Coach Wannstedt has an interestingly frank talk in this AP article looking back on his first year.

The former Pitt lineman and NFL coach talked openly of winning another national championship at his alma mater, of building upon the five consecutive bowl appearances by predecessor Walt Harris. As he talked, the optimism and expectations grew beyond realistic proportions, to the point Pitt was being called a possible Top 10 team if it could beat Notre Dame in its opener.

Maybe, Wannstedt says in retrospect, he should have spent more time in the film room and less in the greeting line.

If he had, he might have seen one of the most disappointing seasons in Pitt history coming, one in which the Panthers went 5-6 with blowout defeats by Notre Dame (42-21) and West Virginia (45-13) and an inexplicable loss to Ohio University (16-10).

“The biggest mistake – and it starts with me – is not assuming anything from the standpoint of how good a player might be, where our mental state is. Are we hungry enough? Are we a bunch of fat cats feeling good about the success we had?” Wannstedt said. “I probably spent so much time out in the streets with the PR and recruiting and the alumni and everything else that comes with that, I probably didn’t do a good enough job knowing our players and what we were capable of.”

He hedges a little when he says it was in part driven by his love of the school and a little too much wishful thinking on his part that thigs would be fine. Still, he concedes that he has to not only know what the players can do, but use them correctly.

The article points out that while Wannstedt has had one of the best recruiting classes at Pitt in years (I think it a slight exaggeration and premature to call it “among the best in school history”) he still has to do something with it. Former Coach Walt Harris, did at least get a lot out of the talent he recruited. That’s also something that WVU Coach Rodriguez does so well. He maximizes the talent he gets and gets talent that fits what he does.

Wannstedt’s hope is that a bad season ultimately turns out good because it brings in better players.

“I don’t think it’s any secret why we’re struggling, the biggest thing we’ve got to do is build a program where we have the depth and talent at every position where every game and every season is not a roller coaster,” he said. “That’s how I would describe it, last year as well as in the past a little bit. You can have a great year, but a great year does not mean a great program. A great program is when you win consistently.”

Roller coaster is a good way to describe the last 5-6 years for Pitt in terms of both expectations and results. Part of the problem has been that the 2 have yet to coincide in any year.

I was getting ready to write about Rich Rodriguez and WVU’s contract stalemate yesterday, but then seeing that Orson at EDSBS had tackled it intimidated me. Not in the way PSB friend, Mac attempted to uh, sexually intimidate a couple obnoxious ND fans late into the night a few years back on Carson Street (and I’ve already said way too much — going to need to drink double tonight to get that imagery out of my head). More in the way of having to follow a master crafstman.

Looking at the article a couple times over it seems the key issues are about money — the buyout amount and raising the assistant’s salaries — not for a present salary for Rodriguez.

The two sides have hit a wall in discussions the past two weeks, said a source familiar with the situation, because the fifth-year coach seeks additions to his contract such as a formal university commitment to higher pay for his assistants, facility improvements and standards equal to other comparable coaches — for instance, West Virginia’s $2 million buyout clause is the conference and Division I-A exception rather than the norm.

A $3 million buyout clause in his contract prohibited Mountaineers basketball coach John Beilein from accepting the North Carolina State job in April.

Rodriguez, a Mountaineers player under predecessor Don Nehlen and a native of coal-mining Grant Town, W.Va., has maintained publicly and privately that he wants to remain at West Virginia for the duration of his coaching career. He talks about staying at his alma mater and maintaining a top-tier program for decades, much like Joe Paterno at Penn State and Bobby Bowden at Florida State.

The buyout clause, which started with the seven-year contract extension he signed after a 9-4 season in 2002 that relieved pressure from a criticized athletic department, is merely another facet from which Rodriguez cannot get university officials to budge, the source said, adding that one sticking point remains a $50,000 difference in across-the-board raises he’s requesting for his assistants. It seems to those around Rodriguez that the coach’s loyalty is being used against him as leverage in negotiations.

Pitt fans may recall that one of the big issues at the end of the Walt Harris era going into Dave Wannstedt was the fact that Pitt was more than a little stingy on paying for the assistants. They would pay for the head guy, but try to nickle-dime on assistants. Looks like WVU follows the same approach (maybe that’s why ex-PSU coach Jerry Dunn is part of Beilein’s staff on the b-ball side). Rodriguez is smart enough to know that good assistants are needed for recruiting and gameplanning, and they cost money. Not to mention that if your assistants are sub-par, after a while it catches up to the on-field performance and talent and the head coach’s job security.

As for the buyout, that’s about future raises. Rodriguez can get a nice raise for now, but in a couple years he might be due for another bump based on other schools having an interest. With a high buyout, though, he is not as attractive to another school and it decreases his open market value — and future raises.

I can’t believe WVU’s administration would be that stupid. Not, now that things are starting to go their way and they have stability with their coaches. Well, maybe…

Today’s Craig “Ironhead” Heyward’s funeral. I wish I had some story to share or remembering him on the field, but I got to Pitt the year after he turned pro.

Assistant Athletic Director E.J. Borghetti writes about some of the memories of Ironhead including his appearance at the final game at Pitt Stadium.

One final Ironhead memory: The year following his initial tumor diagnosis, Heyward made his way back to Pittsburgh for the final game at Pitt Stadium on November 13, 1999.

He visited the locker room before kickoff and was moving from player to player, banging their shoulder pads, yelling “Come on! Let’s go!”

Some three-plus hours later, as the Panthers were putting the final touches on their 37-27 victory over Notre Dame, there was Ironhead again, this time revving up the student section with high fives.

For a very good rememberance of Ironhead, read all of this piece from Len Pasquarelli of ESPN (hat tip to Allen). Pasquarelli is a Pittsburgh native and covered Ironhead in the 90s as a beat reporter for the Falcons.

On his final visit to his old friend, [Bobby] Hebert and Heyward were talking about their oldest sons, both of whom are exceptional football players and are being recruited by big-time college programs. Heyward told Hebert of a call he had received from University of Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt, attempting to recruit his son Cameron, who just completed his junior season at suburban Peachtree Ridge High School.

Wannstedt had helped direct Heyward to Pitt, his alma mater, and in 1993 was his head coach with the Chicago Bears. That year, Wannstedt fined Heyward a total of nearly $200,000, because the fullback’s weight had ballooned to an all-time worst 328 pounds. So when Wannstedt phoned recently to see if he might engage Heyward in helping convince Cameron that Pitt was the place for him, Craig Heyward recalled the hefty fines from 1993.

“He said, ‘Coach, remember all that money you find me back in ’93? Well, you return that $200,000 and I’ll send Cameron up there to play for you.’ Can you imagine?” said Hebert. “Even as bad off as he was at the time, and this was just a few weeks ago, he was still sharp enough and funny enough to come up with that comeback to Wannstedt. I mean, that was vintage Ironhead, right?”

Rest in peace.