Paul Chryst and the Pitt Panthers had 10 days to prepare for Thursday night’s tilt against Virginia Tech and it looks like that time was well spent on both sides of the ball, especially when it came to involving quarterback Chad Voytik more in the offense.
Pitt fans often ask “What will happen when Voytik has to win a game?”
Thursday he did exactly that. Just not in the fashion that anyone expected.
Voytik hit Tyler Boyd with a big 53-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter, but more importantly rushed for 118 yards on 19 carries in the win. Voytik even caught a pass from Boyd and when it was all said and done had a hand in 239 of the Panthers’ 331 yards of offense. Numbers that are comparable to Heisman candidates.
“We called more runs and options for Chad,” said Chryst. “We thought that it was something that could provide us a spark to the offense. We got to the point where it was something we certainly wanted to do more of.”
Pitt made it a point to come out and involve Voytik as a runner, using a ton of read option looks on the Hokies and it worked as Chryst started playing to Voytik’s strengths.
Five of the Panthers first seven plays on their first drive came out of the shotgun as Chryst not only trusted his young quarterback to make plays with his legs, but also trusted him to make the right reads as well.
That is something that worked most of the night as Voytik kept the Hokies, who were keying on running back James Conner for most of the night.
“I didn’t know how the game was going to play out,” said Voytik. “We were running a bunch of read stuff and the way it worked out that almost every call happened to be me keeping the ball. We read things good and made some big plays.”
Nothing was bigger for the Panthers the Voytik breaking a 49-yard run, which set up a Conner touchdown run on what proved to be the decisive score.
Voytik broke down what he was seeing from the Hokies.
“They were crashing the end and bringing No. 4 (Ken Ekanem) off the edge,” said Voytik. “The end was my read so when that happens I am keeping the ball. We had a puller and our fullback took care of No. 11 (Kendall Fuller) and I just looked to cut inside of him. That’s what happened on the big run.”
While Voytik had success in the running game, he still missed on a few throws, which is still a work in progress. The throwing game is something that I believe will improve with time, but in the meantime the read option should stay a major part of the Pitt playbook going forward.
It makes sense to play to your quarterback’s strengths and using his legs is something that Voytik was used to doing in high school and something that made him such a highly thought of recruit.
“We will see,” said Voytik. “We had some success with it and should probably keep going to it.”
That doesn’t mean that Chryst agrees with his quarterback as it remains to be seen if the read option will be in the fold next week, even though Pitt had success with it against a team that ranked 16th nationally in rushing defense before Thursday night.
“It got to the point where that is all we were looking at doing,” said Chryst. “I don’t know for sure if we will go back to it. For now it is something that we wanted to do this game.”
Whether Pitt does become a read option heavy team in the future, Voytik certainly impressed his teammates with not only his toughness, but his speed as well as guys like Boyd and Conner both said they knew he was capable of a night like that against a good team.
“He was a beast,” said Conner. “He was confident and did his job.”
Voytik even impressed the guys on the other side of the ball, as the Panthers’ defense, which turned in a quality performance of their own, took notice.
“I knew he was a quick athlete,” said defensive lineman David Durham. “I was really impressed by his toughness. When your quarterback can do that it really inspires the team and fires everybody up.”
With Pitt sitting at 2-1 in the ACC, they are still very much in a crowded race still for the Coastal Division title.
If they are to go on a winning streak, playing to Voytik’s strengths will be crucial.
We will find out in about a week if that will be the case.
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
