From the Pitt athletic department.
Cignetti joins Wannstedt’s staff after spending the 2008 season as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of California. The Bears averaged nearly 33 points per game en route to a 9-4 record and victory over Miami (Fla.) in the Emerald Bowl. In 2007 Cignetti was the San Francisco 49ers’ quarterbacks coach.
His Pitt appointment marks a return to the place where he landed his first coaching position as a Panthers graduate assistant in 1989.
Cignetti’s family has deep ties to Pitt and Western Pennsylvania football. His father, Frank Sr., was a Pitt assistant from 1966-68 and later the head coach at both West Virginia (1976-79) and Indiana University of Pa. (1986-2005). His brother Curt was also a Pitt assistant (1983-84 and 1993-99) who is now at Alabama.
“Frank Cignetti is quite simply a great football coach from a great football family,” Wannstedt said. “Frank owns tremendous knowledge of the game and is also highly skilled in teaching it. He is going to be a major asset for our players and staff alike.
“Not only is he coming back to Pitt but he is also coming back home. Frank won’t need any road maps to find all the outstanding high school players in this area. He’s lived Western Pennsylvania football his entire life. We are excited for him to get started.”
“It is a great honor to be rejoining the University of Pittsburgh,” Cignetti said. “Pitt’s tradition of excellence, both academically and athletically, is second to none. As great as our history is, I think the future can be even better. I’m excited to be back in my hometown and I can’t wait to start working with Coach Wannstedt and his staff.”
Prior to his 49ers post, Cignetti was the offensive coordinator at North Carolina (2006) and Fresno State (2002-05). In 2004 Fresno State averaged 52.8 points over its final six games and became just the sixth team in NCAA history to score 50 or more points in four consecutive contests.
The Bulldogs twice finished among the nation’s top 10 in scoring and third-down conversions during Cignetti’s tenure.
Now this just feels like a better fit for hiring Pitt’s OC. No, not because of his local ties. Notwithstanding Zeise’s moaning about that, I don’t think that many fans care about the local connections to the area and Pitt.
This is about hiring a guy that recruits, has successfully worked with QBs at the college and pro level. This is about a guy that has done well running balanced offenses. He has helped make running backs and wide receivers at Cal into top-flight NFL players.
His offense is not one that should be too discomforting for Coach Wannstedt.
From the outset, Wannstedt said the Panthers would continue to run a pro-style offense and, like Cavanaugh, Cignetti is expected to direct a West Coast system with an emphasis on the running game.
Cal averaged 186.2 rushing yards per game last season to rank 29th in the NCAA, and boasted the nation’s No. 3 rusher in Jahvid Best and 79th in Shane Vereen.
Perhaps most important, Cignetti also has a reputation for developing quarterbacks and being an energetic recruiter — both areas of concern at Pitt under Cavanaugh, whose signal-callers struggled the past two seasons.
As much as anything, it’s a sense of relief that it won’t be Noel Mazzone. If anything, Cignetti just looks like that much of a better hire because of the heavy flirtation with Mazzone.
But I think this is a very good hire and I’m more than willing to give this guy a chance.
Works for me; I’m happy …. well at least until the 1st week of September.
I do NOT want to hear a negative word. This is a truely great hire!!!
Cignetti’s family came from the Apollo area east of town. The best F-Ball player in Cignetti family was Larry who played for Purdue and became a bigshot for USSteel.
How about the fact that PSU attendance is only 47% of capacity?
do we want to be ranked in the Top 4 but have a relatively low number of bloggers or have the world’s record of 370 posts on the open thread but get beat by 27 points on our home floor by the Eers?
The day that I let a dude from State Clown College try to convince me that a 38-33 victory in the Big Joke Conference is an accomplishment is the day that I will invite you to cut off my balls and tea bag yourself with them.
Your stellar 28% field goal completion percentage is the lowest score associated with Penn State since Anthony Morelli’s SAT score.
What an utter abortion of a game. That clanging sound that you hear in your sleep tonight will be courtesy of all the bricks that your sack of a team threw up this evening.
… only a PSU idiot would measure their success by the number of bloggers tey have during a PSU basketball game. PSUers need to watch a live blog of a game cause they aren’t on TV. I’ve seen most of the Pitt games on TV this year and I don’t live in Pittsburgh. PSU fans are more annoying than Dallas Cowboy fans – since I live and work near Philly, I get to see a bunch of wacked out PSU fans who lack intelligence and pray to Joe Paterno every 5 minutes. I enjoy reminding them that their great 200 year old coach shit himself during a game 2 years ago and that they should just shut down their pathetic basketball program (or just play on the junior college circuit). The PSU fan here has no life if he spends his time on a Pitt website. His wife (who is also his sister) must be a nasty beast since he’d rather post here then spend time in-breeding.
Are you shitting me?!?!
Pardon my language, but nitters, just stay out of b-ball conversations. You can’t, and never will, compete.
Excerpt from The AP
Penn State coach Ed DeChellis seemed to understand, saying the game between his Nittany Lions and Illinois might have set basketball back a few years to the days of founder James Naismith.
Come to think of it, “Naismith probably rolled over several times,” DeChellis said after Penn State’s 38-33 victory over Illinois (No. 16 ESPN/USA Today, No. 18 AP) on Wednesday night.
I don’t see one thing in his resume’ that jumps out and tells me he’s at a level above the OC we just got rid of. We’re going to run the exact same offense as Cav would have, he’ll have the exact same personnel, and work for the same HC – the only difference is he won’t have LeSean McCoy or Javious Best to carry the load.
We better hope Chris Burns is the real deal and Wise can do wonders for the OL because I can’t see any indication that we’ll progress more in any area under Cignetti than we would have under Cavanaugh – in the short term.
Perhaps his “QB development” skills are as good as advertised and he can make an impact with Sunseri or Gray in 2010 and beyond. Let’s hope anyway – that’s an area we really need an improvement.
I think this is a good hire for PITT, probably better than Mazzone – and certainly better than Harris with all things considered with that situation – but I’m taking a stance that it can go either way and that patience with him is needed.
“If you just look at the base salary, of course [I took a pay cut],” Cignetti said. “But when you look at the cost of living, that’s where you have to make a decision. And there are so many things that are more important than money. How important it is to live back at home, to have my kids grow up around their grandparents, my wife’s family, their cousins — to me, you can’t put a price tag on that, to me, that is priceless.”
This is a good hire, especially since it looked like we were headed to this Mazzone guy. Let’s remember that Cignetti isn’t running the team, he’s running the offense. So I’m not too worried about whatever disciplinary issues he had at IUP.
That Illinois/PSU game was a joke. I think the UCONN women’s team could score more than 33 points against PSU. Please don’t ever come back and criticize our basketball team by citing blog statistics ever again after scoring 38 points against a mediocre Illinois team that would finish in the bottom 4 teams of the Big East. You sound like an idiot.
I see where you are coming from with your cautious stance on Cignetti for 2009, but if he can inject a little more imagination into the offense, and bring a little more smarts to the play calling, game planning, and game day coaching — then it is an immediate upgrade in my book.
I said his DAD had issues at IUP not Frank Jr., read the post before quoting it. Furthermore, Frank Jr. has limited experience as an OC overall as compared to other candidates that were available. As for Frank’s time at Cal (good program) the football team went into the tank while he ran the offense at the end of last year, so his experience isn’t something to sing praises about.
As for Frank Jr.’s root’s in Pittsburgh, I never knew Apollo to ever be a hotbed of football recruiting? I think there were only 2 Division 1A football players to ever come from that area in the last 40 years….Clint Holes in ’92 (PSU) and a Steve Aungst 87′ (Pitt), and in both cases marginal 2-3 star athletes.
I hope Frank works out, but I have no faith in Dave any longer as a coach who can help this program win, great recruiter but horrible game day coach. I think Dave wins inspite of himself at times and that 3-0 loss was the straw that broke my back as it pertains to the football program.
Why not just put in on a shelf until DW is gone – and then get involved again when it may be more pleasant for you?
And agree with Reed.
State Penn….the girls all still look like farm animals!
I coached girls JV teams who scored more in a half than 38-33…what a disgrace!
As far as Zeise’s past complaints about hiring “Pitt guys”, I agree with him to the extent that coaches get recycled or hired just because of their connections to the school and little else. I don’t think that is the case at all here. Any area and school connections are nice though, and it’s good to have assistants who aren’t just settling to be part of your program. Cignetti wouldn’t have come if he didn’t want to be here. He seems to have a solid resume and comes to Pitt on good terms (i.e., not being fired or “resigning” from somewhere else). At this point, I’m letting myself have high hopes for the future of the offense
HAIL TO PITT!