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April 22, 2016

Chad  Voytikex-Panther and our 2104 starting QB Chad Voytik is Eastern Kentucky bound. The Football Championship Series (FCS) “Colonels” play in the Ohio Valley Conference  and, if you care to, you can follow Mr. Voytik’s progress on the internet via their “Live Audio” links at this website.

He’s not going to have an easy time of it there if he wants to grab that starting position right off the bat but it appears to be a better situation for him to get playing time than had he stayed at Pitt.

I wrote two weeks ago about the Colonels (Colonel = Eagle; get it?) and their returning starting QB Bennie Coney who has played well there.  However, it wasn’t such great play that he can’t be sat down (we heard that before on here) , but also isn’t a situation where Voytik is going to waltz in and automatically get the starting job handed to him as if there was no incumbent in that position at all.

Coney had decent stats at E. Kentucky with 225 completions in 367 attempts (61.3%) for 2471 yards.  He also had a very good 23 TDs to 8 INTs ratio that showed he didn’t turn the ball over a lot.  That’s about a 10:1 Completion to TD ratio and is very good.  His overall QB rating was 134 and that’s OK too.

I look at that and think he will probably go into the Colonels fall camp as the starter but again, those stats aren’t so overwhelming that he can’t get beaten out (remember that phrase).  I know nothing about his leadership abilities, football intelligence, etc… and that could weigh heavily in the staff’s final decision also.  There is a new HC there and that may help open the door for Voytik to get playing time also.

As we remember Chad Voytik was in the recruiting class of 2012 and was targeted to be the future centerpiece in Todd Graham’s “Pedal to the Metal” offense that showcased a mobile QB who could also pass.

In his senior year in HS he played in 11 games completing 119 passes out of 207 attempts for 1593 yards (58%).  That averaged out to a good 13.4 yards per completion and 145 yards per game along with 10 TDs against 6 INTs.  He was selected to play in the prestigious Army All-American bowl and did well in that highly visible game.

Pitt fans were excited as hell when he committed to play for us.  Here is Cardiac Hill’s Anson Whaley describing Voytik’s commitment.  Read the article and either laugh or cry depending on your sense of humor.

“I’ll admit, I (Whaley) was starting to get there myself. Todd Graham hadn’t yet landed a big-time recruit and while there was plenty of time left, it was definitely something to think about. That all changed with the pickup of four-star recruit Chad Voytik. So now that he’s a Panther (at least verbally), what do we know about the kid?

For starters, Voytik’s not just good – he’s real good. At the recent Elite 11 camp for the top quarterbacks in the nation, he rated No. 1 on the initial leader board after several days of a solid showing:”

Wow, wouldn’t that have been nice if he had met those lofty expectations put on his shoulders by the fans and some of the media?

But he truly was highly rated with 4*s across all four recruiting sites; was ranked between  #4 -#7 on the ‘best QBs’ board and was also rated in the Top 10 Tennessee players in all positions that year.  We liked him even more when, after Todd Beelzebub Graham slithered out under the cover of night, Voytik burned up the phone lines talking to other recruits asking them to stick with Pitt.

That showed us that not only was he a man of his word but that he cared enough about his future university to be proactive helping out the football program with a tough situation found itself in.

So here was a highly rated and highly valued QB who had offers from the likes of PSU, Mississippi State and Clemson and he choose Pitt.  There was a lot of fan chatter back then for him to come in as a true FR and usurp Sunseri as the starter mainly because he could run the ball well also.

Throw in the fact that Pitt fans hated anything to do with Sunseri and that ballooned Pitt fan’s expectation of Voytik also.  Don’t deny it either fans, I remember quite clearly that ridiculously high bar of expectations you felt he would meet and meet it early in his Pitt career.

Back in those good old days during his first years at Pitt we had open practices and scrimmages.  Because of the feel good story of Voytik’s involvement in minimizing the damage to the ’12 recruiting class the media and fans were intently interested to see how Voytik would perform.

The reality was that he performed like an ex-HS QB trying hard to be a productive new college QB. That was about it – he showed quickness with his legs and could complete the shorter and easier passes but nothing he did really jumped out at anyone and made them say “This is a star quarterback in the making”.

In other words he played in camp according to what his talent level allowed him to. But he also had some flaws that shone through and that he had to really concentrate on eliminating.

Because he could run the ball well Voytik had the tendency to do so at the first hint of defensive pressure… or just because he saw a quick opening and he’d take it. That served him well in his HS’s offense and he scored 8 rushing TDs that same senior year.

It was also that strength of Voytik’s game that Graham wanted in his starting QB. Had Graham stayed at Pitt Voytik may well have been the starting QB as soon as his rsFR year and I think would have fit perfectly and flourished in that offensive system.  I was told back then that Graham had promised Voytik the starting job by the ’13 season when recruiting him and that sounds exactly like something Graham would do.

But Fate sometimes throws the Innocent an unhittable curveball and Voytik, instead of finding himself in the 2012 fall camp prepping to learn college ball and compete for the 2013 starting job under Graham, was on the sideline watching tall, big armed and immobile Tom Savage taking snaps as the starter-in-waiting for 2013.

At that time after watching Voytik in camp I thought that he might see where the Paul Chryst offenses were heading and start thinking about transferring to a school where his skill set would match up to an offense that better suited him.  Obviously he didn’t do that and good for him.

But it was back then when we here on the Blather, well… me actually, started trying to tamper the fans expectations about just how good a D1 QB Voytik was going to be in the future.  I wrote on more than one occasion that he’d be able to play at the D1 level but not to expect stardom from him down the road.  Somehow that translated to me being biased against the kid from the start when that really wasn’t the case at all.

Because of my position as a writer about Pitt football and then reading and listening to everything about Pitt I could, in both the public stuff and private conversations, I realized there was a wide gulf in what the fans wanted and expected out of Voytik and what the staff and ‘insiders’ to the program saw and felt.

It wasn’t 180 degrees different opinions – not anything as dramatic as that.  It was more like ‘we have a QB who is just like other QBs’ and that nothing was etched in stone regarding him getting the starting job nor becoming a star at Pitt.  So that’s what we tried to get across on here.

Voytik redshirted as a freshman under returning starter Tino (The Great) Sunseri.  The following season HC Paul Chryst realized the Voytik wasn’t yet ready for prime time and the pressure that brings and kept Voytik seated as the nominal QB2 under transfer Tom Savage.  Voytik did get some work running the scout teams in game week practices and got in some snaps in regular familiarization duty HCs give the understudy to be ready if needed.

What followed in the spring game of 2013 just helped ratchet up those expectations.  Savage made a cursory showing then was pulled for Voytik.  Voytik then put on a passing show by completing 27 of 33 passes for 358 yards, 3 TDs and zero INTs.  Ahhh… were regular season games like spring scrimmages then Voytik really would have been that star QB the fans wanted.  But they aren’t.

So Tom Savage started in ’13 and played OK for us leading the team to a 7-6 record (after a 6-7 season the year before) and looked pretty good doing it.  His numbers weren’t gaudy and truth be told we wanted more out of him, just as college football fans always want more out of their school’s QB.

Voytik played sparingly in ’13 regular season then had a nice showing when taking over for an injured Savage in the 2nd half of the Bowl Game against Bowling Green. For the first real chance he had at showing us his stuff he pulled it off well in leading us to a bowl win.  Again, expectations stayed high.

Fast forward to the 2014 spring game and we … wait! There was no spring game that season.  Instead Paul Chryst worked out his last spring practice with the team doing this.

Going into the 2014 fall camp these are the kids we had on roster as QBs: rsJR Chad Voytik, rsJR Trey Anderson, FR Adam Bertke and walk-on FR Joe Repischak.  You can see that there wasn’t competition for that starting job but also, in a situation much like we have today, no competent back up QBs if Voytik went down by injury or with poor play.

Voytik was the presumptive heir apparent and so kept that starting job going into the opener against Delaware. But it wasn’t a smooth start for him and the coaching staff kept having to drum into him at every opportunity that their offense needed a ‘think pass first, run only if needed second’ QB.

In the first part of the season they purposefully held him back in the pocket to get him acclimated to trusting his OL and stepping up into the pocket to make his throws under real-time pressure.  Doing so paid off when Voytik became more comfortable in that style and so his passing game progressed to match his running game – a better balance as it were.

You can see his final 2014 passing stats below but what that doesn’t show was how the game by game season progressed for him.

SEASON CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA LNG TD INT SACK RAT
2014 176 287 2233 61.3 7.78 53 16 7 20 140.2

In his first three games against Delaware (89 yards passing), BC (111 yards) and then FIU (89) he had a rather shaky start and was reverting to tucking the ball and taking off before it was necessary to do so.  Against FIU he ran 12 times for 114 yards which was nice but at the same time he missed some good downfield passing opportunities.

The staff really put the leg shackles on for the away game against a good Big Ten opponent Iowa and Voytik showed what he could do passing when he forced himself to step into the pocket instead of bolting when the DL started come up along the sides of the OL. He trusted them to do their job against Iowa and he responded with a 250 yards game.

If you remember Voytik had good command of that offense that day and led some extended (by his passing) scoring drives to get us into the 4th quarter carrying a 17-7 lead into the 2nd half.  It was Pitt’s defense that gave the game away there and even though Voytik threw an INT on our last chance drive he shouldn’t have been put in the position to try to win that game.

From that game onward Chad Voytik played solid QB for us.  He didn’t win any games on the strength of his play but his play didn’t lead us to defeats either.  I supposed you could look at his two passing TD game in a 20-14 win against Syracuse as ‘winning’ that game though.

In essence he played average, maybe a stitch above average, football for us overall.  With any QB in his first season starting he looked confused at times, threw some bad passes along with the good and missed some wide open receivers.  But what really helped Voytik was being able to throw the ball to a very consistent and good Tyler Boyd.

In being able to do that, as another QB could do later, he was able to cover mistakes and just fling the ball in Boyd’s general direction.  Boyd’s circus catches helped the offense and that passing combination – Voytik to Boyd – helped us win six games.

But we fans accepted what he could and couldn’t do and I believe all of us were very much looking forward to seeing Voytik build on that full year of starting experience and then playing at a higher level the second time around.

At the very least I can reasonably say that no one though he wouldn’t be the starting QB for Pitt during the 2105 season; he was the incumbent starter, had played pretty well the year before and was, again, with zero competition from those below him on the depth chart.

But Fate was warming up in the bullpen then walked in and threw a nasty slider past Voytik in the form of another transfer QB who had, and bad luck here, played for the Offensive Coordinator a few years before.

Nate Peterman, who was also a 4* recruit in the same class as Voytik’s, decided to leave the University of Tennessee and finish out his two years of eligibility at a school where he had a better chance of starting games.  When Chaney heard that Peterman was contemplating leaving Tennessee he called and discussed the possibility of him coming to Pitt.

Peterman declined to say what schools other than Pitt he was considering, but surely there were some that had a clearer path to a starting job. Chad Voytik started all 13 games for the Panthers in 2014 and, particularly with his late-season improvement, seemed poised for a step forward in 2015.

But those other schools didn’t have Pitt’s secret weapon: incoming offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, who two years earlier, as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator, helped recruit Peterman.  Peterman enrolled at Pitt in May, and said he has been “pleasantly surprised” with how well he has started to bond with his new teammates.

“Being around college football so long makes you a little bit cynical sometimes maybe,” he said. “That’s why I say it’s been pleasantly surprising just how welcoming the players have been.”

None has been more welcoming than Voytik. Narduzzi set up Voytik as Peterman’s host when he made his official visit in January, just to ensure that there wouldn’t be any chemistry issues if Peterman chose the Panthers.

At first this news was greeted with a rather ho-hum attitude by the media and the fans.  I wrote extensively on here that a staff does not get an upperclassman into the QB corps just to sit on the bench.  Schools have younger QBs to do that.  But the main feeling from the readers of this blog was that Peterman was brought in to be a backup and that it wasn’t possible that Voytik could lose his starting job.

Again, the phrase “didn’t play so well he couldn’t be sat down” applies to the situation as it stood then and into the offseason and through the summer voluntary workouts that Peterman also attended.

It was when fall camp began that things started to go tilt sideways for Chad Voytik. It began in early August and after a week or two it was evident that Voytik wasn’t prepared to have actual and solid competition for his starting job.  Contrary to what the mainstream media reporters were parroting from the staff, the play between the two kids was not on an equal footing, as Peterman was showing a better arm and more consistent play in his passing.

By the time the end of the fall camp was approaching you could hear the frustration in Jim Chaney’s voice after being asked hundreds of times if there was going to be a new starting QB.  At one point in the last week of camp he turned to the guy asking and snapped :

“Guys, here’s the deal: Chad [Voytik] is the incumbent starting quarterback and remains the starting quarterback at Pitt,” Chaney said. “Right now there are three other people in my room that are fighting their butts off to take his job.

The key indicator there is that Chaney specifically said “incumbent starter” when describing the situation. A hint of things to come.

But by then they guys who had been actually following the camp (as much as possible as the camp was closed by Narduzzi)… and remember there are really no secrets when it comes to college football teams…knew that Voytik was slipping and Peterman was playing his way up.

The bottom line is that Voytik certainly didn’t perform well enough in camp to shut the door on the possibility of Peterman taking his place.  It was crunch time to show progress from the previous reason, play his best and cement the starting job and that didn’t happen.

That trend kept playing out over the first three games of the season when Voytik took almost all the game snaps against YSU but didn’t really impress with 72 yards passing and 1 TD with 1 INT.  Peterman got his new Pitt shoes dirty in that game with a series or two.

Then Voytik and Peterman split the next game against Akron, Voytik started that game but in limited action threw 6 of 8 for 32 yards (5.3 ypc)  and no TDs while Nate Peterman – taking the yeoman’s share of the series now – passed for 12/18 for 148 yards (12.3 ypc) and a TD.

That showing by both QBs led Pat Narduzzi to say, out of the corner of his mouth apparently:

“I think we’ve got two really good quarterbacks, so why wouldn’t use both of them to help us,” Narduzzi said. “Last week (in a 45-37 win over Youngstown State), we went with Chad More. Today, we just felt like Nathan was a little hotter.”

But here is what Narduzzi didn’t tell the reporters or let out; Peterman had been taking all the game week practices QB1 snaps since soon after the YSU game.  It was Voytik’s poor yards per completion and missing the receivers open downfield to take the shorter dump off passes in the Akron game that cinched the change.  That was the game it became obvious Voytik was playing kind of scared out there and wasn’t coping well with having first to split time with Peterman and then to lose the majority of the series to him.

So the decision that had been fomenting in the last week of camp was finalized prior to the third game and the staff started Peterman over Voytik against Pitt’s first challenging opponent, the Iowa Hawkeyes.  Even though we lost that game on a last second field goal by Iowa to give them a 27-24 win, Peterman showed well under pressure in rebounding after two early INTs to finish with 218 yards and two TDs passes… and thus elbowed Voytik, who had only one pass for 8 yards in the game, to the bench.

After that Peterman played better each week and led to team to four more consecutive wins and that  kept Voytik on the bench.

That was the progression of Voytik’s decline at Pitt. He did well enough in 2014 to be assumed to be a returning starter the next season but the staff knew that he hadn’t played so well that he wasn’t in danger of losing his job if a better player came onboard.

Contrary to the common belief that ‘the fix was in’ with the QB switch I’ll say this – had Voytik risen to the challenge and played better than Peterman it wouldn’t have mattered if there was a ‘fix in’ or not. But he didn’t.  Not one Pitt fan can look me in the eye and tell me he thinks Pat Narduzzi would play favorites if it might cost him wins down the line.  So knowing how things went in camp I highly doubt it was personalities that bumped Voytik off the field after three games.

Why didn’t the staff play Voytik later in the season when Peterman probably should have been sat down? I really don’t know.  I do know that once Narduzzi makes a decision he sticks with it and that may have been the case.  It might not have been based on only football playing issues.

And let’s don’t kid ourselves – Cheney might have gotten Peterman to Pitt and Chaney called the offensive plays but if Narduzzi wanted something done differently he’d make sure it was done that way.

I’ve an inkling that Voytik might have let it slip earlier that he was contemplating transferring and I’m quite sure if Narduzzi knew that a player on his roster was thinking that way he sure as hell wouldn’t bend over backwards to keep the player. Which, by the way, Narduzzi didn’t do in the least when Voytik publicly announced his intent to quit the team and transfer.

But let me be clear about something – I never got the feeling or heard anything about Voytik backing down from any challenge put forth to him.  His situation, again as I understand it, was that his play slipped when a new face showed up and didn’t recover enough to keep the job.  We all saw him in action and I believe we all feel that he’s a go-getter with a strong drive to win.  He sure demonstrated that quality on the field in 2014.

Looking back over Voytik’s three years at Pitt shows me a few things.  First is that overly high expectations for a recruit, and then the recruit as a young player, isn’t a good thing to do especially if fans haven’t seen the kid throw a pass even in practice.  It helps no one to give the player unrealistic standards for a future he’s not talented enough to meet.

Second is that not everything that happens in football is cut and dried. Voytik committed to Pitt and then stayed committed when others didn’t.  He worked hard, kept his nose clean and did what was expected of him on the field and in the classroom. Then eventually was he named the starting QB. He went full charge into games with his teammates and played to the best of his abilities… yet it still wasn’t enough for him to keep that starting position in the long run.

And third; that human nature is what it is and sometimes it isn’t as kind as we’d like it to be. Chad Voytik could function well when there was no one breathing down his neck. When that strong position competition did come to Pitt Voytik had a tough time handling it and it showed up in his play both in the camp and in the games. And because of that it opened the door for Peterman.

All that isn’t a criticism of the young man on my part, at least I hope it isn’t read that way. What went down with Voytik is a human reaction that is unfortunately found among some athletes and… surprise, surprise, in us regular folk too. No one is perfect and when you are discussing college football you have to look at all the things that can both affect these players – both positive and negative.

Factor in that for two seasons Voytik was excited and ready to be the starting QB then abruptly had the rug pulled out from under him.  Savage being brought it specifically to start in ’13 (the year promised to him by Graham) and then Peterman being brought in to compete in  ’15 must have sent a message that disappointed Voytik and, I’ll assume, helped him to make that decision to transfer.

But he’s going to land on his feet. Yesterday he announced his post-grad destination and his intent to meet his new football challenges and competition head on. He’s a straight shooter, I saw that right away in my conversations with him, and I believe that he’ll work his ass off to try to get a starter’s job back.

At the very least he’s at a place that doesn’t carry any emotional baggage for him and so can start off with a clean slate.  I dare say it will be more fun playing in that conference and at that lower level also. He sure didn’t have much fun at Pitt in 2015 so let’s hope he regains that sense of joy at being a football player who is actually out there playing now that he’s at Eastern Kentucky.

So – to steal a phrase from Bob Hope… “Thanks for the memories“;

 

Here are Voytik’s stats when he was at Pitt:

SEASON CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA LNG TD INT SACK RAT RAW QBR ADJ QBR
2015 16 24 112 66.7 4.67 55 1 1 4 111.3 20.3 16.3
2014 176 287 2233 61.3 7.78 53 16 7 20 140.2 65.0 71.1
2013 6 11 116 54.5 10.55 62 0 0 0 143.1

 





Voytik deserves a lot of praise as a Pitt man of character. His case shows how difficult it is to be a college QB. Only one can play, all the rest work hard and practice, but hold clipboards on Saturdays.

Voytik lived through one of the darkest eras of Pitt Football, and helped to keep a recruiting class together. He got to be a hero saving one of the few bowl games that we have won.

He then ran one of the most productive offenses we have seen, it must have been fun having Conner to hand off to and Boyd to pass to.

Unfortunately for him, another coaching change and a QB transfer derailed his career.

I completely understand his desire to continue playing somewhere else and hope he has great success, he totally deserves it.

Comment by gc 04.22.16 @ 7:32 am

Reed

Great post. You should take Dipola and Werners salary. They haven’t written an article like this since….well…ever.

I wonder if the new coaching staff where Voytik is going is changing the offense and it better suits Voytik and not the returning starter?

Comment by notrocketscience 04.22.16 @ 7:42 am

The 2014 highlights make me miss Chryst as an OC. He utilized the talent much better than Chaney.

Also, having Garner opposite Boyd was huge. The staff did not do a good job of getting another receiver to step up last year…..or maybe it was the play calls. Either way….now you know why Chryst is considered one of the best OCs in college.

Head coach is another story.

Comment by notrocketscience 04.22.16 @ 8:00 am

Reed – GREAT article!! I echo Rocket, you are the best unpaid writer around. Look you in the eye? Nobody on the Blather can look you in the eye, you’re like the David Robinson of the Coast Guard – our Big. I’m not even biting on THE THIRD GREATEST QB in Pitt history.
Thanks Chad for persevering through it all. Good luck and HAIL TO PITT!!

ps This is indeed a heck of an article and shows how in the crazy coaching merrygoround someone can get thrown off the horse. GREAT. Now get back to the great American novel.

Comment by rkb 04.22.16 @ 8:10 am

It was also a shame that Voytik had to play with one of Pitt’s worst defenses ever. He and the offense were plenty good to win more than 6 games.

Comment by gc 04.22.16 @ 8:12 am

Good point gc

Comment by notrocketscience 04.22.16 @ 8:17 am

So Chads new OC coached under Dan Mullin and at his last stop (a CC) he averaged 50 point per game. Hope he ends up starting.

Comment by notrocketscience 04.22.16 @ 8:21 am

One thing that impressed me with Paulie over Chaney was that after several games of trying Chad as a dropback passer he went to a moving pocket that moved right, Chad’s preferred side, and Chad did well.

Comment by rkb 04.22.16 @ 8:23 am

QB – To me, there are some common threads with regard to Voytik and Bostic. Both were 4 star QB recruits that turned out to be markedly over-rated by the recruiting services. More importantly, both were high character young men who will be looked upon favorably by almost all fans due to the way they represented the university.

With regard to CV in particular, I always thought he’d win the job against NP, he had a leg up in our system, was a hard worker, and NP’s pre-Pitt exp. was suspect. I was wrong. In my opinion, Chad’s biggest problem was reading defenses. In a more mobile system, reading defenses is less critical and also allows CV to take advantage of his skill set better, so hopefully he will find a good fit in his new home.

Like notrocketscience said, I think the biggest negative change in our offense was the downgrade from Chryst to Chaney. I am hopeful that our third C is a charm…

Hail to Pitt.

Comment by 1618mt 04.22.16 @ 8:44 am

Voytik… “The Man, the Myth, the Legend.”

Comment by PittofDreams 04.22.16 @ 8:45 am

“Tino (The Great) Sunseri”??? spewed coffee on my desk thanks to that line Reed.

Comment by Tony in Harrisburg 04.22.16 @ 9:12 am

Reed, you keep thinking you were the first to dispel the “Myth” part surrounding Chad Voytik.

I do remember you reporting some of the negatives from Spring Camp a few of years ago after the much-ballyhooed Chad Voytik arrived on Campus.

But you might remember… I know many here do… I began posting words of CAUTION about the future Pitt “Star” Quarterback going back to his Senior Year in High School.

The first look at Voytik was his High School Highlights like those you posted where he looked pretty impressive. The first thing that jumped out at me was that he looked Athletically Superior to just about everyone else on the field. The truth is… he was and there was good reason for it.

Look a little closer and you’ll realize MANY of the Players, lineman included… were only about 5-10 and pretty slow. Cleveland Tennessee High School plays in 3A in rural Tennessee which equates to about AA in the WPIAL… maybe.

That was the first Red Flag… but not a deal killer.

The first real concern about Voytik possibly being OVER-inflated as a talent came toward the end of his Senior Season when ESPN featured Cleveland High as its High School Game of the Week in a National Broadcast.

The Future Pitt Star who many were buying in to as the savior of Pitt Football ended up getting benched. His replacement was a Sophomore Quarterback would go on to put up BETTER Numbers and more WINS at Cleveland High than Voytik.

The other tip off that Voytik was WAY OVER-hyped by many of the “experts” came in that Army All-American Bowl where you described his performance as “did well.”

As I posted at the time, the one positive Voytik showed in that Game was that he really was a GOOD ATHLETE. His highlight was a leaping short run into the end zone for a score.

But there were more negatives with Voytik looked completely over-whelmed in the face of the rush of the D-Linemen who were far from the 5-10 he was used to back in Tennessee. Needless to say, his passing under duress was NOT good… much like it was throughout his career at Pitt.

There was plenty of evidence back then to suggest Voytik might not be ALL that. Somehow it got missed by the majority who chose instead to attack anyone who dared to poke holes in Voytik’s abilities as a Quarterback and dare to question his “FOUR STARS.”

Boy, how times have changed.

Comment by PittofDreams 04.22.16 @ 9:27 am

panther94, a few days ago and a few threads ago, I linked at story from PittburghSportsNow which stated that Knight was not interviewed for the Pitt job. In fairness, here is a story that contradicts this right from the horse’s mouth
link to triblive.com

Comment by wbb 04.22.16 @ 9:34 am

By the way, Austin Herink, the Quarterback who put up twice the numbers as Voytik at Cleveland High…

Today he is a Redshirt Freshman QB at Eastern Tennessee.

Kind of puts Voytik’s landing at Eastern Kentucky in perspective.

Comment by PittofDreams 04.22.16 @ 9:41 am

Voytik was a tough kid who couldn’t hit a ten yd out pass on the run to save his life. I wish him nothing but the best!

Comment by Dan 72 04.22.16 @ 10:17 am

Should have stayed would of had another opportunity.

Comment by Tackle made by Hugh 04.22.16 @ 10:18 am

Here are the High School Highlights of the other transfer QB who is going to be of those competing with Voytik at Eastern Kentucky.

Tim Boyle was Connecticut High School Player of the Year who went on to win and obviously lose the starting job at UCONN.

You be the judge as to who has a better chance of starting.

link to youtube.com

Comment by PittofDreams 04.22.16 @ 10:38 am

Highlights are highlights

Comment by wbb 04.22.16 @ 11:22 am

wbb, thanks for that link. Seems like that confirms he got an interview.

PoD, I guess if you mostly post words of caution or even negativity, you can always point back to that saying that you were right. How about taking a different approach…who do you think coming in will live up to the hype? What do you think of MacVittie?

H2P

Comment by panther94 04.22.16 @ 11:51 am

Hmmm….Eastern Kentucky is able to do a good job stocking its QB position in the off season. Why can’t HCPN?

Comment by HbgFrank 04.22.16 @ 12:00 pm

Happy 50th birthday to our favorite football coach! And this may surprise you but I’m not talking about Todd Graham

Comment by wbb 04.22.16 @ 12:54 pm

this is pretty cool
link to twitter.com

Comment by wbb 04.22.16 @ 12:56 pm

panther94… No, I was pretty specific about Voytik’s shortcomings prior to his enrollment at Pitt.

Shortcomings like his tendency to fold under rush and a less than strong arm. He also had some problems with his throwing motion which to his credit he dramatically improved in his first two years at Pitt.

At same time I was also clear about his strength being his athleticism. “Strong Athlete” was the phrase I used.

For being one of the very few willing to question Voytik’s status as an “Elite” prospect, I was accused of simply being Anti Chad Voytik which wasn’t the case.

Always respected the Class Voytick always seemed to show regardless of whether the chips were up or down. Really liked his gutsy performance in the Pizza Bowl and rooted for him in the battle for the starting job with the incoming Nathan Peterman. However, clearly Peterman was the Man.

To address your second question, I’ve been wrong about other Quarterbacks… the one name coming to mind is Adam Bertke.

Really thought he had a chance to be pretty good given his tools and his history of being a Winner in High School which Voytik wasn’t.

However, my optimism regarding Bertke was tempered a year ago after seeing him for the first time in the Spring Game.

Does not command the pocket which he should for someone being 6-6.

As for MacVittie. What’s not to like. A BIG, Athletic Kid who put up really solid numbers while just learning to play the position of Quarterback.

He does have some significant hitches in his throwing motion, but there’s no reason to think this is something that can’t be smoothed out with time.

Comment by PittofDreams 04.22.16 @ 2:01 pm

POD – I just spent almost a whole a day writing 4200 words and the first thing that comes to your mind to comment on is a declare you ‘were first’ in a non-existent dispute. Gee, thanks.

However, I never said I was the first – I mentioned the previous statements about my sharing my opinion about Voytik on The Blather because it was germane to the thrust of the article. Talking about Pitt football is not a debate or a race… on here it is supposed to be a conversation.

Regarding MacVitte though – have we ever seen a QB who comes to Pitt with a ‘hitch’ or any weird stuff going on with his passing motion who has actually had that hitch “smoothed out”?

I can’t remember anyone at Pitt ever getting any better with a physical hitch in their motion.

HGBFrank – that is exactly what Narduzzi and Chaney did prior to last season.

Let’s remember something here folks – the staff still has 3.5 months to get another transfer QB in. Peterman didn’t contact Pitt until June last year.

Here’s a small prediction – if we get another eligible QB on board Bertke will quit the team. However, I’ll also say there is a good chance he leaves before the August camp anyway. I think the handwriting is on the wall with him at this point.

Comment by Reed 04.22.16 @ 4:37 pm

I’m trying to visualize a ‘hitch’

No QB should be offered a scholie unless he can throw the phuckin ball accurately and hard.

Comment by TX Panther 04.22.16 @ 4:42 pm

Why do all the linebackers get offered a QB scholie at Pitt? Cant we find a real QB???

Comment by TX Panther 04.22.16 @ 4:43 pm

Whew… Reed had me worried (especially after seeing Bostic’s half wind up issue in person), but MacVittie’s “hitch” should not be an issue at the college issue, maybe not even at the pro level if he were blessed to make it that far some day… I’m not saying he’ll be successful at the D1 level, but if he’s not, it won’t be b/c of the “hitch”. And NO, I don’t think it’s reatlstic or a good idea to try to change throwing motions at this age…

Comment by 1618mt 04.22.16 @ 5:16 pm

I just wondered if anyone actually remembered if we had a QB who changed physical attributes (in throwing motion) and succeeded.

BTW – working on a Pitt Blather Facebook page due to popular demand. I’ll post something if I really get a page up and running.

Comment by Reed 04.22.16 @ 6:33 pm

Reed,
Will everything, excluding the Likes of course, that is posted on the Facebook page, be available here? I quit Facebook a long time ago because I absolutely hate it. I love this site, though.

H2P

Comment by panther94 04.22.16 @ 7:30 pm

Reed – almost every kid coming out of school has a hitch. They’re generally easy to fix. His hitch can’t be worst than NP’s. I read it’s gotten better but I am curious if he reverted back to it in the spring game. Voytik would have been a stud under Graham. He’s just not a west coast QB. We can say what we want about him but it really comes down to not being a good match for the systems run at Pitt after Fraud bolted. We all rooted for him because he’s loyal and truly wanted to be at Pitt. That’s also why you write about a guy who didn’t pan out and left the program … There’s some tragedy in there. Most of you know I hate a pro style offense in college football. I really would have liked to see him run a read option offense for a few years.

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 04.22.16 @ 8:11 pm

Btw … Twitter is a better social media forum for something like this.

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 04.22.16 @ 8:12 pm

I won’t use twitter.

The only thing I’m doing on the Blather’s Facebook page is posting links to articles that have been already posted on here first – I even asked the Facebook readers to comment on here in the Blather article’s section vice Facebook.

So it is really just a conduit to get people into the conversations here.

Comment by Reed 04.22.16 @ 8:38 pm

Tweets are for twits

Comment by TX Panther 04.22.16 @ 9:48 pm

Reed… seriously… you spent a whole day writing 4200 words about Chad Voytik?

Comment by PittofDreams 04.22.16 @ 9:56 pm

Reed +1….love the time and effort and opinions. Blather is the only place for pitt discussion. Love all the posters here.

Comment by htp123 04.22.16 @ 10:14 pm

Thank you Reed and Chas, for all of the great articles. Having a large family and living far away, I can’t make it back to the ‘Burgh very often. This site is my way to feel connected to my university.

H2P

Comment by panther94 04.22.16 @ 10:25 pm

Reed – that’s all I meant by Twitter. Just tweet out the links. It’s a glorified up to date news feed. The commenting is done here. FB is more for socializing. Twitter is more for dispersing information.

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 04.22.16 @ 11:27 pm

I agree with Tossing Thabeets as I also hate the pro stle offense in college football. I also would have liked to see the read option run by Chad Voytik. I also agree with TXPanther “Tweets are for twits” and I can’t stand Facebook either as panther94 said. I did go on Facebook yesterday trying to win a contest for a $6,000 dollar wedding ring for my wife.I could sell it for 6,000 and get her one for 3,000 and pocket $3,000!

Comment by Boo Boo #1 04.23.16 @ 5:05 am

Reed…..awesome post.

***
Chad…THANK YOU for your contributions to the program. AWESOME PERSON who will do very, VERY well post-college. A man of his word. Hard worker, classy person.

1. Appreciate all of the diligent work that you did in keeping the original recruiting class together.

2. Unfortunately, not blessed with “height or arm ” genes of the typical successful QB.

I wasn’t a fan of your work ON THE FIELD @ Pitt.

Will continue to wish you and your family all of the best in future.

HTP!!

Comment by The Truth 04.23.16 @ 5:59 am

I like a mobile QB but most importantly I like it when the offense fits the personnel especially the QB …. or visa versa.

Bama won a lot of recent titles in a pro set (not last year) but it also helps to have a good defense and OL. Offense creates defense but I think you would find that the Final 4 this past season all had really defenses also.

Comment by wbb 04.23.16 @ 6:04 am

PoD…yes, 8 hours is about right for all the research I am doing, then writing, two (at least) drafts then proofreading.

Here is a link to the standards for public writing like we do on here…

link to driveconvertmonetize.blogspot.com

So you can see what I mean. We put out way more content than any other Pitt football coverage by far.

For example the Cardiac Hill blog piece on Voytik’s transfer is around 400 words and the newspapers are even less than that.

That’s why you guys pay so much to read articles on here…?

Comment by Reed 04.23.16 @ 6:25 am

Tossing – I disagree on the “hitch”; unless its something extreme as in Bostic’s case, just leave it alone. I believe they’re too old to “fix” at this stage, and MacV’s is wouldn’t negatively affect him at the college level, not at all.

Comment by 1618mt 04.23.16 @ 6:56 am

Pitt recruit Bricen Gardner of CC took home a gold metal in the triple jump at 45ft 7.5 inches yesterday at the Butler Invational.

Comment by alcofan 04.23.16 @ 7:00 am

I doubt anyone on here is an experienced QB coach…the hitch comments are funny.

Quick release and arm strength are all they need.

Does DeNucci have either?

Comment by notrocketscience 04.23.16 @ 7:01 am

notrocketscience – one more thing, far more important than those 2 qualities- decision making in the pocket. It wasn’t just Chad, a lot of college QB’s struggle with this.

Comment by 1618mt 04.23.16 @ 7:10 am

Reed “Thanks for the memories” Chad made for some exciting highlights.. A couple of plays here and ther in 14 and we have 3 more wins. He is a good kid and will do well in life. I was in his corner and rooting for him. He made the right choice. His spirit needs a fresh start.
Thanks for the great piece Reed.

Comment by BigB 04.23.16 @ 7:11 am

Reed… I’ve complimented you on your writing before.

You are a talented writer. Extremely coherent in your delivery and the amount of effort you put in is pretty obvious.

But it’s Chad Voytik.

My suggestion is spend a month and write 100,000 words or more on James Conner.

Find a publisher and have it on the shelves by the start of the Season.

It will sell.

Comment by PittofDreams 04.23.16 @ 7:14 am

I woke up a little stiff today.

Comment by Dan 04.23.16 @ 7:31 am

PoD – that sounds like something you should do.

I wrote about Chad Voytik specifically because of all the long and debated discussions we had on this website about him.

And quite honestly, I think looking at athletes who have had interesting backstories and flaws are more compelling stories that a subject that you know at least 100 other writers are going to address in detail such as Conner’s story – which still isn’t finished BTW.

I think James Conner is a fantastic young man and am interested in how things unfold but at this point I don’t see a compelling ying-yang factor there. His story is all good and while that’s nice it isn’t all that interesting to a writer. Again, we’ll see how his Pitt story plays out in a year or two, but everyone and his brother will be writing about that.

But we had so many back and forth on here about Voytik – with strong emotions and even accusations being thrown about I wanted to make sure that his complete Pitt story was being told – and also my feelings about Voytik in general.

It really bothered me that some select readers on here accused me of ‘hating’ Voytik when that was far from the truth. I just won’t shy away from pointing even some negative things out about Pitt football when I write. As you could see as you look back over what I wrote in articles or comments about Voytik I never impinged on his personal character. But because I wasn’t all sweetness and light about his play and how things unfolded some people had the wrong impression.

As I said above doing stuff like this is something that I feel puts the Blather in a bit of a different league than other blogs – and maybe that’s because other blogs and media sites have a word restriction on them… or maybe just because I have a lot of time on my hands and can do this.

Either way I think everyone enjoys these long ‘magazine’ style articles every once in a while.

Comment by Reed 04.23.16 @ 9:36 am

Lol Dan.

Comment by panther94 04.23.16 @ 11:09 am

Pod you bust Voytik at all times but as I mentioned years ago Berthke who you deem as ‘special’ will never see the field of play. Let it go, for you it seems like a personal vendetta. Voytik took his demotion with class.

Comment by WLAT and the Big Beat 04.25.16 @ 8:28 am

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