Tino Sunseri Gets Starting Nod; Sun Also Rises

This was about the worst kept secret, but Paul Chryst has officially named Tino Sunseri as his starter. For those holding out hope that Chad Voytik would come in and impress so much this fall that he might be considered (which was always a pipe dream), Chryst appears to have shut down that notion.

In speaking this week, Chryst says Sunseri is his man:

"The biggest thing for quarterbacking is being able to do it and doing it on a consistent level," Chryst said. "That’s your normal progression. He clearly was the best this spring that we had. You’re aware of the history but it doesn’t really matter for us. What do you have right now? It’s our job to coach them and how can you help everyone get better? He’s got a great opportunity. He has played in a lot of games, he does have experience. He’s got room to grow. If he chooses to grow, and I know it’s easier for us to say last year or two years before that doesn’t matter. It matters in the sense that you should learn from all of it, positive or negative. But it doesn’t matter going forward.

Don't get too excited, though. This:

"Right now, if you were to say who gives you the best chance to have success, it would be him. So coach the heck out of him."

Backhand compliment much?

This has been beaten like a drum, but Sunseri really is the team's best option. Neither Trey Anderson nor Mark Myers did anything of note last year when given the opportunity and it sounds like they didn't do enough this spring, either. To me, there was never really much question about Tino starting. But there's a much better question to ask when it comes to Sunseri.

And that is - can he hold onto the job the entire year? Anderson and Myers will no doubt be pushing Sunseri from the start. And while Voytik playing in his first season is probably a bit of a long shot, if things go bad enough ...

I think we can all agree that Sunseri will be better than under Graham's system. He's also a year older (and hopefully wiser) and he also gets his top targets, Devin Street and Mike Shanahan, back. The passing game almost has to be better by default, but the only question is, by how much?

Be sure to join Cardiac Hill's Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @PittPantherBlog for our regular updates on Pitt football and basketball.