Curious about some of Coach Dave Wannstedt’s perceptions of his time in the NFL? Well, here’s a two-part story on Coach Wannstedt looking back on his time in the NFL. Part One:
OF COURSE, Wannstedt never anticipated being in the NFL to begin with.
He worked for Johnson at Oklahoma State and the University of Miami – interrupted by a stint as defensive line coach at Southern Cal.
He was there when the Hurricanes won a national title under Johnson and remembers a fateful weekend.
“After we won (the national championship),” Wannstedt recalled, “Jimmy called me in and said, ‘Remember that friend of mine from Arkansas, Jerry Jones? Well, what’s weird is, he’s about to become owner of the Dallas Cowboys. And, you know what’s really weird? I’m going to be the head coach.’”
So started Wannstedt’s NFL career.
Part two is more interesting. It gets into his version of why he resigned in mid-year from the Dolphins, defends his time in Chicago and Miami (hint, it involves the lack of a QB). But things seem to be as much about his closeness with Jimmy Johnson.
The two became friends on the staff of former Pitt coach Jackie Sherrill after Johnny Majors left for Tennessee.
It didn’t take long for Johnson to be offered the head job at Oklahoma State and he asked Wannstedt to come along to Stillwater.
“The easy thing would have been to stay at Pitt,” Wannstedt admitted, :but I thought that, from a career standpoint, if I was going to make a living at this, I needed to get away from Pitt.”
The only time the two separated was when Wannstedt served a three-year stint as defensive line coach at USC.
But they rejoined at the University of Miami when Johnson had an extraordinary run.
“Our relationship was that he knew he could trust me,” Wannstedt said. “It’s very important to have two or three guys on your staff who have an understanding what your philosophy is, think the same way that you do and can put out a lot of fires for you
“We played golf and went to the islands and enjoyed our off-the-field time as much (as coaching).”
Again, I’m not necessarily against it if it is non-contact … but I’m not even sure events like the Big 33 is a good idea, and would never blame anyone who would not participate. (I do admit I will selfishly watch the Big 33 this year since it pits both Pitt QB recuits against each other .. but should Gonzales even be playing considering his injury pattern this past year?)
It’s an unbelievably small paper, and it kinda blows my mind that you were able to dig up that article.
He also didn’t comment on B10 expansion saying that it is more of an issue for the chancellor and higher ups.