Torn between rage and apathy. Very odd sensation. At the moment, I’ve drifted back to rage.
Right now Pitt football is a complete mess. The offense has played 3 good halves in 5 games. The defense is being consistently shredded; and even when it shows moments of competence, it can’t stop stepping on its own dick. Special teams… whatever.
The thing that jumps out the most, though. The penalties. Right now, Pitt is 113th nationally in total penalties with 40, and 116th in total penalty yards (379). That’s out of 129 FBS programs.
On all facets, Pitt has committed dumb, moronic penalties. Not out of enthusiasm. Not out of just being too energized. It has been of the undisciplined type. Repetitive, same stuff. The penalties are the thing of poor coaching. Where the details are ignored or tuned out.
Pitt has played two top-15 teams this year. They weren’t even competitive. The offense produced a whopping 13 points in those games. The defense gave up 89 points. Special teams — I can’t even. But, again, penalties. Two games against the best teams to date and Pitt committed 25 (accepted) penalties for 241 yards.
Looking at the defense. I’m not sure how you don’t conclude that Randy Bates has been overwhelmed as a defensive coordinator. We heard all off-season how a career position coach was an excellent hire. How disciplined and hard working he was. Grinding and earning this shot.
We also heard, when Conklin was pushed out, how he wasn’t running the defense the way Head Coach Pat Narduzzi wanted it. That Bates was the man for the job. And to help ease the transition, Narduzzi would be a little more involved. Hell, with the addition of a 12th position coach, Narduzzi opted to put it on the side of the defense. Splitting duties in the secondary to a cornerbacks coach and a safeties coach.
The DC spot is especially galling because the options for hiring a really good DC were there. Randy Shannon (now UCF’s DC) was available. Plus, he is an excellent recruiter in Florida. Scot Shafer — a longtime friend of Narduzzi’s even — was a possibility. Hell, he even began following some Pitt defensive players after Conklin left for Wofford.
Here would have been the issue, though with hiring veteran, established DCs — they would expect to be able to run the defense as they wanted. Or at least do some things their way. Not as Narduzzi wants. That’s fine, to a point. Narduzzi is the head coach. He has every right to want things done a certain way. But, then he has to answer for it, when it is clearly not fucking working.
It’s funny in a grim sort of way. I (and more then a few other) thought the potential downfall for Narduzzi could come from the decision to hire Shawn Watson as the offensive coordinator. And let’s be clear. As an OC — and the quarterbacks coach — Watson hasn’t exactly made anyone think he’s doing much more then a slightly below average job. That said, the defense has been the joke.
I don’t know. Narduzzi has definitely lost the fans. We all believed that last year was a bit of a transition with all the QB issues. The team showed improvement in the second half of the season on both sides of the ball. Talking ourselves into the almosts. At Syracuse. The UNC game. At VT. Games Pitt shoulda, coulda won. But for the QB. A few bounces. Why, Pitt could have finished 8-4 instead of 5-7
Hell, I am as much a guilty party in this . I was sure that the defense was better. Now that the players were supposed to be in place. More depth. Everyone healthy. And the offense. Well, we were still feeling good about it all. I was convinced Pitt would be an 8-4 — maybe even 10-2 team. Sure it was possible that they could be as bad as 4-8, but no. Not really. Despite the non-con schedule, Pitt was going to be a better team.
Nope.
I still think Narduzzi survives this season. Not simply because of the extension. Remember how he was hired. It wasn’t a former AD. It was the Chancellor and an executive committee. People in power, even higher then AD Heather Lyke. They are still there. I don’t think they are ready to admit to being wrong.
That said, changes will have to be made. Watson is likely going to be gone at this rate. And it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Bates gone after only one season. Too much on-the-field problems are very clearly stemming from the coaching. The players are consistently out of position. Beaten to spots. The play calling on both sides are a crap. So much will have to change.
H2P!!!
Recruiting: What’s the real difference between a 3-star and a 4-star kid? Or a 5-star vs. a 4-star? You will find that, athletically speaking, they are pretty similar. The can all run a 40 time within a fraction of a 10th. They can all jump within a fraction of an inch. I contend that it is the cerebral part of the game that makes the difference. Call it what you like – football IQ, or whatever. That’s what defines teams – they all have raw talent. The cerebral stuff can’t always be coached, as we have seen. It wasn’t long a ago that Pitt, and many other programs, found a lot of talent in Florida and Texas – the “unwanted” talent that was still pretty good overall. With the shifting conference landscape over the last 5-10 years, a lot has changed. Programs like USF, UCF, Baylor, TCU, and others, are keeping more of that talent closer to home. But Pitt has to do better – and it’s no longer a matter of “having a presence”. You need to sell a story and a vision, which brings me to…
Conference: Pitt doesn’t belong in the ACC. Hear me out. It was the right thing to do at the time. It was the ONLY thing to do at the time, and we all know why they did it. But it’s still messy. By and large, the Northern ACC teams have not fared historically well in the conference. Pitt, BC, and Syracuse have all had their struggles at the bottom of the food chain, and I don;’t think it’s a coincidence. It’s a stretch to think the Northern schools can get the same kind of traction on a kid in the South East that even a non-ACC team can get in region. If you’re a 4-star kid who can’t land FSU, Miami, or Florida, you’re next stop is probably going to be closer to home – Duke, NC State, even Virginia/VA Tech. But Pitt is a stretch. Conversely, Pitt has a problem in its own backyard, because like it or not, this is Big10 country. Then it’s MAC country. I always thought Pitt would have been better able to recruit in the Big-10, even if they got the “scraps” because you’ve got North East talent that is looking to at least stay in the North East. Lots of other factors, but our “home grown” 4-stars start winding up in Iowa or Indiana (Perdue, not ND) or some place similar. The ACC in general has little appeal to them in the lower tiers of the conference. I don’t know how to fix it – but we’re winding up with 2-3-star sub scraps and that’s not going to win consistently in any conference.
Coaching: Do we need the “young up and comer” or the “grizzled veteran who knows who to get it done”. Does it even matter, because as mentioned, it’s a talent based game. Nick Saban might be “better” at Pitt than Pat Narduzzi, but he’s not going to be winning titles any time soon. As stated – HCPN is neither a blessing or a curse. He is what he is and it would be a stretch for anyone to come in here and move the needle significantly. We’re 30 years plus into giving the “next guy” his 4-5 years to build his program. It’s still not working.
Game Day Experience: I get it – read my lips – no new stadium. But overall something has to be done regarding the poor attendance and lack of overall enthusiasm at Heinz Field. It comes back to recruiting – kids want to play in front of a lot of people in meaningful games where they get media exposure. Noon games in front of 15-20K isn’t inspiring.
So yeah, we can blame coaching, and it’s not even wrong to do so, but to me it’s like worrying about the cough when it’s the cancer that’s killing you. Coaching to me is a symptom – the disease needs to be addressed.
link to campusplan.pitt.edu
But it really is pretty simple.
Winning Coaches are GOOD Coaches FIRST… and GREAT Recruiters Second.
They are also SMART enough and well-respected enough to be able to surround themselves with other GOOD Coaches who themselves are able to become GREAT Recruiters.
And so it goes.
Unfortunately, Pitt has NOT had a GOOD Coach in a LONG time… at least One who was willing to stay long enough to fully realize the Fruits of their Labor.
If Duzz truly does not have an agent and if he negotiated the extension on his own, I would not be the least bit surprised if it’s easier to get out of than we would typically think. If we’ve learned one thing over the last few years, it’s that Duzz bets heavily on himself.
Just like attendance was ultimately Stallings’ downfall, I have a feeling that it will ultimately be what allows Heather to cut the cord sooner than later.
If attendance the rest of the way drops the way I expect it to drop, I’m not sure Duzz can survive one more season.
Narduzzi said a year ago he thought it would be year 5 when the program would take off. NASA we have a problem. 🙂
Miami plays in a pro-stadium many miles from their campus and guess what, they are going to beat the shit out of Pitt and they are ranked. How the hell do they do it? Better coaches, better recruiting period.
H2P!!!
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A word of CAUTION about Narduzzi…
He’s been Coaching COLLEGE Football since 1990… 24 YEARS!!!!!
And NOT ONCE… a HEAD COACH!
An EMPHATIC “NO” to Narduzzi!
Comment by PittofDreams 12.19.14 @ 11:30 am
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Checking out some of Narduzzi’s interviews… he comes across personality wise a lot like Foge Fazio who took over after Jackie Sherrill.
If you remember, that’s when the Program went South.
Like Narduzzi, Foge was a good Defensive Coach who Players REALLY liked playing for.
But as a Head Coach, he was TOTALLY DISORGANIZED… a fish out of water.
Believe Narduzzi is much the same way and would be a DISASTER.
A NEW Pitt Stadium is coming. Probably not as soon as I and others would like. But it’s coming!
Check out the new 5-10 building plan revealed last Friday. There is no mention of a stadium.
There is no room to place one, they don’t own panther hollow or any other space they can grab from the city. I just wish people would stop with the f n stadium crap, it is never going to happen.
But things and people change.
We’ll see.
Narduzzi had two eight win seasons with Chryst’s players and a transfer QB brought in by Chaney.
Narduzzi may noy be a great coach but he is good enough. His problem is that he flat out can not get elite players to come to Pitt.
With Canada he had the best offense we have seen since Marino, so the other problem is coordinators.
But it all goes back to having playmakers. There are no Aaron Donalds, Boyds, or Conners on the team, no freshmen like Whitehead that lead the team in tackles as a freshman.
The cupboard is bare and that is on Narduzzi who has not overcome the obstacles that come with recruiting to Pitt.
I don’t care how great a coach you are, if you don’t have the players you lose. Chuck Noll is a good example.
Whether Narduzzi is a great or poor coach is irrelevant if he can’t get playmakers to come here.
Was Wanny a great coach, not really but recruiting Shady, Deon, Graham, Sheard and Romeus made him more than adequate.
H2P!!!
It was based on the little I or anyone knew at the time about Narduzzi.
In retrospect, not the perfect comparison… but pretty close I think.
Narduzzi’s biggest fail is recruiting. If he recruited like Franklin, I think a lot of the other problems would be minimized, but we will never know.
Not having an on campus field is also a negative for team ownership and student experience. Students camping out for the big home games adds excitement and cameradory. But, it is what it is.
