When do you remember this many negatives and bad press before the season even begins? 1968? 1969? Or any of Majors II years?

Even when Wannstedt stunk in the first game of 2008 (Bowling Green) and the last (Oregon State), there was real optimism going into 2009. Not so much in 2013.

Wannstedt could evaluate player talent. Chryst can’t even keep his best players on the team.

Maybe the UConn and WVU losses and the way they both happened left too much of a bad taste in my mouth. At that point, I had seen enough of the same failures to recognize when stakes were raised and to seize on those moments. Kicking to Gilyard in 2009 right before the half and right after going up 21 points. Opening conference play with a convincing 3-0 record in 2010 and blowing a chance to grab the inside track on the conference lead by losing at UConn to a team that had no business staying with them. Then with a chance to still salvage a respectable bowl game and against WVU at home, coming out flat and unprepared and ultimately getting jeered out of their own stadium.

I was a huge fan of Wannstedt, but after that WVU game, all I could hear were the voices of the Wannstedt critics who I’d had to listen to from the time Pitt hired him. Three common criticisms I always heard from them – he could never develop quarterbacks, his teams faded late in the season, and he always managed to come up small in big moments. After that WVU game, it seemed to all be coming to fruition.

The off-field stuff has been mentioned. Sheard. Knox. Jason Douglas. Keith Coleman. I don’t know of any program that will ever completely eradicate off-field discipline issues, and maybe the fact that some of these incidents happened within a relatively condensed amount of time didn’t help. But it had to be a factor. I can recall the comments made by national outlets (let alone Pitt fans) when Penn State had their rash of player arrests some years back for fights and alcohol/drug-related incidents. You don’t want your program carrying that kind of reputation.

Maybe it would’ve gotten better on the field under Wanny. Maybe the yearly soul-crushing “game we never should’ve lost” would’ve stopped happening and they would’ve won a conference title. Who knows? He did have a decent recruiting class coming in for 2010, but let’s not forget that we may be hitching our QB wagon to the likes of Gary Nova right now, rather than Tom Savage or ultimately Chad Voytik.

DT Marquise Wright – at Rutgers, transitioned to offensive line. Not sure how he’s done during camp, but was listed as a backup offensive tackle.

DB Kyshoen Jarret – at VT. Listed by a few preseason mags as their starter at “ROV”.

WR Bill Belton – at PSU. Currently a backup RB.

LB Ben Kline – at PSU. Backup LB.

RB Jameel Poteat – transferred out of Cincy to Stony Brook.

DB Terrell Chestnut – defensive back at WVU. Saw some limited action at corner last year, but doesn’t appear to be on their current 2-deep.

Desimon Green – originally went to Texas Tech. Currently at California (Pa) working at TE.

Interestingly, one of Wanny’s other de-commits who did end up sticking around was Lafayette Pitts.

I don’t know who you are joel, but that made my night !!!

lmao

Well if Pitt listened to the Rooney’s, Ridge (Mr. Duct tape and plastic man) the idiotic Pgh. city govt. and the cronies that run the Allegheny County Govt.

WE DESERVE EVERYTHING WE GET & THEN SOME !

What I was told about that 2010 season came from someone outside of the football program but firmly inside the university itself and someone whom I have known for a very long time and trust explicitly. Regardless, people will believe what they want to believe and that is what makes conversation go – not every one should have the same ideas. Wannstedt is long gone and I’m truly more concerned about 2013 than I am about 2010.

Pghfred: Regarding Pat Bostick – your thought that he never gave 100% to the team and PITT is just plain wrong. There wasn’t a more dedicated player to the team and his teammates, the university and the game itself. The two points mentioned above are the story of Bostick’s time at PITT. 1) DW was always going to play Tino Sunseri as the starter after Stull graduated. He publicly said as much two months before spring practice in 2010 when he said this on Feb 26th 2010:

“He’s (Sunseri) ready to play now,” Wannstedt said. “It’s his time. He understands the offense, and we’ve got a good feel for his abilities and what he can do.”

This spring, Wannstedt said, Bostick and Sunseri will split the reps evenly early on in practice, with Andrew Janocko serving as the third-stringer. But unlike last year, Wannstedt doesn’t expect the competition to linger into fall camp.

“I think it will be cleared up pretty good this spring,” he said. “You never know, but I’m anticipating that it will.” Clearly the fix was in no matter what Bostick did out on the practice field.

And …2) Bostick was overrated as a HS QB and his overall skills didn’t measure up to BCS football. That is way more accurate than your stating that “Bostic had all the physical skills”.

I’m not saying Bostick was a better QB than Sunseri back in 2010, although I think he might have been at least a cerebral way – I’m saying it was blatantly obvious that no matter what Bostick did there was never a fair competition for him to win that starting spot.

I’ll be the tall guy with long brown hair and a DW mustache… you can take me to lunch and beers afterward so we can talk about the other commenters behind their backs.

I’m with Stoosh regarding Wanny. It is easy to reminisce about the good times after all the crap since he was dismissed. Face it, he was not a great coach, an excellant recruiter, although he came up short in QB’s, O-line, and linebackers.

He only had one major win, WVU, the fluke of the century. He lost games he should have won in a very mediocre conference. The SI issue was the last straw. By the way without the WVU win, he probably would have been fired that year.

Regarding the stadium, it was a business decision, pure and simple. They had drawn up plans to renovate Pitt Stadium, they were way too costly and didn’t solve all of the problems and we still would have needed a venue for our up and coming basketball program. Politically, there was a huge fight going on over PNC Park and Heinz Field. There is no way the state would have supported a third stadium. So we got a reasonable politically acceptable compromise and were lucky to get it.

Isn’t it time to move on, look forward etc?

Justin
Do they interchange the safeties? Could we see Lewis take his spot?

I also agree the focus is on 2013, not 2010 … but as long as Stevie (and prospering)is here and the program is mediocre, it will be pretty hard to forget.

Just wait till Labor Day, let the hand wringing begin.

link to espn.go.com

While it may be true, I find it hard to believe that DW or anyone would have just given the job to Tino because of his family legacy. Could it be the fact that Tino was just a better ‘practice’ player? I can’t see it because of being better in actual games since Bostick had better wins on his resume than Tino, while only starting a fraction of what Sunseri did.

He knew how to take a lick.

He came off kinda cocky,

made him look like a prick.

His starting QB status looked easy nuff to rob,

but but none of the competition was able to fill the job.

Tino played for three full seasons,

which produced oh so many reasons,

to dispair over his game day antics,

since often his efforts seemed so frantic.

But after it was all said and done,

and it was determined what he had won,

his only really unforgivable sin,

was his inability to bring home the big win.

NEXT!

A kid who led Pitt, when he was a true freshmen, to PITT’s biggest win since the 1981 Sugar Bowl.

I did watch the Spring Blue/Gold that year on the NFL Network and I was anticipating seeing a good QB from all the hype. What I saw shocked me, he stunk then and didn’t get much better. What they did was let him mostly only make throws he had a chance of completing. Mostly dinks & dunks and then YAC. And then once Baldwin was gone making his one handed, acrobatic catches, the chickens really came home to roost.

Baldwin got his reward for making Santino look good and Bostick got his reward for keeping silent and not complaining openly.

The corporate world and the sporting world act pretty much the same. Which is why the corporate world sponsors all the major sports. Nepotism, fraternalism & cronyism rule.