Pitt has been on the receiving end of some transfer quarterbacks the past few years in adding Tom Savage and Nathan Peterman to the roster as they played in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Now, the Panthers find themselves on the losing end of one.
With Peterman grabbing the starting job at Pitt earlier this past season, Voytik was left to sit on the bench and has officially announced his decision to transfer from the program. The move was speculated before, but it was made official earlier today. He called the decision 'bittersweet' in a Post-Gazette interview (definitely head over there and read the whole article - well worth it.) and also said a few interesting things.
One such thing? He thought about staying at Pitt when offensive coordinator Jim Chaney left for Georgia:
"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."
Personally, I can see where he gave it some thought, but (and I really don't want to speak for him here since I don't know the situation), I would be surprised if it was a serious consideration. At the end of the day, whoever Pitt hires is still up in the air. He would be coming back to a place and situation that would still be a big unknown. Even if a new coordinator opened the job back up, he would have to still win it. Why do that when you have only one year left and you can start immediately elsewhere?
Voytik even sort of hints at it not being a tough decision in the article when he said he wasn't going to say he was 'real close' to coming back to Pitt. I think his mind was mostly made up and the Chaney departure may have made him pause slightly, but was probably never a huge factor in possibly returning.
I also give Voytik credit for acting like a true professional in stating he thought he was treated fairly by Chaney.
"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."
That is the complete opposite of what a lot of us felt but even though he easily could have thrown his former coordinator under the bus (especially since he's no longer here), he didn't do that. That's a great lesson for a lot of players in college - don't burn any bridges, boys and girls. You have no idea who you might be playing for down the road. Crushing Chaney there really wouldn't have accomplished much, anyway. Still, I give him a lot of credit for taking the high road on that one when he very easily could have gone the other way.
As to where he might end up, the article says that he wants to play closer to home (which is Tennessee) and that there have been some initial discussions with Memphis since they recently hired Mike Norvell, the offensive coordinator under Todd Graham that initially recruited him here to Pitt. A key here is that, as a graduate (to be) transfer, he's able to go anywhere without restriction and can play next season.
Wherever he goes, I think it's safe to say that he deserves a chance to start. He may have gotten that here with a new coordinator but I also think it would have been hard to unseat Peterman the way he played this season.
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