… Much like Darius Walk– no, nevermind. Too painful.
In no particular order…
Ditka speaks, and nobody should be listening.
“He’s a young guy with a lot of enthusiasm and he’s really proud to be a Pittsburgh guy. And you have to have a Pittsburgh guy here. You don’t need any more California guys here, gang. We don’t need any of that crap. They come and go like the flies.”
He does know that Walt Harris is all of 5 years older than Coach Wannstedt. 7 years was like flies? Then I guess that time in New Orleans as head coach for Ditka was the lifespan of a fruit fly? Or was that just the amount of time it took before all 3 Saints fans realized that hire was up there with the Arizona Cardinals hiring Buddy Ryan?
Last I checked the kind of coaches from Pitt’s past everyone wants to see Wannstedt emulating in success were not exactly Pittsburghers — Majors and Sherrill.
I guess he’s quotable, and that’s what makes him popular. Though, when he was announced during halftime, most of us just started breaking into SNL “Superfan” routines — I never claimed we were original or that funny.
The only good thing from that story, is that Dan Marino has apparently made some peace with Dave Wannstedt following what happened in Miami.
“I’m excited for him and the entire university,” Marino said. “I think he’ll do a terrific job. As far as recruiting goes, I think he’ll do a great job because he is from this area.”
There was plenty of blame from this game.
As I feared, it was line play, line play, line play.
A lot of the blame went to former Coach Harris for not getting the talent on the lines. I suppose, then, that Harris was also to blame for the expectations that the lines would be better; because, up until the game was actually played, the majority of fans seemed willing to believe that the talent was good enough and the new coaches would make a huge difference.
I don’t want to have to keep defending Harris, but the bashing the former coach is rather useless at this point. Not to mention, petty.
And who knows, maybe by the end of the season, it will be far better. Will anyone give any credit to Harris then, or just the coaches and players?
I know, this is just to make excuses for Coach Wannstedt not meeting our expectations. Honestly, he and the players can handle it.
“I am disappointed,” Wannstedt said. “I must have not done a good enough job myself of not letting our guys read newspapers and magazines and think that we were probably a little better football team and a little further along then what we are today. I, really, from a fundamental standpoint, particularly on defense, did not do a good enough job of getting these guys prepared.
“We also did not deal with adversity the way championship teams deal with adversity. We just didn’t handle it well.”
Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades added, “Football is a game of will, and they wanted it more than we did. There are no excuses, there are no fingers to point — they just beat us in every aspect of the game.”
Personally, I like to hope that a little biased reading between the lines means the clock is ticking on Defensive Coordinator Paul Rhoads.
More coming.
