Yesterday we looked at the four of the last ten QB recruits we have landed and it wasn’t that pretty.  Today we’ll look at the last six QBs and because they are more recent, less Pat Bostick in ’07, we’ll probably remember more of what they did or failed to do for the team.

Remember we are looking at recruits and not transfers or walk-ons and the scores awarded are based on what they did as QBs here at PITT and not how they may have contributed in other way such as playing defense as in Gonzalez’s case.

Anthony Gonzalez, 2010 – This kid was loved by the PA HS football fans and PITT made a hard push to get him onboard beating out other schools like PSU, FSU, Oregon, Clemson and  Maryland for his services.  After taking a redshirt his first year Gonzalez played a lot on special teams and sparingly at QB. In line with his dual-threat reputation coming out of HS DW had him run the Wildcat a few times as a rsFR.

Of course, as is the inevitable fate of PITT QB recruits it seems, he ended up on defense in 2012 where he found a home and played well for us at the strong side linebacker position. Here is what Gonzalez thought about all the moving around from QB to H-Back to Safety to SLB.

Guess being suspended twice from the team didn’t hurt his playing chances much.  The first time was for a drug bust and second for being a bad boy.  I wonder if that is the first time a PITT player has been suspended by two different head coaches as this involved both Graham and Chryst.  Maybe he’ll make it into our record books based on that.  I don’t think even Elijah Fields pulled that trick off.

SCORE: C

Mark Myers, 2010 – Myers’ story is an interesting slice of the college recruiting business. He was a successful HS QB in Ohio who either wowed the recruiting scouts or left them with a ‘what’s the big deal’ attitude.  Here is what Rivals had to say about the kid coming out of HS:

“Lauded by Rivals as the top quarterback prospect in the state of Ohio following an exceptional senior year at St. Ignatius…arm strength earned national recognition by the scouting services…was rated No. 4 on Rivals’ “country’s strongest arm” list…named the No. 11 pro-style quarterback in the country by Rivals.”

The other scouting services listed Myers as follows; Scouts.com had him at a 3* and the 32^nd ranked QB then ESPN followed suit with a 2* rating and listed him as the 102^nd best QB.

The bottom line with Myers is that colleges became enamored with his strong arm and overlooked the fact that he really wasn’t the sharpest or most dedicated QB around.  He showed those less-than-positive traits while at PITT when he had trouble understanding Graham’s playbook and then slowly slid back away from the competition and resumed being a laid-back college student who also played football as a hobby.

As much as fans were looking forward to seeing Myers behind center on a regular basis, and I think we all were, it really wasn’t in the cards considering Graham made it very clear he wanted a dual-threat QB to run the High-Octane Offense. So the primary two QBs were Tino Sunseri and Trey Anderson both of which could at least run a bit.

Cardiac Hill did a nice piece on back then Myers getting a shot at playing under Todd Graham:

“Todd Graham addressed the Myers issue during his weekly press conference :  “Mark is basically our third quarterback and he is our backup punter. He is doing a good job. We’re not going to play musical quarterbacks and get ready to play a football game. He is definitely a guy that we have looked at…he is a guy that is in the equation as he progresses.

Where Coach Norvell and Coach Magee feel like we are at, that is what we are going to do. Our starting quarterback is Tino. I have said that all along. He knows what he has to do to get better and we know what we have to do to get better as an offense.”

A few things here -It’s incredible to me that Myers was passed up by a walk-on freshman (and one that wasn’t all that heralded coming in) that has only been with the team for a few months. That, maybe more than anything, speaks to where Myers is at this point.

Right before the 2011 spring game started I had a chance to have a couple of beers and talk with Myers’ father, a great guy who didn’t hesitate to look reality in the eye when discussing his son’s future at PITT.  It was evident that Myers was going to leave as soon as it became possible, which he did after throwing only four passes and completing one during the 2011 season.  The QB needed in the new offense with Graham as HC just wasn’t going to be in Myers’ favor.

One thing to remember about Myers though is that put his impending transfer on hold when  Gonzalez was busted soon after the spring game on May 20^th and it was evident Gonzalez was going to be suspended, possible for a long time.  That was an unselfish act that was, to me, very impressive.

Graham pretty much begged Myers to stay and fill that gap and Myers did – even though he knew he wasn’t going to get hardly any PT at all. For that alone we fans should thank Mark Myers for sticking in helping PITT out.  BTW – Graham also tried to convince Bostick to return to the team but that wasn’t going to happen.

Myers made a good choice to leave and play where he could get on the field as a starter and have fun doing it.  I truly believe that as the type of young man Myers was that last point was the most important to him.  Which is what a playing sport should be.

SCORE: D

Tra’von Chapman, 2012.  His story is well known with PITT fans so we won’t go into great detail here.  Chapman was a consensus 4* recruit as a dual-threat QB and some talking heads felt he was going to be the PITT QB of the future under Paul Chryst.

Chapman was arrested on assault and unlawful restraint charges because of a violent altercation with his girlfriend. This happened three months after enrolling in January and right after participating in the spring practices and game.  The chatter in the media was that Chryst would keep Chapman on the team but possibly suspend him for up to a year due to the serious charges.

We on the Blather wrote that given the previous years’ bad publicity PITT had experienced Chapman would have to be dismissed, especially after PITT was forced to fire newly hired HC Mike Haywood for much the same actions.  However, Chapman sealed his own fate when he went public with a conversation he had with Chryst that you just know Chryst and PITT wanted kept private…

“The plan is to have me back,” Chapman said. “I want to come back. Coach Chryst and everyone else want me back. Mr.  Pederson is presenting the case to the chancellor and the chancellor is going to decide.”

The decision made by Nordenberg to expel Chapman happened almost immediately after that quote hit the newspapers .  That incident and the punishment he received made Chapman one of four of these 10 PITT QB recruits to never throw a pass in a PITT uniform.

SCORE: F

Pat Bostick, 2007 – Bostick’s back story is one of the most interesting things which happened in college football I can remember.  To start with he was a very highly rated QB coming out of Central PA and was projected to be a starting QB at PITT sooner rather than later, but there was virtually no doubt in our minds that he’d be a good one and take us ‘to the next level’ (had to get that in)..

Scouts.com was the most enchanted and gave him a 5* rating and a 6^th national rank.ing  The other two sites followed suit with 4*s and between a 6^th and 12^th rank.  This was a kid who had all the tools and was ready to get to it.

Only he didn’t and he wasn’t. Bostick had a highly publicized detour while driving on the turnpike when reporting in the night before the ’07 Fall Camp started which took him out of camp for the first two weeks and pretty far behind when it came to learning the offensive playbook.

DW had recruited Bostick and understood what had happened so he didn’t hold it against him as far as finishing camp and getting ready for a redshirt FR year. That redshirt year was bumped back twice, once when he was forced into the starting role due to injuries as a true FR and then again in 2008 when DW inexplicitly burnt the redshirt when threw Bostick into a game in a meaningless role.

What actually happened there was Wannstedt telling Bostick in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t part of the future starting lineup at all. DW gave Bostick a redshirt year in ’09 but in reality Tino Sunseri was named the starting QB the week after the ’09 bowl game and the rest is history.

But Bostick left his mark on the program in leading the team to PITT’s biggest win in 30+ years when we beat WVU 13-9 to keep our rivals from the national championship game. The next year, after that burnt redshirt game Bostick QB’d us to an overtime win against ND on the road.

Bostick saw the handwriting on the wall after the ’10 season and since he had his degree already he finished his four years and began what has become a very highly successful career both with PITT as a Director of Athletic Development and a voice of the Panthers on PITT’s flagship radio station 93.7 The Fan.

Cardiac Hill had a good piece back in 2011 entitled The Curious Case of Pat Bostick which is worth reading.   Plus, Bostick had the best radio quote I have ever heard.  When a obnoxious PSU fan called into his show and stated that PSU was a much better program just because they had more highly rated recruits than PITT had Pat said “That’s no big deal, I was a five star and look where I am now”.  Perfect…

The bottom line in the Pat Bostick story is that he has positively impacted and influenced PITT football probably more with his knowledge and personality than he ever did with his talents on the field even as good as those two wins were.

Strange as it may sound he keeps paying back the University for giving him the chance to play ball with unswerving loyalty and continued hard work and will for some years to come.  In many ways he has become the face of PITT football to a lot of  people, especially donors and media types.

SCORE: C

After those eight entries we come to two QB recruits who have both lived up to most fan’s expectations and made very real and successful contributions to PITT football over the last five years…

Tino Sunseri, 2008 –  A consensus 3* recruit and ranked between 12^th and 24^th nationally.  Sunseri was a homegrown kid who played HS ball on the PITT campus at Central Catholic. His father was an All-American at PITT and  was a good friend of  Dave Wannstedt .

A funny thing about Sunseri’s recruitment is that he originally verballed to Louisville then switched to PITT and 3* QB Zack Stoudt out of Ohio (son of Steeler Cliff Stoudt) had verballed to PITT and switched to Louisville after Sunseri made his move.

Sunseri is easily remembered by PITT fans, for both good and bad reasons and is probably the most polarizing PITT football alumni of all time.  As successful as he was on the field, and he was to an extent that he’s had the best W/L record of any PITT QB in years, no fan can every look directly at what he did in his three years as a starter for us and ever feel happy about it.

Make no mistake, statistically Sunseri ended sitting way up in the top slots of PITT’s all-time offensive records and yet all that didn’t translate into the sterling play you would expect with someone with those numbers.

“Started every single contest the past three seasons (39 games)…finished his career second all-time at Pitt in total offense (8,591) and third in passing yards (8,590)…saved his best season for last, completing 65% of his passes (256 of 393) for 3,288 yards and 21 touchdowns against only three interceptions…his passing yardage in 2012 marks the second-highest single-season total in Pitt history…had a streak of 271 consecutive passes without an INT…”

There really isn’t much more to say about Sunseri except that he was a good recruiting ‘get’ and as such ended up as a three year starter – which is about the best you can expect a QB recruit to do.  Which brings us up to date and looking at our last listed QB, Chad Voytik.  Oh, BTW – Sunseri went to Manning’s Passing Camp also.

SCORE: B

Chad Voytik – 2011.  Voytik was also a highly rated recruit before he came to PITT.  Most sites had him as a 4* and Rivals listed him as the 4^th best QB prospect in the nation along with the #1 recruit in his home state of Tennessee..  Pretty heady stuff.

Voytik was recruited by Todd Graham to be his offensive centerpiece of the High Octane Offense.  Graham split and when Paul Chryst watched Voytik in the 2012 spring practices he saw that Voytik wouldn’t be ready to start as a rsFR and promptly went out and grabbed Tom Savage.

That’s no knock on Voytik, few rsFR QBs are ready to play D1 football.  So Voytik’s ‘active’ career at PITT started last year where he went from opener to bowl game as the team’s leader.  He started slowly and gained momentum to have a good 2^nd half of the season.

We are ready for him to break out and really take control of the offense and the team in ’15.  His work ethic is strong and he’s a dual-threat QB who can pick it up and run with the ball… to the tune of being PITT’s 2nd leading rusher last year.  Here are his stats from his first year and they are pretty impressive;  Passing: 176/287 for 2233 yards and a 61.3%; 16 TDs and seven INTs;  Rushing: 108/466 for a 4.3 ypc average and three TDs.

He’ll have competition in the form of transfer Nate Peterman who was recruited by and played for PITT OC Jim Chaney at Tennessee, but odds are that Voytik will keep the job and grow into a better QB all around.

SCORE: B

So there they are.  Ten HS QBs who at the time of their recruitment really looked like they would play good ball and contribute to PITT wins. The truth is that only three of them ever played QB for us for any length of time and only two out of the ten can be considered having successful careers by any measure of the word.

The one thing that also jumps out at me is that only Bostick and Sunseri ever entered into what could even remotely be called a QB competition… and even that is a stretch. I feel that lack of having to bust ass to be better then the next kid to win the starting job hurt PITT and the QBs themselves .

For instance, I think Sunseri might have played better ball if he knew there was an honest chance that he’d be sat down for poor performance. But he had two head coaches that would never do that – no matter how poorly he played.

Things may be different in the near future with this competition issue. JR Nate Peterman was brought into take part in a true QB matchup and let’s hope that Chaney, as the OC and the QB coach, lets Voytik know that he’s not irreplaceable out there and that we have another QB who is also talented and can step in if called on to do so.

Wouldn’t that be a change for PITT?  Almost hard to believe.