Late last week, I mentioned that there was no need, and it was unnecessary piling on Harris to build up Wannstedt regarding recruiting. Some didn’t get the memo.
Dave Wannstedt will call a news conference tomorrow on national letter-of-intent day to brag about his first recruiting class at Pitt.
That beats the alternative.
It beats telling the truth.
“The previous head coach did a pretty rotten job recruiting. We got such a late start as a staff that we didn’t really have time to clean up the mess. Please, don’t judge us on this class. Give us a chance and see what we do next year and the year after and the year after that …”
The guess here is Wannstedt and his coaches will do just fine.
What a lame strawman claim. No one is judging Wannstedt by this recruiting class. For the most part, it wasn’t his class.
I’m not going to defend Harris’ recruiting tactics, and the numerous mistakes made. I will point out that Harris was recruiting with an arm tied behind his back considering his contract situation and his lame-duck status during the season. Not to mention the weakened Big East getting bashed on ESPN every Saturday. As it stood, Harris had put a decent recruiting class together. Wannstedt and his crew have already been more than respectable in what they have done since coming in.
There is nothing wrong with keeping defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads. If you listen to him for five minutes, you’ll want to play for Pitt. “He’s not just very intelligent. He has a lot of passion and a lot of enthusiasm,” Wannstedt said. “There’s no question he’s going to be a head coach after we have some success.”
If you’re concerned about Rhoads’ inconsistent Pitt defenses — great one season, horrible the next — don’t be. He’ll be a lot smarter once he has better players. Aren’t all coaches? And it’s not as if Rhoads will have total say over the defense as he did under Harris. Wannstedt’s background is in defense and he’ll have a big say in the game plans, unlike Harris, who was too busy with his quarterbacks to even notice he had a defense.
Um, if Rhoads had full say over the defense, then didn’t he also have a lot of say over who Pitt recruited for the defense? I think we all know by this time that Paul Rhoads has a better relationship with most of the media and Pitt’s administration than Harris did.
Just an overall weak column intended to suck up to the entire Pitt coaching staff.
I guess it wouldn’t bother me, considering the source, except that I recall a column absolving Harris of a lot of the recruiting disasters of last year. Oh, just click to it and read it yourself, it did not age well.
One of the kids signing a letter of intent to come to Pitt will be Bill Stull. Stull decided to come to Pitt, after previously giving a verbal to Kentucky. Kentucky head coach, Rich Brooks — who also had been an NFL head coach, is in the last year (or second last year) of his contract. Guess what is happening to their recruiting class?
The University of Kentucky football coaching staff will most likely spend the final 24 hours leading up to national signing day on pins and needles after seeing one of its top recruits opt out of his commitment and several others express serious interest in other schools.
Pittsburgh Seton LaSalle quarterback Bill Stull, who committed to UK in December, will instead sign with the University of Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
UK’s other high-profile quarterback commitment, Kentucky Mr. Football Curtis Pulley, said last night that he’ll announce his choice at a news conference at Hopkinsville High School on Wednesday. Pulley was UK’s third verbal commitment last fall, but U of L entered the race shortly thereafter and made up ground quickly.
Well, there is always Ashley Judd for Kentucky.
As far as scheduling goes, it looks like Pitt is not the only school putting I-AA teams on the schedule.
More mid-major coaches and athletic directors should follow UTEP coach Mike Price’s stance on scheduling. Price recently dumped his 2005 season-opening game at Oregon even though it called for a $450,000 payday. Publicly, the UTEP administration says it wanted another home game next season. The reality: Why should UTEP play at Oregon if the Ducks won’t play a game at El Paso? If more mid-major teams back out of one-game road contracts, it will force BCS teams to schedule more games against Division I-AA opponents — not a good selling point to prospective season ticket holders. Oregon replaced UTEP with I-AA Montana.
The advantage for Pitt, is that it could create more opportunities to do 1 for 1 games with other BCS schools if the number of willing I-A patsies drop.
Not sure how interested or how closely anyone is following the trial in Memphis over the SEC bidding for a high school recruit, or Slick Rick Neuheisel’s lawsuit. It’s given college football writers something else to yak about rather than just recruiting. I mean when a University of Miami football coach is complaining about “street agents,” it’s getting wierd. The better read is this highly cynical story with unnamed anecdotes, and a Rick Neuheisel recruiting work-around.
