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January 19, 2008

Pitt now has 3 coaching vacancies — O-line, WR and Defensive coordinator. Jeff Hafley was promoted to secondary coach. Tony Wise is expected to be hired at some point as the offensive line coach.

So really, there are only two openings. Greg Gattuso is the in-house candidate. I would be fine — thrilled even — with him being promoted to DC. Beyond his recruiting for Pitt which has been outstanding, he has plenty of experience as a head coach and game planner at Duquesne. His work as a position coach — tight ends for the first two seasons and D-line this year — has shown him to be a very good teacher.

There is a long list of possibilities. Zeise has a good list, but I’d eliminate Partridge and Jerry Olsavsky. Neither has enough experience to be the DC at this point. Foge Fazio is going to be 70 this year. I really don’t see him wanting to go through that grind.

Tom Bradley would be a highly hysterical hire. I’m not saying he would be a bad hire, but I can’t even take that seriously. (Especially with the renewed rumors that PSU’s administration might actually build up the stones to ask Paterno to at least considers some sort of succession plan and eventually call it a career.) Funny to think about, though.

There’s always the question of money and how much Pitt is willing to pay for an assistant. Something that may stop Pitt from considering Tim Lewis (Carolina Panthers secondary coach), Sal Sunseri (Carolina Panthers D-line coach) and Teryl Austin (Arizona Cardinals defensive backs coach).

AD Steve Pederson says the money shouldn’t be a problem.

“We’ll hire good coaches. I don’t think we’ve ever been in a position where we said we couldn’t afford to hire a coach,” Pederson said. “You find the right coach. So far, we’ve been able to hire them and get them in here.

“Sometimes, a school comes along and offers a coach more money than you feel you can justify paying at the time. We’re going to be fair, but we won’t get into bidding wars for assistant coaches.”

That Rhoads got a reported $400K from Auburn. Wow. No. I’m not going to bother. He’s gone, that’s all that matters. OK, maybe this highlight from his press conference at Auburn.

“We are going to be fundamentally sound. Before I even talk scheme, we are going to be very fundamentally sound. We are going to back-pedal well, we are going to take great steps as linebackers, we are going to get off and use our hands well. We are going to do all the things a great football team does fundamentally. We are going to be sound schematically. We are going to have people in the gaps they are supposed to be in. We are going to have people deep and keep offensive players in front of us.

“We are going to do those things, regardless of scheme. We are going to tackle extremely well. It is obvious that the better athletes you are playing with, the better tacklers you are going to have. I believe wholeheartedly that you can teach average athletes to be great tacklers and great athletes to be even better tacklers. And we are going to run to the football. Those things I can guarantee you.”

[Emphasis added.] Fundamentally bend-but-don’t-break folks. I will skip the part about tackling.
Coach Wannstedt doesn’t see any harm to the recruiting class from the coaching turnover, and he does say that recruiting accumen is vitally important to being hired. Not to mention, being a FOW (Friend of Wannstedt).

“None of these jobs will have any bearing on recruiting,” Wannstedt said. “We’re out there and still working hard, so we’re not under a lot of pressure to try and get them filled. We want the right mix of guys and want to make good decisions.”

“Usually, I have found that hiring people I am familiar with or I know has produced the best results, and this is no different. Obviously, I have a lot of people whose opinions I trust who I will look to.”

One thing that is clear. Anyone who wants to be considered for a job on Wannstedt’s staff needs to be an excellent recruiter and like that part of the job.

“Like I said at my first press conference, you need to have two excellent coordinators and the other seven coaches on your staff need to be recruiters,” Wannstedt said. “That’s always been my philosophy and that’s how successful programs do things as well.”

Waiting and watching.





I liked the Zeise article, though I think we are at a point where being a “Pitt Guy” or even having Pittsburgh roots isn’t as important as it was even three years ago. Personally, I would like to see us keep expanding our base into Eastern PA and possibly even Jersey again.

That said, I would also have no objections to Gattuso as the new DC.

Which begs the next question. Assuming Gattuso is promoted, don’t we also need a new linebacker coach (to fill void of Rhoads as a position coach) in addition to a new WR coach?

Should be interesting to see which names get tossed around as this story unfolds.

Comment by johnny 01.19.08 @ 1:53 am

Gattuso, Sunseri, or Austin would be good choices. One guy that was missed in that article that is going to get attention is todd orlando

Comment by Adam 01.19.08 @ 3:43 am

I have heard from two different places that another coach is likely to be headed south…i guess we’ll see what happens…

Comment by Stuart 01.19.08 @ 3:46 am

Tony Wise? TONY F’N WISE?!!! I’ve never screamed so much for an assistant coach in Miami to be fired since Tom Olivadotti. This guy is just pure vomit. He can’t develop an OLine, period. The only thing that made him look good was Jay Fiedler, who just danced and pranced around. Put a pure pocket passer in at QB, and defenses go blitz-happy. If he gets fired, it’s only more proof that Dumbsh!t exists just to give jobs to his friends and golf partners (maybe life partners?).

Comment by Joshua 01.19.08 @ 8:45 am

I wonder if Sunseri would take a pay cut and shallow some pride and be the linebackers coach??? He’d be able to see his son play and not have to worry about the NFL conflicting with that. I think they should promote Gattuso to DC.

Comment by Fcuk Paterno 01.19.08 @ 8:56 am

A note to the good insider. Sal Sunseri would come to pitt instantly, money not that big a deal. Pitt has it and sal wants to come home. Also if you think Gatuso can recruit, look out.

Comment by jimmy 01.19.08 @ 9:14 am

Im not sure what i think of Tony Wise either, but i feel better about Wise than Dunn. Who you hearing is heading south stuart??? i know Partridge is likely to leave after LOI day. Is that the one?
Somebody brought up Yogi Roth as WR coach. He is working with USC right now. That is an interesting thought. Yogi seems like a guy that is going to make it eventually.

Comment by Adam 01.19.08 @ 10:22 am

“Gratkowski back … no pass rush. Stands in the pocket. Fires, and there’s a 12 yard slant. Another first down for the Rockets. That play has been there all night. Toledo is giving the 9th ranked Panthers all they can handle tonight.”

those kind of calls from Billy H still burn in my memory.

That is the night when Rhoads should have been gone, folks. Worst defeat in Pitt history to a high school team with a quarterback later rumored to have been THROWING games that year. He completed about 55 passes that night, and any incompletions were because of his high school receivers. Never sacked or pressured once. Pitt had NFL corners and Rhoads never brought them up to challenge. Atrocious, gutless, pathetic and … I have to add pathetic on more time again. And repeated dozens of other times in his ridiculously long tenure here. No question that Wannstedt took over the D after the Navy game. I know Joe Starkey claims Rhoads was the mastermind of the WVU game but I think he was just the mouthpiece for DW or GG’s defensive at that point. He jumped up and down on the sideline very effectively, I’ll give him that.

Comment by geeman2001 01.19.08 @ 11:10 am

Who’s Gratkowski??? I remember Gradkowski throwing all over us back in 2003???

Comment by Adam 01.19.08 @ 11:37 am

funny how wannstedt has surgery, watches game from booth and Pitt’s D starts playing an attacking scheme noticably different than previous games. I’m sure its just a coincidence that wannstedt’s background is defense also!

Comment by Kurt 01.19.08 @ 11:38 am

Adam,

That Yogi Roth call was pretty intriguing, if only so that I can burst into spontaneous “Hyman Roth” impersonations during games. As I recall he was able to really click with Antonio Bryant/keep AB from going insane, which is a pretty impressive piece of coaching from a 22 year old player. It would be interesting to see what he’s picked up from Carrol and Sarkasian in terms of coaching and more importantly recruiting.

Comment by johnny 01.19.08 @ 11:52 am

How about Gattuso DC and Sunseri Asst. HC/Linebacker coach? Yogi Roth, I forgot about him, very interesting.

Comment by Jim 01.19.08 @ 12:25 pm

Ohhh geez. there is another adam on this board now. Well to make it clear i am the adam that made all the comments besides the gradkowski one. I am the one that is a regular here. Anyways..

Terry Smith from Gateway could be another guy. He is a nitter, but has been getting alot of attention as a good coach. I mean nat’l attention especially being a coach for the army all american game. He could get Corey Brown and Dorian Bell…
I really like Yogi though.

Comment by Adam3 01.19.08 @ 1:08 pm

I notice that Rhoads said “And we are going to run the football.” Substitute “they” for “we” and that makes it a true statement. “They” as in the team that Auburn is playing!

Comment by HbgFrank 01.19.08 @ 1:09 pm

HgbFrank – I believe the quote was “…and we are going to run TO the ball.” But, I feel your pain.

Comment by Reed 01.19.08 @ 1:26 pm

The fact that nobody is really sure about who Gradkowski is, or how to spell his irrelevant name, yet he completed 55 of 70 passes for something lik 17000 yards on us, says it all about Paul Rhoads. “But Gradkowski (?) is in the NFL.” Yes, rotting on the Tampa practice squad, but he’s there … all thanks to that one game. But he’s not alone. Several players are earning big pay when the bulk of their draft day highlight reels came from Pitt game clips. Julius Jones is probably the poster boy. They should all send portions of their pay to Paul Rhoads.

But our long nightmare is finally over there so time to start healing and move on. Just don’t hire the UConn guy, let’s not forget that UConn wasn’t exactly the 76 Steelers defense. Remember WVU put about 77 points on the them the week before our game.

Comment by geeman2001 01.19.08 @ 2:34 pm

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