Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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GAME PREVIEW: PITTSBURGH either, but couldn't manage to beat all those teams. "Last year, they lost to Akron; they lost to Virginia. This year, they beat both of those teams. They seem to always have those bad losses every year, and thus far they've avoided them. The only loss was Iowa and they've maneuvered into the top 10, and they needed a 57- yard field goal to get that win. That's been the biggest surprise — so far, there hasn't been that letdown game." Redshirt junior quarterback Nate Pe- terman supplanted incumbent junior starter Chad Voytik after the first few weeks of the season, even though Voy- tik won the job out of camp. The two juggled reps during Pittsburgh's first couple of games, but Voytik dwindled from 14 pass attempts in the season opener against Youngstown State to seven the following week at Akron. He had just two in the third game of the season at Iowa. Through the Panthers' first eight games, Peterman delivered a solid 120-of-178 passing effort (67.4 completion percentage) for 1,373 yards with 10 touchdowns and three intercep- tions. "The first thing with Peterman tak- ing the job is his history with offensive coordinator Jim Chaney," Peak said. "Chaney recruited Peterman to Tennes- see and worked with him as a freshman there before that staff was let go. "So then he gets Peterman to come in as a grad transfer to Pittsburgh. Peter- man didn't have a great training camp, and that's why they stuck with Voytik at first — but it was pretty clear from the first game that they were at least going to give Peterman the opportunity to win the job. It obviously eventually happened, and Voytik has become sort of a package quarterback with the read option.