As we have seen in Pat Narduzzi’s first three years he is transfer happy as any coach. By my count we have had 12 transfers who have played football for Pitt since 2015 and four more who will be starting their initial years at Pitt this season. That is a lot and Narduzzi has come to rely heavily on them. But how has that worked out for us?
I am of two minds about incoming transfers. One one hand they can be immediate help as we have seen with a few of the kids who came to Pitt from other schools. But on the other hand I firmly believe that it plays havoc with not only your recruiting but also with the attitudes and prospects of those who are already on roster and looking forward to contributing.
Obviously there are trade-offs to consider when accepting transfers and a strong risk/reward aspect comes into in play. The question really is how much are you willing to give up for a shot in the dark chance a transfer might actually work out and contribute more than an existing player. Is it worth bringing in a upperclassmen if it means losing a promising underclassmen because of the move?
Before we get into this issue any deeper let’s look at who Pitt has taken in via the transfer route and how they did for us. These are the transfers I can remember us having since Narduzzi was hired and how I though their contributions ranked. Then we’ll look at each player more in-depth.
Right off the bat you have to give our Offensive Coordinator Jim Chaney and Pat Narduzzi major kudos for taking Nate Peterman’s phone call when he decided to leave Tennessee and look elsewhere. Peterman had played under Chaney when Chaney was the offensive coordinator for the Volunteers so he knew him rather well. While Peterman had limited playing time at UT he had skills that were unrealized during in-game conditions and truly blossomed after he arrived on the Southside.
Not only did Peterman usurp incumbent QB Chad Voytik as the starter two games into the 2015 season but he then lead the team to eight wins that season and followed that up with one of the best seasons any Pitt QB has had – which lead to another eight win year in 2016.
That big help at that crucial position cemented Narduzzi’s new hire status at Pitt because it had been six years since we had back-to-back eight win season (2009-2010) and, let’s face it, at Pitt eight wins has been pretty rare and is a big deal. I believe it is entirely reasonable to say we wouldn’t have won that many games had Peterman not come to Pitt and we had to start Voytik for the entire 2015 and 2016 seasons.
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