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February 5, 2009

Harris Will Not Happen

Filed under: Assistants,Coaches,Football,Hire/Fire — Chas @ 10:03 am

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.





Regarding Harris,

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?

Comment by thestumper 02.05.09 @ 10:12 am

I’m sure he will get an interview, I know I’d love for Harris to come back in that capacity.

As long as C’s replacement is an experienced O.C. it should be an improvement.

Comment by ChrisA 02.05.09 @ 10:30 am

It is my understanding that college football programs can only have a set number of coaches, which prevents most schools from hiring QB coaches. So I don’t think they could even hire Walt as just a QB coach…he would have to be OC. I wouldn’t mind Walt being OC, but I would prefer that they hire someone that can recruit as well as use the talents of his players (2 things that aren’t Cav’s strengths). In any event, I’m hoping that Sunseri knocks the socks off everyone in the spring and is given a fair shot at being the starter. Having a QB that can actually make all the throws (and is able to see the TE) would help everything by getting the ball into Baldwin’s and the talented TE’s hands to make plays and allow the RBs some room to run.

Comment by Randy 02.05.09 @ 10:49 am

Chas, thanks for nicely laying out the arguments for and against.

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.

Comment by Rex 02.05.09 @ 11:11 am

This is O.T., but SNY (back east) had a Big East Classic BB game on last night: the Pitt-Syracuse 3/6/88 game for the Big East Championship. Pitt’s roster included Charles Smith, Jerome Lane, Sean Miller and Darelle Porter. Syracuse’s roster included Derrick Coleman and Rony Seikaly. Pitt won 85-84. Smith made two foul shots with 17 seconds to go, putting Pitt up by three. Syracuse made a two-pointer at the buzzer. Coach Jim tried to explain to the Syracuse player after the game was over that he should have tried for a three-pointer. (Hey, look. The player was not a math major.) Although Pitt was Big East champs, they didn’t fare well in the Big East tourney.

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.

Comment by BigGuy 02.05.09 @ 11:26 am

I’m not sure how you call Walt not a good recruiter? Yes he wasn’t good at getting o-line or d-line. BUt he did bring in Palko and Rutherford who were the biggest recruits in PA at the time. Also brought in Fitz, Bryant, and guys like Getsy and Flacco who turned out to be very good talented guys but didn’t end up staying at Pitt. He clearly had an eye for talent and to argue he didn’t is silly. I think every QB he brought in was more talented than any that Cav has brought in and we have seen so far.

Comment by Yinzer 02.05.09 @ 12:05 pm

Walt and Wanny would be a good match. Mostly focused on offense and passing matched with focused on defense and running the ball. Do their philosophies class too much though…

Comment by Brian 02.05.09 @ 12:18 pm

BRING BACK WALT!!!

Comment by Marco 02.05.09 @ 1:10 pm

Chas, I agree with all of your points except the one about Walt being the former head coach and it would be awkward. First of all, if he is willing to go after an area high school job, his ego will allow him to accept an OC at Pitt. Second, as you may recall, even though he was head coach, he had little to do with the defense, and deferred as much as any head coach ever to his defensive coordinator.

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.

Comment by w bill 02.05.09 @ 1:20 pm

To those who have mentioned Harris coming back as a QB coach, I just don’t see that happening. I think it’s a stretch, though certainly a possible stretch, for him to take the OC position. But, I see no reason whatsoever for him to take a QB coach position. It’s tough enough to swallow going from head coach to OC, I don’t see him falling even further down that list to QB coach.

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.

Comment by Jake 02.05.09 @ 2:57 pm

I agree with the Stumper – make him the QB coach – or even the QB/WR coach. If Pederson wants him bad enough, and if Nordenberg will o.k. the money, it could happen. Remember, he was primarily a QB-only coach in the NFL, and this way he won’t be on the hook for any bad play calling by the OC or pre-emption by Wanny. That should be o.k. with Wanny too.

Comment by Patrick 02.05.09 @ 3:12 pm

He was only a bad recruiter in the sense that he didnt get highly rated and WPIAL guys which everyone around here likes to gush over.

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.

Comment by Hollywood 02.05.09 @ 3:38 pm

There are limits to the # of coaches in D1A anyway, so if Walt gets a shot it would be at OC.

Comment by ChrisA 02.05.09 @ 3:38 pm

It’s also pretty damn hard to recruit in the immediate aftermath of a raid on the conference, and the fact that Pitt’s admin and powerful alumni gave him no support.

Comment by Hollywood 02.05.09 @ 3:39 pm

Hollywood,

Stull and Murray were Harris’ recruits, they stayed out of loyalty to the school.

Comment by ChrisA 02.05.09 @ 3:43 pm

ChrisA,

Stull was Wanny’s recruit. Stull had committed to Kentucky and never received an offer from Pitt.

link to pittblather.com

Comment by Chas 02.05.09 @ 4:15 pm

Bill Stull was going to Kentucky until DW brought Paul Dunn in as offensive line coach. Stull decommitted from his verbal to Kentuck and Murray never committed unitl after Harris was gone.

Comment by KeithS 02.05.09 @ 4:22 pm

I think it is painfully evident that while Wanny can assess potential in OL and DL (perfect examples are 2-star Romeus and moving Mick Williams from LB to DT), QB assessment was not the strong suite of Wanny/Cav. Aside from Stull, Bostick was Cav’s baby, and frankly I was shocked that an alleged 4-star had such poor mechanics, weak arm and no mobility.

If nothing else, Wanny has admitted the need for mobility, thus the pursuit of Gray … which, I understand Cav had nothing to do with.

Comment by w bill 02.05.09 @ 4:33 pm

I stand corrected; I could have sworn it was Stull/Murray but I remember reading this in the Trib way back then. link to pittsburghlive.com
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.

Comment by ChrisA 02.05.09 @ 5:20 pm

I have always liked Matt Cavanaugh as a player and as a person, but his departure will be the answer to a prayer. It’s not clear to me who has been responsible for the inability to develop and utilize offesnive talent (Wanny or Cav) but with a new OC we may find out.

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?

Comment by DocktorPitt 02.05.09 @ 6:22 pm

Regarding the Harris being re-hired debate – it’s feasible only if you think strictly in football terms. However, that’s not how the real world works.

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.

Comment by Reed 02.05.09 @ 7:05 pm

I think there’s a lot of room for improvement over last year- and no reason Pitt can’t be much more productive. I will give them this though as one thing that really stood out: their red zone offense was pretty damn good last year.

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.

Comment by Dan35 02.05.09 @ 8:28 pm

It’s the Perfect Storm. Harris returns as OC with Sunseri and Grey waiting in the wings.

Comment by Dugdog 02.05.09 @ 9:31 pm

Gray even!

Comment by Dugdog 02.05.09 @ 9:33 pm

The biggest difference between the Harris and Wannstedt teams in mental and physical toughness. The teams under Wanny have consistently gotten tougher and won a lot of close games and games in the 4th quarter. Under Wanny, the offense showed flashes, but never really performed like they were capable of. Walt’s teams were always offensive-minded and very successful on that side of the ball, but the defense lacked the grit that we’ve seen the last two years. Sounds like a match made in heaven (perhaps a pipe dream, but still). I’d love to see Harris come in and fix this as OC.

Comment by Sharty Mottenheimer 02.06.09 @ 10:33 am

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