Has anyone considered what will happen if the whole Cavanaugh to the Jets thing falls through? I mean everyone has all but packed his bags and put him on the next flight out of town. He hasn’t resigned yet, there is no official word. I’m just saying.
Now that Bob Smizik took retirement, it seems Ron Cook has assumed the mantle of crotchety,old, contrarian-for-the-sake-of-it columnist. He warns against expecting too much with a change of offensive coordinators because of the QBs still there.
But before you give Cavanaugh one final kick on his way out the door, ask yourself this: Was the conservative offense his fault or Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt’s? It was Wannstedt who insisted on a pro-style offense. Cavanaugh was just following orders.
Beyond that, any offensive coordinator is going to look like an idiot if the quarterback can’t execute plays. How much more creative could Cavanaugh have been with Bill Stull and Pat Bostick?
Stull never improved much last season. Down the stretch, he was bad in a loss at Cincinnati, bad against West Virginia in a game that star running back LeSean McCoy won, bad in the first half at Connecticut and dreadful in the Sun Bowl.
Bostick also has been disappointing. It’s not so much because he had a tough 2007 season as a true freshman, thrown into the starting lineup before he was ready because of Stull’s hand injury in the first game. It’s because Wannstedt and Cavanaugh thought so little of him last season that they burned his redshirt at Navy before they had to do it. They never would have done that if they considered Bostick a future star.
He kinda, sorta, concedes that his evaluation of QB talent is a legitimate issue. He tries to argue that it falls on the QBs and their lack of talent for failing to develop by citing Tyler Palko apparently being a fan.
That’s a crap argument. First of all, Palko was already further along in his development before Cavanaugh came on (and it conveniently ignores the misery of Palko’s first year under Cavanaugh’s direction). Palko is also the son of a coach, a film junkie and simply more talented.
Stull had been under Cavanaugh’s tuteleage the entire time at Pitt. That also means, Cavanaugh should have known what Stull could and could not do. As much as Stull regressed during the season, too many plays called for Stull to make throws that everyone else knew he could not make.
I don’t think anyone disagrees that Coach Wannstedt has a conservative influence on the offensive scheme. At the same time, what other scheme has Cavanaugh run other than a pro-style, West Coast offense?
As for the offense having issues regardless of who is the OC next year. I agree. I think most Pitt fans understand that unless the QB play takes a step towards real competency and consistency, the offense will struggle regardless of who is coordinating. It is still a change that needs to be made.
Interesting analysis of the rumored names for the OC by Paul Zeise. I appreciate the dripping sarcasm regarding “Pitt guys.” I hope he’s wrong about Van Pelt, though. He just does not have the experience to make me feel comfortable as a coordinator.
I think he overstates the drag on the hirings for potential short-termers of Noel Mazzone and Chan Gailey. That possibility of leaving after a brief stay didn’t stop him from hiring Phil Bennett as DC.
I guess the thing about Gailey is whether he permanently damaged himself in his spells as a head coach that killed his OC abilities. Did he come down with Paul Hackett disease where after some experience as a head coach he lost all feel and skill as an OC to call a game and teach. Remember, once upon a time, Hackett was a fine OC and teacher. Then — as Jets fans can attest — he never came back.
While on the subject of assistant coaches, a nice puff pice for Jeff Hafley and recruiting New Jersey. Talking about being the hardworker and insane hours, complete with bringing an air mattress to the office.
“That’s got to make an impression on you,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “Either the guy is really committed, or he’s out of his mind – in some cases, both.”
Wannstedt promoted Hafley to Pitt’s secondary coach when Chris Ball left for Washington State last year. Hafley, a Montvale, N.J., native, immediately volunteered to focus his recruiting efforts on his home state, even though Pitt had landed only three New Jersey prospects in the previous four seasons.
“We had recruited New Jersey, but we just didn’t have one specific guy focused on it,” Hafley said. “You’ve got to get one guy to focus in on New Jersey.
“When I got hired, I said, ‘Coach, I’d like the shot to recruit New Jersey. It has great football, and they all know Pitt.’ “
And finally, the Octonion returns to answer the question, what happens when you give fruit hope? It’s the assigned reading for today.
Don’t know what any of this means but I do know that I would love to see Walt come back (although I really doubt that it will happen)… especially when you think what his teams accomplished when the conference was stronger, his OL was weaker, and Paul Rhoads was DC. I realize that he had to go when he did, but I also think he still takes pride in seeing Pitt being successful considering how bad the program was when he took over, and would work with Wanny to make it so. (Yes, Mark, I am being totally idealistic here but also believe you are way too cynical about Wanny.)
he brought in the QB’s that play. In recruiting, the QB’s coach has to at least sign off on bringing in a QB and should be the overall recruiter. Cavanaugh seemed to have both a bad eye for talent and no talent for bringing in talented QB’s if they did target better ones.
So yes, he was as bad as people make him out to be and for precisely the reason you say. He is only as good as QB play: which he recruits, develops, and coaches.
And everyone has talked about Harris: Every single QB Harris brought in and coached up was better than anyone we have seen from Cav at this point. Even backups showed talent: eg. Luke Getsy and Joe Flacco.
How exactly is it Cavanaugh’s fault that must intramurals quarterbacks have better form than him? It isn’t like Bostick had offers from Pitt and a bunch of juco’s.
How can a previous NFL head coach go along with that decision and still keep his job?
Both should get the hook.
I would like to offer as an analogy of what happened to our favorite school about 3 hours east of us this year. Daryl Clark led them to a BCS Bowl and a Top 10 ranking while back-up Chris Devlin, a pro-style QB, is taking the Flacco route by transferring to Delaware. I have no doubt that Devlin will make it before Clark as a pro QB but does that mean PSU was wrong for playing Clark?
Bostick was a “supposed” high recruit. but anyone with half a football brain who has watched the kid, can see, he has no mobility, a slow release, and poor arm strength. Maybe not a bad kid but not a stud D-1 QB. He’s playing at the wrong level. So the one “supposed” high recruit Cav got was worse than any brought in by Harris.
Also referencing your comment about Flacco and Palko, look at the situation a little. Flacco transferrred after his first year w/ Cav, so lets not blame that on Harris. Flacco’s first year was when Rutherford was a senior. so he had no chance of playing. IN year two his redshirt freshman year, I HIGHLY doubt that Flacco…who was in fact a little bit of a project was ready to start. I would bet that Harris made the right decision that Palko was ahead of him at that point. Palko, a coaches son, and well known film/playbook junkee was probably more ready to play, but not to be the better QB in the long run. It worked out fine as they went to a BCS bowl. The next year, when CAV took over incidentally Flacco would have been more developed and maybe more ready to compete. But, Cav didn’t play Flacco, or give him a shot, so he bolted after the 2005 season and became a stud. Because why???? Harris had an eye for talent and knew the kid could be a stud.
Also, your crazy if you don’t think cav single-handedly may have cost Pitt the Bowling green game, may have been the worst play calling ever. I’m not saying Harris should take over, I’m just saying it’s good Cav will be gone. And, my point about Harris was that he had one gaping hole that Cav didn’t have and eye for talent and a way of getting it. Also, he did a hell of a job developing guys like Gonzalez (in his senior year) and Priestly.
I kind of understand the hate for Cav, but not to the extent that most people have. We were the highest scoring team in the big east with a QB who is miserable on his best day. I wanted to see what he could do with a decent qb before calling for his resignation
I bet $ to Doughnuts that the first play in the first game for the Jets this year will be a run up the middle. Even if Farve is still the QB.
We scored NOTHING in our bowl Game. 0.0, NADA, with a NFL first round draft pick in the back field.
Well I was not infatuated with Cav’s playcalling at the Sun Bowl, I think the fact that thye had 2 starting OLs missing (remember, Malecki went out also) had a bigger impact — remember they guy who played opposite Clowser was named player of the game.
I said this a year ago, and I’ll say it again now.
We should NOT revisit the decision to play Palko over Flacco way back in 2005.
As I said then, now that Joe Flacco’s an NFL player, we’re going to hear a lot of people second guessing a decision that was made by Pitt back in 2005.
First of all, NONE of us disagreed with the decision or even gave a crap about Flacco leaving when it happened. It was a little blurb in the Post-Gazette that day that we all skipped over.
Second of all, there were 110+ Division 1 coaches that would’ve taken Palko over Flacco at that point in time. At that time, if anyone would’ve said differently, we’d all have thought they were insane.
I’m sorry, but I’ve had to say this to everyone who wants to revisit the Palko vs Flacco non-situation that happened at Pitt in 2005.
I’m happy to see Cav go, but that’s one thing I’m not going to put on him.
The ONLY person who saw the potential in Flacco early on was Walt, and not even he would’ve played him over Palko if he were still coaching the team in 05. I mean, if Pete Caroll had Joe Flacco, would he have played him over another guy who turned out to be a lesser NFL prospect in John David Booty? Ummm…. no.
There’s simply nobody at Pitt to blame there. He went to Delaware, something clicked, he caught fire, and went to the NFL.
Matt Cavanaugh
Year Rushing Passing Total Offense Scoring
2008 139.1 (65th) 203.4 (68th) 342.5 (77th) 27.1 (50th)
2007 141.4 (71st) 178.1 (104th) 319.5 (108th) 22.8 (91st)
2006 123.0 (78th) 249.3 (20th) 372.3 (37th) 31.8 (14th)
2005 116.8 (93rd) 219.0 (67th) 335.8 (85th) 24.3 (73rd)
Totals 130.1 213.5 342.5 26.5
Walt Harris
Year Rushing Passing Total Offense Scoring
2004 97.8 (105th) 260.1 (24th) 357.8 (72nd) 27.1 (48th)
2003 117.5 (95th) 288.2 (14th) 405.7 (34th) 29.9 (35th)
2002 143.1 (64th) 215.1 (59th) 358.2 (78th) 25.5 (70th)
2001 123.4 (84th) 221.3 (56th) 344.6 (82nd) 23.8 (79th)
Totals 120.5 246.2 366.6 26.6
I also dismissed it when Flacco transferred. But I never attended practice.
The strongest arm and most athletic QB Pitt has, Kevan Smith, just quit football and no one cares. Apparently there is more to Quarterback play than throwing the ball 60 yards. Does anyone believe that some “non-bozo coach” can coach him up and turn him into a Flacco? Speak up now so we can hire him as the next OC.
Hind sight is great but does anyone care to pin this on Cavanaugh at this moment for failing to evaluate or develop Smith as the next QB wonder boy?
Although Cav’s stats are almost identical to Walt Harris’s, he has taken quit a beating on this board. Unless we can come up with a spectacular OC with great recruiting skills we would have better off with Cav, only time will tell.
And don’t expect miracles from the new OC. He won’t give our QBs stronger arms or instant on field recognition of defenses and open receivers.
Hail to Pitt and let’s destroy dePaul. Hope the team saw or read about the USF game last night.
Also, from a career perspective, the Bills are going nowhere fast at the moment, and it would be a boost for AVP’s career to be anywhere BUT Buffalo right now.
As a color-commentator for the Bills, his observations were spot on. I remember one game being played against the Jets (with Paul Hackett as O.C.) Van Pelt was predicting every play that Hacket was calling. The guy knows quarterbacks and he knows football, and it seems like he does have some experience in coaching.
link to en.wikipedia.org