Let’s be honest. At this point who really cares. This is like driving past a car accident. The whole situation smells of bush leaguers. How does Pederson have a job? Oh the Olympic Sports fields?? Give me a break, they are 15 years late. Oh and the basketball arena is nice, I agree… But no football on campus is a joke. Again, the program is so far behind and the Haywood mistake makes me sick. Just a major f*ck up by all involved.

My eyes are starting to bleed…

Really there is a lot of gameplay going on here right now.

Bradley likely made the mistake of texting his boys cause he really cares for them.

They like many kids (regardless of era they be in) don’t know how to keep their mouth’s shut.

In the Hi-tech age with 24×7 news coverage Bradley was outed.

Pitt which is trying to cross the i’s dot the t’s and who knows maybe are looking for a sexier bride (graham).

Meanwhile Bradley’s camp wants this thing signed, sealed and delivered nay be using the public/media to help force Pitt’s hand.

Is all of this happening or any of it…I really don’t know. But for those of us who care deeply about Pitt are sort of trying to figure it all out.

Best advice is to sleep on it. At this point I just want a coach before the game on Saturday.

DaveD

I thought Pitt beat Providence 83-79. Maybe I’m wrong. We did win by 4.

As for a coach, I hope it’s Bradley. He’s solid and we can put this mess behind us. There are others I’d like to see, e.g. Leach, but it will never happen, so why dream. Hail to Pitt!

Maybe Pitt’s poor defense on the hardwood was a subtle plea for Nordy to hire Bradley? HMMMM??? (Never mind…)

I will not follow a program that commits itself to mediocrity, only one that commits itself to greatness. Can Bradley get the team to BCS bowls with Patterson’s TCU and Holgersen’s WVU in the conference? Fuck a Meineke Car Care Bowl.

If we get Bradley as HC and Austin as DC that would be awesome for recruiting!

We need a coach that just flat out wins. Recruiting is crucial but the Stache was pretty damn good. He just couldn’t win. It’s all about winning. Top 20 every year, occasional top 10 or even top 5 if everything breaks right. Oh, and this is at the end of the season not the preseason polls. Why not?!?!

Helmet script to follow.

Graham reportedly was a strong candidate whose asking price may have been a deal-killer.

Read more: link to post-gazette.com

CHEAP SOB’S

message to The Rooster,

The Meineke Care Car Bowl is no longer. I know you’re in deep despair as I am.

The bowl in Charlotte, played at Bank of America
Stadium has a new corporate sponsor. That being the largest and oldest department store in Charlotte. It will now be The Belk Bowl. The Belk family in Charlotte is akin to the Mellon family albeit with less money.

The Belk Bowl lives !

I can’t believe they still have Smiley involved in this process after his major league incompetence was shown and how he totally embarrassed the University and basically chased off an entire(80%) Top 20 recruiting class.

If Teryll Austin is available, I suggest whoever the coach is hire him immediately for DC. We need a guy who CAN RECRUIT FLORIDA. While it is very important for the local school to control the local recruiting area(as in your house needs a strong foundation), it’s imperative if you want to compete on a national level, to recruit the real hotbeds of talent. And Pitt has had success recruiting Florida before.

I think that’s what sold them on Baby Daddy, he told them he had lots of contacts in Florida, Louisiana & Texas. And after watching TCU with it’s 2-3 star Texas recruits beat Wisconsin with it’s 3-5 star Midwestern recruits, one can see the abundance of talent in places like Texas & Florida.

I have a feeling this mess is going to be over with shortly, although cleaning up house is going to be a bitch. And I haven’t been able to get that terrible feeling that we’re reaching into a barrel of catfish and hoping we pull out a yellow fin for the past week.

On the brightside, and maybe I am being over optimistic, this shake up could have some benefits to the program long term if we can find ourselves a solid AD with an ounce of common sense.

Who does PR for the athletic department? They need to be fired with SP. Crisis management 101 suggests that you over-communicate and control the situation. Nordy should hold a presser or two to say the “process is ongoing and we will continue to evaluate through next week.” He may say nothing but it would help to stem the crazy speculation and allow Pitt to control the situation.

next topic – Mario Cristobal?? another reach. Interview the guy who is coaching the team going into the FBS championship this weekend, KC Keeler. …why not interview Keeler?

We have very good skill players on this team and a QB in mark meyer who could be very good. Go offense first!

Please get Bradley a contract and lets get this over with and move on. Smizik reporting that if Bradley is hired he has a good source saying Austin will be his DC:

“Already people are excited about the staff he’ll bring with him and I have on good authority his defensive coordinator will be Teryl Austin, a highly regarded coach who started at cornerback for Pitt in the 1980s. Austin was defensive coordinator at Florida last year. He has an excellent resume, both in college and the NFL, and is an outstanding recruiter. He has long wanted to get back to Pitt and was hoping for a job on Dave Wannstedt’s original staff.”

I think Bradley is the right guy, right now for Pitt. If he brings in a good staff, this could turn out great for the Panthers.

If they are indeed interviewing all these candidates with SP leading on the initial interview and not Nordy, are we really changing the process from the first hire? Do we want Pedersen out front? I was hoping Nordy would be involved with every step and updating the media accordingly.

The Bradley leaks last night before Nordy has met him – how can that happen? I smell another SP f..up here.

I wouldn’t get bent out of shape about Providence scoring 79 points. They scored 25 points off of 23 turnovers. And I’m sure we won’t be turning the ball over like that again any time soon, right Jamie?

Right Scott, Pitt traditionally doesn’t play well in Providence. And it was a our first true road game.

On the Coaching melodrama, Zeise is reporting this morning that he feels Bradley will be the next coach even though Pitt hasn’t offered it yet.
Since Pitt knows Bradley will take the job, if offered, I imagine they’re talking with as many other candidates they can to see if any might be a better fit and will come at the right price.
If that doesn’t work, then they fall back on Bradley. Much like most of us in any bar (cocktail lounge) scenario going for the more attractive one’s but having one ‘in the bag’ so to speak. Hopefully they’re as good at that game I as was/am. 😉

I really think Graham is their first choice, and Bradley is the back-up plan (i.e. Choice 1A). They may even be using all the hype about Bradley to force Graham to make a decision sooner rather than later since Pitt is under so much pressure to get this done before the bowl. I bet if Graham waivers on them another day or two, or keeps upping his asking price (though Pitt does indeed need to stop being cheap) – its Bradley.

The problem with firing SP is that if they hire a coach and the the AD. The incoming AD will always be waiting for his chance to pick a head football coach. So whomever they pick is going to have to win or he’ll have a short lifespan if SP is fired afterwards.

This sounds like what just happened with DickRod the other day. It comes out, then it’s denied, then it’s confirmed. Most likely it’s just Pitt and Bradley wanting to control the flow of information. But get the damn thing done today for the love of God.

I just hope they announce Bradley and get it over with. I’m concerned about Steve Pederson screwing up the deal. I didn’t like Haywood from the start and I think Pederson is into “out of the blue” to show how smart he is. I don’t want to see anyone risking it all on roll of the dice. A safe pick of a solid guy is what we not looking for, not next Albert Einstein.

Im not really seeing where Todd Graham is a great pick, especially over Bradley. Doesn’t seem to be anything spectacular:

link to en.wikipedia.org

All have been asked to refrain from reporting the hiring at Pitt’s request so that Nordy et al can save some face on it all. Just another glaring example of how not to run a search!

By the way, Dave Jones is a damn good reporter!

Graham Runs a smoking offense. Ditka you must like the Defensive side of the ball. Once you & I are looking at the same thing (a good coach) with different viewpoints. 🙂

My brain is messed up with all this. What I ment to say in my post is:

What we need is a safe pick of a solid guy who can coach. We don’t need to “Wow” anyone. There are a lot of good players to work with already on the roster, so this is a good situation for a new coach. We need someone who can steer the ship and continue bring in new talent.

Let’s just hire Bradley and get it over with.

Smizik’s blog is suggesting that Teryl Austin would be Pitt’s DC if they hire Bradley. Even though TB is a State Penn’er, that would be great if Austin got the DC job, the guy knows Florida, Bradley would be good in Pa. Hey this has some potential !

And I read either in Zeise’s blog or Smizik’s that TB could bring as many as 4 PSU coaches with him. That sounds a little better than Morris Watts and crew from Miami of Ohio. God bless them. Pitt hasn’t really had a great Defense, one that just stone cold stops you, since the days of Jackie S.

So let’s get this thing wrapped up before Smiley can screw things up.

Hail to Pitt !

Another thing I read…..get this..

TB plans to run a spread offense. I don’t know where they’re getting their info, but I like it.

I like it…..

One point.

And the spread doesn’t necessarily mean you have to throw the ball 50 times/game.

The newest thing among Spread offenses is to run out of them. Auburn and especially Nevada did this to the extreme this year, with Nevada having not one, but two, thousand yard rushers out of their spread. I know you say Nevada, who cares,
hey Nevada beat Boise State keeping them from a BCS bowl.

I don’t care if he runs “the single wing” which is what “the wildcat” essentially is. Executing is what is important. Bradley has been with a big time program for a long time. I think he’s someone that Nordy would be comfortable with and that could do a great job.

Everything I read about Cristobal is great. He should get a more serious look.

Actually come to think of it, when dickrod was at WVU, they ran out of the spread all the time, though they did play with a FB.

The blogs also mentioned TB would be looking for an athletic QB which means sunseri’s days are few.

Maybe Bolden will transfer to Pitt.

Can’t Dixon coach the FB team as well?

Well, we won’t be getting Bradley, because, after being 50/50, not sure on him, reading everything and all of your posts, thinking about it, I believe I have swung full circle and believe, Bradley, with the right coordinators, especially offense, could just end up being an awesome hire.

Therefore, with my luck, Steve Pederson will come in at the last minute, and tell us he has found a special teams coach at Savannah State, and he really thinks this guy could be “the” guy!!

Then, he will tease people with a uniform color and logo change……….powder blue, light yellow orange, and a picture of “the point” on the helmet.

I know it!!!!

Time passes things change now i want bradley and i am afraid they will sign some other coach whats up with that? Two weeks ago i did not want him as coach things change kool aid is good some times. or the big mess has warped what little mind i still have hail to PITT.

OK Pedey, here’s how you conduct a search. This from the Hartford Courant. (BTW — of all the candidates mentioned in the article, not one was named Tom Bradley.)

Neinas, one of the most powerful people in college sports, will be heard. The former Big Eight Conference commissioner has been involved in some big-name searches, including those that landed jobs for Les Miles, Urban Meyer, Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, Randy Shannon, Butch Davis, Tom O’Brien and Mark Dantonio.

“We are constantly on the phone, turning over every rock,” Hathaway said. “We’re looking for best person to lead this program on a continued upward trajectory . . . I’m looking for the very best football coach who wants to lead the University of Connecticut football program.”

Lets look at it this way….Haywood was the worst hire in every way. His record was shi–y and his ONLY good year he beat mostly teams with losing records. His coaching staff was looking like a joke. That was Stevie’s screw up. He is not getting to make the call on this deal.

We should all be thankful that Haywood has no respect for women, is an ass and tossed his girl around. She really took one for the team….literally.

No matter who they hire from here it will be an upgrade.

Hey Tony, all 3 or 4 coaches being mentioned the past few days, I’d take anyone of them instead of Haywood. It is minor, but, looking back, what a horrible press conference he had. I thought, ok, give the guy a chance, see how he sounds. I was waiting for some pumped up, fired up guy, and after that conference, I was so disheartened. Ya, she took one for the team!!!

If we could only turn back the clock…..
If Tom Bradley would have been hired instead of who?(Haywood) we would still have 80% of our recruits here. TB would have also brought in a few new ones and still can if he is coach. I’m old enough to remember those Pitt teams from the late 70’s and early 80’s which reminded everyone of what a top 10 program looks like today.
Please fire Peterson, and replace him with a competent A.D. I think he’s a decent enough guy, but he doesn’t know how to keep making knee-jerk reactions without feeding off those who know more about the game than he does.
If you can get both Bradley and Austin as O.C., you guarantee to stop the bleeding now, and 2 months from now we can laugh(well maybe still put our fist through a wall when thinking about it) and say what an end to 2010!!! 2011 can be a promising time. It’s a horrible thing and it should never happen, but supposed domestic violence may have saved the Pitt program another 3-4 years of total incompetence. Wow, I can’t believe those words came out of my mind……….

LOL, Beth Marriott for Pitt Football 2010 MVP!

Offense wins in college football not defense. What are all of you Bradley supporters going to say when they announce Mike McQueary as O-Coordinator?

2010’s top top defenses (scoring):

1. TCU
2. Boise St.
3. West Virginia
4. Alabama
5. Ohio State
6. Missouri
7. Iowa
8. UCF
9. Stanford
10. Nebraska

Looks like a pretty solid list of teams. (A better-looking list than the top ten offenses, I might add.) The demise of the importance of defense in college football has been greatly exaggerated.

Magic,

I am NOT a Bradley supporter but if I was I would say at least McQueary is not eligible for social security.

“Offense wins in college football not defense.”

DickRod begs to differ.

Nice stat except that it doesn’t have the two best teams in college football. Defense is vastly overrated in college football. Pitt was the 11th ranked Team Defense.

I’ll take the top 10 teams in points per game over scoring defense(Top 10 yards per game list is really similar too):
1. Oregon
2. Boise St.
3. Ok. St.
4. Auburn
5. Nevada
6. Wisconsin
7. TCU
8. Tulsa
9. Stanford
10. Hawaii

65. Pitt
80. PSU

XBlackMagicX, we can go back and forth all day, but the reality is that both offense and defense (not to mention special teams) are vital, always have been and always will be. To say that somehow defense has ceased to matter is just silly.

If you can be an elite team on either side of the ball, chances are you will be pretty good.

Being the 11th-ranked team defense (which Pitt is not; we are actually 20th in scoring defense) would be a big positive to build on, not something to disparage. Yes, our offense has been poor this year, but in trying to fix it you don’t want to neglect the defense. A touchdown prevented is as important as a touchdown scored.

Cristobal from FIU would be an awesome choice.