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February 4, 2008

The papers are reporting the hiring of former Southern Methodist head coach Phil Bennett to fill the defensive coordinator position that was vacated Paul Rhoads. Bennett and Dave Wannstedt have known each other for years but the hiring comes as a bit of a surprise. It seemed the leading candidate had to be Greg Gattuso.

The past experience (Post-Gazette):

Bennett was the head coach of the Mustangs from 2001 until this past season, when he was fired after a 1-11 season. Prior to that he was the defensive coordinator for three seasons at Kansas State and had stops as an assistant at Oklahoma (secondary, 1999), TCU (defensive coordinator, 1998) and Texas A&M (defensive coordinator, 1996-98).

He was fired from SMU and they (somehow) managed to upgrade to ex-Hawaii coach June Jones.

Wannstedt says:

“In Phil Bennett we are getting an immensely knowledgeable and talented coach. Phil is not only going to be a major asset for us defensively, but his tremendous experience will benefit our entire program.”

A friend who lives in Dallas and has seen a fair share of SMU games tells me his schemes are aggressive and utilize the blitz very well. That should fit well with what it seems Wannstedt wants to do with the defense — which I believe is everything we saw starting with the Cincinnati game and culminating with the great performance against WVU. That is, different blitzing packages and schemes and less of the “read and react” garbage. If DW and Bennett mesh well together, Bennett could end up be a very good addition to the staff.

Mr. Bennett, at this point the shoes you are filling are not very big. I find it hard for you to do much worse than Rhoads did. Again, thanks to Auburn for taking him.





According to ESPN 1250, Gattuso was promoted to Assistant Head Coach. Any word on the WR coach, I heard Terry Smith or Yogi Roth.

Comment by Fcuk Paterno 02.04.08 @ 4:52 pm

Looks like Pryor is leaning toward Runner-up U.

link to sportsillustrated.cnn.com

Comment by Ryan M. 02.04.08 @ 5:01 pm

Comment by Dane 02.04.08 @ 5:11 pm

this guy will stay a year maybe two ,he will head west next hc opening

Comment by jimmy 02.04.08 @ 5:26 pm

He has a nice mustache, I think it’ll work out just fine

Comment by anon 02.04.08 @ 5:37 pm

Im out here in Kansas and what I have heard and witnessed persoanly, this guy can coach. When he was at KSU his defense was tough. In fact some of my KSU guys tell me they wished that Prince had picked him up at KSU. No conincindence that KSU was bowl bound every year he was there. I’m excited.

Comment by Jeff 02.04.08 @ 5:40 pm

I’ve only heard that he’s a great DC, blitzes 50+ % of the time, agressive, but a terrible head coach. Everywhere he’s been the DC wants him back as the DC…i guess that should be worth something. As long as he’s agressive, the key in college football is putting pressure on kids so that they make mistakes…a lot can execute all day if not under duress, when you put stress on them, they crumble…we see it all the time. Maybe you give up a play here or there, but you’re more likely to force the TOs necessary to win a lot of games.

BBall: We’re still ranked 21 and 25…go figure…

Comment by Stuart 02.04.08 @ 6:29 pm

Stuart, the ranking is to keep that Dook loss as respectable as possible from the WWL perspective.

Comment by Greg in Columbia 02.04.08 @ 6:57 pm

We are still 19th in the RPI. Pitt is ranked right where they should be. That fricking Rutgers loss is a killer. I still can’t believe we lost that game. They stink.

Comment by omar 02.04.08 @ 7:37 pm

Bob Knight just quit, midseason? WTF? Anyone else think something must have happened that no ones heard about yet…

Comment by Stuart 02.04.08 @ 8:34 pm

Pitt is still ranked in both polls…21 in AP and 25 in coaches

Comment by max 02.04.08 @ 9:12 pm

Thanks Max, Stuart already told us

Comment by Omar, slurp 02.04.08 @ 9:25 pm

Dude are you serious? Don’t be a complete jerk.

Comment by Omar 02.04.08 @ 10:05 pm

[…] Yep. Smart and necessary move by Coach Wannstedt after the hiring of new DC Phil Bennett. Greg Gattuso gets his own promotion. Pitt football coach Dave Wannstedt announced today that defensive line coach Greg Gattuso has been given the additional title of assistant head coach. […]


WR coach might be the guy from Maryland according to local PGH papers. UMD has had good receivers lately so I suppose this could work out if it happens.

Comment by Reed 02.05.08 @ 5:19 am

Simialr to Jeff I live in KS and have also witness this giy coach at KSU. This guy knows defense and I excited we made the hire.

Comment by Mark 02.05.08 @ 12:43 pm

how does this affect recruiting? tapping into texas, and midwest talent pool?

Comment by the breast stroke is the best stroke 02.05.08 @ 7:46 pm

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