Listen, I’m sure Wanny is a nice guy, but all I keep thinking about is how his stubbornness killed the Miami Dolphins and is now killing Pitt. THAT is why I hate him as a person. It’s obvious the Golden Panthers have WAY too much control in the Athletic Department. Steve Pederson got lucky in hiring Ben Howland, b/c I’m sure if it were up to the Golden Panthers, a “Pitt guy”, whatever the hell THAT is, would have been hired instead, and we wouldn’t have seen the fruits of his labor bloom. Jeff Long is an asshole and will get his head handed to him in Fayetteville within 5 years. And I STILL think there were better candidates than Wannstedt in 2004. Don’t blame me for Pitt refusing to look into the I-AA ranks to find the next Jim Tressel (who, btw, came from the I-AA ranks in nearby Youngstown State. And to OHIO F’N STATE, NO LESS!!!!). As it is, we may be forced into the I-AA ranks for our next coach, which should be in time for the 2009 season (2008 if we’re lucky).

We are in deep shit…

I’ll just echo what Stoosh said: before the season started, I was just hoping to see some progress and was willing to be patient with Wannstedt and his staff, given the recruiting successes they’ve had. Now, not so much. It’s obvious there’s been no real progress, and those recruiting successes aren’t going to continue when we’re looking like the worst team in the Big East and the entire program appears to be in shambles.

If they don’t turn a corner in the very near future (and I don’t see any reason why they will, even if Stull comes back), I’d have to say Wannstedt ought to be shown the door at season’s end.

Get a young, up-and-coming coach in here who’s got the energy and the wherewithal to rebuild a program from the ground up.

The best part of the game for me was when Wanny finally got angry and hit his clipboard. Instead of looking like a lost little boy he finally looked like a man that realized what he had done. For the second straight week I regret not drinking alcohol. I sat through the whole game without switching the channel, not even for a split second…maybe that’s why I suddenly woke up after the game was over covered in tears and laughing at my dog.

I haven’t given up on the players, never will, but I have no clue about the coaches anymore. It’s almost as if they are being paid to drag a name through crap. Here’s a tip..on most teams, usually the ones that win, they throw on 3rd and long(unless they have a badass OL). Here’s another…If you run the ball 50 straight times, then you will probably run it again at 51. They know we’re running!!! Fool me once Shame on me, Fool me 51 times, I’m A Pittsburgh Panthers Coach. Open up the Bleeding Frakkin run by throwing the ball(and not just in the 4th quarter). It seems that Cav and Wanny failed Math because down by 20ish in the 4th quarter means let’s move the ball faster because we’re running out of time.

A few positive things that I saw today:
1-Bostick is ready “enough”… he throws the ball like a Pittsburgh Pirate(not a good thing nowadays), but players around him are glad he’s there.
2-Shady

Everyone must go, coaching-wise.

All I needed to hear from DW’s postgame conference was the remark about how they need to continue to protect the young QB by running the ball and pepper your drives with passing

Well DW you have just secured the fact that every D you face will put 9 men in the box. You will not be able to use the run until you make them pay.

But not in Wanny’s dream world where his stubborn way will save the day.

Stupid is as Stupid does…and Wanny is king of the dipshits

Another gem for DW and the panthers. Is it just me or does Bostick have a horrible looking release?

A real class move by UVA at the end faking the field goal to jam another TD down our throats.

just another week, at least I have the steelers.

the only positive thing I saw on Saturday was Penn State losing to Illinois, you had to enjoy that one!

we played like poopy…Groh is a piece of poo for running up the score wit a fake field goal

Doesn’t DW have a coaches show on one of the local pgh radio stations?

I suggest every one who can call into the show with one question: when are you going to quit?

Bostick did not throw his first pass until it was 27-0. 27-0!!!!!!!!!! That alone is justification to fire DW and Cavanaugh.

This is pathetic and really, no matter what it means for the next few years, it seems fairly obvious that DW cannot coach and that he is incapable of resurrecting this program.

Time to end the charade now.

Words of wisdom

“One of these weeks, I’d really like to find out what type of team we have, we didn’t give ourselves a chance.”

“We have to run faster”

“LSH is the starter”

Give me a break, this guy really just does not have a clue.

This team is in reverse, we went from a BCS team and we are now an also-ran, we could finish the year with only 2 wins!

History always repeats itself and the tenure of Dave while he coached in Chicago and Miami are very well documented.

Wait until next year, for what? He doesn’t deserve another year, the guy cannot coach or put together a staff that can coach.

Too many penalties, too many excuses, when Dave came to Pitt we had an established program, he did not have to start from the ground up, but he is driving the program off a cliff.

Yes, too many penalties, too many excuses, and not enough discipline or execution. He doesn’t deserve another year at this point, and the way things are going, he REALLY won’t deserve one at the end of the season but….

I would think Pitt would get stung financially/contractually if they fired him now, and they made that mistake once with a guy named Gottfried. I don’t think they want to do that again anytime soon. Its hard to watch a guy doing color commentary for ESPN while he’s still on your payroll for big bucks. And you have to think about who might be willing to inherit this steaming pile of poop down the road, especially if they feel like they’ve only got a couple of years. The BE isn’t exactly a premier conference, and we ate a lot of our own this past couple of weeks. There’s a good chance that we’ll send a 2 loss team to a the BCS, which doesn’t do much for the PR. At this point I have to pull for South Florida. How sad is that?!?!?! But someone is still going to have to want the Pitt job, and there has to be some kind of upside. An AD with a perceived itchy firing finger won’t help.

I still think we have a year and a half left of this clown. At least I’ll save money not being tempted to buy tickets anytime soon. The funny thing is that I still don’t think it was a bad hire AT THE TIME. I had my doubts, but I figured that if the guy was willing to go out there and recruit like hell, it couldn’t be any worse than what Harris had here. I was well aware of his track record, but I was hoping that perhaps he could turn it around and we’d have someone for the long term for a change. I would have still preferred an up-and-commer from a smaller program that had real college HEAD coaching experience and succes, but I was willing to accept Wanny at face value. I feel kind of silly about that now – like I’m a sucker. I’ll bet the administration is starting to feel that way at this point as well.

A serious question: is there ANYONE left on the schedule that Pitt has a chance of competeing with? Not necessarily beat – just compete with. I might be willing to ammend my “stuck with him until 2008/2009” statement if we get completely crushed every weekend from here on out. If there is absolutely no improvement for the rest of the year, if might be worth it to just write him a big check and show him the door. At some point you have to assess the negative aspects of terminating his contract early vs. the damage he could do the the program and Pitt’s reputation in the future. Still don’t think it will happen, though.

The Seige continues….

syracuse just lost to miami of ohio, so i think that has Pillow Fight of the Year possibility, but it looks like we can win. other than that, no. i dont think ive ever been this embarassed to be a pitt fan, aside from the 72-0 ohio state game, and that includes south florida’s first win against us back in 01 or 02.

i admire everyone who watched/listened to that whole game, you must be some sort of masochist. after 20-0 and uva getting to the red zone i said a bunch of swear words and left, i couldnt take it. the only good thing was that i figured bostick could play a game with no pressure and get in some good reps. then i saw he threw the ball 3 times in the first half and got pissed all over again. im a grad student at UCF, at least the knights are winning and my saturdays wont be total losses.

As in the famous words from that guy in Alien 2 with the friggin’ acid crap all over his face: “game over man….game over”…Cavenaugh has never proven himself to be dynamic OC….and his track record is intact at Pitt…Rhodes has always played D like a pussy….soft coverage….bend not break….both of those coaches have yielded uninspired, losing football…the coaching staff has lost this team…no confidence in the system….and I dare say some of our young players are only going thru the motions and hoping not to get hurt..that is until with “clown on fire” coaching staff gets shown the door…and some young innovative coach takes over…

During Johnny Majors Part deux….the excuses were the same: injuries, bad luck, poor facilities…blah blah blah..guess what..it’s none of those…it’s always coaching and preparation at the College Level…
The only reason to continue to follow this train wreck of a coaching staff is simply out of morbid curiosity at what they will screw up next….

Okay, so enough whining about the current coaching staff. Who do we want to see replace them?

i’m not convinced we need to get rid of cavanaugh (although im getting closer), but rhoades HAS TO GO. let wanny take over DC duties, hes the one who will ultimately take the blame for this team sinking, he may as well give it a shot.

Again, for the 50th time,

Wanstedt is the highest paid employee at the University of Pittsburgh. We can’t afford to fire him until his contract is out. We aren’t Alabama. We don’t have that kind of money. It’s not going to happen.

the only ones in wannys camp now are the other big east coaches and fans. Just like we still wish Craig Esherick was coaching G-town.

The reason why we got our butts kicked so badly was that the team was simply not prepared on Defense. Is that Wannestedt or Rhoades? Man, I just don’t know. But UVA ran everything they normally do. They spread it out a bit more, but otherwise, it was a lot of student body left, right, and 15 yard outs to the TE. Sewell would just STARE at the TE the entire play and it was like we had no idea it was going to happen. Just pure incompetence. I gotta think that’s on Paul Rhoades.

Jon C and Ryan are right. Wannstedt won’t be fired, or even bought out. They’ll lame-duck him like they did Harris. And as much as the focus has been on the offense, it’s the DEFENSE that’s the problem. The O has plenty of excuses for being subpar. The D has none. RHOADS IS THE PROBLEM AND HAS BEEN FOR 6 YEARS. WHAT IS THAT THIS GUY HAS ON NORDENBERG THAT KEEPS HIM HERE?????????? PHOTOS OF NORDY HAVING RELATIONS WITH LIVESTOCK??????? WHAT IS IT????????????

Actually Pitt has the 9th largest endowment for a public university and the 29th largest overall. The endowment is more than double that of Alabama. We do have the money.

C’mon people, moral victories! For example, after we spotted them 30 points, we played them to a 14-14 draw! Beat that!

Pitt is loaded. they need to hire an AD and make a FOOTBALL decision for once. pay the money if you have to

Im agreeing with Geeman… Give wanny another year, because we have such a young offense.. The D has been pittiful forever tho. FIRE PAUL RHOADS…
Wanny and Cavanaugh are on the hot seat.
but lets get some talk about who will replace all the coaches. Any ideas for head coach, DC, OC??

There has to be a pitt alum that would come back and coach. If pitt has all that money it would be a blessing! if somehow wwe pulled a nick saban and paid marty shottenheimer to come back to Pitt. I know it wont happen, but wow that would be pretty awesome.
I’m guessing we look to a guy that is working his way up though. Someone like a dantonio or leavitt. (not those two, they are just my example)

Thats a pretty big dream. Pitt is more of the team that would try to hire walt harris again….

There is a better chance of mike ditka than marty… and mike is loving his warm seat on espn watching. These guys dont want to recruit and go through all the work again. Pitt needs a young guy that is a good recruiter and still has a little experience.

remember bo pellini at LSU? we almost hired him instead of wanny. hes been a great DC at OU and LSU, but no HC experience, and would leave pitt for a bigger job. we might be able to get sal sunseri, i think he is the DC at carolina

I bet all these coaches love to see they have 3 years at Pitt before the fans are lining up the replacements. Where do they sign up?

Pelini will likely take over LSU if Les Miles leaves for Michigan.

I don’t know about the Pitt ties being a necessity. I’ve always liked the fact that Wannstedt had those and that certainly led to his strong belief in the program. I think that’s important, but only to a point. Like someone said above…it’s got to be a smart football decision much like the Howland hire was a smart basketball decision. I think they would need to find someone with a good college background first…someone who understands the college game a bit better and doesn’t try to force a pro system no matter what.

A good parallel (so far, so good, at least) is Brian Kelly moving up from Central Michigan to take over at Cincy. Obviously, it’s way too early to determine that’s been a rousing success as they could still get stomped by the tougher teams in the conference. But if this guy can get kids to come to that program and get fans to care about it, it’ll be a minor miracle.

Anyone know Brookhart’s status at Akron?

we could probably get brookhart back, but our biggest problems by FAR are rhoades and that disgraceful defense and the Oline. The Oline is young and will hopefully mature with good coaching, but there is absolutely no excuse for the crap that rhoades puts on the field week after week.

yea stuart, it doesnt look good to prospective coaches, but as i was following the OU/CU game on si.com yesterday all the OU people were ripping on Bob Stoops. if they are taking shots at that guy with his success, i think our coaches are fair game.

People will whine whether you lose 1 or 12 games. Its the territory of being a football coach.

To entertain this crap, we could either go get someone who will use us as a stepping stone again and gain some success, or find a “Pitt guy”, who i don’t know of any right now that would qualify/accept the program. We are taking a shot with Wannstedt because we think he won’t use us as a stepping stone, and has a lot of experience, so we hope he’ll win. There is no easy solution here. I see no reason not to give Wannstedt at least 1 more year – its not like there’s an Urban Meyer out there waiting in a crappy program to come here. At worst, hold on to Wannstedt until we do locate someone like that in the future. But we’re still no Florida, so it’ll be hard to convince a hot prospect to come here anyways.

Or we go back to mediocrity: Walts back in town, i’m sure he’ll take the job.

BTW, we didn’t lose to App State. We lost to DIA programs. And we haven’t had success recently either before Wanny got here. And we weren’t a one loss program that got run into the ground, a la Kragthorpe. We were a mediocre team that got some “smoke and mirror” “good” wins that switched coaches and schemes, and are very young and injury riddled. Still not time to throw the panic switch here. Give him the rest of the contract.

Stuart,

Good points all. Even if there was an Urban Meyer-type candidate out there, I’m pretty sure Pitt isn’t where he’s looking to go unless he sees Pitt as a stepping stone. It was like Meyer going from Bowling Green to Utah to Florida, with Pitt being the “Utah”.

I’m getting more and more torn on Wannstedt himself, but I think if changes are made to some of his coaches, that would be reasonable. I’d start with Rhoads, Dunn and Cavanaugh, although I will admit Cavanaugh will be the least likely of those three to go.

stuart

its time to hit the switch, at least we went to bowl games, i will take smoke and mirror over daves “power” football team. dave will never take them to a bowl game he is a complete idiot.

face it they suck and dave must go, it was a bad hire, the ohio u game should have been the eye opener.

i am out of here, best of luck to all of you, i am not wasting my time following this idiot (dave) who makes excuse after excuse.

Oh, Groh’s, call on the fake fg just rubbed it in to show how ill prepared we were

later

I agree. It’s time Dave starts throwing someone under the bus. Rhoads. I will write a check tomorrow if Wannstedt gets up at his press conference this week and says “This defense and offensive line are our problems. Those respective coaches are on probation as of this moment. There had better be a total 180 degree improvement by the end of this season or they will be relieved of their employment. And if I don’t follow through with this, or have the adminstration’s support to make the appropriate personnel moves, I will resign at the end of this season.”

Dreaming, Dreaming is free…

I am encouraging everybody who goes to the rest of the home games to wear bags on their head.

With pornstaches

As furious as I am at Wannstedt, I am still going to give him one more year PROVIDED Rhoades and probably Cavanaugh are gone after this year.

As much as we all know that Wanny can’t coach, I also think that a college coach should be given at least ONE YEAR to win with his recruits and his recruits alone (and no, being forced to start your freshman RB and QB doesn’t count).

So, ditch the assistants this year, Wanny next.

Just back from the game in Virginia. Great turnout of Pitt fans …about 5000 in two sections.

Thanks to all for your comments …they were echoed by all of us in attendence. The boos at halftime for DW and crew were deafening.

Some thoughts from the game:
* What a great college atmosphere at VA Stadium.
Singing and cheering traditions by the fans
decked out in orange and blue and every seat
filled. Nicest people I have met in a while.
We used to have that same on campus atmosphere
at Pitt Stadium.

* Stayed at the same hotel with Mike Mcglynn’s
dad and family. Not much comment from any.

* Worst first quarter I can remember in Pitt
history….maybe 1970 Oklahoma came in
with Jack Mildren and co.

* Worst coached team in Pitt history. Doesn;t
Rhoades or anyone teach our linebackers and
safetys to watch the linemen (not the backs and
ball fakes)??? Every misdirection VA pulled
Pitt was out of position

* At one embarrasing point VA hiked the ball to
the QB and their entire team went left along
with the entire Pitt D….QB just stood there
motionless with the ball and then took off
untouched for 27 yards.

* To a person…in the stands…we wanted a DW
resignation at the half.

* and now the Steelers fall….long weekend…

Good news is that navy is a night game plenty of time to get overly intoxicated and just a thought, but who wins Pitt 1st team vs Pitt 2nd team hard to imagine we have nobody better atleast on defense.

And by the way, the Steelers + Pitt = FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!

pitt ruined what was a great weekend of football. PSU lost, ND lost, WVU lost, Florida lost, UCF won, cardinals won/the steelers lost (sorry, i hate them. i ripped up my yinzer card when i moved to orlando). hell even my fantasy team won.
good point about the navy game at night, i will be drunk and disorderly while watching

Im not even sure what to think anymore. This year has been a total collapse. I expected a tough year but nothing like this. I know Bostick is a freshman but wow he needs lots of work including that aweful delivery. The delivery is long and slow and the ball seems flat in the air.

DW is a nice guy and I personally like him, but as a coach he leaves a lot to be desired….its time to move on.

The bottom line is that Walt Harris did a lot more with a lot less. DW has done a lot less with a lot more…thats just reality. say what you want about DW needing time but this is year three and things should not be this bad, even with the injuries.

Harris did okay with the low caliber recruits that he got, but you have to recruit well to win. We go from a coach who could do above average with bad recruiting to a coach that recruits well and does horrible ( maybe he hasnt had enough time… thats a different debate) If Pitt wants to go somewhere they need a combination. We need someone that just hits the recruiting trail hard and has great coaching ability to keep players wanting to play here.
Pitt trys to win football games with a pro style offense, but in order to run a pro style offense you need big guys that can block. WE HAVE NONE. WV and alot of other teams have moved to a spread offense or option style offense, and can take advantage of not having the best recruits or good O linemen. WVU recruits pretty poorly…

Whatever is happening to this program, it needs change and in a hurry. Its nice to see the BE as a whole on the rise, its hard to believe Pitt isnt part of it.