What happened?
I don’t recall the sportswriters in Pittsburgh calling for Harris’ head after last season (with one exception). I remember some recriminations when the recruiting class fell apart, but no actual calls for axing Harris. I don’t recall anyone truly disputing that the quarterback competition was tight. Pitt hasn’t even played a game this season, but the sportswriters are about ready to toss Harris over now.
First Smizik went petty after the initial press conference and has stayed negative to Walt each time. Then Goslin started in on Harris. Next Cook took a side shot at Harris in a piece on a Pitt player. The big shot to me came when Smizik put a number on the number of wins Pitt must have for Walt to stay — 7 regular season wins. Even Joe Starkey seems to be openly questioning keeping Harris.
Today, Ron Cook firmly and directly puts himself in the “Walt must go” section.
It seems pretty obvious that a lot of important people at Pitt are getting tired of Walt Harris. There’s an unmistakable feeling around the university that he hasn’t done enough with everything he has been given, including first-rate facilities. There have been no New Year’s Day bowls. There were five losses last season with Pitt’s best talent in years, including six players who were drafted by NFL teams. There have been too many losses at Heinz Field. To Miami and Notre Dame last season. To West Virginia and Texas A&M in 2002. To Syracuse, Miami and, almost unbelievably, South Florida in 2001.
All of that has raised the pressure on Harris, who has not handled it well.
I don’t live in Pittsburgh anymore, so maybe I don’t know, but the only “important” people who I am sure “are getting tired of Walt Harris” are the sportswriters.
There even have been whispers about Harris’ girlfriend showing up on his arm at team functions. It all goes back to the losses, of course. No one would much care what his girlfriend was wearing if Pitt had beaten Miami last season or even Notre Dame and Toledo.
Huh? Is Cook now pulling his columns from rumors and innuendo popping up on sports talk radio? I think we mentioned his girlfriend once way back in the beginning of this blog, but that was it. Someone else want to fill me in on this one.
Now it’s time to hang Harris with his own words.
But here’s something else that also seems clear:
Harris doesn’t care.
He sounds like a man who is just as tired of Pittsburgh as Pittsburgh is of him.
“There’s so much negativity in this town,” Harris was saying recently. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I was at Ohio State, you know. It’s supposed to be bad there, but it’s nothing like here.”
…
“This is a pro city with a pro mentality,” Harris said, not backing down. “Nothing is ever good enough. I know that goes with the territory here. That’s our challenge. I’m not complaining. I’m just telling you how it is.”
Harris is right about one thing: 8-5 last season wasn’t good enough. Not with the team’s talent, especially on offense. Not in his seventh season.
“I felt horrible about that,” Harris said. “But it’s over. Let it go. You can hammer at it if you want — and I’m sure you will — but it’s behind us.”
That was spoken like a coach who is weary of getting beaten up.
Should I even ask why these “recent comments” never made it in to either paper? I guess, in this case, this wasn’t simply “Harris’ habit of speaking before he thinks.”
Cook ends the piece, raising the bar on win totals even higher. He says 7 wins may not be enough to save his job.
Look, I and the others on this blog are not Walt’s biggest boosters. Just read our posts during last season. You will see plenty of complaints and criticisms. There is no question that last year’s team horribly underachieved, Harris showed poor head coaching habits — game plan, in-game adjustments, and play calling — and the recruiting class fell apart while Harris seemed to fiddle. If those were worthy reasons for firing Harris, the time to have done so was then. No one made that call in the press or here.
But let’s be dead honest here. This year’s Pitt team is not that good. Everyone knows it. 6 wins should be considered a good season, for this team. By not firing Harris after last season, knowing that this would be a rebuilding year, the school and the program should and hopefully has committed to him for this year and next — barring a complete and utter collapse of the team. Of course, the other component is how he rebounds in recruiting.
So to now, as the season starts, to suddenly begin a Walt death watch is a crock. It smacks of front-running, cowardice, and opportunism. In the case of Cook and Smizik, it seems as if they are taking out personal grudges they have held against Harris now that he is down and they think he will be out.
In a more rational column questioning Harris, is a look at how Walt screwed up the quarterback situation.
Unless Tyler Palko delivers on his vow to win multiple national championships, the gamble Pitt coach Walt Harris took in signing both Palko and Luke Getsy in the same class could be classified as an unmitigated disaster.
Getsy’s decision to transfer after Harris named Palko the unquestioned starter not only leaves the Panthers with virtually no depth at the game’s most important position, but it also makes you wonder what could have been.
For a so-called quarterback guru, Harris’ recruiting tactics at the position have been curious, to say the least. Early in his Pitt tenure, Harris said he would like to sign one quarterback with each recruiting class.
Then he got greedy.
It’s a good piece with some good background history. Gorman also throws out Russ Grimm and Dave Wannstedt as possible replacements for Harris if he is fired.
Finally, a story on Clint Session’s family ducking Hurricane Frances.
