Pitt Panther Prowl

Give the Guy a Break

I never wanted Pitt to hire Dave Wannstedt. First of all, his name is too hard to spell so it deterred me from blogging about Pitt football for a few years until I mastered the silent “d”. Beyond that, he was a bust as an NFL coach. I understood the reasoning for hiring him. 1. Wlat wasn’t getting the job done. 2. Wanny is a Pitt guy so he has a vested interest in the program as opposed to using it for a stepping stone. 3. As a former NFL coach, he has a recruiting angle because he knows what it takes to make it in the NFL. Since just about every recruit wants to play pro ball, Wanny’s NFL knowledge and connections were believed to be invaluable to recruiting.

Thus far the hiring of Wannstedt has been somewhat controversial. Many Pitt fans hate him and want him gone. Others think he needs to be given time to clean up Wlat’s mess. After three straight losing seasons, though, most people couldn’t believe he got a contract extension.

The thing is, despite the fact that I didn’t want him to be hired; and despite the fact that he has not had better than a .500 team so far at Pitt; Wannstedt has indeed proven himself to be a solid recruiter. He has brought in talent that is capable of winning games in the Big East even without a superior game coach running the show. On top of that, he has put together a pretty solid coaching staff. What remains to be seen is if he can run the team as head coach, bringing talented players and position coaches together to form a (at least semi) dominant team.

What really bothers me (even as one who didn’t want Wannstedt hired) is the way that many out there treat him, heaping all of Pitt’s failures on him (despite losing with Wlat’s recruits) and finding minutia to attack him about.

An example comes from a blog called www.coacheshotseat.com. I haven’t read the whole blog, only reading the post about Dave Wannstedt. But two things are clear from the blog. First, Wannstedt gets no credit for being a good recruiter.

Another troubling item is that according to Rivals.com Pitt’s recruiting classes are getting worse, not better in the last three years (Pitt’s recruiting classes 2006 #21, 2007 #26, 2008 # 28 - Rivals.com). That is just very odd, because so much has been made about Wannstedt’s ability to recruit the players to Pitt that Walt Harris could not.

The argument is being made that he is getting worse at recruiting when he is bringing in some amazing players and has been named the top recruiter in the Big East by his peers, including his most hated former rival Rich Rodriguez. The fact that he is getting top 30 recruiting classes to a program that hasn’t had a winning season since he took over is actually amazing. It is a sign of a GREAT recruiter. People want to play for him even when he has yet to yield fruit. I guess getting the likes of LeSean McCoy or the 15 wide receivers that could be starters at most schools, or having Conredge Collins, the top ranked FB in the country are all meaningless, which of course brings us to the second problem with the blog: it gives no weight to the players on the team.

If you read the entire post, it never mentions the kind of impact players that Pitt has. It never suggests that having a potential Heisman candidate in McCoy could help this team out. It never mentions that Pitt suffered so many significant injuries last season, including their starting QB Bill Stull, top WR Derek Kinder, and their top lineman.

It also blames Wannstedt for close losses that should have been won, leaving out the details of why those games were lost. The Navy game was 100% Wannstedt’s fault. There is no arguing that point. But LeSean McCoy’s fumble against Lousiville, Oderrick Turner’s dropped TD(s) cost Pitt against Michigan St., and unfortunate officiating cost them against Rutgers. None of these were caused by Wannstedt’s coaching. In fact, the post about Dave Wannstedt spends more time talking about how great a coach Jimmie Johnson was than it talks about the talent on Pitt’s team (which Wannstedt recruited) and Wannstedt himself combined.

The final analysis by www.coacheshotseat.com is that Pitt will finish 5-7 (and they pick Pitt to lose to Syracuse because of the location of the game, again ignoring actual players on each team) and Dave Wannstedt will be fired. While I agree that a 5-7 season would likely spell the end of the Wannstedt era, and would at the very least cost him any and all good will from the fans, I am not willing to accept their analysis on any level.

Sure Wannstedt hasn’t proven himself to be a fantastic coach. But there is just no questioning his recruiting. To get the recruits he has been getting without having won anything is a significant sign of his ability in that area. Beyond that, the assumption that games are decided solely based on who has the better coach is moronic. If that were the case then why doesn’t tOSU win the National Championship every year? Why did Florida win the national championship one year and then the following year limp into a bowl game with the same coach? Is it because the players on the field matter as well?

Wannstedt indeed needs to have a good season. He needs to take control of this team and deliver a solid 8 win season to really build and keep momentum. On the positive side, many of his solid recruits will just be breaking into the starting lineup this year, getting him out from under Wlat’s mistakes. But even as someone who isn’t particularly a Dave Wannstedt fan I have to say give the guy a break. Most of us as Pitt fans feel strongly that the program is moving in the right direction. We have been willing to cut slack because we see the recruiting classes coming in and we presume it will pay off. If it doesn’t, we will likely lead the charge in demanding Wannstedt’s head. But any analysis that can’t give him credit for doing a single thing right is analysis coming from someone with a definite agenda against the man.

My prediction: Pitt will have a good season and make a bowl game because Wannstedt isn’t playing the games; the studs he recruited are. And you can’t take the talent of the players out of the equation. Wannstedt will vindicate himself (though not necessarily making himself a top coach in the nation) by leading this team to contention for the Big East title.

Oh yeah, and Pitt will beat Syracuse.