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September 29, 2008

Don’t Look Back In Anger

Filed under: Football,History — Chas @ 11:20 am

A nice puffer on ex-head coach Walt Harris.

“Pitt still means a lot to me,” he said. “Some of the people there still mean a lot to me …

“You can’t have a better chancellor than Mark Nordenberg. He was great to me. And it was wonderful that they brought Steve Pederson back [as athletic director]. He’s the smartest guy I’ve ever been around. They’ll bring Pitt back.”

It’s amazing Harris isn’t bitter about the way he was forced out at Pitt despite twice being Big East Conference Coach of the Year and leading the Panthers to six bowl games, including the Fiesta Bowl in his final season. It’s also amazing he isn’t reveling in the fact that his successor, Dave Wannstedt, in his fourth season, has not come close to matching his success. Pitt didn’t go to a bowl the past three seasons and lost its opener to Bowling Green this season with Harris in the Heinz Field stands.

The Harris era never has seemed better.

Harris never has seemed so smart.

“How does being bitter help me?” Harris asked. “How does it make my situation any better?

“Our record at Pitt is what it was. I’m very proud of it. I’m very proud of some of the other things we did there. Our graduation rate. Keeping the off-the-field problems to a minimum … “

The vitriol some have directed at Harris in the past always puzzled me. Half seemed to be because it was felt that he didn’t recruit well enough, one-third was about his coaching deficiencies and the rest seemed to be his personality and media dealings. It’s noticeably dimmed in the past year as we still wait for Wannstedt to take Pitt to that “next level.”

I know that Harris reached a point with Pitt where it seemed they both needed to go their separate ways, so I am glad that Harris still speaks kindly of his time at Pitt.

Then there’s Andrew Johnson, one of the key defectors from Pitt’s lost 2004 recruiting class — and a significant blow to Walt Harris’ tenure. Johnson was supposed to be a can’t-miss, blue-chip running back. He missed.

Andrew Johnson drew the ire of Pitt fans when he backed out of a verbal commitment to the hometown Panthers to play for his dream school, the University of Miami, in 2004. Four years later, the North Hills High School graduate is now playing for the Akron Zips.

He claims no regrets over the way his career went. Sure.





PG says Tom Droney has narrowed his list to Pitt, Notre Dame, and Davidson(?).

Comment by Jeff 09.29.08 @ 11:33 am

You must say Walt handled this interview with class, but on the inside he must be laughing his ass off.

Sorry, but I would.

The USF game will give us an indication on how we stand because we really have not played a real good team yet.

Hopefully we can build on the SU comeback and give USF a game.

Comment by Dave 09.29.08 @ 12:07 pm

Anybody else want to see Joe Flacco get his butt planted by the Steelers a few times tonight?

Comment by gopittgo 09.29.08 @ 12:32 pm

id love to see walt as ass. head coach and in charge of the O, that way wanny can still recruit and walt can get us back to a bowl!

Comment by mike 09.29.08 @ 12:36 pm

Andrew Johnson is a classic case of a kid with no guidance and no understanding of the process. He had a chance to come to Pitt, be embraced by the fans, and make an impact. Maybe not immediate, but he’d have gotten playing time. Instead, he was mesmerized by “the U” and its slew of first-round picks. What a kid like Johnson doesn’t understand is that they have four or five rbs just like him every year. So instead of being a big chip in the Pitt program, he’s recruit #41 for Miami in a down year. That’s why, four years later, he’s picking up the pieces of a busted career in Akron. No regrets? Ha! His dreams of playing on ESPN and in BCS bowls died about three and a half years ago.

Comment by maz. 09.29.08 @ 12:59 pm

Glad to see Walt took a very high road, I always liked him while he was at Pitt, but definitely agree that he needed to go when he did. He took our program from absolute crap all the way to national respectability.

Comment by matt in orlando 09.29.08 @ 1:21 pm

I think if Walt was the O corrdinator right now with this team where 4-0 and ranked around 17-15 ish. He was is definatley more aggresive than Cav and produces better QB play. If Stull Bostick, and Cross had Walt coach them they would have more confidence right now. Walt should strongly be considered as O corrdinator at the end of the year. I though Id never say that when he left but now I do.

Comment by Lou 09.30.08 @ 11:37 am

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