A Defining Moment for Pitt Football

I’ve spent most of New Years day relaxing, watching sports, and trying to get a handle on what has transpired with the University of Pittsburgh’s football program over the last 24 hours. Admittedly, I am stunned. I'm fairly sure I am not alone in that sentiment.

My respected sources (aka, Emily) first caught word of the Mike Haywood arrest story around 11pm Chicago time on New Year’s Eve. Not long after I noted that Bob Smizik was all over the story in his blog. The story has been a non stop source of conversation throughout the Pittsburgh sports blogosphere since it broke.

Twenty four hours later (as I write this), Haywood is out of jail and out of job. Pitt is once again looking for a new football coach and trying to overcome a potentially crippling moment for a floundering program.

The Haywood situation is an embarrassing moment for the University of Pittsburgh on a national scale. It’s an unfortunate and unexpected set back that leaves everybody involved ripe for criticism. It’s the type of moment that could do unfathomable long-term damage to the football program. But it does not have to be.

What Pitt does in the next two weeks will ultimately define this incident, not what happened this weekend. The University acted swiftly and definitively by firing Haywood today, for better or for worse. They need to continue to do so by spending the next two weeks seeking and finding a candidate to build the program around. They need to understand that this absolutely can be salvaged.

Keep in mind that Notre Dame survived the George O’Leary fiasco. The program fell on hard times but those issues had nothing to do with their rapid decision to cut ties with O’Leary after his bizarre fake resume incident. Truthfully, their failure was in hiring the wrong man to replace O’Leary.

Pitt can survive this and move forward. They can acknowledge that this hire went wrong and devote all of their resources to finding the right man. A coach with the 'A' list credibility to build a program who is willing to work at Pitt. I don’t pretend to know who that candidate is but I know they don’t have to go far to find the model. Panther football needs to find their Jamie Dixon.

Pitt is in a difficult spot because the top shelf candidates are not coming. Rest assured, Urban Meyer is not coming out of retirement to coach at Pitt. Every coach Pitt has ever hired has been either an unknown or somebody from a lower tier program.

They need to find somebody who fits the Dixon profile; a young coach who commands discipline and accountability but can also build a program as a head coach. They need to find somebody excited enough about this job to not use it as a stepping stone. That’s a very difficult line to walk which is why such candidates are not easy to find. Keep in mind that many people were not happy with the Dixon hire.

Let me step back and make two important points here.

First, I’m a little disappointed that Haywood did not get some due process in this matter. My beliefs are exactly the same as they were when the first Ben Roethlisberger accusations were reported. The media and fans have some obligation to wait for the relevant facts to come through before they condemn the accused. It’s entirely possible that this incident will ultimately not play out as initially reported; just as was the case with Big Ben.

That said, I understand why Pitt moved so quickly to fire Haywood. There was a critical need to act quickly and decisively in order to get beyond this. As for Haywood, if you are going to be a high profile public figure, you have to be beyond reproach, especially if you have not had time to establish credibility with your new employer and alumni. If this incident happened after three years and 25+ wins, Pitt might have given Haywood greater benefit of the doubt.

I specifically made the point with Big Ben that he was an NFL QB, not a teacher or priest. Quite frankly, Haywood’s job does require a higher standard. He is consider a teacher; a man who is responsible for molding young men. Such charges are a greater impediment for a man in his position than an NFL QB.

Haywood simply does not have enough football cachet to overcome something as serious as a domestic assault charge. In a court of law, he deserves every presumption of innocence until proven guilty. In the end, that presumption survives only to the court house walls. If he’s found not guilty his life will go on; just not as the football coach at Pitt.

Second, the idea that this incident somehow invalidates the Dave Wannstedt firing is absolutely absurd. I’ve heard numerous fans already suggest that Pitt should lick its wounds and beg Wanny to come back. Their argument is that he’s a solid guy who produced 7 or 8 wins a year and that’s not so terrible. This is a losers lament. There is no reason Pitt can not win 10 games and compete for Big East championships.

Pitt made the absolutely correct decision to fire Wanny. The program took a step back under his leadership and continually failed in big games. The program went backwards for three years after his arrival and he nver delivered a BCS Bowl bid, in spite of coaching in an awful conference. His team looked desperately out matched and out coached in every big game. And whatever minor progress occurred in 2008 and 2009 was wiped out with a horrifically embarrassing 2010 season.

As I noted last month, Wanny continued to demonstrate the same faults and deficiencies he showed in Chicago 15 years ago. You can not keep a coach who shows no growth over two decades simply because the new hire did not go as you hoped. Pitt’s mistake was not getting rid of Wanny; it was hiring the wrong replacement. And let’s be honest, they may have simply been a victim of nearly inconceivable circumstances.

Which brings us to the critical question; what does Pitt do now.

The University must devote all of its available resources to finding the best possible candidate. They can not settle for one of their coordinators or the first coach who will take a job. They can not settle for an alumnus with no head coaching experience like Russ Grimm. Pitt needs to find someone who brings immediate credibility to the program. They need to find their Jamie Dixon.

It was important to find the right person to replace Wannstedt. It is absolutely essential that they find the right person to replace Haywood. Keep in mind, Haywood was brought in to rescues the program from poor on the field performance. The new coach must do that and rescue them from this debacle.

One name that has been thrown around is Tom Bradley. I have infinite respect for Bradley’s work at Penn State. I think you could argue that he’s been the defacto head coach without the title for the last three years. He is a smart and dedicated football man and a great recruiter. He would certainly bring credibility. Still, I’m not sure he’s the right choice and not just because I do not want to lose him in Happy Valley.

The fact is Bradley has no head coaching experience. Hiring coordinators for big time college head coaching jobs is always risky because they do not have the overall experience of building a program. I think Pitt needs to find a young and energetic coach (50 or younger) who has been successful at building a program. That’s what needed to happen from the beginning. The program needs an infusion of life after the Wannstedt era.

Do I think Bradley can stabilize the situation and lend some credibility in a crisis situation? Absolutely. Do I think he can take Pitt to the next level that Wanny could not? Frankly I’m not sure. I would rather take a risk with a younger candidate who has shown they can build a program. Admittedly this is inconsistent with the Dixon comparison but football programs are frankly more difficult to run than basketball. And Dixon inherited a good situation. The new football coach inherits a mess on and off the field.

That said, I’m fairly sure I will not be on the search committee. Its up to Mark Nordenberg and Steve Pederson (assuming status quo), to find the right man. In the end, it’s not the Haywood failure that will define them here; it’s what they do now. If they panic on Frank Cignetti or heaven forbid Rich Rodriguez (and yes I’m being presumptuous there), I think the program will start a long hard fall.

Saturday was an awful day for the University of Pittsburgh. Sunday was the first day in repairing the damage. What happens next may define Pitt football of the foreseeable future.

Time to Close Down the Wanny Era

There are times in life when you are right, you know with certainty that you are right, and yet you do not really want to be.

I had such a moment when the University of Pittsburgh hired Dave Wannstedt as their head football coach. I knew then, with almost shocking clarity that Pitt was making a huge mistake. I hoped to be wrong. Deep down, I knew I was not.

When you live in a city, watch many of a team’s games, and hear all the post game analysis, you get to know the team pretty well. So I learned quite a bit about Wanny my first four years in Chicago. And one thing I could tell you with absolute certainty was that Dave Wannstedt is not a good head coach.

The Bears went were a 500 team in Wanny’s first four years although they never won more than 9 games. Then came the collapse to 8 and 24 the next two years and Wanny’s inevitable firing. They ran what I lovingly called the three yards and a cloud of dust offense; and a straight 4-3 vanilla defense. They seemed to always lose close games and were frequently out played in the second half of games. Sound familiar Pitt fans?

Every time the Bears lost, Wanny would say, “we’re gonna coach harder.” The best quote I ever heard was from a Chicago sports radio host who said (paraphrasing), I don’t care how hard you coach. I want you to win games.

For the second time, sounding familiar Pitt fans?

Ever watch the 4th line grinders on an NHL hockey team? They are important role players but you don’t build a team around them. You build around star players who see the entire ice surface and adapt to all different situations. Grinders dump and chase.

Dave Wannstedt is a grinder. A good guy and a hard worker but a grinder none the less.

I simply do not believe Wanny can see and think the game at the same level as better coaches. He tries to compensate with excessive preparation and hard work. That might work for a coordinator; it does not work for a head coach. Great coaches understand that game plans are fluid. They evolve and adjust within the game, based on the talent and scheme of the opponent.

Wanny never adjusts in game. I believe it’s because he can’t. What’s worse, the schemes he’s trying so hard to win with were popular in the 1970s. He’s about 25 years behind the curve on both sides of the ball.

Another interesting trend that I noted about Wanny in those first four years was this; the national media loved him. It used to drive the Chicago media crazy when the national folks would blindly say, “Dave Wannstedt is a good football coach.”

The same radio personality mentioned above was doing a weekly segment with Craig James, then of CBS during Wanny’s last year in Chicago. At some point James said, “Dave Wannstedt is a good football coach; he will turn this thing around.” So the interviewer asked him point blank, tell me one thing about Wanny that makes him a good coach. Give me one example of something he does as well or better than other great coaches?

James had no answer. He was just another national media guy who bought in to the Wanny façade.

I will not say Wanny was handed a Super Bowl team by Jimmy Johnson in Miami but he was definitely handed a playoff team. In his first two years, they made the playoffs twice and won once. In that one win Wanny ran journeyman running back Lamar Smith over 40 times. Smith was completely useless the next week when Miami lost. Sound familiar Pitt fans? Here’s a hint, Deion Lewis, Cincinnati, 2009.

In year three, Miami was 9 and 6 and needed to beat New England to make the playoffs. The Pats had nothing to play for. Miami had a huge lead in the game and ended up losing. Any chance Bill Belicheat made adjustments at the half, Wanny did not. That was the year he ran Ricky Williams in to the ground. The next year Miami started 1 and 8 and Wanny bailed.

See where this is headed Pitt fans?

Pitt hired Wanny because they fell for that same Wanny façade. They looked at his record in Miami and deemed it successful. In reality they should have looked at how the franchise regressed during his tenure. They figured they were getting a proven NFL head coach and a Pitt man. It looked like the perfect combination. Sadly it was a mirage.

I know many Pitt fans do not like Walt Harris but the reality is he was the most successful Pitt coach since Jackie Sherrill. I realize that’s not exactly launching the bar but it is what it is. They went to five straight bowl games and deserved or not, the Fiesta Bowl in his last year. Wanny took that Fiesta Bowl team and went 16-20 over the next three years. You know, while he was implementing his “system.”

And what is that system? Lining up in the I formation and running the tailback 40 times off right tackle? This in an era of unprecedented offensive creativity in college offenses. For heaven’s sake, even Penn State runs a spread offense from time to time. It’s no better on defense where Pitt lives in a vanilla 4-3 and rarely adapts (see UConn, Thursday night).

Does anybody find it interesting that Wanny is always pegged as a defensive genius from his time in Dallas and yet he has never had a signature great defense in 16 years as head coach?

Pitt has one signature win in the Wannstedt era. They knocked WVU out of the national title game in a season where Pitt was already guaranteed a losing record. I watched that game;. WVU lost it more than Pitt won it. Wanny has lost every other big game at Pitt since he took over. That includes his team blowing a 31-10 lead at home against Cincy last year when apparently Brian Kelly figured out how to deal with all Deion all the time at halftime.

In spite of all this, I initially hoped Wanny might succeed in college based solely on his recruiting ability. I hoped he could provide stability to the Pitt coaching job that has never before existed. There are plenty of guys who can not coach a lick in the NFL but succeed in college as great recruiters. Alas, even Wanny’s recruiting ability appears over blown.

Such coaches usually hire great assistants to help them. Wanny hired Matt Cavanaugh who later admitted he did not really understand college offenses. I’m not sure I understand that since I’m fairly sure Cavanaugh played college football. That being said, he was Wanny’s offensive coordinator in Chicago and I’m not sure he understood pro offenses either. In either case, he was a known commodity to Wannstedt. So much for hiring good assistants.

It’s amazing that in year six I still hear excuses for Wannstedt. Are you really willing to accept that in six years, the pinnacle of his success was beating North Carolina in some second rate December bowl game? After blowing two chances to win the Big Least? That’s the North Carolina game where Pitt got to first down on the 31 yard line with one minute left and ran up the middle three straight plays. I mean nothing says game winning strategy like, set the kicker up for a 47 yard field goal.

I’m assuming Pitt ends up 7-5 this year. If that’s the case, here is Wanny’s record in 16 years of coaching. Eight seasons of 500 or worse. Three seasons total with 10 wins. Two playoff wins. No championships at any level, not even a conference championship game. No Big Least championships or possibly one championship this year backed in to in the worst season by a conference in BCS history.

That’s a 16 year track record of futility folks. If you don’t want to buy my in depth analysis of Wanny’s weaknesses, just look at that. Wins and losses are the ultimate measuring stick in sports. You can’t hide from them, at least not over 16 years.

I’ve entertained the idea that Pitt could do worse than a coach who wins 8 to 10 games every year, recruits well, and remains loyal to the program. That assumes these things can actually happen. Pitt is on its way to a 7 win season in the worst conference in college football. That would be four of six seasons Wanny has not hit 8 wins.

Honestly, do you believe Pitt is better off today then they were in September 2005? Wanny was supposed to take the program to the next level. At the absolute best, it’s a break even.

One final thought; how much disrespect for Wanny’s defense did the UConn coach show Thursday night? Going for it on 4th and 1 from his own 25 yard line with two minutes left? And please explain to me why Pitt did not put ten in the box and sell out to stop the run when there was absolutely no way UConn was going to pass?

Simple answer, that’s Wanny football. Unchanged and without adaptation since 1992. If Pitt is smart, they will adapt next year…with a new coach.