Tom Savage's mysterious disappearance in Pitt's spring game

The spring Blue-Gold game on Friday had an interesting twist when starting quarterback Tom Savage saw very limited action, despite being rusty and new to the offense. Many (including me) figured he had to have been a bit banged up, but head coach Paul Chryst said that wasn't the case. The plan was to get Voytik a lot of playing time:

Chryst said reps for Voytik were by design... Just wanted to get him lots of snaps.

— ESPN ACC (@ESPN_ACC) April 13, 2013

There's no mistaking that Voytik played well, but if this is really true, the move to play Savage so briefly made little sense. Chryst is working with a quarterback that hasn't played in a few years and is learning a new system. If he's really the projected starter, wouldn't you want him to get some more reps? Particularly in an exhibition where defenders aren't trying to rough him up?

So where are we going with this? Well, there are a few options:

Chryst is being completely honest about wanting to get Voytik snaps: Let's take a look at this - if true, you've got to ask why. Chryst has been treating Savage as the starter in the spring and as I said before, he could use all the work he can get. It simply doesn't make sense to want to give the backup the majority of work.

Savage could indeed have been injured: Chryst comes across as a pretty straight shooter, but does the possibility exist that Savage suffered a minor injury? Sure it does. All coaches do what they can to protect information that they believe to be worth guarding.

Chryst could have been so impressed with Voytik that he wanted to see more: This is probably the most far-fetched in my mind. This was a spring scrimmage where the play is always to get guys work. There's no way would Chryst abandon that plan because someone is playing well.

Chryst simply knows what he has in Savage: This could tie into my first point about wanting to get Voytik work. Savage hasn't been around the program a ton, but he was with the team last year while he had to sit out. He's also been with Chryst all spring for the second straight season. In other words, I think Chryst may just know all he needs to about Savage. And if that's the case, maybe he just wanted to see more of what Voytik could do.

Whatever the reason, the decision to not play Savage after that was interesting to say the least.

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