After sitting out a season to satisfy NCAA transfer rules, Tom Savage is back in control under center for an FBS football program.
Wednesday afternoon, head coach Paul Chryst announced that, as expected, Savage has won Pittsburgh’s starting quarterback job and will start the prime-time opener Sept. 2 against Florida State at Heinz Field. Savage beat out redshirt freshman Chad Voytik for the job.
The reason behind Chryst’s decision is a relatively simple and straightforward one.
“Right now, he gives our team the best chance to win,” Chryst said according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I like what he has done to this point. It is a reflection of where Tom is at. I feel really good and confident with Tom.”
The move to the Panthers and ascension to the starting job is just the latest twist in what’s been a roller-coaster career.
Savage was a Freshman All-American at Rutgers in 2009 and started the first four games of the 2010 season. He lost his starting job to freshman Chas Dodd that season due in part to injuries and in part because off utter ineffectiveness — he wasn’t even ranked among the top 100 quarterbacks in the country in pass efficiency when Dodd passed him on the depth chart.
It was announced in January of 2011 that Savage would be leaving the Scarlet Knights, with an announcement a month later that he would be transferring to Arizona. After Rich Rodriguez was hired by the Wildcats in November of that year, and was bringing the spread offense to the desert, the pocket-passing Savage announced in early December that he would again be transferring.
After briefly flirting with a return to Rutgers -- and having a hardship waiver for immediate eligibility denied by the NCAA -- Savage moved on to Pitt in June of last year.