Highlights from interviews with Pitt coach Paul Chryst and Panthers players after the 24-19 win by UVA.
Pitt coach Paul Chryst
Opening remarks: “Certainly give Virginia a lot of credit. They’re a good football team and we didn’t do enough to win on our end and they did some really good things.”
On what he told QB Chad Voytik at halftime: “Well, it’s one of those games where we thought going in, you’re going to be under some duress and I thought he competed. We were bad on third down and yet the ones that we did get, he made some plays. And playing that position, it’s no different than any position, but particularly at the quarterback spot, you have to play with a short memory and you just have to keep playing. I thought he did some good things, and I said that their defense is a good defense, and we didn’t do enough good things.”
On Chad Voytik’s second-half play: “One of Chad’s strengths is competitiveness and I didn’t feel that there wasn’t that. I think there were situations that were a little bit different in the second half. I think guys made some plays certainly, and it didn’t go how we wanted certainly in the first half. I didn’t think there was anything different with him. I didn’t sense that in the first quarter and the second quarter. So, we just kind of went over the things we were going to do and how we were going to attack it. I’m anxious to watch this tape.”
On the snap penalties: “Yeah, those are hard. They reviewed James’ [Connor] run so it was third and real short on the goal line and that one hurt us. And then we didn’t make a play on third down. We certainly thought about going for it, it would’ve been fourth and six, but I thought it was really important, too, that we get some points out of it. That one hurt and we had a couple other ones. So, Virginia’s defense really created some negative yards and we compounded it with the pre-snap penalties, and that makes it harder.”
On if the noise contributed to the snap penalties: “It was a good atmosphere, but any time you play on the road in this conference you’re going to have noise. So, I’m not going to say it was the noise.”
Sophomore Quarterback Chad Voytik
On the team playing two different halves: “It all comes down to executing, whether it is momentum or big plays, that’s key in football. I think that’s what’s been evident. When we are rolling, making big plays, that’s when things are happening. It’s just a domino effect. We just need to connect all the different phases on the field.”
On personally resetting himself during halftime: “We didn’t make any changes. We knew what we were doing was working. We just needed some time to get our receivers the ball and needed to eliminate those pre-snap penalties. It’s tough when you are playing behind the chains. And we did that. I think that was the biggest thing, we were just more disciplined [in the second half].”
On feeding off of the defense’s big plays: “The blocked punt, we get the ball on our 30. Our field position was great. We just need to keep building off of each other’s performances and use that momentum to drive our opponents into the ground.”
Senior Linebacker Todd Thomas
On the mood of the team at halftime: “We just had to pull it together. They had momentum. We just had to rally back as a team. As a leader, it is my job to get everybody ready. We just had to battle back in the second half. Everyone knew they had to do their job. There was nothing said [at halftime]. We have to play as a family, so we just came out in the second half playing hard.”
On the team keeping their heads up after three losses in a row: “Everybody loses something. We’ve lost three straight. We can’t take it back, so we just have to pick our heads up and get ready for Virginia Tech. We just have to work. As a leader, it is my job to get everyone’s mind right, body right, everything right. We are going to bounce back.”
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