Coach Wannstedt has an interestingly frank talk in this AP article looking back on his first year.
The former Pitt lineman and NFL coach talked openly of winning another national championship at his alma mater, of building upon the five consecutive bowl appearances by predecessor Walt Harris. As he talked, the optimism and expectations grew beyond realistic proportions, to the point Pitt was being called a possible Top 10 team if it could beat Notre Dame in its opener.
Maybe, Wannstedt says in retrospect, he should have spent more time in the film room and less in the greeting line.
If he had, he might have seen one of the most disappointing seasons in Pitt history coming, one in which the Panthers went 5-6 with blowout defeats by Notre Dame (42-21) and West Virginia (45-13) and an inexplicable loss to Ohio University (16-10).
“The biggest mistake – and it starts with me – is not assuming anything from the standpoint of how good a player might be, where our mental state is. Are we hungry enough? Are we a bunch of fat cats feeling good about the success we had?” Wannstedt said. “I probably spent so much time out in the streets with the PR and recruiting and the alumni and everything else that comes with that, I probably didn’t do a good enough job knowing our players and what we were capable of.”
He hedges a little when he says it was in part driven by his love of the school and a little too much wishful thinking on his part that thigs would be fine. Still, he concedes that he has to not only know what the players can do, but use them correctly.
The article points out that while Wannstedt has had one of the best recruiting classes at Pitt in years (I think it a slight exaggeration and premature to call it “among the best in school history”) he still has to do something with it. Former Coach Walt Harris, did at least get a lot out of the talent he recruited. That’s also something that WVU Coach Rodriguez does so well. He maximizes the talent he gets and gets talent that fits what he does.
Wannstedt’s hope is that a bad season ultimately turns out good because it brings in better players.
“I don’t think it’s any secret why we’re struggling, the biggest thing we’ve got to do is build a program where we have the depth and talent at every position where every game and every season is not a roller coaster,” he said. “That’s how I would describe it, last year as well as in the past a little bit. You can have a great year, but a great year does not mean a great program. A great program is when you win consistently.”
Roller coaster is a good way to describe the last 5-6 years for Pitt in terms of both expectations and results. Part of the problem has been that the 2 have yet to coincide in any year.
