Texas A&M Football: Would Zach Calzada to Pittsburgh make sense?

The Texas A&M football team has lost a handful of players to either the NFL Draft or the transfer portal. One of the most notable players who is packing up his things and leaving College Station will be Zach Calzada, the team’s starting quarterback for a majority of the 2021 season.

Calzada was thrown into the game after losing the offseason quarterback competition and seeing an injury to the winner in Haynes King. Even though he didn’t necessarily give A&M a lethal passing attack, Calzada will go down in history as one of the few quarterbacks who have managed to knock off Nick Saban in the gutsiest performance of the year.

But he likely wouldn’t have won the next quarterback competition and, as a result, Calzada chose to enter his name into the transfer portal. Thus far, he hasn’t announced a destination, but one school seems to be emerging as a frontrunner.

Former Texas A&M football QB Zach Calzada’s name is being thrown around in rumors with Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, or Pitt, is coming off of one of its best seasons in school history. In fact, the Panthers will have a chance to complete just their second 12-win season in school history in the Peach Bowl against Michigan State. With an explosive offense, there were few teams that could stop the Panthers.

And that explosive offense was led by Kenny Pickett, one of the best quarterbacks in the country this year. But Pickett has elected to depart for the NFL Draft, leaving an empty slot at the quarterback position in Pittsburgh.

Calzada seems like an obvious candidate.

The Aggie quarterback who passed for 17 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 2021 may have accidentally hinted that he was in heavy contact with Pitt when he began following a number of Panther football players on Instagram. As of the 16th, he had followed 16 players.

Is former Texas A&M football QB Zach Calzada a good fit to play for Pitt?

In short, yes. The Aggie quarterback may have been too much of a long-term project for Jimbo Fisher, who was leading a postseason-hungry Texas A&M football team. That said, at Pitt, he’d be able to play against lesser competition and better his resume throughout the season.

In his starts against non-Power Five teams, Calzada accumulated nine touchdowns and just a single interception. Even though he struggled at times against conference opponents, the Aggie QB balled out against poor defenses.

Pitt has shown that they can develop quarterbacks well — the former Aggie would be a huge risk for Pitt, but it might pay off.