I find it funny, amusing and sad.
There are people who still have trouble with Bill Stull as the starter.
Q: Bill Stull is having an excellent year statistically, but do you really think he is the best quarterback on the team? My main objection is that he is not a “playmaker.” I have always felt that the best chance of winning a game is to have a quarterback who is a playmaker.
ZEISE: Bill Stull is indeed the best option for this team at quarterback right now. He’s put that to rest long ago and frankly this isn’t even a worthy discussion at this point. Pitt will go as far as he takes them and in terms of playmakers, I don’t agree. He’s made some big-time throws in recent weeks and Friday against Rutgers he made a few under a lot of pressure. Stull for some reason isn’t the most beloved player on this team among fans, but my goodness, the Panthers are 15-5 with him as a starter. I’m not saying he’s an NFL quarterback — or that he’s even a great player — but to say he is just along for the for ride is inaccurate because he’s made a lot of plays and frankly, a couple of games he’s been the difference between winning and losing. He also proved against Connecticut that he could indeed bring the Panthers back if they got behind and that was a question people had about him.
I have to admit to staring at that link all week. First, it is really hard to argue with success, and by nearly every metric Stull has been a success this season. I’ve been among the doubters as to how successful Pitt’s offense could be over the first few games, but he has done the job. The main problem I have with it, though, is — well, who on the roster would have fit the role of “playmaker” QB? You can’t just declare that he shouldn’t be the guy because he isn’t dynamic enough without a clear alternative that fits that bill.
There is no evidence that Sunseri would be that guy other than his success in high school and nice reports on how he did in the training camp. I like Bostick, but I can’t call him a “playmaker.”
I don’t know if people still hold the Sun Bowl and his performances in the last 3 games of 2008 against him. The natural distrust of the starting QB. The way Stull was guaranteed the job, despite not really outplaying the other QBs in camp. There just should be a point where you have to let it go.
Stull is the starter. He’s been very good this season. He has stayed within the system and has made a lot more throws than he’s missed. Unless there is an injury he should be the starter. Not because he has experience. Not because Coach Wannstedt says so. Because he has been very good in the job.
Speaking of not letting go.
So I’ve got this guy who emails every time Pitt loses a game. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear it was Lou Holtz in disguise.
Here’s what it looks like: Wannstedt ruined the Bears, he ruined the Dolphins, and he’ll ruin Pitt, too.
And whaddya know, Wanny has won 16 of his last 21 games at Pitt, and only a 28-21 loss to Cincinnati last year kept the Panthers from winning their first ever outright conference title. In previous years, Saturday’s game against USF would have been a classic Pitt stumble.
Not now – not after Wannstedt has his players and philosophy set; not after he made one of the best hires of the offseason by bringing in Frank Cignetti to run the offense and turn wayward QB Billy Stull into one of the nation’s most productive passers (Stull, 2008: 9 TD, 10 INT; Stull, 2009: 14 TD, 3 INT).
Maybe, you know, the guy in Columbus can learn a little something from the guy in Pittsburgh who will, according to my email friend, one day ruin the Panthers.
At least he hasn’t had to hear from the guy in a month.
I won’t defend his time at Miami or Chicago. They were unmitigated disasters that not only messed up the teams for years, but the fanbases there still regard him with disgust while the sportswriters continue to use him as an easy punchline.
Now, understand. I have a continuing ambivalence regarding Coach Wannstedt. I just don’t know if he can be as successful as he thinks on a consistent basis. I think some of his ingrained inflexibility especially with offense is a fatal flaw that may keep him from ever realizing the goals he has set out for the program and we fans want.
That said, the key is that I while I don’t know about the level of success he will achieve at Pitt, there is no metric by which you can say he will or has ruined Pitt. He has underachieved for a few years. He has had headscratching losses (and probably will have more). He frustrates at times.
He has not shown anything, however, to suggest that he will or has ruined Pitt in the four plus years as head coach. Recruiting has improved. Relations with alumni is better. Media relations are stronger. Interest in the program has picked up again.
The police blotter has been relatively clean. No hints of impropriety in the program. Academics have been solid. Things that were in place before Coach Wannstedt and have continued.
At some point, you have to actually have more to go on than gut and past screw-ups.
I think I speak for many Pitt fans that we are mainly dissatisfied with Wanny (delusional or not)for the following reeasons:
1) We are not exponentially better in the W column than we were in the Walt era. Meaning, we had a coach that won 6-8 wins a year and got us to a crap bowl regularly but hardly made a dent in the BCS landscape; we wanted more, and are under the impression that better players, a better run program (structure, ethics, support), and better coaching would lead us to 9-11 wins a year with better Bowl opps regularly. Right now, as a whole, Wanny has not delivered on our expectations.
2) The WAY he loses (and wins) just frustrates the heck out of Pitt loyalists. Mind numbing losses when the talent is clearly better on our side of the field. Granted, Walt had the same problem, but I would argue that Walt did more with less than any Pitt coach in the past 30 years. It just fails the eye test and makes the entire game a rather unpleasant viewing experience. See Redshirt Diaries worst Pitt losses over the past 10 years for reference.
3) His reluctance to embrace the college game nuances until horribly late in his tenure. He got the fact that we needed to be faster after WVU smoked us in his first year, but he didn’t get the fact that you need college minded coordinators to use the speed to our advantage. It appears Cigs is one of those guys that “get it”…why year 5?
4) He is loyal…to a fault. By being loyal to a fault (Seniors, Cav, Stull etc.) makes us fans feel like he doesn’t put the best players or coached on the field to maximize the talent. On one had, you love the loyalty, but if better players are underclassmen (or better coaches are in a more dynamic system) then they should be leading us.
I do speak for most Pitt fans when I say that he has also been:
1) Unlucky in timing (best years by many of our perennially bad or mediocre conference teams have hurt his winning percentage and an overall perception shift of the Big East to the Big Easy whether we want to admit it or not)
2) A tremendous asset in recruiting
3) A relentless spositive pokesman for the program
4) A universally respected coach from his players & coaches
5) And nonense on code of ethics
As for ruining the program, no way.
As for not living up to our expectations, thus far, yes…(but time and wins can change that!)
The current Pitt team has more depth than any team I can remember in a very long time, and loaded with underclassmen .. and should be a viable BE contender in the foreseaable future. Fact is that Pitt can now be termed as a program … I’m not so sure that this was the case since the early 80s.
I would be pleasantly surprised if Pitt would win out the rest of the year, but I am convinced they are heading in the right direction.
But I remember his Dolphin teams being pretty decent, up until the year Ricky left him high and dry. That year was a disaster, but it seems to be all that anyone remembers from his Miami years.
And I remember even that 04 Dolphins team playing tough defense.
I don’t think he’s a great coach, but I think he’s a good enough recruiter to at least out-talent the rest of the Big East, just as long as he hires good coordinators.
You want to consistently compete with the Big Boys, put 90 to 100,000 butts in seats against Youngstown State. My daughter goes to UF works at the SWAMP (the restaurant next to the Stadium) made $300 when UF played Whocares U. We can’t get 40,000 against a good UConn team.
Homecoming…excited…what can go wrong?
That said, I know there are games where we all say “damn” how in the world did we lose that one, but there are those we say “damn” we pulled that one out. Same as every program I guess. The players he has brought in is pretty remarkable when you think about where they could have gone. Consider, rarely a packed stadium, a conference that gets beat up by the national press, and yet he brings them in. I know it’s about wins, but lately the team has been winning, let’s hope it continues.