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November 30, 2010

Poor Finishes and Bad Losses

Filed under: Football — Chas @ 12:32 pm

So there are issues. Don’t worry, Coach Wannstedt has carefully examined the WVU debacle and knows what went wrong.

It’s not a secret what happened in that football game against West Virginia. When you turn over the ball as many times as we did, you have no chance to win and that’s exactly what the film showed. I thought we had a good game plan, and the turnovers will kill you every time. That was the difference in the game. Now we have to get focused for Cincinnati this week.

Um, uh, any reason for all the turnovers and near turnovers? Some common theme? The preparation? Focus? Anything? Surely in Game 11. A rivalry game. It wouldn’t be simply bad breaks and youth trotted out as an excuse. Right?

Right?

“I’d have to go through each turnover. I can tell you that Dion Lewis carried the football almost 300 times last year and lost one fumble in the bowl game against North Carolina – he fumbled out of the end zone. It’s not a fumbling problem with Dion Lewis, but for some reason he lost a couple on Friday. That’s not a problem with him.

“With the quarterback scenario, I think that Tino Sunseri really played well. When you look at the overall game, yes, the one turnover was costly, but he did a lot of good things in that game. I thought that he made good decisions and made some plays on his feet. I thought against the best defense in the conference, and one of the better defenses in the country, he stepped up and made plays. There were a lot of plays left on the field that we can improve on, and will. Unfortunately you throw an interception, and it gets run back to the two-yard line. That’s a tough deal. I thought that Tino Sunseri overall played well.”

“You have to keep coaching and keep believing that you’re going to eliminate those problems. Concerning the running backs, Dion Lewis has not been a problem. I’m not concerned about him.

“Ray Graham, he’s put the ball on the ground a few times the last couple of weeks. We know that and he needs to correct that. He is well aware of that. David Walker is out there coaching the principle of ball security in practice and in pregame warm-ups. It’s being addressed. Obviously the only solution over a long period of time is that if you put the ball on the ground you can’t play. It’s as simple as that. I don’t feel that Ray Graham is in that category. He just plays reckless. He’s a young kid, a true sophomore. He’s a young player right now.”

/slams tequila then slams head into wall

Ray Graham is at the end of his sophomore season on the team. He may not have played every game out of the 24 possible, but he has been on the 2-deep the entire time. He has practiced this entire time. But he is a “young player right now?”

And the disappointment of the season? We all know what is coming right?

“We obviously had higher expectations. I really thought that we felt like we needed to get a big year out of our best defensive player, Greg Romeus, and the way that he trained we believed that we would get a first-round draft pick type of year out of him. That was a little bit disappointing. I used the phrase in training camp that (injured player) Dan Mason was a linebacker who would fit into the Scott McKillop or H.B. Blades mold. Dan Mason has that attitude and ability. We had a couple of little setbacks there, but then Brandon Lindsey and some other guys stepped up.

“Obviously, with Dion Lewis and the expectations and all the hype – I don’t think anything that was said or written was out of line with his performance last year. I think it was all legitimate. For whatever reason, we just never get on track with our running game. There were some setbacks there.

“The whole thing with the development of a new quarterback, the three new linemen and the new tight end and a new wide receiver; I knew it would be difficult. I knew that we had the least amount of starters returning in the conference, out of anybody. I knew we were a young team and that it would be a work in progress. (But) you don’t expect to turn the football over. That’s the one thing that really disappoints me. For the most part, over the last three years we’ve always run the ball and protected the football. We might not have been as wide-open as we would have liked, but we’ve always protected the football very well.

“These two conference games that we lost, I thought that our football team was making progress defensively from week one. Our passing game was making progress, and then the turnovers obviously set us back. That’s very disappointing. The progress that our kids made at certain positions – Jordan Gibbs, Mike Cruz, Devin Street, Brandon Lindsey, Max Gruder and Tristan Roberts. All these guys are new starters. I thought these kids worked extremely hard and made some progress in the right direction.”

Yes youth, inexperience and injuries. Hard to avoid the inexperience, when Wannstedt never plays anyone but the starters  I’ll pass along the polite response from Brian Bennett.

But youth doesn’t explain why the Panthers were still making the same mistakes in Game 11 as they were in Game 1. Or why a fifth-year senior center (Alex Karabin) would snap the ball over quarterback Tino Sunseri’s head in a key situation against West Virginia. Or why Pitt even had to play Karabin, a walk-on before this summer, at that crucial spot when the coaching staff had already used a junior-college stop-gap at center the two years prior.

Terrifyingly enough, Bennett also was close to dead-on in his preseason “Worst Case Scenario” for Pitt. Except I don’t think that Wannstedt is contemplating retirement.

Part of the problem for Wannstedt is that he just has no wiggle-room with the fans any longer. All goodwill has long since spent as he piled up the bad losses without even coming close to balancing out the good wins.

The fact is, Pitt just doesn’t finish well in the Wannstedt era. Something Chris Peak at PantherLair has pointed out.

“We keep falling short in the big games,” sophomore running back Ray Graham said after the West Virginia game. “We have our opportunities; we’re just not capitalizing on them.”

And the trend extends beyond the 2010 season. Last year, Pitt had to beat Cincinnati in the finale at Heinz Field to make its first BCS bowl appearance since the 2004 season. In 2008, the Panthers had to beat the Bearcats in Cincinnati order to clinch the Big East.

Both times, Pitt came up short.

“It’s the same old story,” redshirt senior offensive tackle Jason Pinkston said on Friday. “We just didn’t step up. We didn’t answer the challenge.”

The theme of finishing isn’t just limited to an individual game. Under Dave Wannstedt, Pitt has struggled to close out seasons. Over the past five years, the Panthers have posted a 9-11 mark in the final four games of each season. That includes an 0-4 record in 2006, when Pitt needed just one win to get bowl-eligible for the first time in Wannstedt’s tenure as head coach.

Pitt only posted one winning record in the final four regular-season games under Wannstedt – 3-1 in 2008 before losing the Sun Bowl 3-0 to Oregon State – and with a 1-2 record in the final quarter of the 2010 season, that trend will continue.

For a team that preaches the importance of finishing strong, Pitt has done a remarkable job of finishing weak every season.

There’s a small point to be made that Pitt usually finishes the season against some of the better teams in the Big East, and that can skew the record. But then that just says that Pitt isn’t in that group that is the upper-part of the Big East. The reputation and expectations are apparently overrated then.

Paul Zeise sees the problem lying in no small part to the way the players have handled things.

And when I say soft, I’m meaning, they are not tough physically and they are not tough mentally. They have no ability to reach down and find that extra something that usually is the difference between winning and losing. Instead, this team has far too many whiners who make excuses for why they can’t get the job done, they like to point the fingers elsewhere instead of themselves and this team has come unglued every time there has been even a hint of adversity.

Zeise goes on to express surprise because of the much-lauded strength and conditioning regimen of Buddy Morris. Along with the “tough guy” culture Wannstedt has supposedly instilled. A counter-point of snark might be that the players instead have learned too much from Wannstedt and that’s why they put the blame elsewhere and come unglued when things go wrong.

As to the reason why this team is that way, well does it go to the coaching decisions dating back to the spring?

The biggest problem I see with this year’s team is a lack of legitimate competition for jobs at certain positions. Alex Karabin was never, ever legitimately pushed by anyone. Greg Williams and Tristan Roberts were the third and fourth linebackers — and pushed each other but it was clear nobody was pushing them. Antwuan Reed was installed as the starting corner and never pushed. Tino Sunseri was never pushed. Mike Cruz was never pushed. Greg Gaskins was pretty much handed a job in the spring as well. He at least had to perform to keep it and when he couldn’t lost it. It was clear, though, that these guys were going to be the starters and they never had to really work hard to scratch and claw to keep their jobs. And that has continued throughout the season.

To me, that has been the biggest disappointment with this season — some of these guys have not performed anywhere near their capability but have not been held accountable for it. I understand the “well they have experience” sentiment but who cares if you have experience if you can’t make plays when you are on the field? This coaching staff has always been pretty good at creating a very competitive atmosphere for jobs but this year, it just didn’t exist.

Now, I’m not privy to practices. I don’t see them, but I am not sure about this one. Exactly how often in the Wannstedt tenure are starters replaced during the season without injuries or suspensions? Maybe they did face more competition in practices previously, but we have never seen it with changes on the field.

A starter remains the starter. Experience has always trumped talent unless it was too overwhelming to ignore. Better to have a less skilled player with experience get beaten soundly by a better player on the opposite side the entire game rather than risk a better player without experience make a mistake on one play. That is the Way of the Wannstedt.

Zeise used to poke fun at all the people who would e-mail about why Bill Stull never got mop-up time in the games Pitt had well in hand when Palko was playing. I’m reasonably sure it was because he just got tired of answering the same question over and over. (Simple answer that I think we all understand now is that Wannstedt never seems to pull his starters even in blowouts.)

The point of the questions, though, was always about getting the younger players a chance to play. The ones that would follow having some real experience. A chance to get their feet wet in an actual game, even if it was a blowout or relatively meaningless at that point.

And what has Wannstedt’s excuse been this season– besides turnovers? It has been the lack of experience of so many players. Well that fault goes to the head coach who hasn’t given the kids a chance to play.

It’s always excuses for not giving the younger kids a chance to play, despite claiming they would. Instead, the situation has never quite been right. There was a plan to use them, but things didn’t quite go as expected. The game was closer than expected. All the excuses in the world. What it ultimately comes down to is that Coach Wannstedt prefers experience, and then creates his own mess by refusing to prepare the next group.





It looks like there is no press conference today.
🙁

When Wanny is gone I will stop back in. I need to bury the frustration of the last 6 years by paying attention to Pitt Football and find something else to follow.

B-Ball right? If I stop in here for B-Ball updates while football is still going on it will remind me of the pain.

Later

Comment by Tony in Harrisburg 11.30.10 @ 1:19 pm

More excuses!! WVU outhit us, they were definitely quicker, more enthusiastic, and sad to say, even better coached. Are we going to continue to settle for mediocrity in our football program? Where are all the so-called prime recruits? Anybody interested in a season ticket?

Comment by carmenuche 11.30.10 @ 1:32 pm

Carmenuche, great review of the WVU debacle. It was evident that WVU’s lower stars certainly shined brighter than our superstars. Wanny has a gift of bringing the best out of players. My question for Wanny is, what does it take to get Reed off the field? I believe it is safe to say he stinks at the corner position. The kid was torched last year in the Cinny game and after four interfence calls against SFU, you might think Wanny would consider bringing another warm body. But no, Wanny never believes in any type of change, it is definitely not in his DNA and is his downfall.

Comment by ltl 11.30.10 @ 1:55 pm

“Tino Sunseri was never pushed.”

Here Zeise finally fesses up:

Q: Paul, I read your blog about a lack of accountability and my question is this — what groundwork needs to be laid in offseason to start reversing this so this team can get out of its own way?

Kevin Oleska, Johnstown

ZEISE:

They need to make it clear that Mark Myers is legitimately in the quarterback competition…

Read more: link to postgazette.com

Comment by steve 11.30.10 @ 2:01 pm

Did we expect anything different? Same excuses, different day. Wanny should just record a speech in pre season and play it at every press conference after a loss because they all sound the same. But notice he never bares any of the blame? At least step up and be a man for christ sake. Protect your players, stand up for them and take some blame. I cannot wait for the Wannstache era to end. This guy really must have cement between his ears, he just doesn’t get it. Fans are tired of the excuses Dave, accept some responsibility and tell us how you plan to correct the problems. What a joke!

Comment by Coach Ditka 11.30.10 @ 2:04 pm

I have been bitching about Wanny since 2005, if the current administration is content on playing in front of 35,000 or less fans for 2011 then so be it.

I will not be there, nor will I donate any money. Wanny might be a nice and personable man but he has not performed and taken Pitt to the next level, six years down the drain, maybe seven!

Comment by Lou Holt's False Teeth 11.30.10 @ 2:14 pm

end the pain already

soon we start to lose recruits

soon leach and mullen are hired…

can these imbeciles not see that every day they wait hurts this program

Comment by DeVanzo 11.30.10 @ 2:35 pm

Chas,

Reading this post makes me question (even more) the one thing that Wanny was supposed to be good at or at least get credit for and that is recruiting.

How we can’t have linement recruited and in waiting year after year is beyond me. Same goes for corners, LBs, QBs and so on and so one adnauseum. This is further supported by the fact that these kids can’t be coached up to play. That says to me that they are either not talented or that the great Tony Weis is not all that great – which brings you back to coaching. The great circular reference.

Comment by Pitt it IS 11.30.10 @ 3:03 pm

Same old Bullsh*t.
Blame the kids and execution, take no accountability.

Comment by TJ 11.30.10 @ 3:12 pm

I can’t read another Zeise Q&A. He is a complete hack. Pitt’s administration and Zeise might want to think about the fact that maybe the 9-4 and 10-3 seasons were the aberration. Perhaps, the 4-8, 5-7, and 6-6 seasons are the rule with Dave Wannstedt as coach.

Wannstedt has beat UCONN a total of once since he has been the coach. The guy is awful. Stop comparing Pitt to Miami. Just compare them to UCONN. Randy Edsell is about to accomplish something that Dave Wannstedt never will, a BCS bowl.

Zeise, Wannstedt, his staff, and his apologists can all go to hell. He will continue to break your heart. The one year when things go right is the exception, not the rule.

Comment by Omar 11.30.10 @ 3:13 pm

Eh? Excuse me, but being a resident of central Ohio and prior to that of central Florida and before that of Detroit, I am not aware of Chris Dokish as a grid analyst. What are his credentials? Why should the Pitt administration or even the fandom give him credence? The names of potential coaches he puts forth I recognize. Some of his suggestions I wouldn’t hire as a middle school gym teacher. Another thing I would rather my university pay big bucks for an endowed athletic chair than a foul mouth, unethical football guru. In my opinion, the issue is not to fire Coach Wannstedt, but why put forth a person such as Mr.”D” as a judge of a man’s character or professionalism. In short, why not fire Chris Dokish? Rev. George

Comment by Rev. George Mehaffey 11.30.10 @ 3:20 pm

You don’t fire people who speak the truth. Dokish doesn’t apologize for it. Wanny points the finger at everyone but himself. All I hear from Wanny and this administration are LIES! Hell would be too good of a place for them.

Comment by TX Panther 11.30.10 @ 3:54 pm

I’m not an administrator, but I am a member of the court of public opinion and I think the consensus is obvious at this point.

We have seen UCONN, Cinci, Rutgers, etc rise to power and become legitimate competition within a VERY short ammount of time, all things considered. Some teams have actually lapped us (UCONN). There’s one word that can sum it up…Pathetic.

With TCU coming into the mix, they are poised to play a role that Pitt SHOULD have been poised to play at this point in the new Big Sprawl (that one’s for you, Chas). Pitt made a decision 6 years ago to go with Wanny and it didn’t work. Tough S, but now they have to make a decision to move forward before bad becomes a whole lot worse.

But what if the new guy isn’t a ‘PITT’ guy…

…don’t care

But what if the new guy has a lot of success and uses the school as a stepping stone for a better job?…

…GOOD!!!

I am holding out hope that my beloved alma mater will make the right decision and move forward.

Please find a good way to part with Wanny and for the love of God, PLEASE throw a script Pitt on the side of that helmet for next season (I could care less about colors at this point).

Comment by Cool Hand Nuke 11.30.10 @ 3:57 pm

Wow,
the Brian Bennett ESPN blog about the worst case scenario he wrote in late August was absolutely right on target. If he placed bets on those predictions, he hauled in a fair amount of coinage. Really uncanny.

link to espn.go.com

Comment by carolinapanther 11.30.10 @ 4:00 pm

Rev. Mehaffey:
Chris Dokish is the best and most honest analyst of Pitt athletics – football and basketball – anywhere (except maybe for Chas). He used to produce Panther Rants which had great pieces on Pitt football. He’s a good writer and he is not trying to win brownie points from anyone. I’ve been waiting for him to weigh in.

Comment by TonyinHouston 11.30.10 @ 4:45 pm

All I want for Christmas is a new Pitt football coach. Is that too much to ask for Santa? I really mean that…it would make my holiday season.

Comment by TX Panther 11.30.10 @ 4:58 pm

TonyinHouston. Mr. Dokish is articulate. Being away from my home town for my career I just have not been aware of him. So he used to pen Panther Rants. Well, he is almost without peer as a ranter. Too bad he wasrws his talents on sports. There are other issues to rant about in this world. Nothing personal, Tony. P.S. Typo I meant to say “wastes”.

Comment by Rev. George Mehaffey 11.30.10 @ 4:59 pm

Ah, be careful good Rev.. Just because someone talks about sports does not mean that they do not do other good things in life!!!

Comment by Dan 11.30.10 @ 5:38 pm

Also, I just read his article, the guy is absolutely correct. As far as Dave’s character, I’m tired of hearing about how much of a great guy he is. If he’s that great, then step aside and let someone else try to get us out of this mediocrity!! And, as stated before, the word mediocriy may not apply. If your 5-7, 6-6, 7-5 in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, you are mediocre, when you have that record in the Big Least, there is no other word, you stink!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by Dan 11.30.10 @ 5:45 pm

I wish there was an explanation for what happened with Bostick. I mean he was a 4 or 5 star recruit that also had a year of starting experience under his belt. Seems like a waste.

Comment by pittjd 11.30.10 @ 5:46 pm

That stadium is going to have tumbleweed blowing through next year. I really can’t handle another BE stranglehold lost in the final two games.

Comment by Chris 11.30.10 @ 5:53 pm

I don’t think it’s idle threats this year either, like sometimes people blow off steam, but, relent in the spring. Worst quote I’ve heard, worst for Pitt, that is, from a coworker. “no really, I’m not renewing, it really isn’t any fun anymore”!! They should be thrilled with those of us who care enough to have an opinion. An old business saying is, don’t fear the angry customer, fear the customer that says nothing, and just doesn’t come back!!!

Comment by Johnny Concrete 11.30.10 @ 6:11 pm

You are right Chris and Johnny. Johnny, I posted that same jist about a month ago, when some apologists were getting on some of us. Think of how many people aren’t posting, or calling radio shows, how many have just said, “the hell with it”??

Comment by Dan 11.30.10 @ 6:13 pm

The real waste regarding Bostick is Pitt wasted a ship on him. Bostick is a great citizen and a fine young man, but he has as much talent at playing QB as Wanstedt has at coaching. The amazing thing for me is the same people that thought Bostick was a QB, and Wannstedt was a coach, are now the same individuals most hostile about the demise of the Pitt football program. Nice to see we are all on the same page finally!

Comment by ltl49 11.30.10 @ 6:58 pm

I’ll give you an explanation for Bostick, he was overrated coming out of high school because he had numbers and had the right physique.

I have nothing against Bostick, he seems like a great kid who has continued to work hard throughout, but he just isn’t a D1 football player. He was mis-evaluated by recruiting services and this coaching staff and simply hasn’t developed because of poor coaching (Cavanaugh)and the fact that he truly lacks athleticism and arm strength.

Comment by TJ 11.30.10 @ 7:25 pm

Isn’t it something that a walk-on center with no experience didn’t deter Brian Bennett from picking Pitt as preseason favorite even though the returned less starters than anyone in the conference? I scoffed back then at the so-called media experts and sadly I scoff even more now.

There is absolutely no question that there was a lack on focus on this year’s team and I blame the players more becuase Wanny’s teams in the past usually were very good in the number of penalties and taking care of the ball. The two critical fumbles in the 1st half vs WVU were by seasoned, talented players.

Comment by wbb 11.30.10 @ 7:57 pm

Breaking News, after we lose to UC we are being projected to go to the…………………

Drum roll please!!!

Sunday, Dec. 26

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl

At Detroit

Pittsburgh vs. Northern Illinois

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by Lou Holtz's False Teeth 11.30.10 @ 8:06 pm

Johnny and Dan: I agree with the apathy statement and am likely to jump on board. In fact, I’d taken a few years off from football season tickets the past few years and found any time I really wanted to catch a game, there’s always a ticket to be had for a not unreasonable price (often even less than face value, unless it’s ND or someone like that). Best part: they don’t get any more of my money.

I got back on the bandwagon with tickets this year because of the unwarranted optimism, and because of the donations I was making for basketball tickets (which still didn’t prevent me from getting bumped at the Pete from way down low to way up high) we went for Club Seat tickets. Not even being able to have a few beers during the game was enough to put me out of the misery of this season.

Comment by Jason 11.30.10 @ 8:07 pm

I saw Northern Illinois play this yr. and they’re pretty good.

Comment by alcofan 11.30.10 @ 8:11 pm

Alcofan,

if the scenario holds I expect NIU to win the game!

Comment by Lou Holtz's False Teeth 11.30.10 @ 8:18 pm

@ Lou Holtz’s False Teeth (how about his wig too)

I think I predicted The Pizza Bowl before. But to be honest I was thinking the Birmingham AL. one which I thought was the Little Caesars. My bad, I forget about the one in Detroit. (I mean who wouldn’t)

The one in that fair city of Birmingham was the Papa Johns.com thingie which is now the soon to be famous (or maybe infamous) BBVA Compass Bowl.
Which might be appropriate for Pitt, our football program is confused, dazed and most certainly LOST, so it would therefore need a Compass. The only question would be…..would Sir Stache know how to use it?? 🙂

Comment by carolinapanther 11.30.10 @ 8:24 pm

Carolina:

Thanks, I overlooked the wig, but I have a great story about Lou’s teeth, he lost his cool once at the Avis rental car counter in the airport at Hartford Connecticut in route to ESPN.

The clerk pissed him off by telling him to wait his turn and hold onto his teeth because Lou was bitching and talking so fast they almost fell out!

He is a tool!

Comment by Lou Holtz's False Teeth 11.30.10 @ 8:33 pm

LHT–

“if the scenario holds I expect NIU to win the game!”

====

Yes, but I expect it to be close…I predict a score of 3-0, Northern Illinois winning on a field goal in the first quarter, and Pitt unable to find an answer in three quarters.

Comment by Lou 11.30.10 @ 8:46 pm

Please, fellow Pitt fans, don’t bring up Mike Leach anymore. The dude is a scumbag. Pitt would not and should not hire him. How many championships has he won anyway. Show some intellegence please. A guy gets fired for locking a kid w/ a concussion in the equipment room, and you want to hire him as the coach and fire a pitt guy with a good reputation. Classy…

Comment by Mike 11.30.10 @ 8:50 pm

The venom and disdain for Pitt FB is as high as my days in the early 90’s…I would say worse because of the level of recruits and weak conference.

I fully expect to get rolled on Saturday and the administration manning up an forcing Wanny out. There is no way you can, in good conscience, sell the 2011 season.

Really, the writing is on the wall. Time for the top brass to save this sinking ship.

Comment by Pauly P 11.30.10 @ 8:57 pm

We will live to regret losing that Temple coach to Vanderbilt, I’m afraid.

I agree, enough on the Leach talk…we have enough bad press these days…going from a loser to an abuser is not good.

Comment by Pauly P 11.30.10 @ 9:00 pm

we’ll beat cincy, and here’s to hoping we do. I’d rather see them get 7 wins, get a bowl, get the extra few weeks of practice time, and hopefully improve for next year. Get optimistic people. The negativity is such a downer. If your that darn negative, skip the football blog and google pictures of despair and agony.

I do agree Tino sucks though…

Comment by Mike 11.30.10 @ 9:06 pm

Dokish is so dead on accurate and his honestyt is refreshing. We choose to be mediocre and irrelevant because the administration allows it.

The fish stinks from the head down.

Comment by Pauly P 11.30.10 @ 9:14 pm

We didn’t waste a ship on Bostick. It’s just unfortunate that he was on the team, the same time the legacy decided to grace Pitt instead of L’ville with his services. And the Stache being the Stache which means, sons of NFL players, former Pitt players and sons of anyone who ever coached or played in college or the NFL take precedence over ALL others.

Think Oderick Turner(can still see him dropping a perfect wide open TD pass from Kevin Smith at Mich State), Conredge Collins, John Pelusi, the two DiCicco’s, Janocko, the two Nix’s, Tristan Roberts, Aaron Smith, Sunseri, Greg Williams. I’m sure I missed a lot more since I really only looked at this year’s roster minus Turner & Collins. These guys were ALL marginal players who played because they were cousins, sons, whatever of former NFL players, Pitt players, coaches that played at Pitt. That is the Wannstache way, you don’t earn it, you have the right or entitlement to play.

Comment by carolinapanther 11.30.10 @ 9:26 pm

@ Lou Holtz’s False Teeth,

lmao, that is a hoot. I could see that happening, he prolly forgot the glue.

I like when he says Tenne-shee for the Volunteers.

The tool is a perfect example of someone having the job because he was a connected coach for so long. I’m sure he must be loaded with money, give someone else a chance for pete’s sake. Instead of the comic figure with the false teeth and the Prince Valiant wig that he has become.
I feel bad that Mark May has to put up with the tool.

Comment by carolinapanther 11.30.10 @ 9:32 pm

Cincy has best passing in the big east. Have you seen our secondary lately.

Comment by alcofan 11.30.10 @ 9:32 pm

pitt should hire kevin sumlin or dana holgorsen. dump dave wannstedt needs to leave if he loved pitt he would go.

Comment by FRANKCAN 11.30.10 @ 9:53 pm

Apparently the “Wannstedt refuses to speculate on his future” article has gone national. In the local Florda paper here today.

Blaming the entire season on injuries to Greg Romeus and Dion Lewis. And inexperience. When was the last time you heard Chuck Noll, Mike Tomlin, Vince Lombardi, Ara Parseghian, Nick Saban, Brian Kelly, Joe Paterno, Jackie Sherrill, Johnny Majors, or even Randy Edsell blame losses on injuries and inexperience. I could go on and on. First of all, blaming losses on injuries or inexperience sends the wrong message to the team – gives them an excuse for not performing. Second, it makes the injured players, who are already looking at diminished value in the NFL draft, feel even worse. And these are, after all, college kids, and in the case of Lewis and Romeus, among the very best of character and heart. But worst of all, there are no true freshmen starting on this team. All of the starters have at least one year of Wanny Ball under their belt. And this is Sunseri’s third year in the program. So it just makes him look like someone who is simply looking for excuses, and not confronting the problem. And perhaps the thing that throws everyone over the edge – Chicago, Miami, and now Pitt, and he just does not get it.

But you now understand why people in Chicago and Miami not only thought him a bad coach, but practically seethe when his name comes up. I have always had my doubts about his “commitment”, but anyone now who thinks this guy is a class act – well, I guess I would just disagree, to be polite.

And comparisons to Ron Zook? Well, Zook may not be the greatest coach in the world, but he has had have several very impressive wins at Florida and Illinois. Wannstedt has had exactly one. And even that, as we now begin to realize, perhaps had as much to do with playing a very distracted West Virginia team.

I thought the Dokish article was excellent – hit the nail on the head. I would only argue about Tom Bradley – I think he would be a great catch, if he would take the job. I truly admire what he has been able to do, to keep that program together, to keep top quality recruits coming there, with the JoePa ego and distraction to deal with. I analogize to the Florida State situation with Bobby Bowden – and Penn State has not nearly gotten as bad as FSU did in the last 5 years.

Comment by PO'd Panther 11.30.10 @ 10:13 pm

Meant “Florida” in the first line. Sorry. Also, BTW, WVU is a 20 pt favorite over Rutgers, and Pitt is a 2 pt dog at Cincy. Apparently the oddsmakers were not impressed with Wanny’s in depth analysis of the WVU debacle, at least enough to call it an even game.

Comment by PO'd Panther 11.30.10 @ 10:20 pm

This guy sums it up about wanny

link to bebballreportpitt.blogspot.com

[EDITED BY CHAS. I deleted the article because the entire post was cut-and-pasted here. That’s not fair use. Follow the link to read it.]

Comment by Pitt fan in Atlanta 12.01.10 @ 1:15 am

Great article link Atlanta

Comment by BnG 12.01.10 @ 3:06 am

I feel like I’ve been the lone voice in the wilderness regarding Wannstedt’s personnel decisions over the off season. When he made that ridiculous and selfish decision to not allow any competition, and they literally was none when one player gets every single first string snap since the previous season ends regardless of what was said, the handwriting was writ large on the wall.

And it had nothing to do with Pat Bostick’s talent or perceived lack of it. That is what the PITT fans didn’t get. It had everything to do with the core sportsmanship aspect of competitive athletics… that players get the opportunity to show they can win a starting position by their efforts and talents. This was an open starting position at QB friends, not a ‘Union Job; Keep your starting position’ deal.

He circumvented that with the most high profile position on the team and did it in a way that every single kid on the roster knew the fix was in.

Honestly, he also couldn’t have picked a more psychologically inept kid to hand a starting position to. There were major problems in the locker room from Spring Practice on and it was in large part because of ego and arrogance.

DW has only himself to blame for this when he sent a terrible and infectious message that petty and personal considerations overruled adhering to the time honored tradition of winning playing time.

IMO it didn’t matter who was actually the starting QB after that happened, but on top of it all he never saw fit to show the rest of the team that he had any faith whatsoever in a back up QB… not once did anyone else get meaningful snaps with the first team offense during any game time. No meaningful snaps whatsoever.

Its as if DW was thumbing his nose for the last 10 months at us ‘outsiders’ in saying that “It’s my ball and I’ll play with it however I want to… and screw everyone else. If its a bad decision, it’s still MY decision and I’ll run it into the ground if I want”.

Good God, DW has an ego the size of old PITT stadium.

And for all the PITT fans who are clamoring for Frank Cignetti to be the next HC, ask yourselves this. After what we experienced this season would you hire the Fist Mate on the Titanic to captain your ship? He hasn’t impressed me one iota since he’s gotten here. Bill Stull has so many more fundamental positives than Tino Sunseri it isn’t funny and had Cignetti been the QB guru as advertised we’d have seen Sunseri been able to process what was happening before his eyes on the field… at the very least he should have shown some progression throughout the year. But, save two games against those poor BE teams in mid-season he’s been below average at best.

Set the stats aside, our QB could not be relied on to make plays consistently to save his life, negated our best offensive weapon with his utter inability to throw a deep ball, make excruciatingly bonehead plays and penalties (how many delay of games killed our drives) with regularity and could lead the team out of the locker room without the directions written on his wrist pad.

Now we read the team was “soft”. Whatever that means. More like the team was “lost” by Dave Wannstedt through his own machinations.

Comment by Reed 12.01.10 @ 5:20 am

Spot on, Reed. Everyone on the team wanted Myers to at least have been given a chance to play this year.

Comment by steve 12.01.10 @ 6:20 am

a team being soft is a reflection of its head coach, this doesn’t take the blame off Wanny, he is soft on his players.

Comment by Henry Hynoceros 12.01.10 @ 8:37 am

Reed there has never really been any true competetion. Wanny did not give a flip about the QB position in the nfl so why be freakin suprised he does the same at Pitt. What freakin player on the squad was developed under Wanny? That idiot could not develop anything other than the dissinlusionment, heartache and apathy pitt fans have endured with this bad coach hire.

These past six years have been so tiring. Especisally for me knowing full well when he came that he sucked as a head coach. Add to that the legions of pitt fans who circled the proverbial wagons, defended him incestantly and laid their chips at his feet in hope that the old ball coach would change his coaching stripes.

It is utter bullsh** that a university with some 10 nc’s settles for mediocrity. Pitt deserves what it got from wanny. How the hell can he be good for the schools football program. The fact that he was hired and kept for these 6 years shows that the university and the leaders therein don’t care about the past and/or football champioships.

And oh by the way they got lucky with dixon because he will win a nc, wanny on the other hand can’t even win the BE title in the weakest bcs conference. Reason being he can’t coach, gameplan, adjust, develop players……

Comment by Kenny 12.01.10 @ 8:57 am

Pitt football is a disease.

Comment by Omar 12.01.10 @ 9:46 am

Mike,

Leach didn’t actually do that. The kid’s dad is a big jerk who works for ESPN and they reported the story with no fact checking and are currently being sued for it.

What really happened was the kid was coming back from a concussion and was cleared to do a bit of physical activity but still had light sensitivity so they had him go into a darkened garage with bikes and stuff. The kid then went to an “electrical closet” that was really a media room for a few minutes and took a cell phone video of himself and sent it to his dad.

The administration wanted Leach fired beforehand as some emails shed light on later and used this as an excuse.

Here’s a link:
link to sportsbybrooks.com

Comment by Patric 12.01.10 @ 11:30 am

Unfortunately I don’t think Dave is going anywhere this off-season unless there is serious noise and cancellations of season tickets, which I don’t think is extremely likely.

I agree with the very well-written assessment of DW as HC. He is not a great coach, does not recruit the players to play his system, does not exploit match-ups, and takes no responsibility for his team’s on-field performance. To me, that speaks that DW is NOT a great leader, which is something IMO that all successful programs need.

Whether or not the fan base is wrong with their expectations, when the Athletic Department, local media, and DW themselves are all tooting their horns on how great a team we have, the great recruits & development we have, and the coaching/ leadership of DW, and the expectations are not met, who is to blame? EVERYBODY. No one should be happy about this season.

As long as the expectations are BE championships and national prominence, DW is not going to be the man to deliver that. His career speaks for itself. Sure he’s won games, been moderately successful, and is a nice guy. But he has not won big games, exhibited tremendous leadership qualities, innovate/ adjust strategies as needed, or taken accountability. The question is, what are the expectations of the program?

Comment by Greg 12.01.10 @ 12:11 pm

I think the bigger issue with Leach (as it relates to Pitt) is that he had difficulty maintaining good relationships with both the school administration and prominent boosters/donors. For better or worse, these types of relationships have proven to be very important at Pitt (see Harris, Walt).

Comment by Pantherman13 12.01.10 @ 12:16 pm

You just won’t give it up, Rev. George. Chris Dokish is a fine writer and, for all you know, a fine human being. His analysis of the season is spot on to everyone except someone with the rosiest of rose colored glasses – which apparently means you. This team has six wins, two of which were against NEW HAMPSHIRE and FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL. We are poised to go to a bowl game in DETROIT, MICHIGAN. This team practices in a top-notch facility that they share with one of the most storied franchises in NFL history. They play their home games in an NFL stadium. What other college football program can say as much? Recruits should be drooling to come here, and yet 6-5 is the best we can do? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if DW can’t step down simply for the good of the university then he needs to be fired. Six years is enough. (And please don’t feed me any crap about how his players don’t get in trouble, because this year’s squad set an all-time record for lawlessness.)

Comment by Bobby 12.01.10 @ 1:40 pm

I’m beginning to long for the days of Walt. Pitt was at a higher level back then. When is this next level going to come? Surely it’s not going to take another 6 years. Why give this guy another year to prove what non-apologists already know. I cannot take another year of the excuses.

Comment by TX Panther 12.01.10 @ 1:45 pm

Slightly different story in Piscataway, canning Schiano would be fiscally impossible. An obscene amount of money involved. There should be clawback provisions for failing utterly.

link to nj.com

Comment by steve 12.01.10 @ 2:08 pm

I would trade Wanny for Schiano without blinking an eye.

Comment by isnore 12.01.10 @ 2:32 pm

Did anyone else here Wanny on the pre-game show saying that the fans probably get more excited for the rivalry and WVU than the players and coaches. He claimed to many its just another game because they weren’t brought up around it. Are you kidding me? If you can’t get fired up about playing a hated rival or coaching against one just leave. That was a ridiculous comment, fans should never be more amped than the team. I looked at it as a pregame excuse b/c he felt they were going to get handled.

Comment by Henry Hynoceros 12.01.10 @ 3:12 pm

Pitt was at a much higher level under Walt Harris. How do you think Dave Wannstedt would have prepared the team to play against a national champion Miami squad? Or Virginia Tech with Mike Vick? We would have lost by 6 or 7 TDs with Dave as coach against those teams.

Walt led us to a win against Mike Vick and within a Yogi Roth drop of a win against Miami at the Orange Bowl. Never, ever, in a million years would Wannstedt be able to do that. Harris also led a team that started 1-5 to a 7-5 finish. A Wannstedt led team would have forfeited the season if they started 1-5. Wannstedt is an arrogant, incompetent, self-important jock that has been in the right place at the right time throughout his “career”.

Comment by Omar 12.01.10 @ 3:13 pm

omar you are right but how do we change things how do we make them the powers to be listen to us. wannstedt is a really bad coach how come they cant see that. are they blind.

Comment by FRANKCAN 12.01.10 @ 3:30 pm

We change things by not showing up for games and not spending money on the Pitt football program. But, I fear that the change won’t happen until sometime next year as opposed to doing something this year because Wanny is a nice guy and Pitt is cheap.

Comment by TX Panther 12.01.10 @ 3:46 pm

And Omar add this: Who has always known which butt to kiss to secure his own future.

Great analysis.

Comment by TonyinHouston 12.01.10 @ 4:55 pm

Don’t know if this has been posted yet. I know several of us mentioned this a a dream scenario when this all played out. I think the Big East is a little more proactive than we all think. they seem to be able to play it pretty quiet.

link to college-football.blogs.cbssports.com

Comment by Bowling Green Panther 12.01.10 @ 9:06 pm

[…] Poor Finishes and Bad Losses (Pitt Blather) So there are issues. Don’t worry, Coach Wannstedt has carefully examined the WVU debacle and knows what went wrong. […]


Comment by Tony In Harrisburg 12.02.10 @ 1:47 am

Sorry the link is messed up just type in Fire Dave Wannstedt on facebook

Comment by Tony In Harrisburg 12.02.10 @ 1:48 am

Steve – you said “Spot on, Reed. Everyone on the team wanted Myers to at least have been given a chance to play this year.”

I’m sure you were being sarcastic given my wanting to see Bostick play some, but really… If Mark Myers was a legitimate 2nd string back-up this season then I’d agree.

Comment by Reed 12.02.10 @ 5:44 am

If Wanny, Wise. Cigs, Bennett & crew are all here next year & Tino is again just handed the QB job, I’d rather not even watch, read, talk about or even have an iota of a thought about Pitt football.
It will be like a repeat of say 1992 to 1997. When I just didn’t even care about it.

Comment by carolinapanther 12.02.10 @ 3:38 pm

^^^ Yes, but every year we fans recognize pretty obvious correctable mistakes DW makes, we assume he’s not blind to them and will address and every year the same old things repeat themselves.

I wouldn’t hold your breath for an actual QB competition next year – if he chose not to do it when there was an open starting position there prior to this season he certainly won’t do it next year.

The guy truly is an amazement and has an ego the size of a house – there is no other answer for how he makes these decisions.

Comment by Reed 12.02.10 @ 5:28 pm

If the Stache will be hanging around as head coach, he needs to start delegating more. He needs to hire a special teams coach. He needs to bring in a Defensive Coordinator that can recruit Florida and bring in some speed at LB and CB. If your front four are not going to get enough pressure then you better have CB’s that can cover. Maybe K’Wan Williams and Keyshoen Jarrett are the future at that position. Would it kill anyone to give Buddy Jackson a shot to start and see what he does with it. Tino was the least of Pitt’s problems. Too many heads worried about the NFL and not worried about the TEAM. Hopefully players not going pro next year learned their lesson. Make every position an open competition. Too many players too complacent. Randy Shannon would be a nice DC wouldn’t he? Too bad he has interest in the Gophers job.

Comment by PittNotEvenCloseToBeingIT 12.02.10 @ 6:46 pm

You gotta read Zeise’s PG story today.

link to post-gazette.com

He writes a story about Pitt’s running game over the course of the season, lists Dion’s stats(695 yds. on 155 carries for a 4.5 avg/carry and a 30 yd. Long Run) or lack thereof. And then in typical Zeise fashion there is barely a mention of PITT’s LEADING RUSHER FOR THE SEASON. That of course would be Ray Graham who has 825 yds. rushing on only 130 carries for a impressive 6.3 avg/carry and a 79 Long Run. They both rushed for 8 TD’s while Graham also caught 2 TD passes, more like caught a short pass and ran them in.

If you add up Graham’s 825 and Lewis’s 695, you get 1520 (I was a Math major) 🙂 with one game to go, let’s say they get another 120 on Sat., then you end up with 1640, which is not far off from Lewis’s 1799 last year. Which also included the bowl game. Pitt’s running game is not to blame for this years collapse as Zeise suggests in this article, it’s the fact so many long, wide open, momentum changing, TD passes were overthrown, underthrown, misthrown or never attempted, that is one of the main reasons Pitt’s offense sputtered a lot and missed (again) momentum changing long TD passes. Which by the way, if you complete those long TD passes it stretches the Defense and ALLOWS the running game more room to operate. Which is what didn’t happen for the most part, you had teams, knowing Tino couldn’t stretch the field play more men in the box to try and stop Pitt’s run. (and they did, like in the WVU game, as Tino proved to WVU he couldn’t hit a wide open Baldwin in the 1rst half for an easy TD, and you noticed as the game went on from there, Pitt had a tougher & tougher time running the ball)

This is something (like a lot of things) that goes unseen in the game stats. And reporters like Zeise should mention them. When they don’t, you have to ask……why not. Instead he writes in article like the one he wrote today.

Comment by carolinapanther 12.03.10 @ 1:08 pm

Also another thing to consider, Baldwin and his team leading 47 receptions for 753 yds and 5 TD’s won’t be back next year. Meaning all those circus catches, catches over the wrong shoulder, catches on low throws, on Tino’s underthrown, overthrown and misthrown balls more than likely WON’T BE CAUGHT. And they won’t be padding Tino’s stats anymore as well. It could be really ugly next year.

Comment by carolinapanther 12.03.10 @ 1:23 pm

[…] turnovers and correctable mistakes. It didn’t matter if they happened at the beginning or end of the season. Turnovers, correctable mistakes — and of course […]


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