As Rex pointed out, the ESPN.com column from Joe Starkey on Wannstedt was a good one.
Twenty-one games into his tenure, Wannstedt is 11-10 overall, 9-10 against Division I-A competition. He has yet to score a significant victory. None of the four Division I-A teams that Pitt beat last season (Cincinnati, Syracuse, South Florida, UConn) finished with a winning record, and none of the five it has beaten this season (Central Florida, Cincinnati, Syracuse, Toledo, Virginia) has a winning record.
The “significant” win theme seems to be the meme of the week.
The fan base wasn’t exactly crushed when Harris resigned under pressure and left for Stanford. Wannstedt, a former Pitt player and a graduate assistant on Johnny Majors’ 1976 national championship team, took over amid great excitement and enjoyed an extended honeymoon period despite going 5-6 last year. His first full recruiting class was widely praised, and the Panthers beat up on weak opponents to win six of their first seven games this season.
Then came a 20-10 home loss to Rutgers, one in which some familiar problems resurfaced. Pitt couldn’t protect its quarterback, couldn’t run the ball and couldn’t stop the run at key times, allowing Rutgers to rush for 268 yards.
That was followed by an ugly 22-12 loss at South Florida — Pitt rushed for only 55 yards — and the disaster against UConn, which had been 0-3 in the Big East and started six freshmen on offense.
Pitt led 31-17 early in the fourth quarter but was bludgeoned for drives of 98 and 77 yards, sending the game into overtime — and Pitt fans into a frenzy.
Much of the fury has been directed at defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads, for obvious reasons, but Wannstedt and offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh also were blasted for sitting on the ball in the fourth quarter.
The obvious reasons with Rhoads is that the defense has sucked again versus decent to good opponents. Given my animosity to Rhoads, it should be no surprise that I don’t think he really addressed why fans want Rhoads gone
I’ll add another thing, the stubborness of Coach Wannstedt to even consider making changes on the approach on defense (“I’ve been doing this for 30 years.”), even as he then says they were trying different things. After last season and going into this season, we read and heard from Coach Wannstedt about how he and the whole team had to and did take a hard look at things. What needed to be done and all stuff like that.
The offense improved as it was tweaked to throw downfield a bit more to utilize the skill of Palko and the receiving corp, there’s even been improvement from the running game, as the O-line while inconsistent has definitely improved. Pitt has done things on offense to play up the strengths and not let the weaknesses kill them in most games.
The defensive players, we readm all slimmed down, got faster, worked harder. Yet, the defensive schemes and strategy still didn’t change. The approach remained the same. So, apparently that was the one area where the hard look was excepted.
Whether he wants to or not, Coach Wannstedt has to deal with some issues. He has to face the reality that some adjustments to the way he plays defense need to be made. I honestly believe Pitt will give him 5 years — he was the choice of so many in power — but he’s only got another couple years before he completely loses the fans.
The one thing he’s done well at (again, at first glance) is recruiting. I think Wannstedt is the type of guy you want on your staff, but not in the head coaching slot. I kind of liken him to Barry Rohrrsen (sp?), the former Pitt assistant, but I don’t know if Barry can be a good head coach or not. The thing is that Pitt knew what it was getting with Wannstedt. The guy never won as a head coach ANYWHERE. He had six terrible years with the bears, five better seasons with the Dolphins – all adding up to a career winning percentage below .500.
I know this excuse is used a lot, but this was nothing more than a hometown favorite selection. If Wanny had no ties to Pitt, there’s no way he gets this job. At two years, I’ve seen enough. I know all the arguments will say you have to give a college coach four years to bring his own players in, but this was a talented team. We have a great quarterback who had his hands tied for most of the season…and I don’t want to hear about his excellent passer rating, etc. There were countless drives where the ball was run twice and an incomplete pass on 3rd down forced us to punt. And don’t get me started on the defense.
This guy needs to go – plain and simple. I wasn’t upset that they fired Walt because he was looking to leave the first chance he got. But this was simply a bad hire…the only thing bad about it is that now Pitt is going to keep him for at least two more seasons. He’ll come in and go 6-6 or 7-5 next year and they’ll give him another chance. Even if they take the next step and he eventually gets them to 8-4 or 9-3, he won’t get past that – his poor game coaching will prevent that.
I don’t know…maybe I’m asking for too much. A few weeks ago, I was thinking we’d be no worse than 8-4. Even if they beat WVU OR Louisville, we’re stuck in a crap bowl with a crap record. To me, one big win isn’t enough.
Expectations weren’t too high with most Pitt fans about this team…mostly because of the young receiving corps. But I really thought with HB/Revis on defense (2 probably NFL players), a veteran QB, and solid special teams, they could exceed the 6-6 / 7-5 predictions most were giving them at the start of the season. It’s a shame that bad losses to UCONN and to a lesser extent, South Florida, had to ruin what could have been a good season at 8-4…or maybe even better.
I am the biggest Pitt fan there is and the game tomorrow is even only a mediocre event to me. I’ll watch it, but not with baited breath.
“He’ll come in and go 6-6 or 7-5 next year and they’ll give him another chance.” ?
What they will actually be giving him is his first chance. He has a contract that runs for at least four years. Now, at the end of his contract if PITT isn’t a better team and program, but the admin dept re-signs him anyway, then we would be giving him his second chance.
Said it before, and here it is again – we are all disappointed in the results the last three weeks, but we do have to take somewhat of a long range (four year) view on this coach – we really have no choice as fans. If he keeps getting the same results in 2008 with his recruits on the field, and his coaches and systems in place, then “he has to go” as you say, but not this year, or even next.
And here’s a “what if…” DW has been pretty firm in his statements about lack of experience, depth, etc. It could be excuses of a desperate coach, but prior to the beginning of the season we were (most of us) saying pretty much the same things when predicting PITT would go around 7-5. So, what if he’s right about it taking 3-4 years of good recruiting to build that depth and experience up to be able to compete?
Actually, I’m not sure I buy into that because we all recognize glaring weaknesses in other areas – mainly the inability to adapt coaching and the willingness for the team to tank when things are not going well. But, I’m willing to ride out the next two years to see if he is right about those issues and to see if he can turn things around. If I’m not willing to do that, I’ll just turn my sports interest in other directions.
Thanks for your thought out response.
What I mean by giving him another chance is, giving him another year. I understand these aren’t his recruits, but it’s still a talented team. The excuse of giving a coach at least four years really rubs me the wrong way. When a new coach comes onto a pro team that has talented players, he’s expected to win. Why is it so different with college players? To use the analogy in the NCAAA, if Wannstedt goes to Michigan and turns them into a 7-4 team, people would be calling for his head – not saying “give him four years.” Of course Pitt doesn’t have the talent of Michigan, but they have more talent than teams like UCONN and to a lesser extent, South Florida.
I also understand he put in a new system. The fact is, he plans on winning games built around the running game and a good defense. Fact is that the running game has done okay and the defense has been horrible. Despite having one of the top passing quarterbacks in college this year (Yes, I think Palko is that good), he ties his hands and as soon as Pitt gets a lead, he sits on the ball. Wannstedt’s horrible play calling in the 4th quarter is INEXCUSABLE. That’s something that has nothing to do with the players ‘he recruits’ – that’s his coaching philosophy.
I really hope he wins with them, but how can we count on it when he’s not won elsewhere? Yes, he had a few playoff years with the Dolphins, but in 11 years of head coaching, he NEVER even reached a conference title game.
There are games that you just can’t lose. UCONN had only scored more than 20 points in ONE game vs. a Division I opponent. To give up 46? That’s unbelievable. Granted, some of those points came in OT, but the game should not have been that close. I do place some of the blame on Rhodes as he is the DC, but Wannstedt has to be accountable as well.
Plus, the guy’s stance is hilarious. Did you hear him on his weekly radio show a few weeks back? Whenever someone questions him about the defense, he goes back to his “well, it’s had success elsewhere” philosophy.
Last year’s Steelers had success by having a strong running game, good defense, and the passing game was adequate, but not extraordinary. Does that mean if Mike Martz came in this year, they should have thrown the ball 45 times a game? Of course not – that would be ludicrous.
Another perfect example of his stubbornness is that he continues to try to throw the screen pass on the side. The pass worked like twice against bottom-feeding teams early on and he continues to use it EVERY SINGLE GAME when it has not netted any sort of success since early in the season – ala Johnny Majors’ stubbornness in running a draw play on 3rd and 20 in the 1990s.
You have to play to your strengths and Wannstedt (with his own players or not) does not adjust well.
