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Last week against Virginia Tech, Pitt added a new wrinkle to the offense in the form of a read option. The result? Sophomore quarterback Chad Voytik ran wild against the Hokies and was the team's leading rusher with 118 yards on 19 attempts - good for 6.2 yards per carry.
Not only did the read option work, but it really made the team's offense less predictable. Despite all of that, however, head coach Paul Chryst is offering up no guarantees that Pitt will heavily use it again. In fact, he's not even committing to using it sparingly.
When asked about the read option being used in future games, Chryst hinted that it may have been a one-game situation. "I thought it gave us some things," Chryst said. Just because it worked against [Virginia Tech] doesn’t mean it’s necessarily going to carry forward. We’ll see."
I'm really hoping this is just coachspeak and that the head coach is just saying that with the hopes that Georgia Tech won't prepare for it as much this weekend. That seems pretty far-fetched and after Pitt used it so much, I can't imagine the Yellow Jackets wouldn't prepare for it. But, that could be where Chryst is headed with this.
The discontinuation of the read option would make little sense. In quotes afterwards, Pitt quarterback Chad Voytik seemed to indicate an interest in keeping it. As a quarterback with the running ability that Voytik has, removing something that had so much success doesn't seem like an option at this point.
If teams begin to defend it, then Chryst should reconsider. In the meantime, with so much success against Virginia Tech, Pitt needs to keep the option as part of the offense.
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