We all saw the breaking news about PITT hiring ex-Utah State Athletic Director Scott Barnes as the new AD and here are the formalities of introduction.
MEDIA ADVISORY
From: E.J. Borghetti
Executive Associate Athletic Director/Media Relations
Re: Friday Press Conference
The University of Pittsburgh will hold a press conference to address its athletic director position on Friday, April 24, at 3 p.m. The press conference will be held on the first floor of the William Pitt Union (3959 Fifth Avenue) in the Lower Lounge.
Media outlets with marked vehicles only may park in the circle located on the Fifth Avenue side of the William Pitt Union.
UPDATE: There will be a livestream of the press conference.
Until then – I’m from Missouri, show me the money! (and I don’t me Elijah Field’s money either although that was a nice part-time job he could do when not practicing or studying to get him through the rigors of a PITT undergraduate degree.)
Moving from the BE to the ACC is like a AAA baseball team or an AHL team moving up to the bigs…it takes time to develop the connections as well as to recruit up.
Despite his comment about the lady panthers – that team really stood out this year and deserves a lot of credit!
I would rather have a positive attitude and be proven wrong later. I hope the new guy has as much success as Cas Myslinki.
Although I was on an Olympic sport during Myslinki’s tenure. We were definitely second class citizens, he attended a meet once and the coach would have passed out had he not been on a strong sedative ( most of the time). So if you think Pitt has a laisse faire attitude regarding athletics now, you have no idea.
I see you on here all the time talking about how much money Pitt should pony up for big time guys and how much they overpay the guys they have.
May I assume that you are a huge donor?
If not, then take your sophomoric quips to an SEC or WVU blog where they belong.
PSU AD makes less then we pay. Is he bad?
…and no its not about a ‘diversity’ of opinion.
A few people are NOT Pitt fans… they are pathetic.
It’s a reason why myself and I assume others fade away.
Yet Chas and others just let it go on…
whaaaatever,
…the fact is on days like this when as a Pitt fan you just want to enjoy the optimism, …. DON’T come here…
… a real buzz kill…
I’m outta here for now and back to twitter where I can enjoy my Pitt school making good moves.
There is a reason the northeast and midwest is losing population. Call it what you want. Weather, opportunity, disdain for grey skies and no sunshine for over half the year. So again I ask, what gives anyone the idea we won’t be going through this again in 4 years? I am sure he would leave tomorrow for the AD job at San Jose St or wherever he played college ball.
I would hope we get good years from him and I do like the enthusiasm. My broader point was let’s wait and see. AD’s get way too much credit for taking their universities into conferences. Let’s not forget that it is the conferences that send out the invite if they want you. An AD gets credit when they approach a conference whilst already in another and sees if it is a better move. If he comes in and matriculates Pitt to the big10, 11, 12, 13 then he is doing something special. Not the move itself, but rather orchestrating it on his own volition.
This is one of the things you can’t take seriously. Relax and forget the so called trolls.
The most overpaid coaches in college football.
Maybe cause he’s only been in Creepy Valley for 1 year.
Had the list been say… Top 15 most overpaid, the 2 Paulies might have appeared on it. That being Rhoads at $1.8 and Cheesehead at $1.6 per.
I memtioned earlier Spokane is similar to Pittsburgh culturally/value wise. While Pittsburgh is larger it is a manageable town to live in.
Spokane and Cheney, Wash. have a bunch of cold snowy/gloomy days, but not rainy as Seattle. It always rains in Seattle. Eastern Washington was home to Barnes both growing up and professionally. He ain’t no Southern Cal boy.
Barnes went to Fresno State. I think that is not quite Santa Barbara.
He stays a while wherever he goes. Plus how many biggeer AD jobs are there in college sports?
I am feeling really poor now. Obama, what did you do to the value of my money!!
A dollar’s purchasing power in 1913 is now worth 1 cent in 2015.
Barry is just the latest US prez, who have presided over the devaluing of our currency.
Weimar Republic ?
OK, maybe except for Jamie’s lack of quality recruiting and Upitts baseball team. But I’m optimisticly happy!!!!
Can Barnes bring the some Koch brothers money to Pittsburgh? Before prices go up, PITT should get some fracking rights
Oh well, I will have to put more money into the market. Tired of no return. Now that I know the new level of football coaches salaries.
I’ve consumed my fair share of Koolaid over those years but at no time in recent Pitt history has the stars been so favorably aligned for future success as they are at this moment. And there is no Koolaid induced optimism in this opinion. Look at where our football program stands at this point in time:
Secure in a P5 conference.
A future OOC schedule that includes the likes of Iowa, ND, OSU and a resurrection of the Pitt-penn state rivalry.
The successful exorcism of a toxic AD with a replacement whose resume demonstrates a recent turn around success story at Utah State.
A new football coach that has a goal focused attitude that is all about winning football games and expecting his charges to seriously compete for conference championships right out of the gates.
A football team that has two offensive weapons whose accomplishments have already earned them all ACC honors.
Our new HCPN who is the right medicine right now to improve the health of a weak defense, being the defensive guru that he is.
An opening 2 game OOC opponent slate that has “payback” motivation written all over it with games against YSU & Akron to kickoff the season.
And a fan base that is pent up with the long overdue desire for their alma mater to become relevent once again on the national stage.
This situation is primed for takeoff. Winning is the essential catalyst now required to get this assembled concoction to react with explosive results. HCPC, has laid the ground work, “can Narduzzi kick this thing off into high gear immediately” is going to the million dollar question needing to be answered come this fall?
Until I see some “substance”, I’m taking a wait and see attitude. Us Pitt fans have all had our hearts broken so many times over the past few decades that we have every right to be apprehensive of the developing hype without it being backed up by results.
But with that being said, the POTENTIAL sitting on our front porch right now is huge. Show me results! Please, prove that my enthusiasm is warrented with results. I’d love to be so excited by those results that I am motivated to drag my front porch couch out into the street for a marshmallow roasting celebration!
This is could be a turning point in Pitt’s athletic history, let’s hope it is. Hail to Pitt!
So, for me at least, I take that same wait and see attitude toward Barnes as some others do. But I force myself to remember when I was in HS and a Jesuit Priest talked to me about being strongly opinionated and that was to “Wait to believe’ in something until you have looked at it from every angle and through everyone elses’ eyes. Then be willing to change your opinion later if circumstances warrant it.”
I truly get the excitement and joy some PITT fans are feeling right now and I’m happy they are happy. I just don’t feel that way at all right now but that doesn’t mean I won’t like this hire later after he shows us something concrete… or maybe I won’t and will feel as I do now. I will agree that we live in interesting times when it comes to PITT sports with the three major personnel changes the university went through in the last year.
As for UPITT – he has as much right to be here as any other commenter and just because you don’t like his attitude or what he writes doesn’t mean he can’t be correct in his opinions. He makes some very good points here and there, it is just hard to find them sometimes. The only reason I asked him to proofread his comments before hitting submit was for the strong profanity he sometimes employs.
The guys I talk to who read the Blather almost all say one of the reasons they enjoy it is because it doesn’t have the crude bottom-dwellers as some blogs do. That is what makes it enjoyable and easy to read. All of our readers/commenters have good points to make, are seemingly intelligent and mostly witty and that is a great combination of things for all of us wanting to read the comments.
So, Chas hardly ever edits words out of a comment (maybe never) or bans a commenter (once or twice I believe) so UPITT is going to be allowed to post on here unless he goes completely off the deep end. Now all he’s doing is wading in water just a bit deeper than the rest of us.
Upittbaseball the king of negativity. Not a grad, not a
donor, not a jock. Just constantly critizing all things Pitt.
FYI, it is always easier to go negative than going positive.
Good day for Pitt…great school, great city, new energized
concenous building athletic adm/coaches team!!!
He also spoke about sitting down with HCPN to work together on an OOC schedule – and trying to extend to PSU series.
The journey may be slower than many would like, but at least we have someone to put us on a plan.
How does a dollar in 1915 equate to a penny today?
I have watched some coverage of SEC and B1G women’s gymnastics and their girls are amazing. I am entertained more by women’s college softball than by men’s baseball for some reason. Also soccer and lacrosse are both important in the ACC. Since like Old Pitt Grad, I was on the gymnastics team (which doesn’t exist anymore) and on a championship high school track team. I would like to see us competitive in those sports. Where do we run track anyway? How about volleyball, tennis anyone, golf? You never hear anything about these sports?
Stanford, a school known for academics, holds the most overall championships in all NCAA sports, we ought to emulate them.
How much did the Wizard of Westwood get paid in comparison to Calipari, Rockne to that guy in Michigan, thanks Obama.
Today’s CEO to those in the 50’s?
You guys kill me. lol
