After two liveblogs, a 12 hour binge of college football and basketball, and a minor case of alcohol poisoning. I had to take Sunday away from the computer and TV. Something about family time. That always ends well. Add in the fact that my phone choked on an operating system update — sending it into perpetual reboot — and I am feeling quite deaf and blind for the next couple of days until the replacement arrives.
Well, Pitt is heading back to Birmingham for the BBVA Bowl and will face SMU. Present (soon enough to be past) Big East versus future. I noted yesterday that the one advantage for Pitt of getting sent to Birmingham for a bowl: no one expects any fanbase to travel for a bowl in Birmingham. Factor in that Pitt played in it last year, and it should be quite the local crowd. More good news, Pitt basketball doesn’t have a game the same day this year.
In other not so surprising news, Pitt will be hiring three new assistants with the departures of co-offensive coordinator Calvin Magee, secondary coach Tony Gibson and tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator Tony Dews. All three will rejoin Dick Rodriguez in Arizona — though, Magee is also a possibility to be the next head coach of UMass. UMass is prepping to make the jump from 1-AA to 1-A and join the MAC in football.
“I want to thank Tony Gibson, Calvin Magee and Tony Dews for their contributions during this past season,” Graham said. “We will move expeditiously yet thoroughly in finding full-time replacements, and I know we’ll have some exceptional candidates to consider. This is an opportunity for us to strengthen an already strong group of coaches and support staff.
“Moving forward, our coaches will be laser-focused on recruiting and having our team ready to play, and win, a bowl game. We’ve got an incredibly bright future at Pitt and I’m extremely ambitious and enthusiastic about what we can achieve.”
It’s a shame to lose coaches after only one year, but it was not at all surprising once DickRod got the Arizona job. We will see if it costs Pitt and commits, but I doubt the impact will be particularly harsh.
And now, we have something else to keep a close watch on over the next couple of weeks. I don’t know if Pitt will give Norvell the full job of OC. I think we all know there are going to be a lot of resumes coming from Happy Valley.
The season could’ve been worse considering whats gone on at PSU and Syracuse
and you know urban meyer has been in touch with rushel shell this all very bad timeing
not good for a new coach and a new system.
Why would PITT want any association with Phile State. Heck they finished tied for 1rst in their Little 11 division (what are the 2 divisions, Perverts & Pedophiles), and no bowl wanted them, but a FIRST TIME EVER PLAYED BOWL. Something called the Ticket City or Ticket Stub Bowl, whatever.
We certainly don’t want their OC, as their offense was worse than ours. (hard to believe such as it is). I’m not a big fan of co-coordinators anyway, just let the Mike Norvell guy handle it. I’m sure the play calling would be better than this year with just one OC.
LSU/Alabama in Title Game.
The Byline for this game should be: SnoozeFest 2
Did these bowl morons screw Boise State again, not only does a Top 15 team that’s 11-1 get sent to the Las Vegas Bowl, but they matched them up against a middling 6-6 Ariz. State team. I hope Boise routs them. TCU, another good team gets the lovely Poinsettia Bowl against La Tech?
While two crummy 6-6 teams (Ohio St & Florida) get a new year’s day bowl, the Gator. What a joke. So contrived, the Suburban Urban Coming & Going Bowl. What a farce !
12 other 6-6 teams going bowling so I don’t feel so bad now that Pitt is too! Chas send a nasty note to Cookie for singling us out. But then praise him for his Sunseri should transfer article. haha
Hail To Pitt !
it’s just a made for TV event, as in ESPN needs to fill in some programming time. Agree it’s a totally asinine date, when everyone is back from traveling for the holidays and back at work.
Oh well, as long as we get the right people who can recruit, who can coach, and who can help the program, I don’t care if they come from the moon.
Then again, ‘who’d have thunk’ that we would have Rich Rod’s guys on the Pitt Staff?
Did not like the thought of some of the “projections”, having us play something called FIU, and a couple places having us playing Western Michigan.
I’ll take SMU.
I wouldn’t get to upset about losing some coaches. I used too, then you realize after years and years of watching college football, pretty much happens to everyone every couple years or so.
College assistants is an extremely fluid situation. Important to get good replacements of course, but don’t go to nilly willy over it.
Look at coach Howland and Dixon, they lost someone just about every year, we/I worry, “oh no, he was a great recruiter”, then the next guy comes in, and we get great recruits from another section of the country.
I’m not saying it’s “nothing”, but, it’s up to coach Graham to find some excellent replacements.
I wonder if TG will make a run at his former OC.
he teachs the spread offense.
Paul petrino offense coordinator spread
Zack Azzanni western kentucky spread
Gregg Brandon wyoming
these are all coachs TG should look at.
Turner Gill is looking for a job as well… He was supposed to be the next big thing the year before we were looking for a coach.
TONY FRANKLIN is a older coach with some tie in with louisiana tech but he make so mutch money teaching the spread to outher coachs he may not want to coach agein at a big school as a offense coordinator .
all these coachs are on meyers list but he has room for just one offense cordinator if they are on meyers list then they should be on TGs list also becuse they must be good.
Oh, and the BB win at Ut wasn’t bad either.
I’m thinking about going. So, if there’s any way to get some travel info up here, I’d appreciate it.
I sure hope we don’t lose Shell! That would really suck!!
I don’t see Tino transferring anywhere. Like it or not, He’s a Pitt man from a Pitt family and he’s here to stay.
Birmingham here we come!
Hail to Pitt!!
Any of the current PSU staff are going to be radioactive for at least a few years. I don’t see any way Nordenberg and the BOT will allow the football program to hire them… not at PITT. Some other schools more distant and with less emotional ties than PITT has with PSU probably will though.
Coaching changes happen – this is no big deal at all. I’ll bet that even with the RR familiarity there is a pay raise in there for those departing assistants. I like Norvell and hope he gets the OC job. I’ve a feeling a lot of those strange offensive play calls came from Magee thinking he had the same caliber personnel here as he did at WVU.
Dews had no impact really and Gibson could be the one we miss the most. IMO the DBs did very well, especially some who I thought were destined for mediocrity like Antwuan Reed.
As far as recruiting goes very few recruits switch because the staff who recruited them is gone. The keys for a recruit are 1) The HC 2) the possibility of PT in a certain system 3) The University itself and 4) the football conference. None of those factors are going to change. I don’t think we’ll see many changes. Shell going to OSU is more PITT fan’s fears than anything else.
Don’t underestimate the strength of Todd Graham’s recruiting power and his charisma. I’ve heard that he knocks over recruits parents when selling PITT as a school they want their son to attend and graduate from. Just as DW did. The University itself plays a bigger role in recruiting then most fans think – especially with those mid-western & southern kids who would end up going to a school with far less academic chops than us. Parents, and almost as importantly, Grandparents love that.
Graham’s done a very good recruiting job so far under way more negative pressure than just some assistant coaches leaving. If he could put together that first class with the Heywood incident and one month to work then we’ll be fine on that front now and in the future.
DigDoug is correct, Smizik is crazy and this is one of those time he gets so full of himself and his self-centered moralizing that he comes across as sounding like a buffoon. Of course PITT should accept a bowl bid. They won enough games to be eligible for an invitation, the players on the rosters played thier hearts out for the opportunity and we have every right, and obligation actually, to accept the bid.
6-6 is a disappointing season and to some it was an abject failure (I’m not one of those BTW) so the people who rail against PITT accepting a invitation are projecting what they think they would do. PITT isn’t some football powerhouse who stands on an impeccable won lost record to turn their nose up at a bowl. There are none of those programs any longer folks… not when millions of dollars are being trown around for a chance to play one more game. Just look at 6-6 OSU and 6-6 Florida – think they are having second thoughts?
Go to Birmingham, have fun, play hard and win!
Ain’t going to happen but if T Bradley or Teryl Austin were available, you’d take either in a second due to their track record in Western PA.
Graham should have ties to recruit the southwest .. I only hope he can get people to recuit PA, Ohio and Florida
“Why does ohio state keep tryin to contact me don’t they see the blue n gold runnin thru my veins #h2p”
So, it doesn’t look like were losing him
Following in Tony’s footsteps to Pitt is only appropriate. I just hope that he makes a debut as powerful as TD did back in the day. That was a season to remember right from the Georgia game to our first bowl game in like forever. (And that was back when they didn’t have 30 bowl games to offer post season play).
SMU will be a good team to play against in the Compass Bowl in Birmingham. And of course what better city to travel to for a bowl game than Birmingham? That place is awesome!!!
I’ve already got the hot spots picked out for dining and nightlife. They got a new Applebee’s just down from the stadium, a great super Walmartfor all my party supplies and a rockin 7-Eleven right up pass the Super 8 motel I’ll be staying at that has a nice selection of beers in the cooler. Bowlin in Birmingham,,,,,PRICELESS!
So why read their half assed thoughts!
That is some fantastic work at trying to circumvent all logic and reason to see things your way.
Magee was with DickRod from 2001-2010.
Gibson started in 1999 with DickRod.
Dews was a grad asst. from 1999-2001 and then joined him in Michigan from 2007-2010.
Long histories with DickRod going back at least a decade. Working with the guy for years. He gets a new HC job and they go running back to him.
Yet somehow that is all because they are seeing through Todd Graham — and of course it all Pederson’s fault.
And the kicker, “I hope I am wrong.”
I was never convicned that Pitt needed to hire a “Pitt guy” but those seem to be the guys that are willing to fully commit to a University and a program with less alterior motives. Toddy talks a big game about Pitt and being “Pitt men” but I still feel like hes trying to sell me the rustproofing and extended warranty…I just cant buy his BS sales lines.
Paul Petrino is out at illinois he has run the spred and he is not poison as the penn state coachs will be for a few years.
and i think you are wrong abought loseing these coachs and recuting one of them was in charge of recruting and kids do go to a school becuse they like a coach do you remmber how TG and these same coachs took kids from tulsa and micnagain when they came here and the players dick rod wants are the same kind of players TG wants they might even go after our 4 star QB he would fit well with dick rod you all need to wake up they will take our kids if they can.
Nonetheless, there was apparently too much history with DickRod for these assistants. However, Partridge agreed to stay another year at Pitt before departing for a better job at Wisconsin, and Rhoads stayed another year before leaving for Auburn.
There is no exact science here .. aside that an asst coach at ASU is probably a better job than an asst at Pitt
I’m as frustrated as the next Pitt fan but I see a lot of good from this season. The team played hard, they fought through a lot of injuries and at the end of the day, the program is moving forward.
Would I rather be in the Orange Bowl, certainly. But regardless of how much it helps, I’ll take the extra practice time and the Compass Bowl any day over not going to a bowl game.
This team will find its way. We had a lot of close loses. No one can objectively watch the Pitt v. WVU game and say didn’t belong. We lost by one point at Morgantown after sustaining injury after injury. And guess what, WVU is in the Orange Bowl playing Clemson. So, we are not far off. Yes, we have issues that need to be addressed but we are progressing.
TG has come in and busted his ass to make this a better team. Yes, we all question some in-game coaching decisions. How could you not throughout an entire season? But we were handicapped at some positions and that is just reality. TG is hitting the recruiting hard, he is bringing intensity and passion and he is setting expectations high. To me that is refreshing. No one needs to win more than TG and atleast he isn’t running from that responsibility.
Can’t wait to watch against SMU. H2P!
Pitt has a very good football team and not only deserves to go to a bowl game but feel they had a chance to win several games but our coaching held us back. Hopefully, the coaches leaving are the reason…
As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I was disappointed in Todd’s performance as a head coach. Tino covered for many of his mistakes, now the honeymoon is over for him. Arizona has deeper pockets than Pitt. Rodriquez offered Todd’s assistants more money and they uprooted their families for warmer pastures; it’s always about the $$, always.
Tino earned the right to start against SMU but Todd should play other QB’s as well as other underclassmen. This is the first game for next season; it will be good practice for the returning players. All players, coaches and alumni should have fun and enjoy themselves. I’ll be there having fun and cheering Pitt on to victory. HTP!
Geez, people, take a pill and relax. If you doubt that TG’s offense actually works, just watch some tape of his Tulsa teams who look like lightning in a bottle next to what we’re used to seeing here. Give the guy a chance to get the right players and put it together. Considering that he inherited at team with little talent at QB, a mess of an OL, and average speed on both sides of the ball, I think TG did a reasonable job this year, especially with the rash of key injuries. The defense became dominant, and with just a little bit better execution on a few key plays on offense, we probably win the Big East, even with the 4th qtr meltdowns and inconsistent QB play. If Ray G were in there all season, you could easily beleive we have 3 more wins. There were also a lot of talented freshman on the field making an impact as well, which tells you the guy can recruit good players to eventually build his team.
However, some Pitt fans continue to have unrealistic expectations – or just like being miserable. To be fair, there have been some calls on the part of the coaches that have left me scratching my head, but far fewer than there were under Wanny – everyone seems to forget about those. I don’t know if TG will ultimately succeed here or not, but right now there’s no reason to beleive that things aren’t moving in the right direction. I’m excited to see what this team looks like when we get guys like Schell and Voytik in there. If we are still blowing leads and taking 10 sacks a game in two years then I’ll join in the TG bashing, but I suspect that won’t be the case.
It’s ludicrous to think that the three staff coaches leaving is in any way an indictment of Todd Graham. As Chas states these guys experienced great success at WVU with RR and, as I say above, I bet that RR’s getting them a nice pay raise.
Wally – you point to how hard it is to uproot family to move after jobs. I had to crack up about that. People in the military move on the average of 18-24 months… Junior Officers in the Army move even more frequently. As do junior executives moving up the corporate ladder. Most of these moves I mention are even lateral assignments with out a pay raise involved. I personally moved my family 10 times in 21 years.
Throw a pay raise in and people will jump at chances to move on. After all, none of those coaches have PGH or PITT ties. Staff coaches can expect to do the exact same thing if they are any good at all. Believe me, that doesn’t factor into their decision making at all.
MariettaMike – I can’t tell if you are joking or are serious in your post above. When you say “Tino covered for many of his (Graham’s) mistakes, now the honeymoon is over for him.” I have to wonder if you mean that Graham can point to Sunseri for the problems he had on offense, if so I can understand that because it’s true.
But if you mean that Sunseri somehow pulled Graham’s ass out of the fire, even once, I’ll say you are grossly mistaken. Please expound as I won’t be able to take my afternoon nap because I’ll be thinking about this and worrying you’ve gone insane.
FRANKCAN – I’ll bet you a dollar RR doesn’t get his hands on any of our committed recruits. OSU and other schools may get some that we are pursuing but haven’t committed to us yet, but that’s life in college football. We’ll get kids that other schools want also.
McCreedy might be a bit of a stretch – who knows what kind of legal issues he may have to deal with in the coming years, but LJSr would be huge.
and next year even better just dont want to see this fine class lost.
dick rod wants the same kind of kids as does Meyer
if they ran pro sets it would not worry me so mutch.
plus we took i think 5 players from tulsa if they take 5 from us we would be screwed.
As someone with ties to both Pitt & BGSU I have always been fascinated by our loss to BG. We all unfortunately remember the final score from August 2008: BGSU 27, Pitt 17. I (with full Pitt shirt and hat) sat in the BG fan section next to my wife wearing all Orange for the game until my yelling and screaming forced her to move me elsewhere.
We all remember that Pitt actually had a pretty good team that year and how disappointing that game was. BGSU was actually down that year (lost a lot of seniors from the previous year) and went on to struggle to a 6-6 record despite beating us.
Anyone know what BG’s previous game was? They played Todd Graham’s Tulsa in the GMAC Bowl 8 months earlier. Final score: Tulsa 63, BGSU 7.
I have no doubt in my mind that Todd Graham has flaws as a coach. But he can coach and coach well. I think the future is bright.
If you have a chance visit the place! If you want to talk about a “hole” cross the border at Nogales Mexico, you’ll certainly learn the difference.
“MariettaMike – I can’t tell if you are joking or are serious in your post above. When you say “Tino covered for many of his (Graham’s) mistakes, now the honeymoon is over for him.” I have to wonder if you mean that Graham can point to Sunseri for the problems he had on offense, if so I can understand that because it’s true.”
Yep, Tino’s lack of improvement at QB and poor judgement gave Todd an out. Now Tino is gone.
