Let’s start this off by first suggesting you go over to Cardiac Hill and read Anson’s observation on Pederson having to go to the assistant coaches and apologize for essentially ignoring and blowing them off for nearly a month. I read the same piece and it just never clicked to me that Pederson was that stupid.
Right now, the fans are crying for Pederson’s head as well over this debacle. Predictably, you have media people defending him. It is a bit of bull since the defense consists primarily based on the work he did the first time as AD at Pitt. That’s nice, but that is like defending Johnny Majors in the 90s for the work he did at Pitt in the 70s.
When Nebraska fired Pederson, the rumors immediately started that Pitt — which was in need of a new AD — would take him back. I was not in favor of it. There were the typical arguments in favor of it, but the real reason appeared to be that Chancellor Nordenberg was comfortable with Pederson.
Pederson is not a subtle AD. He works in broad big project situations. When he came to Pitt in the 90s he was needed. The athletic department was a mess. There was no direction. If you want to analogize it to a home renovation, the only thing that was still solid was the foundation. The whole house, though, was a wreck. The plumbing, the electric, roof, walls. However you feel about the man, he did a lot of hard work to get Pitt athletics away from the absolute suckitude of the 90s. Doing that required a lot of drive and aggressiveness to keep pushing to change — and yes a certain arrogance.
Then Nebraska, his alma mater, came calling. They came because they did know they needed change. Osbourne was retiring. It was no longer enough to be merely a football school. Especially with Texas and Oklahoma resurgent. Pederson was brought in to make changes.
The difference is, the Nebraska house was in need of an update. Not rebuilding. It wasn’t in need of anything radical. Some new furniture. Update the cabinetry and swap out that black formica counter top for granite in the kitchen. Redo the bathrooms. Pull up the carpet and go with hardwood in the house. Maybe fix the landscaping and redo the driveway. Most of these things require working with the homeowner. Staying in their comfort zone and listening while trying to affect the changes needed.
Pederson didn’t do that. He charged aggressively and arrogantly at Nebraska. The firing of Solich — like the firing of Wannstedt — was seen by most of the fanbase as a needed and necessary thing. Even if it was uncomfortable because of the loyalties and ties; and debatable when viewed only on the basis of the previous season or two.
The hiring process was a debacle. The arrogance in dealing with people, alumni and boosters. Plus making abrupt changes to the Nebraska athletic department made enemies. It meant that he had no base of support, other than the results, i.e., winning. If they did that, then the moves were necessary to bring a stodgy outdated athletic department into the modern times.
That didn’t happen. Not just in football, but basketball. The questions became sharper in asking what the point of such radical changes to the culture of Nebraska athletics if teams didn’t improve. And in fact got worse.
His return to Pitt had been mostly low-key. He almost seemed to have learned something. That Pitt no longer needed to be overhauled. That he had to take a step back and not push for change so hard. He was working on the olympic sports. Essentially continuing the work Jeff Long had been doing. No need to mess with basketball (men or women) and football seemed stable. The only time he was in media was for extensions for the coaches or helping to promote the 2010 football season.
And 2010 Pitt football went to hell.
He had to act. There is only a small minority that disagrees there.
It’s just that in the big moment, he fell back to old patterns and habits. He was the search committee. He avoided people. he helped shut down information. He (according to plenty of rumors) ignored red flags and/or was not as diligent in his background checks. In short he went back to his arrogant ways of ignoring all information offered and any advice. It was all Pederson.
For whatever reason, he basically avoided the entire football staff the minute Wannstedt was fired. He avoided the players. He avoided the coaches. He closed himself off to them. I don’t know why. Guilt? Arrogance. General dickishness? I can’t say.
He did, however, burn and ignite bridges. He put himself out there alone. Maybe assuming he would get all the credit for making the hard choices. Now, he is alone out there to take all the blame. Either way. He’s earned it, and will pay the price.
Black Magic, do you think that Bradley can win 10 games and get us ranked 15th in the country like Wanny did in ’09? Any problem with that?
The three biggest flaws of Wanny:
1.) Gameday coaching and preparation including his “play not to lose” attitude.
2.) Too much of a friend to the players and not a leader.
3.) Was never able to coach up his players, get more out of them than their talent level.
I too would love to see Malzahn but is that realistic?
every time you pull out that stupid 10 win stat ill remind you that Pitt beat zero top 25 teams that year and was favored to win every game they played… possibly the easiest schedule in BCS competition history
DeVanzo, I think that I’ve got it. Ohio State is a crappy program and they should change coaches because they were favored to win in every (or nearly every) game that they played.
are you attempting to suggest there is anything remotely similar with the schedule Ohio State played in 2009 with the creampuff fest pitt played in 2009? HAHAHAAH…
also, they were NOT favored against USC and lost
oh, and then theres that part where they won the big games necessary to go the BCS game (rose bowl)
link to en.wikipedia.org
just cant fight that wannstedt intellect…
because OSU beat 4 ranked teams
“Everything they did to bungle this, if there was a ‘Screw Up Your Program For Dummies’ book, they would follow this step by step.”
link to delawareonline.com
🙂
now that your last argument was wasted typing… let me explain how this one, which youve made 50 times before is as well…
despite asking what if about all of the big games buffoon blew… why dont you accept that they DID happen and we DID lose and we DIDNT play in one major bowl in his 6 long years here… i have to wonder, what thoughts were going through your head after Cincy at Heinz Field in 09??
GEE WILLY! what a great coach! how well he handled his job as special teams coach kicking right at mardy gilyard! geeeeee! soo smart! way to blitz all first half then sit back and watch Tony Pike tear your conservative defense to shreds! Geeeeeeee weve got the ball deep in the red zone in a tie game with less than a minute left and our opponent lacking time outs… should we run the clock out??? NOOOOOO lets go right for the end zone and kick to gilyard and watch Cincy go to the BCS…
cause thats what i was thinking… what a year! how lucky we were to have buffoon!! hes the best coach in the big east! we rule!
no more talk of years past… please!
i mean, at least drag Virgil or some of the other wanny apologists out with you so you have some allies!
by the way… i do like this talk of Keeler AT LEAST as OC… he has done a FANTASTIC job with qb’s
and do his comments on his alma mater… see: Rodriguez, Rich – 2007 section
My bad. I guess I skipped too many posts.
Wish Cigs had stayed around long enough to see what happens. Dont blame him for not wanting to wait though IMO he will do well at RU. He wanted so badly to have his family back in the burgh; at least NJ is closer than Cal. Life of a coach…
Plus he making 300K now so Pitt could still triple that and be where they want to be on the pay scale.
Has anyone seen a legit list of possible candidates?
I just want a proven winner…one winning year in the MAC does not count.
No one has and no one will based on what happened last time.
Haywood was never really a serious candidate until he showed up on campus. With Nordy running the show it’s safe to expect more of the same.
The only way we may find out is if someone sees a candidate and Nordy in public somewhere….like maybe a Denny’s in Monroeville both wearing hats, dark glasses and trench coats.
Guess I should email his resume over to Nordy since the SEARCH firm in Atlanta is clueless.
All- I still can’t get excited about Bradley, but I am not horrified, either. (rich rod, now that is horrifying) but I am excited by the idea of Joe exiting PSU and JayPa trying to run things, as soon as Bradley leaves. Can you say silver lining?
Pitt is a solid school, however, it is not too difficult to get in to the school if you are a good athlete (we have much lower standards than Vandy, etc.)
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I am not a big Bradley fan because I have the suspicion that he is an “old warhorse” and will not bring new and innovative ideas to our tired offense and defense. Bradley will be able to recruit, however, the play calling might be more of the same….VANILLA! Under Bradley I can see Pitt going 8-4, maybe 9-3. In other words your basic 17th-25th ranked team.
My choices based on what I know of young head coaches who are in Pitt’s limited price range are:
Keeler and Ken Niamatulolo (Navy). Two coaches on the way up who have proven records of getting the most out of the talent they have. Navy has been nothing short of amazing given all the restrictions that must be dealt with at a Service Academy. Delaware is a great program that shines brightly almost every year!!
The thing that bothers me about Bradley is that, while there are no strong reasons to think he would be not be successful here, his lack of head-coaching experience makes his hire a real crapshoot. Proving to have the administrative skills to run an overall program is the most important factor in a new head coach. A lot of outstanding coordinators just do not have that skill, as has been discussed in this forum. We have a lot of speculation that he performs a lot of JoPa’s duties, but that’s not much to go on. I’m sure he is a good recruiter, but the guy who recruited W.Pa before Bradley probably did a good job too. PSU has not exactly been a hard sell.
It is the Pitt Alum. and Donors, and even some fans fault! Wannstedt was forced out, causing this situation. He breathes Pitt football and was forced out after a tie for the Big East champions.
Also, Pederson made a GOOD hire. Yes, the guy got arrested. But can you tell me any way that Pederson could have seen this coming??? NO. Going through people and players I know that he is a very disciplined coach, and took no sh!t at Miami OH. He whipped those boys in line. The matter of fact here is that he made one mistake, and it should not call for the whole athletic department at Pitt to collapse because of it.
People make mistakes…. Rick Pitino at UofL- he was convicted of those charges, and then had 2 or so players go to jail, all within a very short amount of time. Now, until last week they were top 25 in the country and have one of the best recruiting classes next year.
AMEN