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.
Dan Mullen (Mississippi St. HC) — Seemingly within hours after Steve Pederson was fired, Dan Mullen’s name surfaced as a stunning possibility. Rationalizations flew. His wife was from Western PA. He was from a Philly suburb. He wanted to have a better chance to win than the ceiling at Miss. St. in SEC. The whole part of Pitt “going big.”
The reality was most likely that his agent put it out there in an effort to force Michigan’s hand, where he was the blatantly obvious “plan B” if Jim Harbaugh fell through. The ploy didn’t really go anywhere. Pitt never gave any indication of the reality to the story and Michigan didn’t panic. Mullen is still with the Bulldogs and Michigan appears to be getting Harbaugh.
And if you think Miss. St. fans will let this pass quietly upon the Bulldogs first stumble in 2015, I have an energy drink derived from rainwater distilled from my gutters to sell you.
Charlie Weis (Former Kansas and Notre Dame HC) — The story is oh, so apocryphal. But who doesn’t want to believe?
In a nutshell, here’s the story that I have been given: Steve Pederson in his initial search to replace Chryst became enamored/fell under whatever dark spell Weis’ agent keeps casting, and began discussing the Pitt job in earnest with Weis. When the Chancellor and others at Pitt were informed, it became the breaking point and final thing that forced the firing of Pederson.
It seems so unbelievable even with Pederson, but then Kansas was stupid enough to hire him after a one-year rehab as the Gator OC.
Bo Pelini (Former Nebraska, now Youngstown St. HC) — He’s entertaining, and his firing from Nebraska started the dominoes that led to Chryst’s departure. But his volatile personality was never going to work for Pitt (with or without Pederson as AD), as his eventually leaked farewell address to his players demonstrated. Plus, if he could never break past the 9 wins/4 loss barrier at Nebraska, what exactly did that suggest for his ceiling at Pitt?
Greg Schiano (Former Rutgers and NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers HC) — No. Still remains a douche. Just had to mention that one last time.
Houston Nutt (Former Arkansas and Ole Miss HC) — In the past there was no one better at working with his agent (in this case, Jimmy Sexton) to utilize every major conference opening as leverage for more years or money. But even for the Right Reverend Nutt, things run out. Last year he was calling Connecticut high school football coaches in an effort to be positioned for the UConn job. The absolute silence around Nutt for the Pitt job nearly convinced me that he could end up as the guy.
Tommy Tuberville (Former Ole Miss, Auburn and Texas Tech HC, present Cinci HC) — A very underrated manipulator of job interest and staying one step ahead of the pitchforks. Lessons he learned well in his years of survival at Auburn. The story of him leaving a dinner with recruits while at Texas Tech never to return in order to take the Cinci job is still one of the most amazing.
I have no proof, but absolutely no doubt, that he put out feelers for the Pitt job.
Kyle Whittingham (Utah HC — for now) — It just didn’t make sense when the rumors were that he was a possibility. He’s from the West Coast. No ties. In a seemingly good job, Power 5 conference, and accomplished much to bank serious goodwill with the Utes.
Now this one becomes more believable every day. Whittingham is on the outs with the AD at Utah. The AD has the backing of the Utah President, so Whittingham is looking to be on the losing end of things. His salary was right in the range that Pitt appeared to be willing to pay. A lot of the contention appears to be over assistant coaches pay. Pitt could have been an escape hatch/leverage.
But keep in mind that Pitt was SIX Fumbles and a SHORT Field Goal away from EIGHT WINS.
Oh ya… those fumbles were Chryst’s fault… just like missed Free Throws are Jamie Dixon’s fault.
I get it.
Truth is… the Defense with a DEPLETED Secondary and NO DONALD was a shadow of what it was a year ago… and the Offense SEVERELY LIMITED with Chad Voytik at Quarterback also a shadow of what it was a year ago if it weren’t for a 1600 Yard “Defensive End.”
Ya, I get it. I get it all.
Winston relishing the OPPORTUNITY to show everyone he’s better than Mariota… which he is.
Although Rudolph said to be still under consideration as OC.
DC looks to be a DONE DEAL with the Tim Daoust from Syracuse who crossed paths with Narduzzi in Cincinnati… at least Dokish seems to think so.
Can Poteet play in the bowl game?
And DJ Durkin as the DC – SPLASH!
HCing experience and splash
Now OFFENSIVE Coordinator… this is where Narduzzi is going to either MAKE or BREAK himself.
Personally, I always thought Wisconsin was far more impressive Offensively than Nebraska… this year or any other year.
Curious, who was the Coordinator responsible for Wisconsin’s Offensive Philosophy?
Pay to keep Settle & Hueber.
Now that is an offensive staff that wins on the field and recruiting-wise.
John Settle is a VERY GOOD Football Coach. Would hate to see him leave.
He positively impacted the performance of every Runningback on the Roster.
Tyler Boyd was a much better Route Runner this year over last.
Gave Voytik an Open Receiver option on just about every play even though often Double Teamed.
Assuming Lewis might have had something to do with this.
Since Fort Worth is near Dallas, Werner PG went to Cotton Bowl media day to get update from Narduzzi. The following is some info that may interest you, excerpted from Werner blog:
In terms of the coaching staff, Narduzzi has had some phone calls with various candidates, but said he wants to meet with the current Pitt staff before he gets too far into the process. That won’t happen until after Pitt’s bowl game Jan. 2, since Narduzzi wants to be respectful of this team and their process leading up to the game.
“I don’t think that’s fair to do to the kids,” Narduzzi said. “It comes down to the kids, because if the coaches kind of know their fate, then maybe they coach like they know their fate. I want to keep everybody locked in and have an opportunity to talk to people.”
Rest assured, though. He has been calling every committed Pitt recruit, as well as a few new targets. Since it’s a dead period, though, he can only call each prospect once a week, which sort of limits just how much he can dive into recruiting. I will say, though, just based on my conversation with him, that recruiting is really something that Narduzzi is excited about. Granted, he seems excited about most things, but it’s clear he understands how important it is and really does seem to enjoy the recruiting process
I do like the idea of going up tempo out of the pro set. For that reason and for continuity purposes, I like Rudolph. We need to button up local recruiting and Rudolph is well known around these parts. Nard strengthens that.
I am all for Nard bringing in whatever he needs to overhaul the defense. Offense, I wouldn’t touch that right now, sorry.
Look, we cannot ever predict what Chryst would have produced next year so let’s give up this nonsense of saying we would be 4-8 or another 6-6, etc. We will never know, nor should we care. We have a lot of underclassmen that are going to grow, which is exciting. Tomsula and Bobby Ingram still out there?
“In 2007 Beck was also appointed as the Passing Game Coordinator at Kansas, and the season proved to be a breakthrough year for the Jayhawks. Kansas finished 12-1 with the second-best scoring offense nationally, shared the Big 12 Conference North division title with Missouri, and secured a final #7 ranking in both the AP and Coaches polls with their 24-21 win over #5 Virginia Tech in the 2008 Orange Bowl.”
Also…
– Beck was named RB coach at Nebraska from 2008-2010 under Pelini. They were one of the Big XII leaders in yards rushing per game and he helped get Roy Helu to the NFL.
– As far as QBs, Taylor Martinez emerged as a starter in 2010 as a redshirt freshman (while Beck was still RB coach). Martinez was a 3-star QB, but he did have offers from Tennessee and Boise State.
– Beck took over as Nebraska OC in 2011, so he inherited Martinez as a starter. Their class of 2011 had two QBs that Scout had as 4-stars – Bubba Starling & Jamal Turner. Starling was also a very highly-touted baseball player and chose that route. Turner was a dual-threat QB, but converted to WR as a true freshman.
Class of 2012, Nebraska got 4-star QB Tommy Armstrong. Had offers from Baylor, Ole Miss, Oregon, Miss. State, TCU, Texas Tech and Missouri.
Armstrong was their starter in 2014 as a redshirt sophomore (184-for-345, 2695 yards passing, 22 TDs, 12 INTs). He also ran 145 times for 705 yards and 6 TDs and caught a pass for 16 yards and a TD.
Class of 2013 – recruited four-star QB Johnny Stanton. Had offers from Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Cal & Wisconsin. Redshirted in 2013. Was Armstrong’s backup in 2014.
Class of 2014 – recruited 2 quarterbacks. 3-star Zach Darlington and 2-star AJ Bush.
Beck was able to pull in a couple of QBs that were highly ranked prospects but in true Nebraska fashion, they seemed to focus on dual-threat QBs. That may suit him well with Voytik.
If Beck is their choice, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. You can recruit dual-threat QBs and still utilize backs like Conner, get the ball to your wideouts & TEs on a regular basis and also vary tempos.
He is certainly more qualified than Rudolph and just about anyne else who has been mentioned for the OC position.
I’m sure other teams may be looking his way also.
My guess is that we should know something by erarly next week
Pro offense => use big lineman and TE’s big runs, etc.
Spread offense => less use of big linemen, less use of TE’s in favor of more talented receivers. Which we don’t have enough of, we have Boyd, and freshmen.
right on about expectations of FB in your first post
did not sell out.
However, those crowds were all over 50,000.
Or at the very least, very high 40’s.
So, not the sell outs that PSU, ND, and WVU bring, but big name teams bring better crowds than your average Pitt game.
I like the Oklahoma State game.
In a year or two, we’re going to be playing Penn St., Oklahoma State and Clemson in the same year.
So as long as the 3 cupcakes never happens again, I have no problem with the schedule.
I’m not 100% sure that what Nebraska ran under Beck was a strict spread-option offense. I didn’t see enough of them to say one way or another.
Even if it was, I think there’s a difference between running a run-option spread (like what Graham used at Tulsa) as your base offensive scheme and simply running your regular offense while employing a dual-threat QB. If what Beck would want is the former, I agree…I’m not as big a fan of that simply because it may take time to transition to it.
Put a different way, you can use a dual-threat QB to run your offense without using a spread as a base scheme. You can still retain a pro-style scheme as your base offense, and I think this is what Narduzzi said he intends to try to do with his OC. This avoids teaching entirely new blocking schemes or making certain positions (Parrish, Orndoff) more obsolete simply by design.
A dual-threat QB that can throw allows you to run your base pro-style schemes, but can give you the creativity to get him outside the pocket to extend plays and get the defense moving around a little. To some degree, it’s similar to what the Steelers have with Roethlisberger. A mobile QB can help free up routes in the flats & underneath. It also makes it tougher on man & zone coverages on deeper routes. Put Boyd in motion with a QB that carries a run threat and it creates opportunities for misdirection and will open up running lanes.
If Beck would be insistent on an option-first or spread-option offense, I agree with you…I’d be skeptical because it may disrupt what’s already there. But if he would come in and incorporate elements of it into a base pro scheme, I wouldn’t have a problem with that at all.
All power 5 conferences.
To do that, EVERYONE else has to do that too.
in the power 5 conferences.
Otherwise, it’s just not fair during only a
12 game schedule as it relates to rankings and
bowls for some teams to not have any cupcakes, and other schools playing two or three.
The only way a coach typically stays at the same school for decades anymore is if they are so medicore that no one else wants them, and the administration doesn’t give enough of a crap to fire them. Maybe there’s an exception if it’s their alma mater or something, but I’m not expecting Narduzzi to leave Pitt to coach at Rhode Island. The last thing we should ever do is hire another mediocre old Pitt dinosaur like Wannstedt just because he’ll stay forever. I’d rather have modern, dynamic young coaches who leave for better jobs in 6 years because they won games.
Agree.
A major sticking point to Narduzzi’s hire appeared to be Pitt’s willingness to dedicate more resources to the program (bigger budgets for assistants & recruiting, facility upgrades, etc.).
If that comes to fruition (which is should) and Narduzzi elevates Pitt beyond where Wanny did, he’ll obviously draw interest from higher-profile jobs. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s also incumbent on Pitt to do everything it can to try to keep him at that point.
I’ve used the examples of Patterson at TCU and Pinkel at Missouri. Both elevated their respective programs to higher levels of national prominence. Find out what those schools did to keep them at their respective jobs after they received interest from other higher-profile jobs.
If Pitt realizes the same relative success under Narduzzi and decides to make it a destination job for him, extend his deal & dedicate even more resources to the program as he says he needs. If the cost becomes too great, part on good terms but leave the same relative levels of commitment for the next guy.
Marshall, Oklahoma State, Akron are ridiculous games and will not fill Heinz no matter how much winning we do.
These are Corn hole concoctions. If Oklahoma State couldn’t fill reliant stadium or UH Stadium.
Michigan State, Nebraska, and Texas A&M all played at Heinz and none sold out.