Hey, some basketball!
Any abbreviation that ends in “CU” has me thinking credit union, first. No matter what the Sweet 16 run a couple years back did for Florida Gulf Coast name recognition.
It’s another ESPN3.com game. Things get underway at 7:30 tonight.
A little more than a week ago, the anticipation on the head coach hire was strongly leaning towards the idea that Pitt was going to get an experienced head coach. That turned out not to be the case, but for my own amusement I find it worth reviewing some of the names that may or may not have been legitimately linked to the Pitt job. And why they didn’t happen.
Not included are guys that really (or likely) were interviewed like Doc Holliday, P.J. Fleck and Justin Fuente. All three signed extensions, but the extensions were aided either because Pitt showed interest or had already talked to them and they knew there was no chance.
It is a risky thing to say that hiring an assistant coach for a team is ever a true slam dunk. There’s the learning curve. The expectations. Yet, in the case of Pat Narduzzi, the national media seems to be falling over themselves to praise Pitt’s hire of Pat Narduzzi. Especially in terms of “fit.”
Like the fit of Narduzzi at #Pitt. Good evaluator/recruiter/motivator. He helped build #MichSt back into a tough team. Can do that w/ Pitt.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 26, 2014
“@ajollybengali: what do you think of Pitt hiring Pat Narduzzi?”What a great coach. Knows the area well-Will hit western Pa/Ohio Valley hard
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) December 24, 2014
I really like the Pitt/Narduzzi hire. Feels like a great fit for that city/program, and Narduzzi is someone who'd actually stay a while.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 26, 2014
Reports in that Pitt has hired Mich St DC Pat Narduzzi. Very good hire, good program fit. Will be fun to see him install his D there
— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) December 23, 2014
Yes, it was a theme.
Alright, we have dissected, diagnosed and disagreed for the past week on Paul Chryst’s tenure as the HC at PITT over the last three years. We’ll keep doing so I’m sure but the last thread was 400 comments and trying to keep a decent conversation we can all follow with that many is impossible.
So, here is a new thread and what I’d like to see is our opinions and hopes about what Pat Narduzzi will bring to the PITT table given what we know about him, his track record as the DC at MSU and what he is stepping into in a few day at PITT. What is he getting in terms of player’s talent, experience and potential, perhaps the most important of all considering he’ll almost surely be here at least three years, and what he can do on the recruiting trail from now until LOI Day?
Is the lack of a new AD for perhaps months, maybe even into the spring, going to impact his start here? Will we really put out the big money for staff?
What do you see our play like in 2015 given our returning starters, our opponents and the fact that we’ll have a new coaching staff (I still think Rudolph goes to Wisconsin after the bowl game).
This will be fun and remember that we save all these comments so when Narduzzi departs in three years to be the DC at YSU we’ll have our opinions to look back on.
Once more into the introductory press conference, dear friends. Once more.
Pat Narduzzi will be introduced in a few minutes as Pitt’s newest football head coach. Here’s the link for the live stream of the presser.
I look forward to believing.
My kids get spoiled rotten this time of year. (Yes, I know, everyone’s kids get spoiled rotten this time of year. Work with me on this.) They get to do the Hanukkah and Christmas combo. I’m not saying grandparents on both sides of the religious divide aren’t trying to subtly influence the leanings whenever (if ever) they decide to make that call. We have had to warn both sides off about showing up with a puppy, though.
I’ve mentioned it before that when it came to team and school loyalties, I got everything but the NFL. The poor kids have to root for the Browns. Not that it has mattered much since I’m not about to go out an buy them the gear, and my wife gets sticker shock just about every time she looks at licensed gear. Frankly the kids haven’t cared to ask.
Until this year. The boy is seven and decided this year he wanted a Browns jersey. I asked my wife what brought that on, and she pointed out that his teacher is a huge Browns fan, so it probably has something to do with that. To be fair, she is quite pretty, so I just nodded my head without mentioning that aspect. I was just kind of hoping that he was going to last a little longer before doing stupid things for a girl.
Our new Head Coach has been hired after what was a short and poorly kept secret search. The PITT Search Committee floated some misdirection out by leaks here and there but since late last week it was narrowed down to Pat Narduzzi, the ex-defensive Coordinator for Big Ten’s Michigan State and basically no one else.
Love it or hate it, in my opinion it smacks as same old, same old for PITT’s run of head coaches. Not that I disagree or even dislike the choice, I’m OK with it actually, but it runs counter to what PITT’s stated goal was after Chryst left. That was to open the purses strings and make a “splash hire” by getting a successful guy who had already held a head coaching position in college and who knew how to handle to rigors of both on and off the field requirements of a large university’s football program.
The only variation, and it is a big one, is that the incoming HC won’t have to deal with the previous AD in Steve Pederson. That right there gives Narduzzi a bump in the right direction.
But in essence it feels like we replicated almost exactly what we did three years ago when we hired Wisconsin’s Offensive Coordinator Paul Chryst, taking the gamble that he’d have a successful transition to the Big Job. A coordinator turned Head Coach who had stronger loyalties for another school other than PITT as we have just seen. Now we are doing it again with Narduzzi so I’ll keep my fingers crossed that times change as the personnel do and that the last three years are bettered under the new HC.
Per Joe Schad, Narduzzi has signed his contract.
Pat Narduzzi has agreed to become Pittsburgh’s next head coach. Narduzzi was def. coordinator at Michigan St. for 8 years. (via @schadjoe)
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 24, 2014
Paul Zeise reports the press conference will be Friday. Now that this has settled, the next step is filling out the staff. MSU SBnation writer Hondo Carpenter has tweeted out some great nuggets on that and the two best recent nuggets are after the jump. (more…)
…Well, that Tom Bradley hiring comes to mind. Whoops. Bad example.
I’m not saying that Pat Narduzzi will be the next head coach for Pitt football. I am, however, trying to determine the appropriate shortening of his last name as a nickname. Is it “the Nard,” “Nardy,” “Duzz (pronounced doo-zz)” or “Duzzi?”
Not a lot of concrete information.
Here are the basics:
— We know Michigan State DC Pat Narduzzi has been in for an interview. He has also interviewed with Colorado State (who has been without an AD since firing him back in August). Folks up in East Lansing think he only leaves for Pitt.
— Doc Holliday, Marshall’s head caoch, has probably/possibly been interviewed. Amusingly here’s a story where the columnist tries to rationalize why Holliday wouldn’t want the Pitt job.
— The players have been supportive of Paul Chryst going to Wisconsin. Amazing how being mostly up front with people and not feeding lies to their face can make a difference. The players have made their case to the powers that be in favor of the still OC Joe Rudolph becoming the next head coach.
I wanted to let the dust from the recent PITT Football program shakeup settle a bit before I wrote down my thoughts about what transpired. Since the end of the Miami game I checked out of football and went travelling around for a few weeks so I didn’t get back to looking at anything sports related until last week when I saw that Chryst would (certainly) be the new Wisconsin Head Coach.
Chas has kept up a fantastic running commentary of the breaking news and Justin has done some very interesting opinion pieces so now I’ll send in my two cents.
First off I believe a good thing happened when Chancellor Patrick Gallagher fired Steve Pederson from the Athletic Director position. I’ve said many times on here that it wouldn’t bother me one bit if ‘SP was gone tomorrow’ meaning that I’d probably have a neutral feeling about it. That isn’t the case now though, it’s a positive feeling and that is due to the circumstances and timing of the events.
I especially like the fact of how the dismissal was timed as it sent a strong message that Gallagher himself would be more involved in the program than his predecessor, Mark Nordenberg, was.
The change in the Athletic Department and the football coaching search has all the oxygen. Pitt basketball has won three straight. They may not be rolling, but they are improving. Yet, I haven’t even had a chance to recap a single game.
Today it is a 4pm game that gets wide RSN distribution and ESPN3.com. Root, NESN, YES, multiple FoxSports directionals and states (hey, FS Wisconsin is on the list). You should be able to catch this game if you want to. God knows you should be doing everything you can to avoid going to a store this weekend.
When I saw the FootballScoop.com story, I cringed. Not because I didn’t want Pitt to aim high. Not because I don’t think they couldn’t get a really good coach.
Simply because a story like that sets up disappointment and ridicule. Because when you look around the college football landscape, there aren’t that many realistic “go big” options for a head coach.
The landscape has changed. Fewer coaches are just chasing a big paycheck. The money gets absurd at the higher levels, but to some degree it flattens out. Coaches are looking as much at sustainability and the long-term.
The Dan Mullen thing has gone nowhere. Well, not quite nowhere. It seems to have just gone away. And after that?
That creates the question of what it means to “go big.” The story suggested a big name coach, and reasonably, most people seeing that phrase would think the same.
Yet outside of Dan Mullen, who is there that could fit the bill and is someone Pitt could legitimately hire away? I mean without going the route of the rumored “Godfather” offer from Michigan to Jim Harbaugh. Florida, which had once gone out and grabbed Urban Meyer, this time had to take Jim McElwain from Colorado State as the best option available in 2014.
I guess new Chancellor Gallegher is looking to make a huge mark early in his Pitt tenure. The “mutual” decision for Steve Pederson to resign wasn’t enough, the coaching search is going to take on mythic proportions.
Multiple industry sources told FootballScoop today that Pitt’s chancellor plans to “go big” with this hire.
We were told that Pitt plans to invest heavily in the program both in terms of dedication to staffing and to facilities and operations. Two sources said “significant new commitment to the program” will be announced in connection with the upcoming announcement once a new head coach comes on board.
Sources tell us not to expect Pitt to hire a coordinator. “Their initial list is all current and former head coaches.”
The name that came up — in no small part thanks to Fox Sports college football writer Bruce Feldman — is Dan Mullen. The current Mississippi State head coach. That would constitute a “go big” hire.
One candidate that has stuck around as a potential head coach is Marshall’s Doc Holliday. While no name can be considered confirmed, the amount of smoke leads me to believe there’s a fire there. I do think the smoke is coming from Holliday’s camp and some of that desire is to stick it to WVU for not hiring him over Bill Stewart after Rich Rodriguez left.
Hates WVU? Check! (Not really, he’s a WVU grad, just roll with it) (more…)
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