I have been very conflicted about writing more about Pat Bostick getting inserted into the Navy game at the very end. I’d rather move on to the Rutgers game. The problem is, I haven’t stopped thinking about it, and the answer given has not resolved the issue in my mind.
As soon as it happened, I was confused by the decision. The annoyance quickly followed, but not at seeing Bostick in there, or at Wannstedt’s decision, per se. I was annoyed because, despite, a fantastic performance by the defense. Despite McCoy absolutely shredding Navy’s defense. Despite seeing Baldwin being used as a real deep threat. Despite an aggressive game plan. Despite all the good, that decision at the end of the game was going to turn into a major topic and distract from all the good stuff.
Coach Wannstedt’s answer after the game hardly cleared anything up.
Heading into the season, coaches were adamant that the plan would be to redshirt Bostick, thus preserving a fifth year of eligibility for him, and let Bill Stull hold the starter’s job for this season and next. Under that plan, Bostick would then have two years of eligibility to be the starter once Stull graduated but now that he’s played in a game, he will only have one. Theoretically, though, he could take a redshirt next season and still have two seasons, but that seems unlikely at this point.
Wannstedt was cryptic in his answer about Bostick’s redshirt.
“We’re trying to win games and [Bostick] is our back-up quarterback right now and if something happens to Billy [Stull] he has to go in and play,” Wannstedt said.
When asked a follow-up question about whether he was concerned about preserving Bostick’s redshirt, Wannstedt answered sternly, “No.”
So, a coach known (and liked in the media) for being open and transparent suddenly becomes tight-lipped, and gives a coachspeak answer and won’t explain. And answer that goes against all private statements and implied statements by Wannstedt and other coaches to all those who cover Pitt football. No, that won’t cause a lot of arched eybrows and questions.
Take Paul Zeise in his Q&A from yesterday.
Personnel decisions are often second-guessed and most of the time for the wrong reasons . But the decisions to not play Elijah Fields — for even one snap — and to burn Pat Bostick’s redshirt so he can hand off three times and take a knee (and then explain that he needed to “get some work”) are both puzzling — and that is being kind. Bostick was supposed to be the franchise quarterback — in playing him for three meaningless snaps you’ve basically told him and the world that he is no longer regarded as that because if he was, you’d want him to have as many years of eligibility to be the starter as possible. And the bottom line is this — if you don’t think that he is the guy for the future, that’s fair. And if you think Tino Sunseri is — and he might not be — why burn his redshirt — especially for a guy like Bostick who has done everything they’ve asked, who works hard and who doesn’t embarrass himself or the program? Why not tell him that you’re not sure he is the guy and give him the option to transfer somewhere (like a Division I-AA program) and have his three years of eligibility remaining intact. Those three snaps did nothing to “get him ready” in case Stull goes down so it just smells like a “not-very-well thought out” plan.
A beat writer is around the team and coaches all season. It’s rather obvious no one saw this decision coming.
You know what that does. It creates conspiracy theories, hypothesis, rumors and speculation. And not just here and on the message boards. Even a columnist from one of the papers sees it as the most compelling thing coming out of the game and joins in the decoding of the deeper meaning.
The second point has more long-term ramifications. Evidently — and Wannstedt will deny this from now until the end of time — the Pitt staff doesn’t believe Bostick is their guy for the future. If Wannstedt felt otherwise, he never would have played Bostick, the starter as a freshman last season by default after Stull’s hand injury in the opening game, until he absolutely had to play him. That would be pure lunacy. Wannstedt likes Bostick as a quarterback better than Cross and Smith, but …
Fair or not, these are the conclusions a lot have reached.
Now to be fair to Coach Wannstedt, I’ve never heard or read explicitly that Bostick would be redshirted. Some have written that before the season, Wannstedt appeared on Joe Bendel’s radio show and said words to that effect, but I can’t confirm it.
This is about as close as Wannstedt had come to the issue — and obviously he left a lot of wiggle room — prior to the start of the season.
The topic of Pat Bostick being redshirted this season has been brought up but we will not make that decision this week. We’ll do what we have to in order to win this first game. We’ll take things one week at a time concerning our backup quarterbacks. Obviously we’ll have a plan should something happen to Bill but that wouldn’t be revealed until that situation occurred.
And that plan wasn’t unveiled until game six? In his Rutgers preview press conference, he did address the Bostck situation. Sort of.
On Pat Bostick as the primary reserve at quarterback:
“Well, the way our season’s been to this point, we haven’t really had an opportunity for any other quarterback to play. The discussion was, and is, that we’re trying to do everything we can to give our team the best chance to win this year. I think if Pat’s going to be the backup quarterback and if Bill got hurt on the first snap, then we’d expect Pat to go in. He’s got to have some playing time. We haven’t had him take any snaps in a live game since last year so that was the thinking behind putting him late against Navy. It wasn’t the redshirt thing or anything else. The decision to name him the back-up was based solely on what gives our team the best chance to win. He won’t necessarily see action every game. We’ll see how every game unfolds. He felt good about getting in there. In practice, he takes the back-up reps and he’s prepared to play so nothing’s really going to change with his status.”
I know, Pitt’s riding high and questioning success seems excessively negative, but Coach Wannstedt’s decision-making and the explanations — especially regarding back-ups is maddening.
This seems a lot like the way he responded to using Greg Cross. First, declaring there is/was a plan to use him, then explain how things just haven’t worked out to in the game to do the things they wanted.
Putting Bostick in there for one series where his only duty is take the snap under center without fumbling, firmly place that ball in Sharriff Harris’ stomach without fumbling the exchange and then get out of the way. Repeat two more times and run off the field to let the team punt.
I’m sorry, I know I didn’t play the game. I just don’t see how that helps him or the team. Yes, he hasn’t seen live game action since last season. That series hardly does much to change it. The explanation and reason just don’t match the actions.
I’m glad that Bostick is apparently happy with the explanation Wannstedt gave him. That’s nice. It still doesn’t change anything regarding the situation. It isn’t fair to Bostick, since it now subjects him to a whole new set of swirling rumors — almost all negative. It was all something that could have been avoided, and it all falls at the feet of Wannstedt.
Finally, go check out Part 1 and Part 2 over at Cat Basket as DPJ tries to make sense of this. Some excellent stuff.
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