As can be expected, more long stories puffing profiling Coach Dave Wannstedt. I’m sure there are a few doing the same for ND’s head guy, but I haven’t looked.
Another AP piece getting national run.
Dave Wannstedt realized he was back in college when saw this notation on his weekly calendar: bonfire for Notre Dame game, Thursday night.
“Bonfire!” Wannstedt said, laughing out loud. “I haven’t been to a bonfire in 35 years.”
Pitt’s new coach also didn’t have homecoming games, alumni fund-raisers or cranky parents on his agenda while coaching the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins. But if a 53-year-old man who thought he had stepped away from coaching for good when he left the Dolphins in November feels out of place back on a college campus, he’s not showing it.
He sprinted out of the locker room on the first day of summer camp, almost running over a couple of players while doing so. He has looked energized, enthused and on top of everything while juggling recruiting duties and nonstop media interviews during two-a-day practices.
During a news conference this week, he boomed, “It’s here! Game week!” with the enthusiasm of a high school coach revved up for his first game.
Yes, another piece about him coming home, firing up the Pitt faithful. I hate to seem blase about it, but it is just more variation of the same theme. Hell, the writer, Alan Robinson, has already done a few of these including one last week.
Coach Wannstedt also gets a puffer from his other local paper, or as the article puts it to give it the local feel — “Part-time Naples resident…” It too goes with what has become the stock opening in writing a Wannstedt goes back to Pittsburgh story — working in the steel mills. This is a highly sentimental piece.
Over his heart, the raised gold block letters “PITT” on his dark navy blue polo spell out Wannstedt’s passion.
“This is Pittsburgh,” says a proud Wannstedt as he takes a deep breath as if to soak in the blue-collar aroma.
And Wannstedt is Pittsburgh through and through. He’s a Primanti Brother sandwich. He doesn’t come with fries and coleslaw on him. But like the stacked meat delight, Wannstedt is part of Pittsburgh tradition.
Not for reading by anyone with diabetes. The sweetness of it could spike your blood sugar something fierce.
