Before we get serious here – have fun with this…

News out of the Southside today is that there have been some discussions about players discussing transfers with the coaching staff.  Not too surprising is that the first to surface is Chad Voytik’s discussion with Pat Narduzzi.  Sam Werner has tweeted this on the subject:

Narduzzi says he has had “a little bit” of discussion with QB Chad Voytik about possible graduate transfer. #Pitt.

Werner then followed that tweet with this:

Narduzzi: “Chad knows we want him here, but we want what’s best for Chad, too. I know it’s not easy being a backup quarterback.”

This isn’t earthshaking news really. I think most Pitt fans figured that once this staff sat Voytik down onto the bench in favor of transfer-in QB Nate Peterman that Voytik would be looking around.

Personally I felt that Voytik would stay the course and either try to win the starting job back or be the solid #2 QB ready to go in place of Peterman if needed.  In my opinion Voytik doesn’t have a solid shot at a starting job in a D1 school as he really isn’t that talented of a QB to just waltz in and grab that position from an imcumbent

Of course he could be looked at by a coaching staff as a one year in-between stopgap QB much like Pitt reached out for Tom Savage back in 2013.  Much more likely is that Voytik, who I believe is about to graduate in the spring semester, will drop down in division and play as starter there.

Either way, whatever his decision is, it will be made for the fun and competition of playing football which he obviously enjoys.  I’d like for him to stay as another QB who is proven to be able to pass and run the ball efficiently and for us to have those skills in reserve if we need them.

Here is a bit of news about a younger player on the team, LB Jamal Davis.  He was a nice 3* pickup out of Ohio who had some other good scholarship offers during his recruitment and I was glad when we landed him.

Davis redshirted his true FR season last year and really didn’t get much PT this season except for special teams.  He played in 10 games with one tackles and one “QB Hurry”.  Good luck to him in the future wherever he lands next.

Here are the 5^th year seniors who will have to exit stage left… except possibly for Ejuan Price who has been in discussions about applying to the NCAA for a 6th year of eligibility due to his being injured so much of his first four years at Pitt.  That application can’t be entered until the end of the last game of the current season – so I’d expect Price will do that on Dec 29th.

Now, here is something pretty dramatic to show just how you this roster is and has been over the last two years.  we don’t have any Seniors who have to decide about requesting the staff for a 5th year of play.  None.

SR TE J. P. Holtz was a four year player since his true FR year as was SR DL Darryll Render.

Which if my math is correct means we only have, at this point, 11 scholarships to use for the 2016 season.  Add the fact that Tyler Boyd is most probably going to declare for the draft as soon as the season ends, and adding Voytik and Jamal Davis to the list of the departed and that works the number up to 14… one over where our 2016 commitment list currently stands.  If that is true we may well see a Paul Chryst-like purge of existing roster players to add room for the remaining 2016 targets that everyone is crowing about.

Narduzzi had this to say about Boyd in his recent press conference (P-G’s Werner’s Red Shirt Diaries):

– Wide receiver Tyler Boyd will have to decide within the next month or so whether he will return to Pitt or declare for the NFL Draft. While he’s widely expected to leave, Narduzzi said no decision has yet been made.”We’ve had conversations,” Narduzzi said. “We’ll go through the process, finish up this bowl game and see where he ends up. To me, it’s what’s best for Tyler? Whatever’s best for him, we’re going to make sure he gets.”  The deadline for Boyd to declare for this year’s draft is Jan. 15, so he’ll have a few weeks after Pitt’s bowl game to make up his mind.

However, as I said my math is either incorrect or the local recruiting guru, Chris Dokish, expects that purge to happen and he’s saying that we should have a recruiting class of around ‘20 or so’.  Here is his take on who are remaining targets are (article is a wee bit dated).  If that 20 target is correct and my ciphers above are also correct that means we’ll see six players having their computer access blocked, handed pink slips, told to pack their belongings and clear their dorm rooms and then security will escort them outside the building…. their severance check will be in the mail within two weeks.

As wbb pointed out below; here are the rs SRs who may be having looking tough decisions soon:

This is the part I hate about the college football.  I’m of the mind that if a high school senior accepts the offer from Pitt to spend four years at the university as a student/athlete then I believe Pitt should honor that four year verbal agreement.  We used to try as hard as we could to do just that but times change and the circumstances in the recent past have changed Pitt’s mind into more of a what have you done for me lately type of deal.I’m not even going to speculate on who those kids might be and I hope I am wrong on my numbers take on the above.  However, we have already seen in a big way how this staff doesn’t look at the roster and say “Gee – this player is a starter so we have to keep him there”  I’ve an inkling that if this staff doesn’t recruit you you are pretty much on the trading block… with a few exceptions like Ejuan Price as mentioned above.

There are four year scholarships allowed by the NCAA now but I can’t find any info on if Pitt does this or not.  I have a feeling they don’t.

So – if someone can shed better light on all of this please weigh in… as I have said before recruiting isn’t really my strong point.

Here is a treat to get you onto your workday.  Because we want Navy to beat Army, soundly, this weekend so that we play a 10 win team in the Military bowl – this is a video done by Middies about getting thier 15th straight win over Army.