I know it would seem that Oklahoma State OC Dana Holgersen is one of, if not Pitt’s top target. But when Tom Dienhart is saying it, then I just don’t see it happening. The guy tends to throw stuff out there from any and every agent that contacts him.
Holgersen for his part is claiming not to have been contacted by Pitt, but also issued a non-denial when asked if he would be interested in the job.
“I have not been contacted,” Holgorsen said.
Rumors of discussion between Holgorsen and Pitt began swirling Thursday, but the Cowboys’ first-year coordinator maintains he’s pretty happy in Stillwater.
Asked if he would be interested in the Pitt job if contacted, Holgorsen said, “I’m pretty happy where I am at.”
A report surfaced that Holgorsen was in Pittsburgh interviewing for the job on Thursday. Holgorsen denied that report Thursday night via text message saying, “I’m in Houston, have been all day.”
Holgersen made $360K last year as OK St. OC. He has a new contract that he has not yet returned. And certainly does not seem in any rush to do so.
Let’s move to the more amusing stuff.
Marvin Lewis the Cinci Bengals head coach had a conference call with Pittsburgh media on Wednesday. His job status came up as a prime topic.
Lewis was asked about any interest in coaching at the University of Pittsburgh following the firing of Dave Wannstedt this week.
“Let’s move on,” was his reply.
Lewis is a native of Western Pennsylvania and has coached at Pitt and with the Steelers in his career.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
Speaking of not happening. VT DC Bud Foster. The eternal second banana to Frank Beamer has been desperate for the last few years to get nearly any major conference head coaching job that comes open. I have to think he must be one of the worst possible interview.
In any coaching list for Pitt, Foster’s name has not been mentioned. Well, that won’t stop him from trying to get his name out there somehow. A Virginia columnist does his best to plug away for Foster. As does the ESPN.com ACC writer.
You can’t tell me that both didn’t get pitched this by Foster’s representation. Heck, even the talking points run the same way.
Teel:
Moreover, the Commodores compete in the SEC East with the likes of Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina. Good luck there.
But a job opened Tuesday for which Foster is an ideal fit: Pittsburgh.
Foster’s lunch-pail approach would play well in the Iron City. Ditto his record of building ornery, lock-down defenses.
Western Pennsylvania has produced legendary quarterbacks such as Unitas, Montana and Marino, but Pittsburgh’s most storied teams, the NFL Steelers and college Panthers, have been rooted in defense and no-frills offense.
Foster is familiar with Pitt from Virginia Tech’s time in the Big East — the teams clashed annually from 1993-2003 and are scheduled for a home-and-home in 2012 and ’13.
Dinich:
But this one, this one is perfect.
It’s the right level — BCS but not SEC West. It’s the right mentality — a tough, blue-collar city made for lovers of lunch pails, a city where defenses win championships. It’s the right recruiting territory — Big 33 stars. There is a familiarity there from Foster’s time with Virginia Tech when the Hokies were in the Big East. Bottom line: It’s a program he can win at.
Both even end with the warning to Pitt or the Pitt AD not to make the mistake by not going after Foster.
Look, if Pitt is going to hire a DC who has stayed way too long as the #2 to an aging coach who just won’t retire, it will be Tom Bradley not Bud Foster.
Didn’t we hear this same refrain when DW was hired… that his defensive prowess and successes as a NFL and college coordinator would give us a defensive advantage? Do we really want a HC who will tend to impose his will constantly on his coordinators, after all, that was a main contributor in DW’s current situation.
Not me. Give me a HC who has proven that he can choose, and lead, his staff with such confidence that he can allow them to do what they are hired for and are good at.
I truly believe that DW’s record at PITT would be different in a positive way had he told both Cignetti and Bennett that they were to go out and do what they do best – institute their offenses and defenses and playcall to the best of their ability.
Instead we got a HC who reached his hand down into the minutiae of the Coordinator’s jobs and we all saw the poor results.
Hire a coach who gives confident orders in broad strokes, not one who paints by the numbers.
For what it’s worth, I’m a huge fan of Gattuso and wish they would give him a look but SP probably won’t.
Zeise says that former Pitt players favor Cignetti. Not a bad decision, I guess, but not one likely to excite apathetic fans who want a departure from Wannstedt.
I think Bradley is just too old for the direction this program is looking to go. Im not sure how innovative he would be, probably very much like DW except a better overall coach.
This program needs to go in a new direction? Have you forgotten about the multiple arrests, the lack of discipline, the constant costly turnovers, the glaring lack of talent in some positions like O-line, linebackers, secondary. That blame should fall on Wandstett but also on his assistant coaches. They have a huge role in preaching discipline on and off the field. They also have a huge role in recruiting. It would be a terrible move to keep Cignetti as HC and a ridiculously terrible move to keep Gatusso as HC.
So we may lose a recruit or two that we had signed already. Who said that these recruits were superstars anyway? You lose a few recruits but you gain some good recruits with a new hire. Then more importantly you get even better recruits the next year if you hire a guy who brings some excitement to the program.
Foge–>Gottfried–>Hackett–>Majors–>Harris–>Wannstedt–>????
Enthusiasm–>Disgust
1st year: 7-6. Well, it is going to take awhile until the players learn the system. At least we made it to a bowl.
2nd year: 8-5. He’s making progress. After all, we’re playing mostly with DW’s recruits. We are still playing in a bowl.
3rd year: 8-5. He’ll do better. I know it’s not a BCS bowl, but it is still a bowl.
4th year: 10-3. Hmmm. Matches DW’s best year. I’ll bet we will be playing in a BCS bowl next year.
5th year: 7-6 We’re regressing and again playing in a no-name bowl. He’s had 5 years to win the national championship. Unless Pitt unloads this bum, I’m not renewing my season tickets. The next guy we hire has got to be better.
If we have learned anything from the departure of Urban Meyer is…the college FB pressures are too great to realistically believe that a person can handle 10+, 20+, 30+, heck 8+ years in one location like Poopy Pants did… Too many players to keep out of jail, too much pressure to be a revenue generator, a goofy postseason, constant conference realignment, recruiting ups & downs, coaching churn, not to mention gameday…
My point is…get a guy, run him for 4 to 6 years, if he is winning within reason and the brand of football is strong…pay him, extend the cotnract, and hope he stays (i.e. Jamie Dixon model)…but realize in CFB, that duration probab ly won’t be as long as in other sports because of the aforementioned issues…
Otherwise, evaluate after 4 to 6 years and move on to someone new….
Regarding Leach…you might as well forget it…too risky for our school…. check out his you tube videos (baylor game) and others….one sniff of that behavior (plus the allegations/lawsuite) by a parent and any rational recruit will be heading to Columbus or Happy Valley….
Dave sucked! Period. His results sucked. His blame anybody but me attitude sucked. His leadership skills sucked (e.g. players getting in trouble, not caring, quitting on him). His favoritism sucked.
I am not sad or emotional to see him go. He deserved it.
TX Panther, Pitt tied for 1st in the BE this year. They missed winning it all last year by a missed extra point, but they won 10 games including their bowl game. This is the 3rd straight year that Pitt is going to a bowl and you say that the program is a joke and that Pitt is an embarrassment to the league? Wow!
“I never purported that he was coaching hall-of-fame material.”
BigGuy: I think Wanny thought he was. Either that or he was trying to prove the people in Chicago and Miami, who also thought he was a bad coach, wrong. Why else would he have micromanaged the offense and defense as Reed pointed out, and appointed himself as special teams coach?
His biggest minus was that he didn’t fully trust the guys he hired to do their jobs, and that far outweighed his pluses. If he had, he might still be the HC.
A good leader recognizes his weaknesses and hires people who have those things as their strengths. Then, he gets out of their way and frees them up to succeed. Read about Level 5 Leadership from Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great” and you’ll understand what I mean.
That’s the kind of hire I hope Pitt makes, whether it’s an experienced HC or an up-and-coming coordinator. I just want the Pitt football program to go from “good” to great!
Pitt finish tied for f1rst this year and 2nd last year and the year before. How is that a joke and embarrassment to the league? How can anything be an embarrassment to this league, since you all love to put it down so much. And who really cares what the putz’s on ESPN say. We all know how they’re bought and paid for by the Big 10, as there nothing more than business partners and shills for them.
Nobody is dissing the Pac 10 for having 3 bowl eligible teams are they? With one of them being 6-6 Washington. Nobody is talking about what a joke of a non-con, the 3 big 10, Top 10 teams played. Go look at that embarrassment, yet the business partner and their plebes of ESPN utter nary a word. We’re all just supposed to believe these three 11-1 Big 10 teams are so great, with all of them beating up on the Little Sisters of the Big 10, plus D2 teams, and MAC also rans.
At least Pitt had the gumption to play someone non-con and ON THE ROAD. It doesn’t take much of a person to take glee in someone else’s loss and then continue to revel in that glee while kicking him some me. I’d call that pretty sick and in America anymore, there’s a lot of pretty sick people. I’m almost ashamed that we have that type of people posing as true Pitt men.
Reed said some of this stuff I guess and I suppose it might be true, but is it? Unless there is some story out there how do we know? Most of us aren’t privy to things that go deeper than the lockerroom (such as the mind of the head coach).
They didn’t win the big games and, according to most, underperformed. There will be a new coach soon who is neither Wannstedt nor the qualities fairly or unfairly attributed to him.
Two observations that any outsider can make to indicate some micromanagement on Wanny’s part:
1. 2 or 3 delay of game penalties every game. Do you think it was because Cignetti couldn’t decide what play to run? Or, because Sunseri couldn’t get the signals straight? Very doubtful, since that’s what the spend practices doing. More likely, it was Wanny questioning the play call, so they either had to have a discussion or come up with a different play.
2. Every commentator when speaking of the defense said, “Dave doesn’t like to blitz. He prefers to apply pressure only using his front four.” Notice they always said Dave and not Phil Bennett. Plus, Wanny’s claim to fame was as a DC, so you can bet he had major influence and input there.
Having never played organized football, I won’t speculate as to whether DW micromanaged the offense as evidenced by the delay of game penalties. I will take your word that it is possible. I do know that the announcers often credited Cignetti over DW re: play calling, to follow that line of thought.
As for our second observation, the defense was, on the whole, very good this year. If there was a fault it would be with pass protection, which might have been a skill/experience issue rather than coaching. So even if he micromanaged on that end of the ball, I don’t think it manifested itself as a negative quality.
I’m not convinced it’s true that he micromanaged in the first place but that is irrelevant. Indeed, we can speculate and infer and make conclusions based upon these things, but for what? It seems unfair, to me, to pile on and, at the same time, not be completely correct in truth. Moreover, we’ll never know if we’re right or wrong.
The horse has died.
I’ll take myself out of the discussion now, but I am curious to see who can win the Big East outright for us next year and consistently thereafter. I think that’s my big requirement for the next coach.
There are plenty of good coaches available and, in my opinion, the vacancies at UF and UM do not affect Pitt all that much. Word has it that UF is strongly considering Peterson from Boise at this moment.
I like the fact that SP said there are no real parameters for the next coach. In other words, the coach does not have to be a defensive guy or an offensive guy, or a “Pitt guy” for that matter.
Let’s hope this goes as smoothly as it can. I live in Florida and all my co-workers and friends give me a hard time about SP — even in Florida he has a not so stellar reputation.
Hail to Pitt.
The Big East FB brand was ruined over the past 6 years through four things:
1) Deflection of two major “alpha dogs” — Miami and VaTech; (I’m ignoring BC because they are not relevant in FB nationally)
2) The consistently underachieving Pitt Panthers and to a much lesser extent a abysmal Syracuse program
3) Louisville never lived up to their bargain as an “alpha dog” (as I predicted)
4) 13-9; relegated our conference’s only “alpha dog” to firing the best coach they will ever have, and reduce their team to a slightly better version of Pitt.
Anyone trying to sell Pitt’s ranking in the new “Big Least” FB conference should be selling snake oil. Omar bashes this home daily, and he is right, 7-5 in the new Big Least is arguably a 3 or 4 win team in the SEC. Below average.
So, please, stop with the apologies and selling of our performance over the past year as being good or something to be proud of as a fan.
The fact that Cincy, Cincy and UCONN were our last three BCS representatives is an effing joke.
Bottom line– Walt got us out of misery and into mediocrity; Wanny made no improvements and regressed our team and conference brand. He got himself fired err promoted err …
TCU living up to their hype, a great coach at Pitt that wins big games, and playing (& winning) non con games regularly will bring us (and the Big Sprawl) back to national relevance.
As much as I don’t care for SP, you cannot deny two things…
1) Jamie Dixon loves him
2) Our facilities are top notch, and he gets Nordy to pony up for help when it is needed
Let’s see what Slippery Steve does….I’m hoping and praying he hits a home run on this hire.
It doesn’t matter if the new coach is an offensive wiz, a defensive genius or a great recruiter himself. If he knows how to surround himself with people who are great at those things, and if he leads them properly, Pitt will do much more than win a Big East championship.
Nobody has any clue, how much or how little Wanny micromanaged the team. I would say most of the delay of play penalties had more to do with a new QB, but of course that excuse get’s lame 6 or 7 games in. But then again we see that even in the NFL 10 games in, don’t we.
I can’t see Wanny overriding his OC much or even ever, as that would cause a lot of second guessing among the coaches. After all this is why a HC hires an OC & a DC.
As for the new coach, I would prefer a clean sweep, as I think most of the alum & fans would prefer as well. The only one I’d consider keeping would be Hafley since he recruited all these kids coming in from Jersey and Eastern Pa., or most of them. You know the highly rated ones.
Cincy vs. Fresno St. L
Cincy vs. N.C. St L
Cincy vs. Oklahoma L
UCONN vs. Michigan L
UCONN vs. Vanderbilt W
Louis vs. Kentucky L
Louis vs. Oregon St. L
Pitt vs. Utah L
Pitt vs. Miami L
Pitt vs. ND L
Rutg. vs. N.Carolina L
Syr. vs. Washington L
Syr. vs. B.C. L
USF vs. Florida L
USF vs. Miami W
WVU vs. Maryland W
WVU vs. LSU L
That would be 3-14. Questioning whether some of us are even “Pitt guys”??? ha ha LMAO, I’d have to question if you even watch college football.
Wannstedt, and in his first year here, has stats at least as impressive as many of the assistant coaches that are being mentioned. He turned Bill Stull into a tremendous college QB, and Dion Lewis into a Heisman candidate.
This team needs defense, not offense. Of all of the many disappointments of the Wannstedt era, none is worse than how our defense has played, particularly in big games, perhaps 2008 being a lone exception. Wanny, the defensive genius. Florida under Meyer would not be close to having 2 national championships, without a defense, Tim Tebow notwithstanding. And no one would confuse Alabama’s offense last year with the old AFL San Diego Chargers.
There are certainly pros and cons to everyone who has been rumored to be on Pitt’s “list.” But if Tom Bradley is interested in the job, and Pitt is considering hiring an assistant, why not him? I see plenty of upside, and little downside. We could not possibly be a worse team, and if he can impart just 25% of the organization, discipline, and toughness that Penn State has shown over the years, we will be well ahead. And he will graduate players. And he will stay. Also, he will probably not demand a long term, pricey contract, which would make firing him easier. He could not possibly do a worse job than Wannstedt in the meantime.
Fans will show up if the team wins. They do not care what kind of offense gets you that. While Penn State may be outmanned in games, they are seldom outcoached, or out of position. And despite JoePa’s presence on the sideline, no one can seriously doubt that his assistants have been running that team of late, and of those, Bradley is the leader.
If he wants the job, hire him now, stop the bleeding in recruiting, and get a proven recruiter, a Western PA person with some credentials. Someone we can trust with the program, on and off the field. Other schools (e.g., Miami and Florida) that have vacancies to fill are clearly more attractive opportunities, and our options are already shrinking. If Rich Rod is canned, or JoePa calls it quits, those will shrink even more.
We all have our opinions and we all interpret what we saw in different ways – but our delay of game (DOG) penalties were almost always after the play call was relayed from the sidelines into the huddle. If you remember there was an constant problem of the time period from when Sunseri turned away from the sidelines, looked at his wrist, then the huddle would break way after it should have. When your offense incorporates the shifts that ours did that time period has to be a short and crisp as possible.
It is my understanding that the plays were being questioned by the players in the huddle because “they didn’t sound right”. Too often the offense wouldn’t get lined up and ready to go into those pre-snap motions until there were few seconds left on the play clock… and way too often did the plays result in a Keystone Cops scenario even if we managed to avoid a DOG penalty.
In essence, there was a processing problem at the point of relay from the sidelines to the players. I’m sure there were times when Sunseri got the call late – but I honestly can’t remember once that he was ‘motioning to the sidelines’… I’m sure it happened a few times, but that wasn’t the main problem.
As to DW ‘meddling’ in the Coordinator’s roles… one has to believe it happened based on other indications of DW’s actions. While DW surely didn’t interfere in every playcall, It was painfully obvious that he picked and choose players for starting roles personally; it was no secret that he himself was responsible for the RB platooning; he appointed himself special teams coach (our arguably poorest performing unit), etc… so I’m convinced he didn’t delegate decision making in the way it should be done for maximum effect. People I know way closer than me to the program (which isn’t close at all) over the years have said the same thing… it’s rather common knowledge.
Paul Rhodes mentioned this after his departure from the PITT staff – something to the effect ‘it’s hard to run someone else’s defense when they also choose who will play in that defense’. I’m paraphrasing but it was along those lines – that he was reduced to a defensive play caller…something along those lines.
This issue isn’t a new one for DW and it isn’t unheard of by other HCs either – but the successful ones can get away with it and the unsuccessful ones start looking for employment when it doesn’t work out – which is where DW finds himself.
To “A” – I assumed you actually meant “As for our second observation, the OFFENSE was, on the whole, very good this year, based on your mentioning pass protection (which was fine after the 3rd game BTW).
I’ll disagree on a whole slew of levels but the main being this… in the six years DW has been at PITT we’ve had three years where we scored more points than this season – and IMO we had, by far, the best offensive talent this season than any other. Three (count them… three: Lewis, Baldwin and Pinkston) pre-season All Americans and other good, solid players and we fell flat on our faces when it mattered every time.
In other words we had two years under Matt Cavanaugh as OC and one year with Bill Stull as QB – two people who PITT fans denigrated at every turn – where we scored more points. We were down across the board in every major offensive category this year as opposed to last, most notably a whole TD per game – and this with a second year OC and a QB who the HC & OC were touting as the second coming… Remember the quote “It’s not if he becomes great, but when”
No other way to spin this A – we failed to even match last year’s production and because we scored less points this season than we did in both 2009 and 2008(!) we are regressing as far as the offense goes.
You won, you got what you wanted. Its time to take your boot heel off his neck. You want a couch that doesn’t micromanage. We get it.
Let me say it differently – while I have always disliked Paterno, I have thought Penn State football to be program worth emulating – both on the field and educating and graduating players. No question Paterno has oversold that, and off the field, at least until this year, PSU has had more issues than Pitt under Wannstedt. But the system has been a good one.
Having said that, I can think of only one ex-Paterno assistant that has done well as a HC, and that was George Welsh a long time ago. And Bradley is probably around 54, so he would likely not coach more than 10 years. I do realize that there is a risk with him, albeit different from the risks the other assistants under consideration may present. But one advantage he has is that he would take the job (if the stories are true), it would avoid embarrassing rejections by guys like Holgorson, Mullen, etc., and we can get back on the recruiting track.
There are several good candidates out there, and I really do not think we can go anywhere but up. Even if we wind up with a Cignetti or a Gattuso.
Apparently you can’t. No one on this thread mentioned “what a great guy he is”!! If you don’t believe me, do a search on this page. Let it go already.
Like I said earlier, Dana is nice…but my money would be on a guy like Al Golden. He has a lot of pluses…
1) Recruiting in our hotbeds (Eastern PA, Maryland, NJ)
2) Familiar with the challenge of a college in a Pro town
3) Helped bring an abysmal program to relevance (granted, not much in the MAC, but still…Temple was abysmal)
4) Seems to have a great image
5) Old enough to know better, young enough to change to talent
Sounds much like my career…
Kidding, but why does the search never mention coaches who have had success at lower levels as HC? The executive skills that an HC needs are very different than a coordinator.
included, there is a pretentiously deliver on studying English intercourse in those parts of the prominent, where English is not a most influential language. This conclusion leads us that there is leviathan howling pro English-speaking tutors, who are specializing in teaching English. South Korea is a single-minded of most valuable countries in terms of gonorrhoeic climb, which means teaching English in Korea would be immensely profitable.
