Time to get through some browser tabs and media reactions and stories relating to Head Coach Todd Graham, the hire by Pitt and anything else that I decide fits in this post.
As I said when the hire happened, the hiring process may seem like the easy part compared to all that has to follow. I’m sure Graham is going to make a public appearance at Pitt’s basketball game soon. I’m hoping it will not be until Monday. Bigger impact on a nationally televised game, and a much bigger crowd since there won’t be the conflict/overlap of Saturday night with the Ravens-Steelers at 4:30. (For those wondering why Pitt can’t/won’t change it. The time is locked in with Fox Sports Pittsburgh to televise, and the Big East since the women’s team is playing ND at 2 pm at the Pete.)
The first order of business for Graham is recruiting. He said as much in his opening press conference, with no shortage of hyperbole.
“We are going to make it the best ever,” he said Tuesday when he was introduced as the 35th head football coach in university history — and the fourth in the past month.
Several Pitt recruits are reconsidering their previous nonbinding verbal commitments in the wake of the firings of Dave Wannstedt and Mike Haywood and the resignation of interim coach Phil Bennett.
Graham and his assistants — five joined him at yesterday’s introductory news conference — have a huge selling job ahead of them before letter-of-intent day Feb. 2.
“I am not worried about that one bit,” Graham said. “Kids sign with coaches. I really believe that.”
Graham said his staff of assistants, including Tony Gibson and Calvin Magee who have previously recruited Western Pennsylvania, is well-equipped to handle the task.
I’m not about to put the bar that high. I’ll settle for salvaging at this point. Points to Graham for stating the truth that NLIs don’t. “Kids sign with coaches.” At the very least, Graham has caught the attention of some once/former/future recruits.
Graham made no secret that he wants to dominate Pennsylvania, but does not want to be limited there. He wants to go into Texas and Louisiana. One of the common criticisms/complaints and justifications for wanting Tom Bradley over Graham is recruiting in Western Pennsylvania. To wit:
Pitt really dropped the ball here. Bradley would have been an excellent choice to lead the Panthers. He’s an excellent recruiter and coordinator who deserves a shot as a head coach. In western Pennsylvania, Bradley would’ve locked up every four- and five-star recruit. It certainly was not hard to picture Bradley in the blue and gold.
I will agree that Bradley deserves a shot… somewhere. But he has let himself be trapped the same way Bud Foster has at VT. They make a lot of money. They like where they are. They may have believed that their boss would be retired by now. And they won’t leave for anything but a BCS conference job in the eastern part of the country. So… good luck with that.
Back to the issue of recruiting Western PA. The P-G’s high school guy, Mike White, even dismissed that sort of thing as a load.
So, Todd Graham will be the new Pitt football coach. Some critics who say it’s not a good hire because he has no ties to Western Pennsylvania. Please.
We are all too provincial in this area and always want a coach with ties to Western Pennsylvania. Why? It does not matter. Sure, Graham needs to keep home some top Western Pennsylvania players. But as I’ve said before, there are not enough top-of-the line players in Western Pa. any longer. You can’t live off this area.
What will be more important for Graham is the players he gets from other parts of the country. And most importantly, how he coaches on the field.
Like many, I would’ve liked to see Tom Bradley get the job. But when you get down to it, no one really knows how a new coach will be. I say it takes two years to really know a new coach, as far as his coaching ability, recruiting ability and just whether he is a good man or an idiot.
And that is a big strike against Bradley. As much as everyone thinks or claims to know that he is and has been running things in Happy Valley, he hasn’t had to answer for them. He hasn’t had to be publicly in control.
joel: I still think Tom Bradley was the best option. He would recruit better and lot leave after three years. I think Bradley was not wanted by the AD and others up the ladder.
Paul Zeise: No, I think that Bradley was high on the list but I think if you look at the resume of Tom Bradley and the resume of Todd Graham and you are objective, it would be hard to pick Bradley. I think Bradley is a great coach, he should be Penn State’s next coach but if you are an athletic director and you have two choices – one is a career assistant who has worked for one coach (the same coach he played for) at one place for 35 years or are you going to pick a guy who has been at several stops as an assistant, worked for a number of coaches, has what, five, six years as a head coach and a proven track record of success? It is a hard decision, I know, but the bottom line is Graham’s diverse background in terms of learning from different coaches and working in different areas is just a little more attractive.
I would have been fine with Bradley as the HC, but I really like the Graham hire. I’m not worried about the issue of risk that Graham bolts in 3-5 years for a bigger job. If he does, then that likely means he took Pitt further than the program has been in the last 25 years, and he got an offer that couldn’t rationally be refused. It’s the nature of coaching in college football, someone is always looking to poach another coach. Pitt poached Graham from Tulsa who poached Graham from Rice. So it goes.
The players are excited.
Graham’s message was well received by the Pitt players, who were so excited by what he said in a team meeting before the news conference that, one by one, they got up to welcome him and shake his hand.
And then Cam Saddler and Ray Graham called a sports talk radio station 93.7 The Fan to get on the air to talk about how much they loved what Graham said.
The reception among many other callers on that station was very positive and there was a buzz among Pitt staffers as well.
Right now, the energy and enthusiasm is something this program desperately needed. As much anger, frustration, embarrassment, apathy and all other negative we’ve had as fans. It has to have been worse for the players.
Come the fall, the thing that will be needed are wins. Right now, take the optimism.
Starkey expresses the doubts. Cook concedes that it is a good hire.
As you would expect, when a coach leaves to go somewhere else, there are hard feelings. This column fairly balances that with the reality of how Graham advanced the program in Tulsa.
And his stay in T-Town definitely was a success. Maybe not a smashing success, but pretty dang good.
Three 10-win seasons, three bowl wins, a top 25 ranking this season and a 36-17 record presumably are factors that attracted Pitt and other BCS schools to come after Graham.
So TU supporters should thank Graham for his contributions and wish him the very best.
Those Hurricane supporters who aren’t angry over Graham’s departure will acknowledge he kept the promise he made – he took Hurricane football to an even higher level.
Finally, Brian Bennett at ESPN.com has a two-part Q&A with Graham. Here’s Part 1 and Part 2.
He was asked again about Baldwin and Lewis going to the nfl. he said he has been in contact with them and hopes they will stay – doesn’t sound like their jump to the nfl is a done deal?
I am concened about the defense and continue to be very leary of just how good of a coach this new DC is and believe the only reaosn he is employed and coming to Pitt is that he was Graham’s roommate. (Chas, I will take Paul Rhoads anyday before this guy.)
However, of course we won’t know how things will trun out but at least it appears that we finally may have a spring game worth watching.
On the otherhamnd, i like that they’ll use multiple looks 3-4 / 4-3) and i like that they’ll look to pressure the QB……but i’m gonna miss phil bennett’s d…
I don’t like the nepotism with the Patterson hire by Graham, especially with the 2mm pot for the assistants. Patterson must have incriminating pictures from when he was Graham’s college roomate.
So, Tulsa did not win Conference USA with Graham as head coach. I am happy Casmir Myslinski (sic?) did not concern himself that Johnny Majors did not win the Big 8 multiple times when Majors was hired away from Iowa State.
Big deal, Starkey. Actually, no, it isn’t.
So Graham is bringing his defensive coordinator with him. This means, of course, that Pitt’s defense will be as bad as the Tulsa defense. Right, Starkey?
Players win. Coaches help those players win, but it is the players who succeed or do not. Tulsa’s defense was bad because of the people they had playing defense.
Starkey keeps harping on Tulsa’s bad defensive stats. Starkey isn’t smart enough to figure out that one can make numbers say whatever you want them to say. The scoreboard is the one statistic that counts.
Steve Pederson should still be fired. Steve Pederson is a @#$&.
Hail to Pitt!
Go Steelers!
Let’s Go Pens!
I bet the Bills fans are overjoyed!!!
Last 3 years: Tulsa (CUSA) 26 wins; Pitt (BE) 27 wins
don’t get me wrong, I’m willing to give him a chance .. but still have no idea how he worth twice the salary than Wanny .. apparently his snake oil sales technique works on more than just recruits
How is he worth $2M? Well we were really underpaying Wannstedt… it has been mentioned tons of times that Pitt was way down on the salary list across the NCAA. Zeise laid out the Big East salaries in his latest blog:
South Florida – Skip Holtz $2.05 million
Louisville – Charlie Strong $2.23 million
Connecticut – Randy Edsall (obviously last year) $1.9 million
West Virginia -Dana Holgorsen in 2012 $2 million.
Rutgers – Greg Schiano $2.63 million
Cincinnati – Butch Jones – $1.4 million
Syracuse – Doug Marrone – Not disclosed.
But fella’s, this is bad. This is selling your soul to the devil.
Yes, Wanny needed to go, but even Terrell Austin would have been a better hire.
DW = 4-3-4 with four down linemen.
TG = 3-4-4 with three constant DL and a OLB moving up to DE on two TE passing plays. I actually think both Lindsay and Graham could thrive in those OLB positions.
Grahams defenses are predicated on aggressiveness… something that every single PITT fan has been begging for out of DW for six years.
I’m sure I simplified it, but I do think people are borrowing trouble before it actually happens here.
Tulsa’s offensive scheme gave the other team a lot of chances. Yards and points may not mean everything when comparing statistics.
Obviously all of us offer our opinions on things related to our Panthers. Some of us are closer to the truth than others. In the end we are all speculators…
Pitt Man says that when you consider a defense you have to look at the other side of the ball to make an honest evaluation.
What style of play does the offense have?
If you have a fast paced offense you want to have a defense that can get better in practice by defending that type of offense. It is all about making the unit better by helping the other unit.
With 4 high octane offenses in the conference you better be able to defend it if you want to win the Big East.
Consider that the money that Graham may be getting paid is more than Patterson is making. Thus the reason that Patterson comes with Coach Todd from Tulsa is that his lower salary offsets the money available.
When your at Tulsa and you are able to land a recruit that has amazing speed you would most likely put him on Offense becase that is the bread and butter of your team.
At Pitt you will have a larger talent pool to draw from and therefore you may be able to have more athletes move to the defensive side of the ball. This is a luxury that a Tulsa recruiting class would not offer as an option.
I do not rely on the opinions of Joe Starky or Ron Cook. Ireally doubt that they watch as much sports as us posters. They have journalism degrees and have probably never played which is why they went for the journalism degrees.
Just two days into the Todd Graham era, the Panthers reeled in a much-needed offensive lineman.
Frankcan mention’s the OL earlier in the thread. He is a two star Juco – Demhasaj commits to pitt he is a OT 6 FOOT 7 320.
Additionally Wanny record isn’t as good as what his fans would like to remember. We lost to almost every team near the top 25 during his entire time here and we RARELY played teams in the top 25.
Please point out the big victories excluding 13-9.
Besides Pitt, he didn’t have any big time BCS offers, just Cincinatti in BE, Wyoming, Memphis, Akron and Bowling Green. Being a JUCO you would hope he is ready to play immediately. He does have the requisite size, so here’s hoping he turns out better than his offers would suggest.
I thank Wanny for his efforts but at the end of the day he just didn’t get it done.
I am curious to see how LOI day works out for Pitt. Graham and his staff didn’t seem to be bullshitting when they said they were going to hit the recruiting trail hard. Maybe we can pick off some Michigan recruits and land a few from Big 12 country.
Yesterday, Jakeem Grant, a receiver from Mesquite, Texas, decommitted from TU and is interested in Pitt, the Dallas Morning News reported. Grant’s coach calls his player the fastest man in Texas.
Today, I’m told by one of our TU beat writers, another Hurricane receiver commitment now has Pitt on his list. TU commitment Keyarris Garrett, a 6-4 receiver from Daingerfield, Texas, is taking visits. (Mike Brown is working on a story for Sunday’s paper about the impact Graham’s departure has had on recruiting.)
Garrett’s high school coach told Brown that Garrett has added Pitt to his list in the last few days. Garrett plans to visit TU this weekend, but he also will visit Pitt and Louisiana Tech in the next couple of weeks, according to his coach.
Garrett has 40 career TD receptions and is a member of a three-time state champion team. He’s a three-star recruit, according to Rivals.com, which also is reporting Garrett’s interest in Pitt.
Although evaluating recruits is never easy, these arguably are TU’s two best receiver commitments.
As TU beat writer Eric Bailey told me when he heard that Garrett was considering Pitt: “That’s a big one!” on TU’s recruiting list.
In either case, far more exciting, rewarding, and interesting than an enraging, flailing 7-5 Wanny season. Bring it on!!
Good to know its the actual signing of a contract.
Yeah – I realized Lewis could go after his SO year back when he was recruited since the exact same rule applied to both Fitzgerald and McCoy..
