Not much happening. Hell, it still isn’t clear if Dave Wannstedt will coach the BBVA Bowl game yet.
If you wonder why new Coach Mike Haywood is being excessively cautious about contacting Pitt recruits during the dead period, maybe this article can help explain things.
College football coaches now run the risk of being suspended by the NCAA for one or more games if they commit a secondary recruiting violation, such as exceeding phone-call limits or sending a text message to a recruit.
The move is part of an effort to implement enhanced penalties for recruiting violations. It was proposed by the American Football Coaches Association and approved in mid-September by the NCAA Division I and II Committees on Infractions. The membership was informed but no public announcement made. The penalties apply to both Division I subdivisions and Division II.
A package of enhanced penalties for basketball, including a similar suspension element, was passed in October.
Michigan State’s Tom Izzo can confirm that suspension part. And since Pitt just had to report some very minor secondary violations, the program is probably being extra cautious.
Not much new in recruiting news. At least in the free candy variety. There might be some tidbit behind the paywalls at PantherLair or PantherDigest, but I don’t know.
Terrell Chestnut was named to All-Pennsylvania AAA team, and is still a verbal commit to Pitt at this time.
Undersized tailback Breon Allen out of Florida was named the Daytona Beach News-Journal Offensive Player of the Year. He is still committed to Pitt, but he won’t know about whether he qualifies academically until May.
Allen could be a hair-splitting case for Pitt. Pitt has said that all scholarships offered under Wannstedt will be honored. But if he isn’t qualified on the academic side right away, would/could Pitt use that as an excuse to pull the scholarship? Despite Allen’s accolades, after Pitt his best offers are from Bethune-Cookman and Chattanooga in the 1-AA level.
I honestly must say – I would have rather kept Wanny than go through this mess and end up with a coach who may not have much of a higher ceiling than Wanny.
We needed new leadership and we got it-now we just have to wait until 1/9/11.
A coach with a “higher ceiling” would have cost at least $2.5 M which is more than Pitt is willing to pay ! Think about it we owe Wanny $950,000 a year and Haywood gets $1M a year thats still cheaper than paying for that higher ceiling coach. You get what you pay for and sometimes not even that.
Besides, I would still take a truncated recruiting period with the new coach than the same-old same-old with Wanny.
i mean … are practices being held? who’s coaching this team? not just for the game but who’s running these supposed practices that are so coveted by bowl bound teams by having these extra weeks?
you would think story foder abounds for this game.
We should be realistic and see where Haywood takes us over the next year or so.
change until after LOI day in February unless he had a big–exiting to recruits and fans–name successor already lined up. This poorly planned and timed “crap-shoot” change seems worse, IMO, than having given Wannstadt one more year would have been.
I continue to hope and pray for a great outcome
but fear we have merely traded good recruiting + mediocre coaching for poor recruiting + better coaching with an end result in terms of Ws vs Ls ending up about the same or worse.
Does anyone remember the losses?
Ohio U, Bowling Green, NC State, how about the gagging and choking on national tv?
In looking at the product on the field you have to admit we have a very mediocre OL, horrible linebackers and secondary that is close to the good old burnt toast days.
Oh yeah, I forgot, we have a QB that has little accuracy and an ex-coach that is the second coming of the teflon don, you have to admit Mr. Magoo’s press conferences were a joke, can anyone out there ever remember Magoo taking any responsibility?
So pitt1972, your equation on the left side is a bit off, OK recruiting and horrible coaching.
Yes horrible coaching, same old strategy week in and week out with minor adjustments. Whatever happened to Greg Cross, hell didn’t he score the first time he touched the ball against Iowa?
Mr. Magoo for the ace recruiter, really missed on his QB’s, LB’s, DB’s and OL prospects and it shows.
Give Haywood a chance, Mr. Magoo had a hard time making any type of decision (see current bowl situation).
Does anyone really think Mr. Magoo could have turned a program aroung like Haywood did?
It took Mr. Magoo 4 years to reach the 9 win mark with “good” recruiting, it took Haywood 2 years recruiting players into his system and coaching them up.
Magoo is hated in Chicago and Miami for a reason.
just emerging from an eggnog/bourbon induced hibernation
any clarity on this mezzamorte Morris Watts? I mean, really? WVU brings in gunslinger top oc in country and we hire a 73 year old who ran the 101st best offense… against MAC defenses?
ugh
link to post-gazette.com
Please note when DH was a memeber of the Texas Tech or OSU coaching staff they never won an outright Big 12 Championship or appeared in a BCS game.
DH is bright but it is a difficult on making the leep to headcoach. Remember Pitt hired an offensive genius in Mike Gottfried, then another genius in Paul Hacket or was it the defensive genius Foge Fazio or the defensive NFL Super Bowl Coordinator Wanny that would take them to the next level.
DH might turn out to be the second coming or he may flop. If all of the Pitt Blather fortune tellers out there see doom for Haywood could you please give me the Mega Millions winning numbers?
People on this board bash Haywood, but he took a horrible program in Oxford and made it competitive, he has a track record as a headcoach even with an old man as the OC.
Give the guy a chance.
Yeah, I’d like to see some more info on the recruits, but frankly, that was never really Zeise’s strong point, so I’m not sure we’re missing too much there anyhow.
I don’t think Haywood should get a pass, the cupboard isn’t bare but neither was it in 2005 when Magoo arrived, Magoo was given a pass by the media, administration and fans.
IMHO Pitt had a few coaches who were very substandard but they were Magoo’s buddies. The O Line coach was a Magoo buddy from the old days, the LB coach was also an old Magoo buddy, and the young guy that coached the secondary might have been an ace recruiter but the DB’s were poorly coached.
We shall see how MH recruits, this year’s class should be subpar because of the coaching change but the 2012 class will be the telling tale. Pitt will always be able to recruit players, the facilities are great and Pittsburgh the city is a great selling point with plenty of attractions/distractions for young men.
Everyone knocks Pitt regarding fan attendance, but if Pitt wins on a consistent basis people will go to games, how many times did Pitt over the Magoo era have a big crowd at Heinz and a chance to win on national tv and keep the momentum going?
What was the outcome?
Same old Magoo!
College football comes down to players and coaching, Magoo could recruit but teaching is a vital part of the process, this year who jumped out as a well coached player?
Sunseri?
MH and his staff coached up a program and made the Miami players better, the Magoo staff took a BCS team in 2004 and took 3 seasons to make it back to a minor bowl, was the cupboard bare due to poor recruiting in 2005, 2006 and 2007 or was it the substandard coaching philosophy and being out coached week in and week out by programs with little talent.
MH does have his work cut out for him but realistically 9 or more wins should not be out of the question in 2011, he will have his challenges; QB is going to be an issue, because we really don’t have one, the O-line has little or no depth and do we really have a legitimate LB on scholarship?
We will see if coaching makes a difference in our 2011 Panther squad.
I feel good about the hire, we have a real coach who can coach and isn’t worried about being the player’s buddies.
You asked who did we exactly want as the new head coach ? Let me identify 5 coaches with head coaching experience and 1 coach is head coach in everything but name.
1) Brady Hoke had Ball St ranked in the top 10 in 2008 and did good job with SDSU;
2) Randy Shannon had Miami on the come back trail, improved academics of Miami football, had contacts with all the FL high schools, only fault lost to So Fla:
3) Chris Petersen has Boise St flying, plays in conference that gets no respect could have been a big winner in Big East and BCS games;
4) Bronco Mendenhall at BYU again like Petersen stuck in a conference lacking identity would jump at Big east BCS conference;
5)Kevin Sumlin at Houston has a high flying offense that would have excited Pitt fans to watch;
6) Tom Bradley the real PSU coach for at least the past 5 years, had all the contacts with Western Pa high school coaches.
What do all 6 of these coaches have in common?
None would come for the $1M Haywood got. Probably $2M at least would have been necessary to get them as Pitt’s head football coach.
I’m not knocking Haywood, he may be a great coach but he lacks the experience and level of success of the 6 guys above. Haywood is a big gamble compared to the other coaches I identified.
how can you assume that any of these guys –except Bradley–would have jumped at the Pitt job even for $2m? What do we have to offer these guys? This is a steppingstone job and all the current hcs you mentioned are already in those kinds of jobs.
link to post-gazette.com
Is Zeise out at the PG?
Bring in a Pitt grad who has a rooting interest and dedication for the beat. It’s a shame WVU and Dunlap get more pub in a Pittsburgh newspaper than the local major university.
Dunlap > Zeise
Just venting as an out-of-towner who wants to follow this team. In town for the holidays and I still get any info on this team.
Pitt likewise is a stepping stone but the difference is the BCS affiliation for the Big East winner. Look at Petersen one lousy missed field goal and not one season of hard work and positioning of the Boise program but 3 years of setting the stage for a BCS game (or BCS championship) goes down the drain for their program. Why wouldn’t all of the aforementioned coaches jump at the Pitt job for the right dollars over their current situations?
The truth is Pitt went cheap, I’ve been watching Pitt football since 1970 and history repeats itself – Pitt went cheap on their hire rather than take that next step to elevate the program to something more than a stepping stone.
Heyward is using Pitt as a stepping stone , he left Miami of Ohio after only 2 years because Pitt tripled his salary. And if he is the coach we want him to be someone will triple his Pitt salary and be gone in two or 3 years. Pitt took too big a risk when there were more competent coaches out there who would most likely use them as a stepping stone also but more likely to succeed than Hayward.
As far as your comment that they hate DW in Miami, I trust that you know that he was the last head coach to take Miami into the playoffs. DW left Miami in 2004. If Miami hates DW, what are Miami’s feelings regarding his successors?
Pitt tied for first in the BE this season. Last season they were second. They have been bowl-bound the past three seasons. Please express your opinion of all of the other BE coaches who finished lower than Pitt in the standings the last three seasons. Have you come up with a name for them? Since their W-L records were worse than DW’s, I trust that you have a name for them that is even more disrespectful then the one that you assigned to DW.
I’m finding it more hilarious each day that PITT fans are setting such high arbitrary standards for Mike Haywood’s first season – I’ve read no less than nine wins; 10 wins, or a BCS game, etc… all seemingly based on the “talent he inherited”.
My God, can any one PITT fan sit there with a straight face and tell me they thought that Dave Wannstedt himself could do that given the talent he had? Of course not. Not after we just watched him so expertly blow each of the last three seasons. What could possible make you think that somehow he’d turn it around all of a sudden in 2011?
My opinion is that we’d win less games next year than we did in 2010 if DW returned because he’d just get further entrenched and more convinced that his way was the ‘right way’ regardless of what type of play the team actually performed out on the playing field. And that play was pretty damn bad folks – there is no way in Hell to sugarcoat that or DW’s factual track record at PITT.
In a real sense it just doesn’t matter who PITT hired because the reality is that anyone would be better than the poor coach we just fired… and if that sounds harsh so be it, but the fact is that is just what he was in a real sense.
We gnash our teeth and wail that PITT somehow deserves a “better coach” than the one we just got rid of and I’ll say we could have hired a retired HS coach with one eye from Slippery Rock and we’d have a 50/50 chance we’d get about the same, product we just watched for the last six years. The rallying cry on campus should have been “ABDW!” – “Anyone But Dave Wannstedt!”
I’m getting pretty tired of the romanticism that PITT fans have built up around Dave Wannstedt. He did a mediocre job at PITT with a 58% winning record against some of the worst teams in college football’s FBS division. He continually blew the big games and ended up with what plays out to an average 3rd place finish in the arguably worst BCS conference there is. How can anyone lament the fact that he’s gone, especially when they also think we had the “talent” on hand to do better than that each season? His leadership impact dwindled to just about nil over the last season and, horrors of horrors – if that wasn’t enough it infected the player’s attitudes out on the football field. One just has to look back at how the PITT players bagged the two most important games of the year to realize they weren’t out their playing for the glory of either PITT or from any leadership effect from DW. That, friends, is a key indicator DW just didn’t have it any longer.
So, can anyone sit there and honestly tell me they didn’t look at each and every PITT football game with a sense of dread that somehow DW would blow it? Because more often than not against any sort of a decent opponent he did just that. It was habitual.
So he’s a “PITT Guy”! Big freaking deal. Mike Haywood is only a MAC coach! Big freaking deal. All I care about is that Mike Haywood gets ready to surpass what DW got very comfortable being – an average coach in a below average conference. If nothing else I’ll be interested to see how this plays out and I’ll be honest… for the first time in three years I’m actually optimistic about where PITT football is heading. I have no idea what we’ll see as far as the W-L columns next year, I suspect that we really should look forward to 7-5 which is the same average record DW had at PITT… but I’m a lot more hopeful that we could win a BE Championship in the near future with Haywood than I was in the last three years with Dave Wannstedt.
The fact that Dave Wannstedt bled “Blue and Gold” is great – if he’s in a commercial for PITT. But the fact is that he was in charge of a highly visible part of the University in the football program and we got far more negative press due to our play on the field and the incidents that happened off the field than we did positive press.
The scales tipped pretty far over in 2010 George, and it was time for him to go. Nobody spins a negative slant in the local media – I’ll state that I read every word of coverage on the PITT football program and if anything I think the media errs on either the silent side or is pretty positive.
But the bottom line is that regardless of what some people’s opinions are – Dave Wannstedt wrote his own story over this last season and before it. One doesn’t have to look too far to see that his firing was not only justified but, in some retrospect, necessary. The fact that he ‘loves PITT’ cannot and should not override his shortcomings and his poor execution of what he got paid millions of dollars to do for the University.
Reed, refresh my memory: Where did Pitt finish in the BE standings this season? I suspect that it was the shared title and the absence of going to a BCS bowl that got (mostly) everyone outraged. I also suspect that the outrage did not come from the 10 games that Pitt won last year. Accordingly, by the logic of many of the posters on the board, seven BE teams are not going to a BE bowl this year. There is no guarantee that any of the seven bridesmaids will go the BCS game next year. Ergo, there should have been seven firings of head coaches within the conference.
Like I posted previously, the deed has been done. I wish the new coach well. But without hesitation, I would take a coach who goes 7-5 and has his players graduate and become good, productive citizens than a coach who wins a national championship with players who find it difficult to write a grammatically correct sentence.
I agree with most of what you state. I also dont necessarily agree that DW was bashed in the local media like Rev George states either. I DO believe that it is completely unnecessary to refer to DW as Magoo. It is completely disrespectful to a man who loves his university as much as the rest of us do. Do I think that DW should be given a “pass” regarding the failures on the field? Absolutely not! However, when we refer to DW(or anyone else in the Pitt administration – like them or not) by childish name calling, we sound more like fans of WVU and OSU than Pitt fans.
Whether you agree with DW’s coaching philosophy or not, some people talk as if he coached purposely to lose. Do people honestly think DW WANTED to fail?….PLEASE!
We MUST resist the temptation to be classless, loudmouth fans that know more than the coaches and administration. There is a reason we do what we do for a living and are not coaching major college football or running the athletic department.
Have an opinion (all passionate fans do), but express yourself in a manner that makes others proud to say we are Pitt fans.
I wish MH and the rest of the incoming staff (and players) success.
Hail to Pitt!
Although it does seem Haywood was the ‘cheap’ choice, I know nothing about the guy and will give him the benefit of the doubt. But if a higher-profile guy would have caused some excitement (say 12,000 extra butts in seats per game for 7 home games worth of excitement), I think the money would have been a wash.
We could go 6-6, and, if he’s fired up, the kids are fired up, he has some recruits coming in, then, he’ll get his time.
If it looks like some kind of circus with no one in charge, then he won’t get a pass.
Look, we’ve all watched football since we were kids. It’s not rocket science, you’ll be able to tell quickly whether we have a battlefield general or a pencil pusher in a relativlely short time regardless of wins and losses.
I do have to say, some people may grade him early, because he is coming to a team with some talent left. No, not enough talent to go to the BCS, but, I don’t think he wants to start off with down to the wire battles against Buffalo and Maine.
Right or wrong, he beats Buffalo 17-16, Maine 24-21, or heaven forbid, loses one of those games, he’ll be on the hot seat.
I’m onto hoops, I’ll be there next year, I hope he does well and Steve and Mark make a lot of eat our words.
I am sincere, I would love to be in the top 10 and going to BCS bowls in a couple years and eat my words, that Steve and Mark knew what they were doing, they didn’t go cheap, and this is not Same Old Pitt. I mean it, I hope I am doing that, and if the economy is ok, would love nothing better than too buy everyone on this blog a couple round of drinks at the Sugar Bowl!!! Hail to Pitt, get the Huskies!!!
Ditto. I would be the first to admit Dave didnt do the best coaching job in the world (I was ready to change after we lost to Navy at home a couple years ago), but the way Pitt fans are ready to personally insult a Pitt alum who tried his best is pretty pathetic.
However, I really don’t think it was the media that was so negative. as much as people here complain about the bias against Pitt at the P-G, I thought the Pittsburgh media was pretty supportive of the local boy come home. It was more the blog posterswho were negative and vindictive. I will never forget the comments from one of my player’s mother while he was being recruited by Pitt. She raved on and on about what a nice man Wanny was and how much the other players and parents loved him. “I want my son to play for a man like that. BUT, man do the fans absoutely HATE him.”
No one wants to sugarcoat his accomplishments at Pitt. But to beat on him like he wanted to destroy Pitt football is pathetic.
When he came here, it was widely regarded as a coup for Pitt. He could have waited for an NFL DC job or gone into the broadcast booth, but came here at well under market salary because he loves and respects the university. You could make a good case it was time for him to go (I don’t agree), but he’s gone and there is no reason to continue kicking him. If a member of your family stumbles, you don’t have to turn a blind eye but you probably are a little more supportive afterwards than you are with a complete stranger. DW is part of the Pitt family and that should mean something.
That’s not to say we should compromise those qualities he brought to the program and become some renegade outpost. But unless the university is going to deemphasize football, wins and losses have to be the bottom-line measuring stick.
I don’t think it’s unrealistic to expect consistent 9-10 win seasons, the ability to win the conference championship and a BCS bowl every few years, and make some national noise in the top 10-15 a couple of times a decade.
Now it’s Haywood’s opportunity to get us there. So let’s all focus on the future instead of rehashing Wanny’s good points and bad points over and over again. I for one prefer to look ahead, get excited about recruiting, and see how this team is going to react to a new sheriff in town.
Proud to be a Panther!
Recruiting seems unlikly to finish well this year and considering the change of coaches I give the new staff a pass for this year. However, that only means that the 2012 class must be very strong–the best in the BE. A less than 8 win season and a weak 2012 recruit class (for two weak classes back to back) and Pitt FB is toast for years to come. MH was hired to take Pitt forward not backward and the fans will judge him accordingly based on a combo of Ws vs Ls and recruiting results.
FRANKCAN – I never once has said Haywood is a “better gameday coach” than Wannstedt. I’ll make that determination once I’ve watched him coach the Panthers for a season. However, it isn’t a great leap to think he probably is as DW was not very good at it.
Outlaw – I agree that name calling and personal insults don’t belong in this, or any, conversation about DW and the PITT football program. Unfortunately we read it way too often. I understand that my criticism sounds harsh but that’s about his role as the Head Coach – not his personal traits.
Note: I don’t think that PITT fans realize that because DW held those positive characteristics they so admire – PITT Guy, Bleeds Blue & Gold, cares for the kids, etc… that it made the decision to fire him that much harder for PITT to make. In turn, think about how strongly the PITT administration had to be convinced that it was the right thing to do at that particular time. Obviously there were some strongly compelling reasons behind it.
Some on here, and other message boards, think that DW being fired is a punishment of sorts and that isn’t true. Nice guys and loyal employees get fired everyday because they don’t produce to stated goals and/or have allowed problems to rise and persist in their area of responsibility. Being fired doesn’t mean DW let those things happen on purpose – just that he no longer was fulfilling his responsibilities to PITT in the ways they required. Obviously PITT holds no animosity toward Wannstedt – Paul Zeise addresses it today in his blog – because they left him the option to stay on staff and coach the bowl game.
But make no mistake about one thing – PITT felt that a complete change in the football program was needed, a clean sweep if you will, and went out and did it quickly and dramatically…the staff was fired the same day DW was. That speaks very loudly to me of their desire for a complete cultural change. You won’t see DW on staff after the Bowl game if he chooses to coach it – or before if he doesn’t. There is no way in Hell PITT is going to allow the old coach and the new coach to co-exist in the same program, nor should they.
to you and rev george…
you have no idea how loyal buffoon is… nor can you really speak to his character
simply look at how contract negotiations went down EVERY TIME and how pitt had to raise the offer several times when they first hired him. For a man who had ZERO job prospects and ZERO NFL offers… he sure liked to squeeze a few extra pennies out of his alma mater. And if you think he is helping out around the athletic department or attempting to help with recruiting you are out of your minds. He never gave a hoot about the little people involved with the program… which is the opposite of Howland and Dixon… his arrogance was fascinating for a man who has zero notable success in three decades of coaching. And now, he is nowhere to be found
good riddance
He could have waited for an NFL DC job or gone into the broadcast booth
anybody wanna wager a beer that his nearly decade long drought of zero offers for either continues?? the booth?? have you ever heard the man speak??
Good point
Sorry, but don’t buy the argument about us having better talent because that means you’d have to believe the scouting sites – and it seems to me they are more wrong than right most of the time. I judge college football player’s talent by what they do out on the field. not what they were rated.
Do that and you see we have an average team at best with a few good players at certain positions. IMO coaching is what separates programs and makes a team do well or not – and in that arena DW pretty much maintained a mediocre product.
You know the old saying “Better the Devil you know…” Well, in our case it “Better the Devil you don’t know…” because we know without a doubt what Wannstedt was, and wasn’t, capable of.
