And so it seems the era of Chryst ends with the balance and even keel he preached. A 19-19 record after three years. Perfect balance.
I can’t be particularly angry at Chryst for choosing to go back to his alma mater. His state. Where all his ties are. I can be pissed at everything else around it, but not the decision.
It’s just hard to believe that with such “meh” results, Pitt is staring at yet another coaching search. I had hoped that if the program had to start looking this soon it would be because of success. Not Wisconsin giving Pitt a run for its dysfunction.
Technically it is not official. Yet, it seems to be all but. Paul Chryst will leave Pitt and return to Wisconsin.
Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez wasted little time in identifying, pursuing and securing a a head coach to replace for Gary Andersen.
According to a source close to the UW program, former UW assistant Paul Chryst is poised to return to his alma mater.
Normally, a .500 coach with equally mediocre recruiting leaving would not be met with a sense of frustration. Given Pitt’s recent insanity with coaching changes, it feels too soon.
Here’s what makes this coaching change and subsequent search so unnerving for me. I mean, aside from the whole involvement of AD Steve Pedersen. The team is limited in the candidates.
Pitt really can’t go out and hire a guy who is a big spread proponent. The personnel just isn’t there, and I don’t think the program can take another lurch and subsequent pains of putting square pegs in round holes.
As an aside, the best quote from the story.
“I thought this would be the scenario from Day 1,” the source told the Journal Sentinel. “He will put together a good staff.”
[Emphasis added for LOLs]
1. Who can coach
2. Who can recruit
3. Who wants to be here!
I am a huge Nordenberg fan for a lot of reasons but he did screw us by making sure SP gets a big payday no matter what… hey, its not his money, just the poor students paying rising tuition…
I was referring to others.
His reasoning?
Paul hasn’t told him he’s leaving yet…………………
The above is not a punchline to a bad joke. 3/4’s of the posters on the site are more in tuned with what is going on with our than Smug Pederson is
You’re looking at Whitehead’s old twitter feed. He changed his screen name & the RT I mentioned is still there.
Andrew Chiappazzi ?@BCT_AChiappazzi 11m11 minutes ago
Jordan Whitehead dismissed any thought of abandoning Pitt if there ends up being a coaching change. Still enrolling in January #timesfb
a week for 1 year.
But truthfully, you don’t want to know where this Program is heading if Chryst does in fact pack his bags and leave.
Not Good.
Could it be that SP wants HCPC to stay because his job may depend on it? That’s what it seems to me.
But it just might take the STUDENT BODY to do something in order to convince Chryst he has a home in Oakland.
Where’s the Oakland ZOO when you need them?
Next year is supposed to be better. I only say this because it is always next year. We
Live on next season, next year. The AD and Chancellor
Arent even on same page now.
i really don’t think is/was the answer to pitt returning to 9-10 wins a year. that’s just from i’ve seen over the past three years. is that all his fault?? no prob not. i believe he, among the other coaches were hamstrung by the asshole sp.
Pitt can be trying to keep PC and be looking for a new coach at the same time you know, it isn’t impossible to do both those things at once.
But all we want for Christmas is our two front teeth or maybe …..
Three… count it… THREE Pitt Players from the last few years in the NFL. Only one, Tom Savage… did Chryst recruit.
Fast forward to today… BOYD, CONNER, CLEMMINGS all GUARANTEED High Draft Picks.
And Chryst has yet to have a Quarterback he recruited under Center.
You and ANYONE else UNDERVALUING Chryst are failing to see the REALITY of what he is in the process of building here… PIECE by PIECE.
Believe me, Barry Alvarez SEES IT!
defense?? that’s not the head coach’s responsibility is it??
Pitt has received several inquiries from prospective coaches about a possible opening, but Pederson said he has not returned those calls.
“I haven’t talked to anybody,” he said. “We have a football coach right now. We have a good football coach, and that’s my concern, focusing on him right now.”
Yeah Stevie boy….don’t even pick up you phone and return their calls.
Please….FIRE THIS BUM!!!!!!!
yeah full of sarcasm..lol
OK, that said… until this Year… I also thought that Conner… while BEST at Runningback in College… likely would be headed to DEFENSE at the next Level.
But seeing how Conner transformed himself into something LEANER and FASTER, I would NEVER sell this Kid short on whatever he wants to do.
If he wants to be an NFL Back… there’s no way anyone can say “He can’t do it.”
You’d be FOOLISH to do so.
LeGarrette’s had a pretty good NFL career for a bruising-style RB. Conner can too.
Pitt has owned Aliquippa historically, Devon Henry, swing and a miss! Foster? Strike two. And where is that four star QB recruit that an offensive guru like Chryst should have brought in three years ago as a cornerstone to building a program? Strike three. His recruiting techniques have proven to be a weakness not a strength.
The other huge factor that is missing with Chryst is the entertainment factor. Where is the showmanship? Fraud Graham has it! He can shovel the BS to excess, but he realizes that it is important to create excitement and produce a buzz, sincere or fabricated, because after all, college football is nothing more than another form of “entertainment”. All Chryst has is his “aw shucks” Midwestern sincerity going for him.
Chryst doesn’t have that knack to be the team’s Master of Ceramony, he is a “neat” guy who has helped stabilize a program that was severely listing and most people “appreciate” that. But without regard to whether Chryst stays or goes, he has already made enough errors while learning on the job to negate the potential of him ever being included in the ranks of the past elite coaches at Pitt.
So please put down the torch you seem to be carrying for the guy, he is not and never will be the second coming of Jock.
1. the program turned out to be much worse off than anyone thought as we watched what unfolded in his first year.
2. The program in every aspect is much better off from his time here, period.
No matter what happens he did us well while he was here and we should acknowledge that and wish him the best back home where he came from.
and that is why if we do hire someone we need someone with that local connection as well.
Just about every alternative mentioned here will be people that will be gone once they string together a few 9-3 seasons and get to a decent bowl… they will be the buzz of the off season and gone to their ‘dream job’.