Here is a detailed and in-depth look at the Panther football program under Pat Narduzzi. It was written yesterday by Bill Connelly of SB Nation and is a wealth of historical and present (and future) info about where we have been and the direction he thinks we are going into the 2016 season.
Here is an opening salvo to get your attention:
As fans, we have plenty of funny tendencies. If you raise the stature of our program just enough to break our heart with high-stakes losses, we will resent you for it.
It’s funny (if you’re not a Pitt fan, at least) to look back to the end of the last decade.
Under Dave Wannstedt, Pitt pulled off one of its most significant upsets, in 2007 (taking down WVU in Morgantown to prevent the Mountaineers from advancing to the BCS title game), then went 9-4 and 10-3 over the next two seasons. The Panthers went 8-5 in 2010, giving them 27 wins over a three-year period for the first time since 1981-83.
And Wannstedt resigned under pressure, hated by a large portion of Pitt fans.
But I’ll disagree – unless he thinks I am the only Pitt fan whose opinion matters I don’t think Pitt fans hated Wannstedt at all. It was more like they were so disappointed with all the crap that went on back in 2010 and his inability to outright win a BCS bowl bid in his six years as head coach that any sort of a change was a relief.
But let’s not put binders on as this writer has – there were a hell of a lot of Pitt fans that didn’t want to see DW go at all.
Aside from that this is a fantastic read. It is a breath of fresh air to read someone state the true comparisons between Chryst’s time at Pitt and Pat Narduzzi’s first year. We fans are infused with a lot of Narduzzi’s energy and exuberance so we look at last season with an overly positive view.
