend to like Voytik because he’s a Panther, is a likable kid and waited his time but the bold facts are that he just wasn’t so good of a QB last year that he couldn’t be sat down and have a better QB play in front of him. Here is what he ended up ranked with his peers:
VOYTIK
Pass YPG – 85th – 171.8 ypg
Pass Yds- 77th – 2,233 season
Pass TDs – 64th – 16 season
Pass Eff – 40th – 140.2 season
TEAM
Passing – 102nd – 185.9 ypg
Scoring – 43rd – and that is with Conner breaking Dorsett’s rushing TD record… the passing offense didn’t keep up.
Dr. T — that sucks and when you add that to the team’s overall record of 6-7 there is no reason they should make a change if it will get them more production out of that position.
A week or so ago I posted that our defense blew five games of our seven losses even though we were tied or ahead at the half. That was bad but one other point to note is that our offense didn’t keep scoring to give us a chance to win either.
Pardon my playing junior psychologist but I think some PITT fans are projecting what they want to happen onto the situation and aren’t looking at the roster through the new staff’s eyes. They are bringing Peterman in to compete for the starting job and at worse he’ll enter the season as QB2 and I believe this staff will have a quick hook if they feel the starter Voytik isn’t measuring up.
Season to season QB changes happen all the time in college football, it just doesn’t seem to happen at PITT so far. This new staff has no loyalty to any returning roster player nor should they – it isn’t as if we were some sort of juggernaut that is sacrosanct to personnel changes.
Overall we threw the ball 100 times less than the previous season.
Voytik- 287 attempts
Savage – 389 attempts
Savage had a 5th round NFL draft pick and Dallas Cowboy in Devin Street to throw to besides Boyd. Voytik, not so much, Garner with 17 receptions.
Their completion % was almost identical.
Voytik – 61.3%
Savage – 61.2 %
People say Voytik can’t complete anything long.
Voytik had a great Yards per Attempt than Savage.
Voytik – 7.8 yds/attempt
Savage – 7.6 yds/attempt
And finally Passing Efficiency
Voytik – 140.2
Savage – 138.2
Don’t know much about Peterman other than that he was a flop at Tennessee, who hasn’t exactly been very good (even Vandy was beating them) in the SEC lately.
Does he have any scrambling ability like Chad or is he a statue like Savage and Tiny were.
Cause with half the line being new and the best part having left, scrambling ability might be huge this year.
So he brings his running ability to the plate as well.
Can Peterman run? Because Chad’s running in some of last year’s games was the difference between winning and losing.
Voytik brings a lot more than just throwing the ball to the table.
Peterman is going to have to be one heck of a QB to bring that much to the table. If he does, so be it.
Pitt should have won 9 games last year(Duke, Akron, Houston). For a first year starter for Pitt, that would have been the best first year starter since Marino.
Being on an SEC bottom feeder roster is not like being on Alabama’s or LSU’s roster.
We will still be a run first team and with Boyd, the tight ends and backs to throw to he has a strong arsenal. If Ford, Challingsworth et al can be a little above average we will have a juggernaut of an offense.
As long as the line is at least as good as last year. We may have the best stable of running backs anywhere.
If Peterman does beat out Voytik it means that he is very damn good, which would make us that much better.
My main concern remains our D-ends and Linebackers, hopefully the spring game performance is the first step in developing a competent defense. If that happens it could be a very fun year.
I’d love to see Peterman come in and play better than CV, but I will be very surprised if it happens. CV is a very good QB – who should take a nice step forward after a year of experience.
CV’s problem has been that he can only seem to connect with TB. CV’s passes to TB in the spring game were impressive – the only one off target I can remember was one in the end zone, and that was with throwing in a pretty strong wind. CV must develop connections and confidence and better ESP with Ford, Orndoff, Challingsworth and Zeise over the summer.
CV does have to put more effort into his throws, but that’s what happens when you’re 6-foot versus 6-4, it’s leverage.
Unfortunately, I suspect that the offense will struggle for a few games until Chaney figures out what will work, so I don’t expect Pitt to be scoring 45 points early in the season.
Go Pitt.
BTW Emel, not only was Vinny Sunseri a 3 year starter at Bama, and when he got injured in his senior year, there were a lot of statements of just how much the team missed his leadership.
But I agree … don’t make Peterman to be a superman just because he played in the SEC … he barely played in the SEC. I will be pissed if Chaney replaces Voytik solely on the fact that he had a past relationship.
Further, the other WR starter last year (aside from TB) was a converted TE .. in other words, he was there more for his blocking than his receiving. I just hope this year, there are better options at WR than last year.
I saw Doc and Merle play in a small club in Philly back in ’83 … (sad that Merle, Doc, Garcia and Levon are all gone!)
I find it interesting that fans keep insisting that Chryst “misused’ Voytik in the first half of the season last year when the opposite is true. Voytik’s success in the 2nd half of the season was a good example of starting at point A and getting to point B by good coaching and progressing game to game like a first year starter should do.
Voytik was bailing out of the pocket way too quickly and wouldn’t even look downfield for a pass completion when doing so ever since he came to PITT. He was consistently doing it even through the 2014 spring and fall camps before the season opened. Chryst said publicly, and it was obvious to anyone who watched Voytik in fall camp, that Voytik had to have explicit orders to stay in the pocket as much as possible until his passing came around well enough to allow him to learn how to best choose to scramble out. Chryst was successful in doing that and what that did was make Voytik a ‘passing QB’ rather than a ‘running QB’ and that is exactly what Voytik needed to learn to be.
That made his second half rushing choices all that much more effective. I have said over and over that if you guys had watched Voytik in practices and scrimmages from his FR year on to his being a starter as I and the beat writers did you’d have see the wisdom in Chryst’s approach. Voytik was in no way ready to be a starter with his ingrained bad habits until he was forced to change them in game situations. Which, with good coaching and Voytik’s learning from live experience (the best way to learn something), led to him being a much more well rounded and productive QB then he would have been if that wasn’t imposed on him.
Fands look at Voytik’s second half and automatically assume that it would have been that way in the first six games if Chryst didn’t keep him in the pocket as much as possible and that wouldn’t have been the case.
The bottom line is that Chryst did an truly excellent job teaching Voytik to play QB at this level and the fans don’t recognize that because they couldn’t really see the ‘before and after’ aspects of Voytik’s play. It wasn’t just that Voytik wasn’t a good practice player that led people to wonder how he would be as a starter, it was because he was forced out of his comfort zone he had been in since he played in HS and had to learn to play QB in a different way.
Guys like Voytik that aren’t blessed with the tangibles, take longer to develop. The best thing about Voytik is that he got better and does not make the big mistake often. Someone said he was like Sunseri with a head on his shoulders. I would add that he does not panic when the game is on the line.
I really thought we were done at the Akron game, or at least would see Anderson. I watched that one from an end zone seat and was disgusted by how badly Voytik played. I agree with Reed that Chryst somehow converted that mess, largely by running Voytik against VT and getting his confidence back.
One area that Voytik can improve on is looking down field when he is flushed from the pocket. He throws well on the run and if he can hit his outlet more often he can make some big plays.
Last year Garner, Weatherspoon and others dropped too many catch-able balls. Hopefully we will see a little better production this year.
There is more talent available with more coming.
Either way we should have quality depth at QB, thank Chaney for that.
The first couple games, as Reed said, they had the reigns on him, it appeared to me, they were trying to make him into something that he is not, a total ‘pocket’ passer.
They threw lots of 20 yard down & outs the first 3-4 games of the season. And for most QB’s that is the toughest pass to complete. They reverted back to that amazingly enough in the first half of the bowl game.
After the first 3-4 games, they didn’t call the down & outs, allowed Voytik to run with the ball and get out of the pocket and do what he does best.
So in my estimation they were trying to make him into something he was not. However there were glimpses in those first few games, that Voytik had something special. Like at end of the 1st half against BC in game 2, where he drove the Panthers 80 yards in 57 seconds to give Pitt the crucial points to lead 20-7 at halftime. He also had some key runs, like a 23 yd run for Pitt’s 1st First down of the game, which led to Pitt scoring first.
I don’t think he got enough credit, certainly not by the TV announcers who downplayed anything Voytik did. In fact there wasn’t much positive said by any TV announcer concerning him till late late in the season. Even though he made lots of good to great plays during the course of the season.
So that word mustn’t be on the streets regarding him.
Voytik averaged less yards per completion over the 1st half (7 games @ 11.3) of the season the he did in the 2nd half (6 games @ 14.2 ypc). His completion % in the first half was 61% and in the second half it was 63% – almost equal. But his last seven games of the season’s passing was better than the first six games – that is what you want to see from a 1st year starter.
That happened because he was forced to use the first six games to become a more calm QB and to be more trusting in his OL to create a pocket he could step into instead of just hightailing it out and running. It is exactly what I mean when I said that the tact Chryst took with Voytik in the first six games paid off more dividends in the second half of the year.
Also, there is a great misconception that all of a sudden in the 7th game of the season he was ‘allowed’ to run the ball. The reality is that he ran the ball an average of 7 times per game over the first six games and then had 9 carries per game over the last seven games. Two carries more a game isn’t ‘cutting anyone loose’.
He rushed 42 times for 175 in the first 6 games (4.2 ypc) and then 66 for 297 over the last seven games. (4.5 ypc). It wasn’t as if he were breaking huge long runs and racking up yardage in the 2nd half of the season games as it was almost the same as his 1st half of the season running the ball.
In essence his second half of the season was much better in the passing game then it was in his running game. What we saw here, and I go back to stating that you guys didn’t see how poorly Voytik passed the ball in the spring and fall camps leading up to the 2014 season, was a kid who was forced to learn how to gain time to set and accurately throw the ball.
What we saw Voytik do was become a better QB by learning on the job over the first six games and having the staff put parameters on him to force that to action happen… and it did. Once he broke his bad habits and got good at doing the correct things he was able to let his talent show out.
While I do agree that the down and outs were a problem for Voytik as they were for Sunseri, I don’t think Chryst trusted either of them to throw over the middle much. For two reasons, interceptions, and getting the receiver killed by throwing high or late.
It was unfortunate for Chryst that he had to start three different guys in his three years.
I also agree that Voytik did not get a fair shake from the announcers. Boyd still got his 1000 yards even though fewer passes were thrown. Voytik did have the benefit of the best running game and best O-line of the three.
While Voytik deserves most of the credit, don’t expect him to ever agree that Chryst did anything right.
Sunseri – 393 Att – 3 INTs = .007%
Savage – 389 att – 9 INTs = .023%
Voytik – 287 Att – 7 INTs = .024%
Just as a comparison the NCAA Top Five leading Passing Efficiency QBs had these percentages:
1. .008
2. .032
3. .018
4. .011
5. .017
All our QBs were at the top in those %s in their starting seasons under Chryst.
Fans can complain all they want but the facts are that Chryst is an excellent QB coach and was before he got to PITT.
HTP
wanna guess ? lol
How about more than one QB.
Year 3 of Paulie and we still had a walk-on QB as the backup QB.
And nothing would have changed for this year, as Anderson would have stayed had Paulie.
And had Paulie stayed…this year.
On the other hand who did Wannstedt recruit for that position? The best was Sunseri and everyone on earth but wbb and I thought he sucked. Stull was an average D1 QB. Bostic didn’t live up to his ‘star’ reputation.
Kevan Smith quit on the team and sucked as a QB, Dexter Davidson sucked and never took a snap, Greg Cross couldn’t throw a accurate pass to save his life and ended up as a WR.
Kolby Grey’s best pass was to a groupie in a TX honky tonk joint after he finished his C&W set. In DW’s last year he recruited Anthony Gonzalez who was a pretty good LB.
The hard part isn’t really recruiting star QBs it is teaching them to play well at the D1 level which DW and his staff absolutely could not do. Ask 2 star recruit Scott Tolzien how good Chryst was with QBs – he was a low ranked recruit who was a very good two year starter for Wisconsin and went to the NFL. Then ask Russell Wilson how good a QB coach Chryst was when he went to Wisconsin to specifically be coached by Chryst to learn how to play from the pocket (much like Chryst did with Voytik last year) specifically to become more attractive for the NFL draft. The rest of Wilson’s story is history.
Yes, Chryst absolutely deserves his reputation as a “QB Guru” when it comes to coaching them to play in college. Chryst had some real faults no doubt, game day coaching was one of them, special team play another, but not his work with the PITT QBs he had.
And I never thought that Stull was very good – maybe my opinion was cemented in the Sun Bowl when his deep balls either never came back to earth, or landed out of camera range…
Go Pitt.
And then Tiny came, so that was the end of him regardless of how good he could have become.
Cignetti was DW’s OC his last two years.
Regardless, Pitt won 27 games in 3 years. When will they match that again…..God knows.
It was 30 years the last time.
