I can’t blame him for deciding to transfer after he gets his degree in the spring.
“Chad has been a tremendous leader and teammate during his Pitt career, and certainly during the year I had the opportunity to coach him,” Narduzzi said. “We wish him the very best and will help him any way we can as he maps out his future pursuits. We will always consider him a Pitt Man. His contributions have been invaluable to what we are building here.”
“I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to attend and play for the University of Pittsburgh,” Voytik said. “I am blessed to have met some amazing people along the way: teammates that I’ll always be friends with, coaches that made me a better player and person, and fans that offered a tremendous amount of support. Pittsburgh will always be my second home.”
I wish him nothing but the best.
Let me start by repeating something I am know I have said on Twitter, and I’m pretty sure I have said on this site. It is not conflicting or inconsistent to think:
A. Nate Peterman was the better option at QB in the offense Pitt ran this past season.
B. Chad Voytik was not given a fair chance to keep the starting QB job.
God knows I don’t want to rehash all of this. And it is a very fair point that with a new coaching regime, Chad Voytik wasn’t entitled to keep the job simply because he had it last year. And if he had done more in training camp, to separate he could have made it moot.
Just worth noting:
Voytik 2014: 176-287, 61.3% completion rate, 2233 yards, 16 TD, 7 INT, 7.8 yds/pass attempt
Peterman 2015: 193-314, 61.5% completion rate, 2287 yards, 20 TD, 8 INT, 7.28 yards/pass attempt
Tyler Boyd 2014: 78 receptions, 1261 yds, 44.3% of total team receptions, 52.2% of total receiving yds.
Tyler Boyd 2015: 91 receptions, 926 yds, 47.1% of total team receptions, 37.4% of total receiving yds.
The differences statistically have never been that vast. Perceptions and preferences play a much bigger role as far as the relative superiority of one player over the other in general. The tight ends were utilized far more in the receiving game in 2015. In 2014, they were primarily there for blocking, and the majority of what could have been their receptions went to the running backs. That is more on the play calling than the QBs.
The bigger difference, was in the style of offense that was run this past year. It definitely did not play as much to Voytik’s skill set as it did to Peterman. Favoring shorter passes over the middle of the field. And that, ultimately made the difference in why Peterman was the better option at QB for Pitt this year. Voytik clearly struggled with those throws, fearing mistakes and missing the receiver. The departure of Jim Chaney did give Voytik pause.
“I feel like I was given a fair shot, but at times, things might’ve been a little unfair,” said Voytik, who declined to elaborate.
“I just think it was the perfect storm of events that worked against me a little bit. That’s life, though.”
When Chaney left Pitt last month to become the offensive coordinator at Georgia, Voytik said it did give him pause about his decision to transfer. There was a chance that the new offensive coordinator could bring in a system better suited to Voytik’s strengths.
“It definitely made me reconsider a little bit because in my mind, the new coordinator’s going to make it maybe an open competition,” Voytik said. “I don’t think I wanted to wait around and see how that hire would go and stuff.”
Voytik is obviously looking for a place where he could compete for the starting job. He is reportedly interested in playing closer to his native Cleveland, Tennessee as well. That does make Memphis the most logical fit, with the graduation of Paxton Lynch and a new coaching regime helmed by Mike Norvell that would fit Voytik’s style.
As for Pitt and the 2016 season, there are already rumblings that Coach Pat Narduzzi is looking at potential graduate transfers QBs who could create more competition and depth. Some of that will depend on who is ultimately named the offensive coordinator. Given the way 2015 worked out, it should be reasonable to say that Nate Peterman should not make any assumptions about his status for the upcoming season.
1. Chad Voytik
2. Bart Houston
3. Alex Hornibrook
4. Karé Lyles (RS)
Pitt has announced that Chad Voytik is transferring.He will be a 5th year senior in 2016 and eligible to play right away, and given Wisconsin’s past history of bringing in transfers I could really see this happening. Voytik played well for Chryst in 2014, and the offense was molded around his mobility a lot more. He could be a perfect placeholder and transition QB to help the offense grow toward having a more mobile, modern college QB like Karé Lyles.
D.J. Gillins’ transfer complicates things depth wise. 3 QBs at a Power 5 school is on the low side so look for a walk on or grad transfer to fill in.
What Chryst does in 2016 with the QB position will shape his entire tenure at Wisconsin. Will he stick to traditional Wisconsin football, even after the offensive disaster that was 2015? Will he look at other schools in the conference who have embraced modern football styles and have won despite less talent? He has three QBs who offer different skill sets that could take the offense in many different directions…only time will tell.
Never knew Street just saying he has had a bad pro career. You guys are so sensitive. Look at the numbers.
Nobody there named Boyd.
Made him better than most, including me… ever thought he could be.
Can only imagine what Peterman might do with Chryst’s tutelage.
I didn’t bring up anything regarding Street’s stats at Pitt.
I said he was fortunate to even get drafted in the 6th round off a middling college team. And even more fortunate to make an NFL roster as a 6th Round draft pick from a middling college program.
~ PoD
Wisconsin has had plenty of QB’s that were successful with less talent than CV. Like the kid that just was QB for the last 3 years, who never had as high a QB rating as CV in the 3 years(fulltime) he played.
Yet they won 38 games in 4 years.
Bollinger… and some other Guy named Wilson.
Now Johnny Manzeil as 1st rounder from Texas A & M is at this point a bust.
you and upitt with his pictures, have the proper perspectives!!
Limas Sweed, would be the epitome of a draft bust.
Or only on ESPN 3 ?
He is Trainwreck.
RGIII to Dallas.
Whatever needs to be done, to keep that going, I’m all for. 🙂
Gave me reason to check my Cable Grid.
Yep Pitt game on Fox Sports Carolina’s. yeah!
upitt you’ll probably like this site.
Really and truly mesmerizing if only from an anthropological perspective.
Stultifying.What IS the draw? The season is over, Chad’s shortly gone and what the DEVIL could possibly be left to say about it??? Whom are you going to convince at this late date? Your selves? I wonder what part of your lives are sooo deficient that it requires this laxitive induced storm of driveling over somebody elses actual real world life.
My New Year’s wish for you several sad cases is that your find some healthier outlet for this seemingly insurmountable angst.The world offers countless distractions. You could take up the collecting of coins or stamps or failing that womens undergarments. No judgement. Some of you of a more athletic nature may prefer water sports or a nude Twister league. My guess is that outside of this ritualized and onanistic fascination with Chad Voytik you must have lives filled with tedium and pathos.
This is a college sports blog concerning all things Pitt….what do you expect.
Hardly anybody likes it when I got off to other tangents anyway.
Sheesh, what a schlep.
i wish i could say i was busting my ass all day studying, but wasn’t. i was dreaming of putting the stones to some of the girls that looked like that, but alas i didn’t do that either!
BTW, you certainly don’t have to read our “laxitive” induced storm of drivel. But, thank you very much for caring.
Trousers – I graduated from the General Studies Program at Pitt. I understood like 9 words in your paragraph.
We blatherers can and do beat a dead horse better than anyone on the internet. Especially when there is little else of news worthiness for us to discuss. Your post serves as a reminder of how meaningless all of our discussions are, but we will continue to have them because all opinions are welcome entertaining or not. The best ones seem to be those that have defenders on both sides and no clear cut winners.
We enjoy these debates and self flagellation, otherwise we wouldn’t be Pitt Fans. Most people like me that attended the UNC, Miami, and Navy games would have given up long ago. But as long as we have guys like Dr. Tom and his unending positive attitude, most of us are able to maintain stiff upper lips.
Your prose is delightful as it’s message is demeaning. Nice Work.
Maybe you would like to join our discussion of a new OCS.
Wisconsin offense often struggled. Wisconsin QB Joel Stave had 11 TD and 10 INT during the regular season.
Wisconsin defense carried the team (against a fairly soft schedule).
Dr Tom: Attitude is correct. Being in Pgh I have noticed many many more people wearing Pitt apparel, dont know if this is my imagination. People see my Pitt clothes and strike up conversations about the program. Cant make it up the mountain without taking a first step in the valley. H2P
I can’t think of another college field worse than Pitt’s as far as logo’s, conf’s and such on the playing field.
As I noted on here after watching some video on the George Hill recruit, all of those HS’s in Ohio had better looking fields than Pitt’s at Heinz.
And since that is the Front Porch of the Front Porch of Pitt sports and indeed the University…and is seen by vast numbers of people on TV, both regionally and nationally.
It really is…. a disgrace.
Badger fans talking about how much Joel Stave improved under Paulie.
link to pbs.twimg.com