Walt Harris will not be the offensive coordinator at Pitt.
I have no inside knowledge on which I base that. I’m also the guy that didn’t think that Steve Pederson would be coming back as AD, so it is totally fair to doubt my reasoning.
On the “pro” side of why you could make the case that he could be hired.
— Harris is unemployed at this time. He clearly enjoys living in Pittsburgh — bought a house in Shaler, his girlfriend lives here, his son still lives here, and he even applied to be the coach at Seneca Valley High.
— AD Pederson hired Harris the first time, and presumably still likes him.
— While he runs a more aggressive, downfield offense that throws more than Wannstedt is comfortable (Woody Hayes arguably seemed more comfortable at times throwing than Wannstedt, but I digress); it is still a pro-style offense that Wannstedt insists will still be the style.
— While Harris is a prior head coach at Pitt, Wannstedt was comfortable hiring Cavanaugh and keeping Rhodes, despite both interviewing for and wanting the Pitt HC job.
— Coach Wannstedt has apparently conceded that his views on QB-ing (at least in the college game) have changed to some level that the QB has to be more than simply a game manager (though, I have trouble believing that in game situations Wanny won’t fall back to his natural instincts). That is something that Walt Harris would be able to deliver.
On the “not going to happen” side:
— Harris was not just interviewed for the head coaching job, he was the head coach here. It just would be too much of a conflict/awkwardness.
— Even if Pederson still likes Harris, the more important issue is how Chancellor Nordenberg feels about him.
— There’s evolving views on the QB in the offense for Wannstedt, and then there’s just the radical departure from conservative to aggressive that a Harris offense would be.
— Harris is not part of Wannstedt’s trusted circle of coaches. He looks to hire people he knows, trusts and hold similar philosophies. Especially at the coordinator position. At the very least, he would only hire someone that one of his circle would highly recommend. Harris — so far as I know — has no such connection.
— Hiring Harris would be an admission by Wannstedt that his approach on offense is not working. Nothing about Wannstedt’s statements or history suggests his willingness to admit that/transform his views that radically.
I still hold affection for Harris, and if I am wrong about this, I will actually be quite happy.
Harris built the program back to the point where fans could actually complain about not being able to get to the next level — as opposed to being in complete shambles. When he was forced out, it was time for him to go. Both sides needed the change.
That said, anyone who doesn’t think Walt Harris was at worst an average coach either holds a grudge/bias or has impossibly insane standards for a coach — and it must be wondered exactly how bad a coach they view Wannstedt? His coaching flaws — sometimes overthinking the situation, being too wedded to a gameplan, and putting blame on the execution rather than take direct resposibility — have been shown not to be unique to him.
Harris’ biggest flaws as head coach was his aloof, reserved manner with the public, press, boosters and most importantly — recruiting. He was a coach but never was comfortable with the public responsibilities that are absolutely vital to being a head coach/face of the program.
So when there were setbacks, there was little support still there. People would complain about how he wasn’t Pitt or Pittsburgh and just did not get it (or really didn’t want to be at Pitt/live in Pittsburgh). Complain that he got mentioned for other jobs and as a result got raises, even if that is exactly how the game is played in college these days.
Like it or not, Pitt has little history of coaches being at the head spot for the long term. In the 119 years of Pitt football, only Pop Warner (1915-23), Jock Sutherland (1924-38) and John Michelosen (1955-65) had longer tenures. Coincidentally, they are the only Pitt coaches with more career wins than Harris.
As long as C’s replacement is an experienced O.C. it should be an improvement.
Walt gets knocked for not being a great recruiter but somehow he was able to get a tremendous amount of talent to Pitt, especially when we were terrible and nobody in their right mind wanted to come to pitt over state penn, ohio state, etc.. He was certainly able to get the most from his players. Just look at how many of walts boys are still in the pros with successful careers today. Bottom line, I am just glad cav will not be the OC next year.
Either one of those teams would do well in today’s Big East league. Although it was 21 years ago, Pitt had talented, athletic players. Coach Paul Evans ran a nice offense.
Walt’s downfall, aside from his personal issue, was the failure to recruit quality linemen as well as a defense that became decreasingly effective in his last 2 years — this is what kept Pitt from the ‘next level.’
Nonetheless, I think it is a longshot even though it makes sense in oh so many ways.
Don’t get me wrong…he would be an amazing hire for a QB coach…probably the best QB coach in all of college…but that’s just not going to happen.
The fact that Pitt had no interest in Bill Stull under Coach Harris tells me all I need to know about his talent evaluating abilities.
Stull and Murray were Harris’ recruits, they stayed out of loyalty to the school.
Stull was Wanny’s recruit. Stull had committed to Kentucky and never received an offer from Pitt.
If nothing else, Wanny has admitted the need for mobility, thus the pursuit of Gray … which, I understand Cav had nothing to do with.
I must have had the notion of Wanny keeping Harris’ recruits in my head when Wannstedt landed Stull and Murray a few days later.
My bad.
Regading No-Fault Walt, you’d have to be smoking something pretty potent to think that he has a chance or an itnterest in a return as our OC. Too much history and controversy for that to happen. Lets get someone creative who understands the college game and move on. Does Wanny know or trust anyone like that?
If you assume he’ll be hired only on his football merits, than your assumption must be he was fired on his football merits. Again, that’s not always how the real world works.
And, as the poster above states – PITT does not have a “QB coach” so the only slot open is OC.
I don’t see it ever happening, for a lot of different reasons.
Regarding Cav’s departure – let’s temper our thoughts with this… Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for. We scored 29 ppg in the regular season last year. That a lot. There would be a good chance we may not even replicate that had McCoy and Cav stayed. Now we have a change over at QB, FB, RB and starting WRs in addition to a new OC. How sure are we that this change is going to pay results in this first year? I’m not so sure at all.
The only scenario I can see as being real beneficial is that the new OC works wonders with an existing QB on our staff, and we get big production out of that position. Good QB play can mask deficiencies in other offensive areas.
What I think has to happen in 2009 is that our defense is going to have to carry the day – and allow the new offensive staff and personnel to get up to speed.
I like this move with a new OC (if indeed true – still no ‘official word’) but wonder if we’ll see a payoff as soon as 2009 with it.
Pitt did average 29 ppg, but think about this: If you take out defensive TDs and the 4 ND overtimes, there were only THREE games out of 13 where the offense scored more than 27 points- and they were against Syracuse, Navy and Rutgers. In today’s game, that’s not very good.
Maybe not the OC job, but perhaps QB coach? Walt did a pretty good job developing the QB position while he was here. If he’s bored (which it sounds like he is), he might take it and we could use all the help at that position we could get. I don’t think he can polish the turd that is our current cache of QB talent, but it couldn’t hurt; maybe there’s more to Bostick and Stull that we haven’t been able to extract with current staff. Even if there isn’t, it might help us recruit at that position moving forward.
Thoughts?