Max Nolan Wittek (born July 31, 1993) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. He played at

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

from 2011 to 2013, and transferred to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, sitting out the 2014 season.

Early years

Born in

Contra Costa County, California ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

, Wittek grew up in

Norwalk, Connecticut , image_map = Fairfield County Connecticut incorporated and unincorporated areas Norwalk highlighted.svg , mapsize = 230px , map_caption = Location in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County and ...

but later moved to

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the List of ...

, where he attended Mater Dei High School. His immediate predecessor as starting quarterback for Mater Dei was future USC teammate

Matt Barkley Matthew Montgomery Barkley (born September 8, 1990) is an American football quarterback for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at USC, and was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fourth roun ...

.Mark Whicker
Whicker: USC QB Wittek eager to get started
''Orange County Register'', November 20, 2012, accessed December 3, 2012. As a senior, he completed 153 of 282 passes for 2,252 yards with 24

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether Rush (gridiron football), running, Forward pass, passing, returning a Kickoff (gridiron football), kickoff or Punt (gridiron football), punt, or recovering a Turno ...

and 15

interceptions In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...

. He was ranked as the third best pro-style quarterback recruit in his class by

Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...

. He committed to

in April 2010.

College career

Wittek was redshirted as a freshman in 2011. As a redshirt freshman in 2012, Wittek won the backup job to

. Wittek made his first career start on November 24, 2012, after Barkley suffered a sprained AC joint in his right shoulder. Prior to that game, he had completed eight of nine passes for 95 yards with a touchdown. Scheduled to start his first USC game against rival and No. 1 ranked Notre Dame, Wittek made a stir by asserting his confidence in a Trojans victory: "I'm going to go out there, and I'm going to play within myself, within the system, and we're gonna win this ballgame." Notre Dame defeated USC 22–13 to advance to the

2013 BCS National Championship Game The 2013 Discover BCS National Championship Game was a postseason college football bowl game that took place on Monday, January 7, 2013, at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. It featured the No. 1 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish and No ...

. Wittek threw for 186 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. For the 2013 season, he and Cody Kessler competed for the starting job. He eventually lost the

competition by the second week of the season. In January 2014, Wittek decided to pursue a master's degree and compete for a QB position at another university. In August, Wittek eventually announced his intention to transfer to Hawaii. In September 2015 for Hawaii, Wittek threw for 202 yards and three touchdown passes in a 28–20 win over Colorado, in the season opener for both teams. Wittek started in 8 of Hawaii's first 9 games before injuring his right knee and later being diagnosed with chondromalacia, a degenerative knee condition. In those games he completed less than 50 percent of his passes and threw just 7 touchdowns against 13 interceptions. His season ended in November when he was scheduled for surgery on his right knee. Wittek reportedly was slowed by sore knees as well as a foot injury. He finished the season with those statistics, including 1,542 yards passing as Hawaii completed the 2015 season with a 3–10 record.

Professional career

On May 1, 2016, Wittek signed with the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...

. He was waived from their roster August 23, 2016.

References

External links

USC Trojans bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wittek, Max 1993 births Living people American football quarterbacks USC Trojans football players Sportspeople from Newport Beach, California Sportspeople from Norwalk, Connecticut Sportspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area Players of American football from California Players of American football from Connecticut People from San Ramon, California Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football players