Coaching Stability - Pitt will hire 4th HC in 13 months

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If there is one thing this year's "Silly Season" should have taught us as Gopher fans is that things could always be worse. The complete nonsense searches at UCLA and ASU combined with the Pitt debacle have me very glad that the Gophers made their move last year and has helped me see that yes, the search process could have been run even more poorly with even worse results. :) Glass half full!
 

There was lots of comment here about how hard it was that our Seniors had 4 head coaches. Pitt has redshirt Freshman that will have had 6 head coaches come hiring time...see post below.
 

GoAUpher said:
If there is one thing this year's "Silly Season" should have taught us as Gopher fans is that things could always be worse. The complete nonsense searches at UCLA and ASU combined with the Pitt debacle have me very glad that the Gophers made their move last year and has helped me see that yes, the search process could have been run even more poorly with even worse results. :) Glass half full!
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I realize I'll be ducking in a minute, but for all the flack Maturi took for the search process last season, when you look at what has happened at other schools, his fumbling (and yes, he fumbled along) looks like the hallmark of professionalism. In retrospect, the biggest mistakes Maturi made was setting expectations too high and limiting his pool of candidates by insisting on previous head-coaching experience.

I agree. Glass half full (haven't said that about our football program in awhile).
 

50PoundHead said:
I realize I'll be ducking in a minute, but for all the flack Maturi took for the search process last season, when you look at what has happened at other schools, his fumbling (and yes, he fumbled along) looks like the hallmark of professionalism. In retrospect, the biggest mistakes Maturi made was setting expectations too high and limiting his pool of candidates by insisting on previous head-coaching experience.
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I agree. Glass half full (haven't said that about our football program in awhile).
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NO disrepect intended, but being better than Bozo the clown does not make him a star, or even good. The reason he did a better job, not a well managed job, but at least gave himself time to strike out four times and still hire a coach the last time was because he did just as badly as these guys did the first time when he fired Mason in January with NO PLAN. I give him credit for going from an F process with F results to a C process with at least B results. I love Kill, but lets face facts, if Joel had gotten his choice it would have been Edsall who I think would have failed here.
 


Hence the isolation of my comments to the last search and my admission of his fumbles during that process. I'm not in love with the guy, but the ineptitude of ADs is not isolated to Minnesota.
 

If You are a Penn. high school senior player, You are looking out of state for a bcs offer. Why would You knowingly sign up for PSU or Pitt?
 





Temple? Yep, when I think football program, bowls, ect. I think Temple. The campus is in a nice, friendly city as well. They are as relevant as the Cowboys and Raiders in the NFL.
 

popeyoung5 said:
Temple? Yep, when I think football program, bowls, ect. I think Temple. The campus is in a nice, friendly city as well. They are as relevant as the Cowboys and Raiders in the NFL.
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So they are shoved down our throats no matter how good/bad they are?
 

I see the Gophers offered Pitt verbal OL Adam Pankey last night according to some tweets.
 

I am sure all the PSU/Pitt verbals are being worked real hard right now.
 



popeyoung5 said:
If You are a Penn. high school senior player, You are looking out of state for a bcs offer. Why would You knowingly sign up for PSU or Pitt?
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Prior to the 6-6 season, Pitt went 9-4 in 2008, 10-3 in 2009, and 8-5 in 2010, along with winning 2 bowl games. They have had LeSean McCoy and Dion Lewis drafted into the NFL the last couple years. And another RB in Ray Graham who likely would have been drafted if not for an ACL tear. Jonathan Baldwin was drafted in the 1st round this past year. Going back further, they have had some pretty high profile players too, such as Darelle Revis and Larry Fitzgerald. Their recent NFL track record would be enough to woo me.
 




GopherInPittsburgh said:
He wasn't able to win the big game. He had a chance at a BCS Bowl in 2009 with a big lead against Cincinnati at home the last game of the season.
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I may be remembering this incorrectly, but did they not have a bunch of off-field issues going on, which combined with the failure to win "the big game" game them cover to fire Wannstadt?
Seems like athletic directors at places like Minnesota and Pitt should really ask themselves what is needed to get over the top when guys like Wannstadt and Mason don't get there, despite doing some things pretty well.
I had some big issues with how GM ran the program, but if he had a chance to recruit to TCF, he would have done better at recruiting. I will always give him credit for being the guy with the vision to push that when it was unpopular, it was not JM.(He also could have paid for a better recruiting and defensive staff, and he owns part of that problem, he could have taken less, as Kill does.)
 

Guys like Graham are a disgrace. Rival PAC 12 coaches should go after ASU recruits, "how can you trust him?"
 

corcoran1 said:
I may be remembering this incorrectly, but did they not have a bunch of off-field issues going on, which combined with the failure to win "the big game" game them cover to fire Wannstadt?
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A DUI, an alleged assault, a hit-n-run. I may be missing some things as I do not pay that much attention to the program.
 

Thanks for the explanation on the Wannstedt firing. I've just always thought of him as a solid football guy and was surprised they let him go. Agree that the collapse against Cincinnati may have cost him.
 

corcoran1 said:
Guys like Graham are a disgrace. Rival PAC 12 coaches should go after ASU recruits, "how can you trust him?"
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Exactly. To leave after one year is ridiculous. I understand advancing your career and all, but like you said how can you trust someone like this? I'm sure he talks about "we're a family" and "loyalty" when he's recruiting. If I'm a parent of a recruit, I most certainly would bring it up.

Just like Petrino at Arkansas. I'm sure he's a good coach, but it would be hard for me to believe anything he says after the way he left Atlanta.
 

At least Holtz had the excuse that he was leaving us for his dream job. Doesn't make me feel any better about Holtz, but Graham doesn't even have that kind of excuse.
 


They'll actually have 6 Head coaches in 13 months...

Dave Wannstedt's resignation as head coach on December 7, 2010
Phil Bennett taking over for the bowl game, Dec. 7 -
On December 16, Michael Haywood was introduced as Wannstedt's replacement for the upcoming season. However, his arrest on domestic violence charges on December 31 prompted Pitt to sever ties with him the following day, Jan 1, 2011.
On January 10, 2011, Pitt announced Tulsa head coach Todd Graham as the new head coach of the Panthers.
On December 14, Graham leaves for ASU. Defensive coordinator Keith Patterson was named as the interim head coach for the bowl game.
New coach likely named in next couple of weeks, that makes six.

Wow! Redshirt freshmen with six head coaches!
 


The Pitt AD seems to be getting off easy here, perhaps he should be doing a better job of screening his candidates.

And who amongst you would really rather live in Pittsburgh than Tempe?
 

mkAz said:
And who amongst you would really rather live in Pittsburgh than Tempe?
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The location thing for coaches is terribly overblown, apart from recruiting considerations. The average person would much rather live in Tampa than Tuscaloosa, but among the college coaching fraternity, nearly 100% of the responses would be Tuscaloosa.

Pitt to ASU is a lateral move at best, especially now that Pitt is moving to the ACC. This is evidenced by the fact that Graham's salary is virtually identical to what he was paid at Pitt.
 

dpodoll68 said:
The location thing for coaches is terribly overblown, apart from recruiting considerations. The average person would much rather live in Tampa than Tuscaloosa, but among the college coaching fraternity, nearly 100% of the responses would be Tuscaloosa.

Pitt to ASU is a lateral move at best, especially now that Pitt is moving to the ACC. This is evidenced by the fact that Graham's salary is virtually identical to what he was paid at Pitt.
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Pittsburgh is no Tuscaloosa. I also think the PAC12 (and the Big Ten for that matter) has long passed the ACC as a football conference.
 

mkAz said:
The Pitt AD seems to be getting off easy here, perhaps he should be doing a better job of screening his candidates.

And who amongst you would really rather live in Pittsburgh than Tempe?
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Not really sure you can fault the AD on this one. They tried to deny him permission to speak with ASU so he resigned. Don't really think there would have been anyway for him to see it coming. When you hire a coach I don't think you anticipate them bolting after one year but as we saw with Lane Kiffin and now this guy there are jackasses out there that will do that.

I feel really bad for the players. Look how much it screwed with our guys changing coordinators under Brewster all the time. These guys are losing their head coach. The only consolation might be that it has all happened in such a small window that they didn't have time to get too attached. I mean the Heywood thing happened so quick he had barely set foot on campus so basically it was like going from Wandstedt to Graham. Where it screws them is in recruiting because now you have the third different philosophy in 3 years.
 

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