Yes, I’ve noticed that Ralph Friedgen is apparently out at Maryland. Seems to be a trend this year. We all see the similarities. Whether it was pushing out Stewart at WVU. Pitt and Wannstedt. Even Syracuse fans see it akin to the tossing of Pasqualoni. What becomes apparent is that the money matters — and not the money for the coach.
Maryland has been unable to sell out all the suites at the remodeled Tyser Tower, part of Byrd Stadium.
Asked about the unsold suites in October, Anderson adopted a grim tone and said that leasing them needed to be a top priority.
…
Friedgen has had mixed support among Maryland boosters. Some alumni have applauded his loyalty to his alma mater and his coaching record, while others have said the school needs a splashy hire such as Leach to sell suites and more tickets.
The Terrapins, despite a significant turnaround and having a chance late in the season to win their division in the ACC, could not get a sellout (even on paper) for any of their games this season.
Like Pitt and WVU there was a feeling that no matter how moderately successful the coach had been. Despite his loyalty/alumni ties, a change had to be made. This post from Testudo Times is gold on the matter.
Of course what seems to really get Pitt fans’ interest in this matter is not the similarities to the situation (right down to Randy Edsall rumors). It’s that Mike Leach may be the next coach at Maryland. Of course who knows, but if he is bringing Sean Salisbury aboard as his OC, high comedy ensues.
There is a big difference in how Maryland may land Leach. The main factor being, unlike Pitt, there is a big sugar daddy booster pushing this — puportedly with his wallet as well as his influence. Kevin Plank, the founder of Under Armour, is close to Mike Leach. Both Maryland and Texas Tech are Under Armour teams. Plank also sits on Maryland’s Board of Trustees.
This goes beyond helping provide the upfront money to pay off Friedgen and pay Leach. This is about having the money to keep Leach if he succeeds, or having the money to pay him to go away if he fails or acts in such a way as to give Maryland little choice but to get rid of him.
Leach was never realistic at Pitt, but not because of his cost. And I write this as someone who would have thoroughly enjoyed the hire, and thinks that the Texas Tech firing of him was more pretext than anything else.
The fact is, Leach showed while at Texas Tech that he was not easy to have as an employee. He battled with the AD and school president, he was prickly to boosters, and he constantly interviewed for other jobs (lying to his bosses about it, and still not getting them). Then you can throw in his casual bluntness and off-the-cuff comments, while making for great copy, is not something schools want to deal. His lawsuit with Texas Tech has not been the biggest inhibitor to being hired since last season. It has been the stuff that is already known. Without backing from a moneyed and powerful booster Leach hasn’t gotten a sniff.
playing hard and discipline surely arent on his list… maybe look towards non-interveiwed Ken Niumatalolo of Navy for that
Rev George… does Pitt do anything wrong? do any other schools do anything right? this kind of analysis and blind faith does not help pitt win… this whole “competitive” aspect to football and program management gets in the way
whats worse?
1- poteat is out, the flood continues… and he may go to WVU! (devanzo, vindicated, yet again… holgersen stealing our recruits!)
2- how he couldnt even get a hold of pitt staff!
DISASTER!
As for decommits. Miami just lost their top QB recruit, Teddy Bridgewater one of the top QB recruits in the nation. He decommitted from them and is now with Louisville. Then take a look at what remains from their class?
Decommits happen. Regardless of who is in and who is out at coaching.
chad, when Belton etc say they are looking at WVU who also just made a coaching change… im pretty sure thats not an indication that you did a good job with your coach search (like you pointed out the hiring process can be important too)
not so many decommits there, huh?
They are afraid that Haywood won’t baby them and cuddle with them after practice like the stache did….I say bye bye and good luck!
i, on the other hand, would like to see how a real coach who knows that x’s and o’s arent just hugs and kisses does with some of these solid blue chips… and Dana Holgersen probably will get that chance!
Wanny had great recruits, but was not a great recruiter!
case in point… we are chock full of certain positions (undersized rb’s) and devoid of o-linemen… yet who did Wanny focus on in this recruiting class????
Take a look around the country. NO ONE is selling out, save for the few blue-bloods who have been winning consistently for the past 70 years or so, and exist in an area void of anything else. And even that rests precariously on winning, considering the size of their stadiums. Remember the early 2000’s, when Beaver stadium had thousands of empty seats on a weekly basis?
Maryland isn’t selling those boxes because Maryland isn’t a blue-blood football school with lots of wealthy fans. Hilariously, they took the approach that the rest of the ACC did..if you build it, they will come, with no regard for time and economic stability and growth. That stadium is a dump (I park in the on-campus garage every day), and football is an afterthought on campus. And forget the metro DC area – VT is more popular. Maryland could win 3 straight ACC championships and it isn’t going to sell those boxes out. Mark it down.
If you want to sell out every season, hire all the coaches you want, it won’t happen. The only way you sell out consistently is by moving your school to a remote area and winning EVERY year, not just a few. If there’s any school that’s evidence of that, take a look at Pitt, who couldn’t sell out consistently during the Dorsett/Marino years, and hasn’t done so since the 1930’s. The Steelers replaced them, and now Pitt football is an afterthought in the area. Thanks John Bowman.
This is the biggest Pitt story in years , I’m sure Chas can testify to that based on website traffic, and where is Zeise in the last 5 days??
Come on Paul, writers/reporters drool over opportunities to be in the spotlight and where are you???
The secondary is terrible, the linebackers are average at best, the O-line average at the very very best, QB: Tino is obviously not the next Marino and anyone else would be making their first start. I mean where is all this supposed talent???
We lose Baldwin and Sheard.
I would say 7 to 8 wins is probably acceptable in year one. I dont think the returning team is all that terrific, a down recruiting class, a new coach and new systems to learn….7 or 8 wins in year one would not be terrible.
Year two is a different story.
@APM74, as you are correct about the sellouts, always has been the case, Penn St, ND, and WVU were the only sellouts, (as I was there, and maybe you were too.) However, many of those seasons, the average attendances were well into the 50k’s!!! Even for Army and Navy, they never had crowds of only 20, 25 or 30k, as has been the case the last 20 years.
So, no, even if they win conistently, can I envision Heinz field being sold out constantly, no, of course not. If they had a top 10, top 15 team though, fighting for a BCS spot year in and year out, I’m pretty sure they could do 45-55k consistently, and any of the three previous teams mentioned, would be sellouts, and if a national power came in, would be close to a sell out.
Winning big time, in big time college football will not solve everything, but it sure would help.
Reading into the situation though, don’t think it really matters to Nordy. He doesn’t want to be 0-12 or 1-11 i’m sure, but, a mediocre program with little to no off field trouble sits just fine with him.
Dave would be expected to do more based on bringing in his recruiting class and running the same system with the same coaches for a 7th year.
Remember walt went to a BCS game the year before the stache came in and he couldnt even get us to a bowl game in 3 years. So why would expectations be higher for Haywood inheriting a mediocre 7-5 team with not much talent and depth. Please go down the roster and show me where all the big time stars are on this team because I cant find them….
sheesh
-my point, was more to the fact that recruits are not only disapproving of the hire, they are having trouble getting in contact with any staff!
-Belton was troubling because he is going to WVU… and that means a lot because its WVU, it means more because THEY ALSO ARE DOING A COACHING CHANGE
-Poteat is VERY TROUBLING as he is a top flight rb, a central pa recruit (psu territory), and a legacy school and FAMILY player… (shady from mcdevitt, cousin Hank is a Pitt grad and former Steeler)
yet you choose to point out that Poteat is a RB and i said we recruit too many rbs??
i think my point there was illustrated by wanny offering Jeremiah Bryson, an undersided 2 star rb, a scholarship in SEPTEMBER when it was clear the team was stacked with rb’s and had glaring weaknesses at other spots. He may have been converted, but we needed to be going after JUCO linemen whole sale at that point, which worked out well with Houser last time?
From Scout.com previous Pitt rankings:
HB Blades 3
Clint Session 2
Greg Lee 2
Joe Flacco 3
Mike McGlynn 2
Derek Kinder 2
Darelle Revis 3
Scott McKillop 3
Greg Romeus 2
Jabal Sheard 3
Gus Mustakas 2
If you really want a laugh you should see the recruits they have at 4 and 5 stars over the years, some of them i dont remember even playing in a game….by the way Pat Bostick was a 5 star.
I felt very confident that DW was NOT going to come out in 2011 and rack up a BCS berth as he just he had the pieces in place both this year and in 2009 and squandered it badly.
PITT probably looked at that, and other issues, and thought – there is no better time to bite the bullet than now. Have a disappointing 2011 season with DW and delay the pain everyone knows will come sooner or later, or have a disappointing 2011 season with a new HC who is building something.
The interest the recruits had was in DW and his ability to get them to the NFL not Pitt. That is reality.
Haven’t we learned a lesson here? Maybe Maryland found a sugar daddy but we don’t have one. WVU brings a large crowd to a minor bowl while Pitt is known as the worst traveling team in the conference.
Winning won’t bring consistent sellouts to Heinz (never did at 53,000 Pitt Stadium) … playing ND and WVU bring consistent sellouts.
I have 2 very good fiends who are Pitt grads, and my cousin is a Pitt Law alum. My one friend is a long time Steeler season ticket holder but the only Pitt games he goes to is when he decides to play for the alum band. My other friend goes to many Pitt games because he gets tickets from his parents, but hasn’t paid for a ticket in years; yet, he doesn’t think twice about paying big scalper prices for Steeler games. My cousin is a Steeler season ticket holder who has neen to one Pitt game in the past decade.
Like it or not … I don’t find the above to be atypical.
If your worried about Pitt, read some of the names the Temple faithful are posting!
you misinterpreted my post. I do care about wins and losses. I’m just not certain this administration does.
But, if you win, you’ll get sell outs for ND, WVU, and PSU if ever back along with some decent crowds of 40-50k. If you get Nebraska back here or an Oklahoma or Fla. St. etc. etc. they’ll close to sell out.
I believe, just in my head, there are about 20-25k core fans, rain or shine, win or lose. You start with that, if you stink, some of those don’t bother going, if you’re mediocre, you get another 10k, if you win big, you can pull in another 10k. That’s realisticly what to expect for an excellent season.
Ideally, a 40-45k seat stadium, on campus would fit Pitt. If they got to be top 10, you might even create a buzz, and possibly a demand for tickets, like the “Pete” holding 12, 500. Never going to happen, I said, “ideally”.
Many games at Fitgerald, held, what, 6500??, had 3 or 4k on stinkin years, sellouts for good years, big names. Same thing, it’s about winning. Don’t have the base to sell out 65k, but, with winning, you won’t have 20k warm bodies and 45k yellow mustard seats staring at you.
Allthough it may not seem like it, and we may be disappointed we can’t sell out, there is a big difference between 25k and 45-50k. Money wise-, the way the stadium looks, sales wise, etc. etc.
Alas, though, don’t think it’s really on Nordy’s mind, so, what’s the point???
You have a point and I also think Gas is right. A lot of recruits do eventually come back, especially if the new coach can excite them. Speaking of loyalty to Wanny…Wanny is a nice guy. I don’t think too many successful coaches are “nice guys.” I remember a few years ago a Philadelphia newspaper carried a series of articles by a former Penn State player. He claimed that a lot of the players despised JoPa. He wasn’t a warm and fuzzy guy, but they played their tails off for him because he demanded it.
link to communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com
… with a pretty strong opinion on the situation.
While I don”t agree with everything he says, as I think he’s pretty out of touch in the local sports world these days, I do agree with the thrust of the article… and it’s something that PITT fans and followers are continually overlooking.
That the PITT administration had specific thoughts in mind regarding how DW did, or didn’t, handle the leadership role his position demands over the last year. This is a huge point and one I think we fans discussing the events of the last two weeks tend to gloss over. It doesn’t matter if the problems we had were comparable to what happens at other schools… it is whatever standards Nordenberg and Peterson themselves had in that area that triggered their decision making.
Whether we agree with it or not, whether the PITT program was better or worst than other colleges or not, whether we wanted DW to stay or not – they are all moot points as PITT itself felt that things weren’t going to get any better – both on the field and off of it.
Smizick uses the term “renegade program” and that’s a strong phrase… I doubt that was the case. But what I don’t doubt was that PITT felt DW had lost ‘effective’ control over the kids – and there is a big distinction. One is the inmates running the asylum; the other is the kids not being influenced any longer by his attempts at leadership.
The second is more subtle and shows up in different ways – such as the players having no belief that they can win a game when they get behind (UCONN and WVU) and throwing in the towel, or blatant shows of disrespect like Jackson laughing while getting dressed down on the sideline to name two examples – or in some cases the kids just not caring any longer.
Top it off with the much more highly visible incidents we all saw and read about, eight in number since July…, combine that with the poor play on the field and the national choke jobs, and PITT felt that DW’s shelf life had expired.
I think PITT could have handled this better also but that is small potatoes compared to making the tough decision to fire him…. and I agree with that decision. I’ve turned this over in my head a lot since Dec 7th and I can’t see anyway DW was going to be any better at football next season than he was this season – but many ways where it could get drastically worse given the overall circumstances. For me, that thought rests solely with Wannstedt himself and what he lacks in capabilities as shown over the course of six years.
The one point I strongly agree with Smizik on is that DW should be gone real soon. It makes clear sense for all involved.
Second. Now I see everyone pointing to decommits as evidene of Haywood as a bad hire. I’m pretty sure most of you a couple weeks ago were saying how overrated Wanny’s recruiting was and cited that blog post by Dokish. If you thought his recruiting was overrated, then how can you be that concerned that some of his overrated recruits decommited. Business as usual, being negative for the sake of being negative.
We live in the USA. Free speech entitles all of us to our opinions, even you.
I mean… hit control F and put in DeVanzo and you will see my point about recruiting
did wanny recruit some studs? yes
was he a good recruiter? absolutely not!
he severely under recruited certain positions (o-line) which was one of the reasons he was hired
additionally, he had very little effectiveness in developing talent (see 4-5 stars from his 06-08 classes)
HOWEVER
that doesnt mean we should hope all of his current recruits decommit… thats just stupid wanny-supporter pouting so you guys can make a point
we should do everything we can to keep marquis players like Bill Belton and Jameel Poteat… Poteat especially for the reasons I listed above that you clearly did not read if you made those comments
Instead, we get two separate 50 word articles about Pitt hoops moving to #6 in the polls. Thanks Woodward and Bernstein, read that on ESPN.com six hours earlier.
yea we were really chock full of QB talent after he defected
and relax… 07-08 (when the 04 class were juniors and seniors) we were a combined 14-11 in the big least… so dont act as if we won the BCS title without these guys
yea… and he really filled that gap with the once in a life time talent that fell in his lap and wanted to play pro set not spread and committed to Pitt as a sophomore … oh wait, terrelle pryor went to OSU?
sheesh!
1. i never said he committed to pitt football, so not sure what you are correcting?
2. never said he should be held… he had GREAT INTEREST in playing two ways for pitt… and then still held out hope for football… but do you really think the best qb in the country wanted to be developed by wanntstedt and play behind Bill Stull?
3. my point was the kid was from pittsburgh, had interest in pitt (id say committing to the school is an interest, wouldnt you?), and wanny accomplished nothing
