I joked yesterday in the comments section of the thread about Thomas quitting that Thomas must hate me because the news came out right after I posted my column on the offensive line. Well, lo and behold right as I put the finishing touches on the column below, it’s announced he’s coming back.

The column still has some use so I edited it just to go over the players who have left since the spring and why. Sure, the Thomas situation spurred it, but it’s still good to look at all of it. I obviously know that it’s purely coincidence, but it’s fun to joke about. We Pitt fans need to laugh a little at times.

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We interrupt the collective angst for this:

RT @mwhiteburgh: Beaver Falls hoops coach Doug Biega said things have been worked out and Todd Thomas will be back w #Pitt football team.

— Sam Werner (@SWernerPG) August 8, 2013

Added bonus, we appear to have gone 24+ hours without anyone quitting or being suspended in Pitt football. Unicorns and rainbows for everyone!

UPDATE: It’s never simple. It’s never easy.

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Well, the ACC already had the Gator, Sun, Belk and Pinstripe Bowls to make it feel like former Big East teams had never really left. Now the ACC finished its tie-ins with five other bowls and it just keeps feeling like home.

The partnerships are in addition to what the Conference previously announced, and have the ACC providing a team in each of the six years to the Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman; the AdvoCare V100 Bowl and a new bowl game in Detroit, Mich., hosted by the Detroit Lions Football Club of the National Football League.

Additionally, the ACC also reached partnership agreements with ESPN Regional Television’s Beef ‘O’Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla…

BEEF! I can live with St. Pete. Just the absurdity of the name makes it worth it. It’s okay. Just as long as —

…and the Birmingham (Ala.) Bowl games in those seasons when the games are scheduled to be played after Christmas.

NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I do have to keep reminding myself that turnover following a new coach — and radical change in demeanor — is nothing new. Maryland endured mass defections in Randy Edsall’s first year-and-a-half. As did Syracuse when they went from Gerg Robinson to Doug Marrone. Just to name a couple examples off the top of my head. In neither case was it where the on-the-field style was radically changed. It was the shift in the way the head coach handled the players.

It isn’t as simple as just getting rid of the guys that don’t want to be there. Or “changing the culture.” It usually just comes down to the simple truth, not all players like and respond to the same style of coaching. Just as not all coaches are comfortable with the personalities of all players. And when you radically flip styles there is going to be significant attrition.

It doesn’t (necessarily) mean the players are soft, quitters, whiners or can’t take it. Nor does it (necessarily) mean that the coaches can’t communicate, handle or manage different players. It’s just easier for the narrative and our own biases to frame it that way.

That said, enough already. I’m tired of this.
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