pittsburgh is back on track

[waltwal]

i was watching the pathetic effort put out by the pitt panthers vs. notre dame. at halftime tony dorsett was interviewed and he stated that he was very happy with the hiring of dave wannstadt and that he felt that wannstadt "would get pitt football back on track". i was curious so i made an effort to check out the previous 4 years of pitt football. i found 4 winning records and at least 1 championship. it is amazing to me that pitt could basically fire the fairly successful walt harris and hire a coach that has never been successful as a head coach. i think there is a mistaken belief that an average nfl coach will be a very successful college coach. yes some nfl coaches have done well in college but i think this is very flawed thinking.

my choices for the worse hirings in college of the past 3 seasons all involve pros coming to college.

wannstadt - harris

callahan - solich

dorrall - toledo

the coaches replaced should not be mistaken for bear bryant but why fire moderately successful coaches unless you know you have a top flite guy to replace the one you have.

[Ragone]

I don't think walt harris was fired if i'm mistaken.. i think he chose to go to stanford

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by Ragone

I don't think walt harris was fired if i'm mistaken.. i think he chose to go to stanford

That's technically true, but Pitt and Harris had been at odds for a long time and, even without the Stanford job, Harris probably would not have been back.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I was right next door to Heinz Field yesterday when I saw the Pirates and Cubs at PNC Park. There were "LET'S GO IRISH" chants inside PNC Park during the baseball game. Of course, there were quite a few Pitt fans in the area, also. Now, remember that I just moved to the Pittsburgh area, so I really didn't know what a Pitt gameday is like. My wife and I got a sense of all the atmosphere and the fans' readiness for this game to get started. We were wishing that we'd gotten tickets, and then we could just spend the rest of the day in downtown Pittsburgh waiting for the football game to start. We didn't get tickets, but I watched the first three quarters of the game on TV, and now I'm really glad that we didn't get tickets. Oh, what a disaster.

[scooper]

I don't know. I thought the game went pretty well

[General Mike]

Disagree with Wannstedt being a bad hire. At worst he will have Al Groh/Chan Gailey success. It's not his fault Harris couldn't recruit anything other than WRs.

[cthomer5000]

whoa whoa whoa.... why isn't Schiano to Rutgers on your list?

What's even more amazing is the fact that he likely would have been head coach at Miami had he not left!! (Butch Davis pulled his shocking departure shortly after Schiano lefT). So everyone's a loser in that hire.

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

whoa whoa whoa.... why isn't Schiano to Rutgers on your list?

What's even more amazing is the fact that he likely would have been head coach at Miami had he not left!! (Butch Davis pulled his shocking departure shortly after Schiano lefT). So everyone's a loser in that hire.

You'd rather have Gary Darnell? Cause that's who we would have gotten if he hadn't try to leverage us for the Missouri job.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by General Mike

You'd rather have Gary Darnell? Cause that's who we would have gotten if he hadn't try to leverage us for the Missouri job.

I'd seriously rather have no hope than false hope. Schiano is stealing money from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

[General Mike]

Note: Darnell did not end up with any of the jobs he was interviewed for in 2000, and that killed his recruiting at WMU.

CT, if Schiano does get fired, there are 2 NFL coaches, at the forefront to get the job next. One is a pretty good DC, who has ties to Rutgers, but you probably hate him, and the other is an NFL QB coach, who has college coaching experience, and has ties to the university president.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by General Mike

CT, if Schiano does get fired, there are 2 NFL coaches, at the forefront to get the job next. One is a pretty good DC, who has ties to Rutgers, but you probably hate him, and the other is an NFL QB coach, who has college coaching experience, and has ties to the university president.

Hate to sidetrack the thread here, but who are the names you're hearing?

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Hate to sidetrack the thread here, but who are the names you're hearing?

Cottrell was on the short list last time, so I'd have to think he is in the mix again. He wasn't great as the Jets DC, but I think part of that was having to use a 4-3 D instead of his 3-4. The QB Coach would be Neuheisel (sp?). Pres. McCormick hired him at UDub, so I think he is an option. He has his issues tho, so its a risk, but he might be willing to pull a Mike Price.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by General Mike

Cottrell was on the short list last time, so I'd have to think he is in the mix again. He wasn't great as the Jets DC, but I think part of that was having to use a 4-3 D instead of his 3-4. The QB Coach would be Neuheisel (sp?). Pres. McCormick hired him at UDub, so I think he is an option. He has his issues tho, so its a risk, but he might be willing to pull a Mike Price.

I have no issue with Cottrell, but the huge defensive turnaround by the Jets last year certainly makes me wonder....

Neuheisal I wouldn't be nuts about, but I'll settle for anyone with a proven track-record at this point.

[Swaggs]

Neuheisal was cleared of his wrong-doing at UW, if I recall correctly. He would be a nice pick up for Rutgers with the NFL and recruiting connections to do well, but he seems like the mercenary type, so would be worried about his long term intentions.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Neuheisal was cleared of his wrong-doing at UW, if I recall correctly. He would be a nice pick up for Rutgers with the NFL and recruiting connections to do well, but he seems like the mercenary type, so would be worried about his long term intentions.

That would be fine with me. We need someone, anyone, to get this thing off the ground to the point where it's a job other coaches might actually want! That way if he did leave after 3 years, someone worth having might be interested.

[General Mike]

We'll see what happens. I still think we win 6 games this year and go to a bowl.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by General Mike

We'll see what happens. I still think we win 6 games this year and go to a bowl.

I thought so too, but that was a back-breaking loss that is seriously going to destroy morale. Even the quotes in the paper today seemed to reinforce that. I'm seeing 4-7 again after that loss.

[General Mike]

After watching some of these teams, the Big East is wide open. Syracuse has no offense, Louisville and Pitt are overrated, USF and Cincy aren't great, and I need to see what UConn does against Ga Tech before I judge them. If West Virginia gets solid QB play this year, they are the best team in the Big East.

[Joe]

that Rutgers team at the end of the game looked a lot like the Rutgers team that lost to New Hampshire last season.

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by George W Bush

that Rutgers team at the end of the game looked a lot like the Rutgers team that lost to New Hampshire last season.

You stayed up til 2:30 am to watch the end of that game?

[MrBug708]

Toledo deserved to be fired and while Dorrell wasn't a great hire, it's not that big of a stretch

[waltwal]

i think the point was missed on the harris-wannstedt situation. pittsburgh has been up and down for the last 50 years. they have had some good runs but also some real bad ones. walt harris was one of their more successful coaches- but probably not in the upper echelon of college coaches. also he did not willingly go to stanford but was made aware of the fact that he was on thin ice at pitt. but my question is - why would a coach who had 4 consecutive bowl appearances be on thin ice unless bob stopps or pete carroll made it clear they wanted the pitt job. why fire a successful coach when you don't have a clear cut better coach to replace him. unless of course the program was out of control which i am pretty sure in pitt's case it wasn't.

i just don't think that dave wannstadt has done anything to indicate that he is going to be an improvement over harris. when tony dorsett made the comment about "getting back on track" i was really stunned that he would make a comment like that. i think it is probable that harris was not a popular coach at pitt with some people. i have followed his career because he is a bay area guy and has coached at cal and uop and i know that he is lo-key but pretty fair with the players.

the bottom line with me is why successful coaches are fired when they win and also seem to have the players under control and then are replaced by a coach that gives no previous indication of being any better.

as far as the comments about rick neuheisel go - if that is the kind of guy you want running a program- well ok. people seem to focus on the gambling issue with him. the ad just took the opportunity to fire him over the gambling issue because the guy cannot tell the truth about anything. rick neuheisel gives validity to all the jokes about lawyers (he has a law degree).