After this post, Lee left a couple of interesting comments:
But if Pitt beats either Notre Dame or (especially) WVU, I’ll concede that Walt should stay… of course, his problem with… …burning bridges in the WPIAL and throughout Central & Western PA’s high schools would still be with us, but one can always build new bridges I guess. Incidentally, Chas, I found Joe Bendel’s words chilling… only because they so closely echoed what I read for so many years in the Columbus Dispatch about Harris’s mentor. Each time John Cooper was about to get fired, he’d suddenly turn into Woody Hayes for five or six games and silence the critics. He’d even beat Michigan on occasion. The Dispatch would tell everybody to back off, and then Coop would drift right back to being John Cooper again. Finally, the frustration with this pattern (that stretched over 12 years) just exploded when he lost to the other USC in the Citrus Bowl and too many of his players got arrested. Those were always patched together excuses for getting rid of Cooper in my mind… Either way, I dread falling into a Cooper-esque pattern with Harris… not that this alone is grounds for dismissal, mind you… I’m just scared…
Of course, Lee’s words sent a chill down my spine. And shortly after reading that there were a couple articles discussing coaches on the hot seat. Rod Gilmore at ESPN.com (subs. req’d) brings up Harris in the context of how other than the hot seat, being a head coach doesn’t seem worth it.
Harris is on his way out at Pittsburgh even though he turned the program’s fortunes around (48-42 in eight years). Harris made the mistake of having a “disappointing” 8-5 record last year, and has “struggled” to a 4-2 record with a young team this season. Pitt’s athletic director gave Harris’ agent the cold shoulder when the agent requested a contract extension.
Then there was a mid-season review of what coaches were hot and what coaches were on their way out:
Harris worked his way off the “Farewell Tour” list with a 4-2 start, but he’s still on the bubble. If his team can win games against Rutgers, Syracuse and South Florida, Harris should be invited back. However, with the administration seemingly looking for any excuse to get rid of him, a 6-5 finish might not be good enough to save his job.
Last year, we saw the Auburn-Tuberville-Lousiville-Petrino fiasco blow up in Auburn’s face. That was about wins and losses and not meeting pre-season expectations. We also saw Nebraska fire it’s coach Frank Solich after a good season, because of questions about the direction (long term) the program was going in.
There are three reasons that coaches get fired: scandal, direction, but primarily wins and losses. The former 2 often lead to the last so many argue that it really is always about wins and losses. Either view is fine, but what Lee describes as happening at OSU was direction.
It was a long-term trend that took time to clearly see the pattern. It was hard to see, until it culminated in a horrible season where all the problems seemed to have been revealed at once because they weren’t winning to cover them up any longer. Then you look back at it, and wonder how you missed the trends. I used to give Lee (and my one brother-in-law) crap all the time about how insane he and his Buckeye fans were in their yearly zeal to fire Cooper. They were right, ultimately, but not for the reasons they often gave.
Pitt is at a point, where Harris — who should always be acknowledged and Pitt fans should be grateful to for helping to bring back this program to where it is — is no longer taking the football program in the right direction. His methods and approach for the long-term do not seem particularly healthy. When the beat writers are pointing out how Harris and his staff systematically ignore the recruits right in their own backyard, unless they are top blue chippers, to pursue the same level of talent elsewhere (Ohio and Florida) where there is more competition for the players. You have to worry.
Arguably, the cycle Lee described began for Pitt back in the 2001 season. A team with modest expectations that went 1-5 before recovering to salvage the season and earn a minor bowl bid. This means we aren’t that far along (as OSU was) . Considering the relative stature in programs, that is good, because Pitt can’t afford to wait as long if we want to see the program reach higher goals in the next few years.
Pitt has almost no choice but to fire Harris from a financial standpoint. He has 2 years left on his contract. They would have to give him an extension if he came back, and that would mean a higher buyout. Considering the level of confidence left in him, and the negative reaction that would get from the fan base (and ticket sales); that just isn’t going to happen.
The only good out of this, is that Pitt has the opportunity to face the issue now and make the changes.
