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As we've been over a little, there were some bright spots in Pitt's loss to Virginia on Saturday. One thing I was glad to see was the team's utilization of the tight ends a bit more.
In all, Chad Voytik completed five passes for 46 yards to his tight ends - four to J.P. Holtz and one to Scott Orndoff. Holtz also added a touchdown as Voytik found him in the back of the end zone.
To put things in perspective, Holtz and Orndoff had nearly as much production on Saturday as they had in their other four games this year. Coming into the game, the pair had only had a total of six catches for 49 yards and one touchdown.
What we saw on Saturday is something I envisioned more heading into this year. Tight ends are generally good safety valves for quarterbacks and that's particularly true for new ones such as Voytik. Voytik has been criticized for only looking for Tyler Boyd on passing plays and that's really helped defenses stop Pitt from doing much in the air.
The use of Holtz and Orndoff was something that really helped the Panthers and, in the long run, will help Boyd as well. Currently, Boyd draws far too much attention on passing plays and if the tight ends are regularly a part of the passing game, it should open things up for the receivers.
Pitt has some good weapons in Holtz and Orndoff and it was good to see Voytik utilize them on Saturday. Hopefully we see more of it going forward.
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