What do the hirings of Jamie Dixon, Dave Wannstedt and Mike Haywood have in common?
It obviously isn’t the success rate.
Believe it or not, it isn’t the AD, as each was hired with a different AD ostensibly in charge.
It’s not even the money.
It’s that in all of the moves to make the hire, there was a clear #1 target and then only a cheap fallback.
One of the advantages for doing this Pitt blog for so long are archives that lend itsself to more easily reviewing past events. While the hiring of Jamie Dixon predates this blog, I deeply followed that saga and coupled with the ACC raid on the Big East, made me want to start this blog. At the time I was just general interest blogging anything that had my attention.
Over seven years ago I wrote this:
Prosser or bust is the feeling I have. This is like a low level Roy Williams deciding on Kansas or UNC thing a few years ago (I know it’s happening again). When Roy decided to stay at Kansas, there was a sense of desperation and “settling” for Doherty. It appears Pitt is heading down that same path, if Prosser says no. To date, the only other person interviewed was Pitt’s associate coach James Dixon. This zeroing in on Prosser is only a smart strategy for Pitt if he takes the job. If not, there is scrambling, second guessing, desperation, and another demoralizing blow to alumni and fans of Pitt, who will once again feel like they (we) are never going to be considered a top sports program.
Sound familiar?
How about less than two years later?
I know the interviews haven’t even started yet, but I think it should be clear that Dave Wannstedt is (and perhaps should be) Pitt’s primary target. This isn’t because he represents Pitt’s most “serious” choice. The other guys contacted so far — Pelini and Hoke — and mentioned for consideration — Rhoads, Sunseri and Bradley — are all assistants. They are lower profile and cheaper possibilities.
I’m not saying that they may not be better choices, but with all of Pitt’s talk about believing that Harris lacked the vision to take Pitt higher, they shifted the pressure to themselves to back it up. Wannstedt would be a high profile hire. He is friendly with lots of national media types — Pardon the Interruption yesterday (12/15) even brought the topic up in their “big finish” segment and both Kornheiser and Wilbon seemed to like the idea. Wannstedt would also be the most expensive hire. Something Pitt has said it would be willing to do, but has never actually done. Not just the money needed for Wannstedt, but what it would cost for the top-flight assistants a coach who hasn’t been in the college game since 1987 would need.
And of course, we know that this time Pitt got Wannstedt. Paying more than they would have for any of the other assistants. What we’ve learned since is that while Pelini was high on then AD Long’s list, he was nixed after the interviews. The top choice after Wannstedt actually and disturbingly was Paul Rhoads.
This time, it seems that Al Golden was the top target by Pitt, with the school willing to pony up the money for him. Holgorsen may have been high on AD Pederson’s list but he got nixed by someone higher-up. Very few interviews appear to have actually been conducted. That led to a second choice — Haywood — that was significantly cheaper than the first choice.
The one common thread is Chancellor Nordenberg. I’m not trying to absolve AD Pederson for his part in all of this, but there has been a familiarity in the poor process and way the search for the next coach has been conducted regardless of who has been the AD.
It is no secret that Nordenberg has a lot of input/control in the coaching searches. He also has close relationships with both Jamie Dixon and Dave Wannstedt. To be fair, the close relationship with Dixon has been beneficial in helping keep Dixon at Pitt.
Nordenberg seems to value these close relationships with the high profile coaches and seems to make that a particularly important component in the hiring process. That seems to explain why coaches like Bo Pelini and Dana Holgorsen still got nixed after the AD appeared to push and back them.
It seems that Nordenberg concludes that if the high profile, top choice is off the board, then it is better to go after someone who is a better “value.”
It undermines the AD, obviously. It also undermines the hire if it isn’t the top choice. To fans and alumni, it looks like the school was looking for the cheapest hire rather than the best hire.
As we have seen with Coach Dixon, Pitt will pay competitive (not necessarily top, but competitive) money to keep a good coach who produces. But if it is not the top choice, then Pitt under Nordenberg would prefer a hire that can start out on the lower end of the salary scale. Furthering the perception/reality that Pitt won’t pay top dollar for a coach and is not serious about competing in 1-A football or even the Big East.
Look Nordenberg is a tremendous Chancellor at Pitt. The school is in great shape. It’s reputation in academics is outstanding. Nordenberg should also get a lot of credit for caring about the athletics and recognizing the importance their role plays in promoting a school. All you have to do is think back to the state of athletics when the short-time schmuck Dennis O’Connor was running things in the early-90s.
The one thing he hasn’t learned to do, stay out of the way in hiring decisions. I want to be supportive of the Haywood hiring, since there is a lot to like in the guy. The way the decision was reached. The way it has come about, though, did more damage than anything on Haywood’s resume.
Second, great post Chas.
Third, since when is Pitt above hiring an alcoholic coach, or was Johnny Majors sober more often than I thought?
link to pittsburghpanthers.com
(discipline) “very important that gentleman dress like you play”
“offensive philosophy…we are a run play action football team”
“you have to be a physical dominate football team for 60 mins”
(approach) “we create mismatches”
(offensive strategy) “we are a multiple formation team”
(approach) “Starters should play one or two special teams”
(special team) “special teams changes the game…”
(recruiting)”recruiting is about relationships…relationships with high school coaches”
(regarding old coaching staff) “we are going to interview everyone on staff…we would like to retain one or two gentleman that on this staff…we are going to give everyone an opportunity to interview”
(regarding recruiting players)”no need to go out and get a player that doesnt fit your system”
(regarding being considered by other universities) “I would say that I had multiple contacts with universities during this point in time and west virginia was one of them…I’ve always wanted to be here at Pittsburgh”
(regarding existing players recruited by previous coaches) “players develop an orphan system…you have to let them know how much to really believe in them”
“are you familiar with freddy cougar? with freddy coagar everyone that thinks that Freddy Cougar is dead and all of a sudden Freddy Cougar keeps coming back. You have to be dangerous and relentless for 60 mins. When you fall down or get knocked down on the canvas how fast do you get back up? and those are the things. and those are the things. you have to be a physical dominant football team for 60 mins and the score board doesnt matter. you might as well drape it.”
Here is my take:
1) very focused and committed to discipline and success
2) understands that you must adjust (talked about creating mismatches on the field)
3) understands that the best players must be on the field including special teams
4) understands how to get the most attention out of his players without distraction (6AM practice)
5) the guy is intense and will demand accountability which is what the current staff and players lack
6) will bring high energy to the program
7) makes you want to strap it up and go fight with him
8)tough as nails!!!!
I like him. It is easy to see how Pederson was sold on this guy. Sometimes when you see it and hear it you know right then that you have the right guy. This is the right guy for the right moment.
Hail to PITT
3)
The more I read about Haywood, the more I like him. We may have stumbled into another Dixon-esque good hire.
PITT fan in Atlanta pretty much summed it up.
Any way you cut it, competition week in and week out was not something that DW’s staff employed. Certain guys were cemented in once the coaching staff determined they were the 1st teamer and no amount of missed assignments, mistakes, fumbles, interceptions, half-assed routes or pass interference penalties changed that.
I actually think he meant to flip this.
I know what I’d have said given the pressure: “You have to dress before you play.”
Dan: I also heard “Pony and the Punter” via the Internet. Basically, Haywood left them with little to disect, again because he wasn’t talking to the media at his presser. So they were reduced to making jokes about him. I thought Filiponi took his usual idiotic stance, which I recall you once said you hated about him. I was amused by Miller’s envelopes example, but he was also all over the place on his stance agreeing with almost every caller regardless of what side the person was on. They’re talk radio guys, so what do you expect? They’re basically the bottom-feeders of sports media. They have to “entertain” their audience and get people to call.
And, to answer your question: WVU may get to a BCS game and higher ranking first, but I think Haywood gets Pitt there more often. I also think Holgorsen’s gone to the next highest bidder before he ever finishes his contract at WVU. Just my opinion.
Finally…… we’re gonna go undefeated next year. have faith!!!! give this guy a chance
good luck haygood!
They aren’t.
Pitt is now officially a basketball school. Steve, you had better just pass out the flags and get the team ready for the intramural flag football league.
I have nothing against Mr. Haywood, I am sure he’s everything that people have been talking about, but he wasn’t the right choice.
ALL you people with your head up Steve’s ass better not tell me when this guy goes 6-6 that we have to “wait a couple of years until he gets the coaches and recruits HE wants in.” I also better not hear that Wanny didn’t leave him any talent either. The talent is there. I ain’t buying it. You went for the cheap, bargain basement sale. Sure he wants the Pitt job, he’s not going to make $700K at Miami of Ohio. What a great gig.
The man is 10-15 and has TWO whole years of experience as a HC. If he was the genius and such a catch that some are saying he is, he would have been hired after being the coordinator at LSU and ND. IF Steve really interviewed 5 other coaches, I’m willing to bet the other 4 laughed at the salary. Even the hoopies opened up their revenue from the still and paid for a coach.
Don’t give me the Jamie Dixon crap either. He’s not being paid a whole lot compared to other coaches. He was hired by Long and not Steve, they already knew him, the players wanted him and they knew what they had. If you remember right, they almost didn’t offer him the job either.
There is NO REAL COMMITMENT TO THIS FOOTBALL PROGRAM!
We are now Third class citizens (behind the second class smokers) on the food chain.
Steve Pedersen is lower than a snake oil salesman (apologies to the snake oil salesmen). He’s a carpet bagger and a liar. He’s looked me in the eye and lied to me more than once. He has no idea what he’s doing and he proved that again with this hire.
all those years of defending this program and drinking the kool-aid are done. The kool-aid has left a sour taste in my mouth.
“Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson hosted a news conference to announce the hiring of Michael Haywood and while there was a whole lot said about character and discipline and integrity and academics, there was very little said about winning championships and about becoming the dominant program in the Big East.”
He went on:
“But I don’t know – and I could be wrong and I’ll listen to the tapes (about 40 minutes in all between the news conference and two individual sessions) — that I heard Pederson say “he is here because the last guy didn’t win enough” and I don’t know that I heard Haywood say “academics and discipline are important, but this is a bottom line business and winning is the bottom line.”
Translation: As long as the players don’t get arrested, you can be mediocre. We don’t care, it’s only the football team. Your job is to baby sit.
Am I being to hard? Am I reading this wrong? Am I so full of $^*& that my eyes are brown? (Actually, they’re hazel) Am I being hateful?
The answer to this is Maybe, I might be, No and yes.
The point is I LOVE this school with every fiber of my body. I want to return to greatness and despite what people say, I KNOW it can be done.
But I am also a realist. I’ve stopped drinking from the company water fountain. They really don’t care. IF they did, they would have made an upgrade. They would have really opened the pocket book and convinced a PROVEN HC that Pitt is the place to be.
I use to respect MN. I thought he wanted to bring a winning tradition back to Pitt. After this whole process, from canning Wanny, to this whole finding a “quality” coach debacle I have lost all respect for the whole lot of them.
All they really wanted was a baby sitter and they got one at a discounted price.
1. I, like many, was hoping to see the program take a big step towards bringing things out of the ultra-conservative, play-not-to-lose styles of the Wannstache and into something much closer to the 21st century. While I hoped they might reach out to bigger names like Mike Leach and Chris Peterson, those were mostly pipe dreams from the start. It’s been said that Leach isn’t really being considered by anyone until there’s some resolution to his lawsuit against Texas Tech. And Peterson? Guys in head coaching positions like Peterson don’t go from programs like Boise to Pitt. Much like Urban Meyer did, they go from programs like Boise to programs like Florida. Big East programs tend to look either to coordinators at larger programs or in the head coaching ranks in Conf. USA or the MAC. It’s just where Pitt is in the hierarchy of Division I college football. I’m OK with that, as our conference has seen teams have success with both approaches (Kelly was a former MAC HC, RichRod a former ACC coordinator).
2. With those two almost certainly not in the picture, the next biggest name was Holgorsen, who I think most fans latched onto because his offensive approach was the a complete 180 from what we saw under Wannstedt. When Zeise and others started mentioning him as a name of interest and then even plugged him as Pitt’s top choice, I can’t blame people for being upset when it didn’t happen, and even moreso when he ends up at Pitt’s biggest rival.
All that said, the more I see of Holgorsen, the more I wonder if he really is capable of running a program as a head coach and based on much of what I’ve read, those concerns may be fairly substantiated. No one knows. I guess we’ll see.
3. I was never really certain any of the other options were markedly better than Haywood. Dokish mentioned Bronko Mendenhall out of BYU, but in the same breath also said BYU had enough $$ to keep him around, so that was probably another pipe dream. I don’t really believe Golden or Tom Bradley would’ve been better fits. Bradley would bring stability and a recognizable name, but PSU’s recruiting cache isn’t what it’s been in the past. And I’m not sure he’s much more advanced in Bradley would’ve been in his approaches than both Golden and Wannstedt – guys who coach that conservative, pro-style approach. Brady Hoke would’ve bolted the minute Michigan’s job came open.
4. Recruiting. Judging by the calls to the Fan yesterday, I didn’t realize Wannstedt’s dismissal immediately caused all the bridges he repaired from the Walt Harris Era to come crumbling down. Nor did I realize “a Pittsburgh guy” is the only one capable of keeping them propped up.
Please. The WPIAL is fine to build a solid recruiting base and I’m sure the local coaches won’t shut this guy out simply because he’s not Dave Wannstedt or doesn’t speak Yinzer.
One of the things I like about Haywood are the reports that he continues to recruit from the places he coached before, including Texas, Louisiana and Ohio. He had ten kids from TX on his Miami roster this past season – eight of whom he recruited in the 2009/2010 classes. He also pulled several kids from Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Virginia. If he can continue to utilize those kinds of recruiting footprints, I can live with that.
I don’t know what kind of quality kids he can get now that he’s recruiting for a more recognizable name, but you can win in college football with a scheme that compensates for talent, and he said he believes multiple-option offenses. I can live with that, too.
All told, I can’t say I’m blown away by this hire, but the more I read of him and from what I saw of his press conference today, the more I like this guy.
They say he tends to delegate a lot of responsibilities to his assistants, which is something Wannstedt didn’t always do.
He seems to have a good grasp of how a program needs to be run, which is something Wannstedt didn’t always seem to have.
His defenses play fast and aggressive and he reportedly loves to attack with a blitz, which is something Pitt’s defenses did not do under Wannstedt/Bennett.
I’ll be interested to see how he does here.
Please though, stop with the fooling yourself thing. Don’t look to hard for any hidden meanings, or how someone said something, yes, it’s as obvious as it seems. Pitt went cheap. There is absolutely no committment to being a premier football team. They went cheap, they went Same Old Pitt. It’s so blatantly obvious, that I think a lot of us, including myself, are looking to see what’s there. Quit looking, we hired a guy that was a MAC head coach for TWO years. That’s all, not getting on the guy, it is just exactly what we see. As for a turn around, hey, he could have gone 3-9 in his third year at Miami for all we know. We have no body of work to go on. Good luck to him, hey, I’m a Pitt guy, I’ll be cheering next September, but, please, stop fooling yourselves into this is something bigger than we know.
Out of all the head coaches, O.C.s, D.C.s, in college and pros, all over this vast, expansive country, “we got exactly who we wanted”, really Steve, c’mon buddie, really???? “We didn’t look into the pro’s, or coordinators”, Steve, do you think we’re that stupid. Cross them off, that way, when someone says, did you call so and so, you can say, “no we didn’t, we decided we were not looking in that area”. Did you call John Smith at Arkansas or Sam Jones at Iowa, “no, I told you we weren’t looking at coordinators”
No head coach in the top 20 is going to come, money-wise and prestige, would be a move backward. Anyone in in the top 20 to top 50, would be a lateral move. So, now, you’ve eliminated, any pro’s, and coordinators, anyone out of football, and as stated above, any top 1 through 50 head coaches.
This leaves us with, college head coaches, 50 to 120. And his answer would be, “we got who we wanted”. What he should have said is, “we got who we wanted, after eliminating %85 of the field.
No negative, go Pitt, just the truth, the truth can’t be negative or positive, it’s just the plain old truth.
“And, to answer your question: WVU may get to a BCS game and higher ranking first, but I think Haywood gets Pitt there more often. I also think Holgorsen’s gone to the next highest bidder before he ever finishes his contract at WVU. Just my opinion.”
Pederson gets my vote as the grinch who stole Pitt football!!
@Dan I like that angle also, but when it comes down to it stevo will lose his job and career way before Nordy will and who will look like the Idiot?
The reason why the amount is undisclosed is because it is embarrassingly low.
We know the salary range of EVERY other Coach hired in the last couple of weeks but one, ours.
While this does NOT speak to Coach Haywood’s ability to do his job it certainly speaks what Pitt’s AD was willing to spend a year on a new coach.
When Steve says “we got exactly who we wanted” I absolutely believe that to be a true statement.
They were not willing to pay ANYONE more then what they were paying Wanny and they got exactly what they wanted.
link to collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com
The sock you want to put in Ben’s mouth would be the matching pair to the sock Haywood holds. These two guys are one in the same. While Ben finds them in the bathroom of a bar, Haywood finds them on the campus of the University who employs him. He has and continues to have sex with former students from every school he has coached at. He even had a sexual harassment complaint filed against him at Lsu during his time as a coach there. So while you judge the character of Saban, realize that Haywood was taking lessons and implamenting them into his personal life.
Ask any coach that he has worked for, along with the secretaries of the football offices and you will find that they all share one common link. Mike Haywood is a lying, cheating, scum-bag!
If that doesn’t sway you, reach out to his relators who he sleeps with or the local restaraunts/bars and you shall find a woman with whom he has had sexual relations with. The staff at Pitt will soon realize what type of man they hired. The AD…”he is the type of man we were looking for”… if that man is a disgusting PIG, I think he is at the wrong school. I thought your mascot was a Panther? You can put lipstick on a PIG, but it’s still a PIG!!!
One – You do realize Haywood is single, right? Sleeping with women? Horrors. the fact that he sleeps with Realtors is rather strange given there is no need with today’s low interest rates, but hey – to each his own.
Second – you are quoting a “post” and not an established media report. Hell, I can get on a message board and post that I’m the greatest Military Officer that ever lived and it sure as hell would be true.
Did you somehow miss the tone of the posters last sentence… “if that man is a disgusting PIG, I think he is at the wrong school. I thought your mascot was a Panther? You can put lipstick on a PIG, but it’s still a PIG!!!”
That right there tells me the poster has a huge personal axe to grind with this man… I’m no Rush Limbaugh fan but the word “FemiNazi” comes to mind.
Man, you got to do way better than this if you want to enter into an adult conversation on this guy’s merits.
Read both Paul Zeise’s Chat of 12/16, his Redshirt Diaries Blog of 12/17 and Kevin Gorman’s commentary of 12/17. The program was in a shambles if the field… which led directly to their poor performances on the field…which led to losing football games also. Don’t get me wrong, Wannstedt obviously had fired himself with his inability over the years to close the deal and win with the talent he had… but when this team fell apart (since preseason) and he lost control over the players, and he did, it sealed his fate.
There will be more about this as time goes on I’m sure, but understand this – we fans only heard about what was “official” news – either public arrest reports or formal internal PITT discipline that was released by the SID. Believe me, there was a lot more going on in the locker room (and Zeise has mentioned this also) than we read about.
It was absolutely no coincidence that PITT hired a guy who is know for his disciplinary approach.
Gorman at the Trib:
Zeise’s Friday Blog:
Someone who relates I guess is a relator, not a relater.
Otherwise the very idea of our new Coach having a housing fetish makes ones mind boggle.
You younsters on here have all the optimism you want. Enjoy another pro set offense and close games (WTF – didn’t he win a number of games by seven or fewer points?)with Rutgers and Buffalo at the off campus stadium. Following Pitt football for 43 years as taught me my initial impressions are usually right-on. We get Paul Hackett’s discipline (that worked out so well) and Wannstedt’s game plan….Cheap is the operative word. Cheap hire, cheap tickets, bowl bids with cheap payouts. Hey, sign me up now!
My thoughts around Pederson are he is earning his paycheck and not rocking the boat. During his first tenure, he came in and shook things up. The athletic dept desperately needed some house cleaning and a new direction. However, in the back of his mind he was building his resume for his dream job at Nebraska. Now that his dream has gone up in flames he returns to Pitt with his tail between his legs. His career outside of Pitt is limited. I doubt any big D1 school would hire him. Now there is no reward for taking risks so why take them? Keep the boss happy and do just enough to keep your job.
The one thing I was pleased to see with the hiring process was that they were actually looking for a football coach. Normally the selection process involves detailing the amount of pierogies you have eaten and finding Millvale on map while blindfolded. Coaching football was a bonus!
I’ll give Haywood a shot, he deserves it until proven otherwise.
I’ve missed one home football game since 1971, and that feeling of cheap is all over this move. Your sentiments are mine. We have witnessed this all before, the more things change in Pitt football the more they remain the same. This hiring is fishy, to hire a coach with name recognition would have cost money. I’m tired of the Pitt mailings asking for funds to add to their billion dollar endowment. The buck stops here .
@ Pole. I was being totally sincere too, and for me to show any sympathy towards Steve is really saying something. But if Nordy told him, no pros, no coords, no one that has been out of football, that eliminates half. You know no top 20 head coaches are coming, middle of the pack lateral move, really left Steve with only a few choices. I really don’t know if Steve will be the scapegoat though, I’m just wondering if Nordy has it right where he wants it. I mean, I always heard Nordy was big on athletics, but, what do I know, that’s just from reading things.
@ Reed “established media report” , ha ha, I don’t know, think I’d trust some posters more!!!
“Haywood, a native of Houston, Texas, has recruited extensively in the Midwest and South. He said Pitt will focus its recruiting efforts in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C.; Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan as well as Texas, Louisiana and Florida.”
this sucks…
It’s not my post. I just ran across via a web search and I didn’t say there was anything to it. I just said not everyone likes him and yes it sounds as if that person has an axe to grind.
1) It is a results oriented business. No matter what the process, as long the team wins early and often, no one will care.
2) No matter what the process, they were going to come away with the same result.
If you’re looking for someone to blame, look no further than Jamie Dixon. The success of the Pitt basketball program had to be a huge factor. We do it in our business, we find a profile or a formula that works, we try to replicate it. Cleary that’s what happened here.
Chris Pederson would never come to Pitt for any amount of money. It would be a lateral career move for him at best. And not only would we not want anything to do with Mike Leach, he would charge an obscene amount of money to use the job as a one or two year stepping stone into one of the bigger jobs available. Not to mention he wouldn’t have the same success and ability to recruit the overflowing athletic talent pool of Texas.
And every coach thinking about the Pitt job will see video of Pitt games and notice 25,000 seats open against rival opponents. The fan support is not there and the recruiting well in Pennsylvania is not there anymore to attract those kind of coaches just on school name recognition. What we can do is try to find a great, hungry, and motivated young coach who is interested in building the program up. Excite the fan base, raise the program standards, and then reward the coach if he’s successful and make it worth his while to stay. Of the six or seven names that were realistically being mentioned, Haywood is by far my favorite pick. It’s just my opinion of course, he just seems like the best choice to me.
This might seem like a crass analogy, but we don’t need to be the good looking kid at the dance who sits in his chair all night because he only wants to dance with the hottest girl in school. Let’s dance with that cute girl from math class whose breast size just doubled over the summer. And also I heard from a buddy she is a really really dirty screw.
Hail to Pitt! Hail to dirty big breasted college algebra classmates!
Plus, who knows, maybe Haywood can pick off a few other recruits from some of these other geographic areas he’s got ties to? It is nice to know that he has some in-roads to texas with TCU joining in 2012.
At this point I am more curious as to how he will round out his staff?
I was pulling for Mike Leach so I’m looking around to see where the crack and whores got to….
I’m not saying it’s wrong to want a guy of Leech’s stature to take over your favorite college football program. But why not say that you want Bill Cowher or Tony Dungee or Joe Paterno, because those are people only slightly less likely to be offered and take the Pitt job. Pitt has an academic and more importantly with UPMC a corporate image to maintain and Leech is a nightmare candidate right now. He’s practically radioactive.
While it’s not a PR homerun or a move that’s going to sell a lot of tickets right now like Dave’s hiring did, it looks like it could be a really great long term hire. If he starts winning BE championships and winning 9 and 10 games a season he’s probably only going to leave Pitt for ND. If he gets hired by a school like LSU, Auburn, or Texas it’s because he had a couple of undefeated seasons at Pitt.
Or he’s putrid and he runs the team in to the ground. I don’t think anyone sees that happening though. But if he does, then we’ll bring back Dave, he’ll coach the team to 7 seven win seasons until he’s 82 and go down as the all- time winningest coach in Pitt history. Either way I’ll still be here. I’m a Pitt football fan. Great fans learn to take the good with the bad. I watched every home game for six years from 93-99. Anyone want to add up how many quality wins I got to see? But the good ones sure did feel sweet.
My old business partner used to say it was because we had to deal with grey skies that seemed to be within arms’ reach for 9 months of the year. That’s why he and I moved to Tampa! 🙂
But, I still love Pittsburgh, the people and Pitt. That’s why I keep coming back as often as I can. Hopefully Haywood and his team give me reason to come back even more often.
