Or perhaps not. Perhaps it is a continual drumbeat on sportstalk radio in Pittsburgh, that I don’t hear. I am just astounded with Bob Smizik’s ongoing need to bring up former coach Walt Harris at every turn — and to usually revise history. There was his column on Friday that nearly floored me.
There was a great deal of satisfaction on the part of Pitt partisans when the Walt Harris era ended last season with the coach forced out by upper administration. And there was a great deal of rejoicing when Harris was replaced by Dave Wannstedt, a Pitt man with an outstanding resume who came to town and wowed the alumni and the recruits.
Pitt might be heading in the right direction with Wannstedt, but, on the field of play, the Harris era is looking pretty good.
In a must-win game for the Panthers last night, they came up short in almost every phase and were dominated by Louisville, 42-20.
The Panthers fell to 4-5, which means they are guaranteed to have their worst season since 1999, Harris’ third year, when they were 5-6. It’s entirely possible the Panthers will do no better than 5-6, with conference leader West Virginia still on the schedule.
The 25 wins Harris’ teams achieved over the previous three seasons look awfully good today.
Smizik writes as if he wasn’t part of the crowd itching to toss Harris. He conveniently seems to forget he was happily there knifing Harris from the first day of the 2004 training camp.
On the first day of practice in the eighth season of his coaching reign, Walt Harris came clean on a subject that has clouded his reputation for much of his time at Pitt.
He is not, he insisted, a serial quarterback manipulator.
During a 34-minute interview session, for which he was 12 minutes late, Harris steadfastly maintained he does not stay awake at night plotting ways to jerk around quarterbacks.
His life’s mission, he said, is not to make miserable the players at the very position he most cherishes.
Could have fooled a lot of people.
I know I’ve pointed this out before, but this was the classic in petty, vindictive column writing. That Harris was a little late to a press conference was worth mentioning? It was part of what he did all season, up until the Fiesta Bowl when he suddenly writes an homage piece to Harris — complete with this half-truth admission of his own.
Whatever the reason for Harris’ fall from favor, and it might be none of the above, it most certainly was not an issue that usually costs a coach his job. Under Harris, Pitt was winning, its players were graduating and its players were staying out of trouble.
This column was a frequent and harsh critic of Harris long before such a stance became popular. We’ll stand by those criticisms of his game-day blunders, of his record of beating cupcakes and losing to mostly everyone else and of his penchant for placing blame on his players instead of himself and his assistant coaches.
“Frequent and harsh” only went together against Harris in the final season — when he was well behind the curve. Of course, right after the Pitt loss to Utah, Smizik reverted to type with shots at Harris.
Stanford folk probably were taking a close look at the Fiesta Bowl last night, where Harris coached his final Pitt game against Utah. They probably wanted to see this offensive brilliance for themselves.
They had to be mightily disappointed if they watched. But no less so than Pitt people.
…
If there was a offensive genius on the sideline last night, it was Utah coach Urban Meyer, who, like Harris, was in his last game. They’re going to love Meyer at Florida, where he is headed. He will put points on the board just like Steve Spurrier did.
So, now in the first season for Coach Wannstedt, Smizik just can’t help bringing up Harris everytime he writes about Pitt football.
Apologists insist the problem is with that most convenient of scapegoats: Harris. They insist Harris left the cupboard bare. These people will tell you Harris never recruited good linemen or either side of the ball and that’s the reason Pitt is in trouble this year.
By most accounts, Harris did not recruit great linemen or even good linemen. But he won with who he recruited — 25 times in his final three seasons, eight times in his last season.
Three starters on the offensive line returned from last year’s team. That’s three starters from a team that won eight games. That is, at worse, a decent foundation.
Harris is not to blame for the 4-5 record, as much as some people would love to believe that.
It seems pretty obvious now that there have been problems in transition from Harris to Wannstedt. That’s frequently the case. A coach comes in with an idea of what he wants and what he expects from his players and it’s often difficult to mesh the two. Rich Rodriguez, for example, had a difficult first season at West Virginia when he succeeded Don Nehlen, but quickly righted the situation.
You know, at 9 games into the season, there are very few still trotting out anything about Harris and what he left behind. Maybe the readers who comment here are different from the majority, but there is barely any talk of Harris.
At this point, the excuses seem ridiculous and only being brought up by Smizik. The only one who can’t seem to let go of Walt Harris. Come on Bob. Time to let it go. He’s gone. He can’t hurt you any longer.
