Capsule pieces abound in newspapers this weekend trying to find something else to talk about regarding college football. The most popular subject has been new coaches. Lots of little, mostly useless 1 to 2 line pieces on each new coach and their potential impact.
This story from Louisiana is a little more, but it is also very familiar to Pitt fans.
And sometimes the coach comes to the school with a ready-made body of knowledge of the institution, if not his new position.
Wannstedt spent the past 15 years in the NFL, most recently five seasons as head coach of the Miami Dolphins, but he is a native of Pittsburgh with two degrees from the school.
“We thought Dave would be a great fit, and he’s done nothing but prove us correct,” Pittsburgh athletic director Jeff Long said. “With our current and former players, with the community and with all of Pennsylvania, Dave has served notice that Pitt is back in a major way on the college football scene.”
Wannstedt has declared Western Pennsylvania “our back yard” and has 12 early commitments, 11 from the Pittsburgh area. Rival Penn State has only two.
He’s also related well to the locals, bringing up his college summers working alongside his father in the Jones & Laughlin steel mill. That’s a stark contrast to Walt Harris, his aloof predecessor, whom the school didn’t try to hold back when he took the Stanford job last December.
“Everybody cares about their own, but Pittsburghers love and embrace them in a way I’ve never seen before,” Long said. “Dave’s strong faith and integrity resonates extremely well in this community. He’s forged in steel.”
Now, anyone who lives or has lived in Chicago knows there is not exactly a lot of love for Coach Dave Wannstedt. So, this very positive, practically glowing story on Coach Wannstedt taking over at Pitt is stunning — and probably caused more than a few in Chicagoland to mutter and curse.
His moment of anonymity lasted only as long as a few rings of a cellular phone, “Unknown Name” and “Unknown Number” concealing his identity ever so briefly.
But the moment Bill Stull answered the phone, the voice, with its unmistakably “Pittsburgh-ese” cadence and pronunciations, gave away the caller.
“I usually don’t answer ‘Unknown Name, Unknown Number,’ but I answered it,” Stull said. “He said, ‘I was just calling to make sure you were safe on your commit.'”
Stull was so stunned by the call, so stoked to finally get a look from his hometown school, that he stammered out an unconvincing yes.
Stull, a star quarterback at Pittsburgh’s Seton-LaSalle High School, had made an oral commitment to attend Kentucky in the fall of 2005 on a football scholarship.
But . . .
“I’ve always wanted to play here,” Stull said, standing on the University of Pittsburgh’s practice field last week. “I knew deep down I was going to wind up here.”
Stull was not the only one. The 2005 season has yet to begin, and Pitt already has a dozen oral commitments for the class of 2010 from western Pennsylvania high school stars looking to follow in Stull’s footsteps.
Because when it’s Dave Wannstedt doing the asking, few people in these parts will turn him down.
It also touches on the loyalty and fondness former players have for him.
Wannstedt knows the key to successful recruiting is spotting the best players, reeling them in and maximizing their talent. Though he hasn’t been involved in college football for more than a decade, he has a track record.
“A lot of people figured I was a little bit small as a linebacker, but he believed I was a player and thought I could play at Miami,” former Hurricanes linebacker Maurice Crum said.
Crum justified that faith by leading the Hurricanes in tackles for three straight seasons, from 1988 to 1990.
On Saturday, Crum’s namesake son, Maurice Crum Jr., will start at linebacker for Notre Dame.
“Maurice called me the other day and said he is going to be starting,” Maurice Crum Sr. said. “I told him to tell coach Wannstedt thank you, because all the things I was taught by coach, I taught him.”
Any other game, any other team, and he would be rooting wholeheartedly for his former coach, Crum said.
“I think Dave will work hard enough to get the team to a national championship,” Crum said. “He’ll do whatever it takes.”
Bennie Blades played safety for Wannstedt at Miami, and he is more than happy to have his son, H.B., starting at middle linebacker for the Panthers.
“Dave had such an aura about him,” Blades said. “When you pick a guy who has played the game, who knows how to coach the game, you can take everything he says and basically lay your hat on it.”
Read and enjoy it all.
Finally, I’ve always enjoyed stories of how one event can impact so many, so tenuously connected. Here’s a good one about coaching changes starting with Wannstedt resigning from the Dolphins.
