Holiday shopping hell today. So it’s late to do a post mortem.
What was rumor, now morphs into likelihood and now…
It’s official:
Stanford spokesman Gary Migdol said Harris accepted the job Sunday, and the school planned an official announcement for Monday.
“He’s accepted and will be here tomorrow,” Migdol said. “He’s in Pittsburgh today.”
Harris, 58, reportedly was meeting with his team Sunday and is expected to coach the 19th-ranked Panthers in the Fiesta Bowl against Utah on Jan. 1 before assuming his new job.
Obviously, I was (once again) wrong on predicting Harris returning with an extension. I wonder if the Pitt Athletic Department will Howland him after he is gone. Probably. Petty and vindictiveness seems to be a part of Pitt’s hierarchy at times.
You know, back in November I called the Pitt-Syracuse game the “lame duck bowl,” and while I was accurate in predicting the winner would live for another year, the Fiesta Bowl truly deserves the title if Harris and Meyer actually coach their respective teams.
Joe Bendel has a stellar recap article of how it came to this. It really lays things out pros/cons on Harris. The way I come down on Harris after looking at his season-by-season record. No, he his not a great coach. He is not one of the the top-20 coaches in the country. But, I think you could put him in the 25-35 range.
[My non-scientific, completely biased, off the top of my head, without explanation, in no order (and with misspellings) the 26 best college coaches: Saban, Stoops, Fulmer, Carr, Tressel, Richt, Bowden, Spurrier, Ferentz, Carroll, Brown, Tedford, Beamer, Tuberville, Franchionne, Willingham, Meyer, Alverez, Coker, Petrino, Hawkins, Coker, Belotti, Nutt, Hill and Groh.]
Considering Pitt seems spooked by the fact that it could lose really good coaches to higher profile jobs you would almost think they would want to keep a solid coach who has (overall) kept the program rising, and wanted to stay. But no.
The Trib’s recruiting guy notes an interesting connection of Harris and the son of a trustee — I guess he’ll be going to Pitt now, and not Stanford. Well, at least not Stanford.
At the Sacremento Bee (and also from ESPN.com) Ray Ratto thinks Harris is in for a rough time because of the power that is Tedford and Cal.
Then there is Ron Cook, who led the Sunday charge at the P-G to boot Harris now that Smizik has been held on his shots until after Harris is actually gone.
Apparently, the “Keep Walt Harris” loyalists think so.
I’ll stop here to address the Fiesta Bowl. That noise you hear are screams from Harris supporters. What more do you want from the guy? He has taken Pitt football to the next level.
I will argue Pitt is going to the Fiesta Bowl but is not a Bowl Championship Series program under Harris. No one respects the heart and guts of Tyler Palko, Vince Crochunis and their Pitt teammates more than I do, but the Panthers were able to finish atop a four-way tie in the watered-down Big East only because of some fortuitous breaks. If Virginia Tech and Miami hadn’t bolted to the Atlantic Coast Conference after last season, Pitt almost certainly would have finished no better than third again, its highest finish under Harris before this season. And if the No. 19 Panthers lose to Utah on Jan. 1 — they are 16 1/2 -point underdogs — they will end up 8-4 and out of the top 20 for the seventh time in Harris’ eight seasons.
That’s not a BCS program.
That’s underachieving.
No. When most people predicted this team anywhere from 3-5 in the conference. Ron Cook, himself, put things around 8-3 back in September. So apparently the, “get Walt out” crowd has decided that the bar they set is no longer sufficient. Apparently style points count for more than actual wins.
I wonder if the latest recruit will still be verbaled tomorrow?
