In times like this, people choose different ways to cope. Some fly into rage. Others anguish and self-pity. Others find refuge in sarcasm, cynicism and bitterness. There’s always drugs and alcohol. Still others find refuge in detaching themselves from the emotions and treating it like watching an ant farm. Some combination is always recommended.
I’m opting for the drunken robot.
It is unlikely anything will be resolved tonight or even tomorrow. It is likely this will take several days to play itself out.
As such, it is important to take a look at some of the key players in how this drama will play out, and the forces at work.
Paul Chryst, Pitt head coach. Duh. This is a Pitt blog, do we care about the Wisconsin search if the speculation was centered on MAC coaches? Here’s the reality. He’s from Wisconsin. His father was a football coach at a small Wisconsin college. Much of his family really and truly lives in the state. He went to Wisconsin. He was the offensive coordinator at Wisconsin for a number of years. Even though Wisconsin can certainly offer more money than Pitt, there is no doubt that the reasons he would take the job would be about comfort and going home. While he has issued a statement. It is fair to say that it has little in actual teeth in terms of actual meaning.
On the other hand, there is no way he became the head coach at Pitt without giving the Pitt administration a lot of personal assurances that he was going to be the Pitt coach for a while. Not after everything that went down with his predecessor. The word of a college coach is of admittedly questionable value (doubly so when it comes to coaching vacancy). Most people describe Chryst’s sincerity in such glowing terms, that it seems reasonable to at least hope that the timing of the Wisconsin job opening is simply too soon for him to take it after being given his first chance as the head coach.
Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin AD. The man who had hand-picked Bielema to be his successor as Wisconsin head coach. A native of Western Pennsylvania, and once in the running to be Pitt head coach after Mike Gottfried was fired (instead Paul Hackett went from interim to full time guy, and no one should think too much about this without a bottle near them). He still has ties to the area, and by many accounts worked very hard to make sure Pitt really considered Paul Chryst for the head coaching job. Both to the Pitt administration and with Pitt boosters with whom he is still friends. Would Barry Alvarez have really pushed Chryst for the job if he thought Bielema was planning to leave in a year?
For Alvarez he has to evaluate what Chryst did in his first year at Pitt. A mixed bag that probably raised serious questions as well as encouraged.
Alvarez also has to consider some of the fallout among friends if he were to take Chryst from Pitt after working them hard to help get his guy the job. No one likes to feel like they have been used. That would be the impression left. If after preaching not only Chryst’s football acumen, but his character, Chryst left after one season when Wisconsin called.
That said, Alvarez is the Wisconsin AD. He is their institution. He has an obligation and probably feels a profound duty to do what is best for Wisconsin above all else. If he feels that Chryst is the best choice to be head coach, than all the other stuff is irrelevant. Even if it means burning some bridges in Washington County.
Dave Doreen, NC State head coach. Has the ink dried on his contract yet? Has he actually signed it? The former Wisconsin defensive coordinator (2006-2010) had been the Northern Illinois head coach for the previous two seasons. He has a short but impressive track record that would definitely have him as the front-runner for the job if NC State hadn’t snagged him over the past weekend.
As it stands, his contract at NC State is only $1.8 million per year. He would probably at least like a phone call. Right?
Steve Pederson, Pitt AD. If there is a guy on this list who is drinking heavy tonight, this is the guy. I realize there is a lot of animosity towards Pederson for so many different things. But I just don’t see how you put this on him, other than just because you despise him and that means it has to be his fault. The number of things that had to happen for the Wisconsin job to open one year later was something no one could have predicted.
Bielema seemed safely ensconced in Madison. He wasn’t mentioned as a guy for other jobs or looking to cash in by having his agent put his name out there for other jobs.
The Bielema to Arkansas scenario was something no one saw coming. Hell, at the time Chryst was hired, Petrino was still the head coach of Arkansas and the Razorbacks were going to be an early pick to be a national title contender. To think, this whole drama might have been avoided if Petrino hadn’t wrecked his hog.
Now having said that, Pederson needs to make Chancellor Nordenberg keeps the purse strings loose. Have a sitdown with Chryst and find out what he needs for his assistants and other parts of the football program. Then a talk with Chryst’s agent about other issues and perhaps even a contract extension if necessary.
Regrettably, Pitt is engaged in “corporate welfare” evidenced by its continued employment of Steve Pederson.
Now Pitt is again faced with a potential crisis and remains vulnerable because it perpetuated failure by keeping a proven incompetent AD.
If the worst happens, and I don’t think it will, Pitt is I’ll equipped to handle the fallout.
recruits to reassure them that the coaching
staff would remain at Pitt.
That said we have a right to be paranoid.
Oh, you mean the motorcycle. Never mind.
As some of you corporate guys know, if Steve does his job, he should have had a succession plan for Chryst in place when Chryst was hired. But we know Steve don’t we – rhetorical …
As Pitt alumn’s and fans, we’ll just have to wait and see how Wisconsin’s coaching search plays out. Hopefully, when all is said and done, I’ll be able to breakout the good stuff.
Hail to Pitt! As they say, this too shall pass.
The way I think, there is no issue here. If Chryst is the person that I feel he is, he went into this hire realizing that one of the criteria for his employment was giving stability to the program, especially considering Pitt going to the ACC in 2013. He also strikes me as a guy who sincerely is interested in building something here at Pitt. Considering this is his first head coaching job, I see him cutting his teeth on this Pitt job, making his share of mistakes, learning as he goes along, improving his recruiting techniques etc., all of which improves his worth as a head coach into the future.
Chryst is only 47, he has another 20 years of coaching left in him if he desires it, and right now he doesn’t need to feel that the Wisconsin job is a once in a lifetime lost opportunity if he is offered it and he turns it down. Now that doesn’t mean that he can’t use this as an opportunity to improve his situation at Pitt, especially if he interviews for the Wisky HC job and is offered the position. If that transpires then it is Pederson’s ass that is in a sling, if he screws those negotiations up. Because then, Coach Chryst bargains for a little more money maybe and a little more power maybe and a little more of whatever he wants to put out there to sweeten the deal for him and the Pitt football program going forward. But that is why, IMO his statement was somewhat vague. LEVERAGE my friends, the guy isn’t stupid.
Coach Chryst is still earning the right to be called a head coach. The way I see it, he strikes me as a man who wants to prove that he can turn a major college football program around, earn a name for himself and take this responsibility to it’s full potential. I really feel that he’s here for like 5 years because that is how long it will take for him to figure out if his influence on the program is going to result in those goals coming to fruition. Believe it or not, there are still some people left in this world who think along those lines and care about how their decisions effect the larger picture around them.
I know there will be plenty of you out there that will read this and think that old Dr. Tom is a sap who doesn’t comprehend the current mindset of the modern male in this current society and that the $$$$$ and selfishness of looking out for #1 trumps everthing else nowdays. Sorry, I just don’t see Chryst playing this situation that way. Now Todd Graham,,,,,GONE IN A HEARTBEAT!!! Chryst, he is a different breed.
The Wisconsin job will open up again in the future and who knows five years from now after Coach Chryst has earned his medals at Pitt and has increased his exposure through coaching in the ACC for a few years, he goes off to Wisconsin after the next guy leaves at Wisky, but for now I feel Coach Chryst is solid, if not then FIRE PEDERSON before we hire our next football coach and start ALL over. We’ll see.
Tiny (under)performs like the infuriating bonehead that he is in 2010. We naturally think dude CAN’T be THAT stupid and scatter-armed, it MUST be coaching, right? Adios Wanny.
Next in, Heywood. Okay, that one’s not on Tino, not even in my fertile imagination.
Enter Todd Graham. I’ll go to my grave believing that he was the exact right hire at the exact right time, and would have been here at least a few years if he didn’t have Donkey Sunseri trying to run his thorobred offense. I can imagine TG getting the same twitch in his left eye working with Tino Short-arm-seri that “Former Chief Inspector Dreyfuss” got from working with Inspector Clouseau in those old Pink Panther movies. Heck, as much as I love Pitt, I’dda been doing a geneology search for family in Arizona too working if I had to work with that uncoachable knucklehead (Tino not TG).
I’m still working on how Bielema leaving for Arkie is Tino’s fault … I’m sure it’s there, I just gotta noddle on it a little longer.
TX Panther – all of these contracts have a way out for both sides. The buyout for Chryst is $6 million according to what I have read. In the era of $100 million athletic budgets at major institutions, $6 million is not a hurdle. All of these football rich schools can find a handful of boosters to cover a paltry $6 million.
Chryst is a Wiscy man so I couldn’t fault him for leaving, that’s what college sports is nowadays. Although the NCAA should step in an do something.
Also on the FAN this morning they were saying they were hearing rumblings that Alvarez wants to return to coaching, which would set up Chryst taking the job a few years from now once he proved himself.
Had there not been this perceived incompetence, he would have been able to conduct last years coaching search on his terms – it may or may not have lead to Chryst.
The funny thing is that no one wanted Cristobal because he was seen as a flight risk – and then this happens.
Having ranted, I think Chryst is staying. He will be able to carry a lot of weight going into recruit’s homes and saying he turned down his dream job (whether he got offered or not). Local coaches and recruits will love this.
some were else he would have had at least 3 years
to prove him self so now he goes from the next hot coach to a nothing coach.
but if he leaves we need a pitt man to be the
next coach no more one and dones.
i would even take tinos dad he would be my number 3 pick but i could live with it.
but it needs to be some one who loves pitt some
one with pitt ties.
Comment by Beantown-Sean 12.05.12 @ 1:33 am
If this goes does and PC leaves, this should be what Cochran, Nordy and whoever do.
It was absurd at the time asking Wanny to resign(since we had our best 3 year run in 30 frickin years), and considering what’s gone on since that day in infamy, it’s criminal.
If PC stays, Pederson still must go for making PITT a laughingstock around the country and driving a lot of people away from Pitt football(just look at the 30k yellow empty seats at each home game) including lots of football alumni. If they want to de-emphasize football just come out and tell us, don’t have this slow death of a 1000 cuts. And Pederson is 1000 cuts and more.
If this goes down and PC leaves (i’m sure everyone would have known that, us being Pitt grads & such)
It would take an awful lot of love for Dear Ol Pittsburgh to even consider that guy!
“Just a day after news broke that Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema will leave Madison to coach at Arkansas, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of coaching the Badger football team in the Rose Bowl against Stanford on Jan. 1,” writes Lee Hawkins of the Wall Street Journal. “Alvarez, in New York for his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame and to raise funds for a new student-athlete facility, said he will make an official announcement of his decision at a press conference Thursday in Wisconsin.”
Alvarez coached the Badgers from 1990 to 2005. He went 117-74-4 in his 16 years there, and 8-3 in his team’s bowl games, including Rose Bowl wins to end the 1993, 1998 and 1999 seasons.
– Vince Verhe
“I’m watching presser on delay…Bielema flat out says “Wisconsin wasn’t wired to” pay/retain good assistants. Will be able to at Arkansas.”
Interesting comments to make publicly, and I wonder how much consideration something like that may come into play regarding Chryst.
