RE: Florida State receivers wide open all night vs. Pitt
This is very simple. Pitt's administration, big boosters and many of our fans are totally nuts and they are their own worst enemy.
Don't get me wrong, a great many schools have crazy, temperamental boosters who think they know more about football than they actually do. The difference is most schools' admins are smart enough to not listen to the reactionary goofs. Not at Pitt. Nope, our admins listen to the lunatic fringe and almost always with disastrous consequences. And yet we never seem to learn from it.
Isn't that delightful?
Including interim coaches, Pitt has had six head coaches in the past four seasons. SIX! That is a lot of coaching turnover for any program to overcome. To make matters worse, each coach played a different system than his predecessor. For example, Dave Wannstedt was an NFL guy who ran NFL schemes. He wasn't Vince Lombardi by any means but neither was he nearly as bad as some would have you believe.
Wannstedt was assembling his best recruiting class at Pitt - top 10 in the nation according to both Rivals and Scout - when he and his entire staff was fired. Pitt had won 10 games just the year prior but Pitt's fans and admins were incredulous that Pitt could lose to the likes of Cincinnati and Connecticut, so they fired the guy.
Please note that was NEVER my attitude so don't get pissy with me. However, that was the prevailing sentiment at Pitt at that time and that is why Wannstedt was fired. The mentality here is that it is a disgrace for schools like Cincinnati, Connecticut, Rutgers and even West Virginia to ever be better than Pitt and if they are, then someone needs to pay.
How completely crazy and self-destructive is that mindset? I'd say that the results speak for themselves.
Here's a perfect example, during the 2005 season in which Walt Harris was leading Pitt to a BCS game, Pitt's admin informed him that his contract would not be extended. Why? Because they didn't like the direction of the program and because it was "a fluke BCS appearance" anyway. Who else is crazy enough to do that following a BCS appearance? Nobody, that's who.
Anyway, when Wannstedt and his entire staff was fired, they brought in Michael Haywood who was a complete maniac.
Haywood had the worst, most bizarre introductory press conference I have ever seen. Most such events are filled with laughter and rehearsed one liners and promises of a better tomorrow and all the rest of that BS. Remember, I'm a Pitt fan and as such I have seen my fair share of introductory press conferences.
During Haywood's introductory press conference, there was no laughing or joking at all - just a man who looked like he was going to pass out and/or physically attack someone.
I am not kidding that when I say that when Haywood was asked to compare his coaching style to someone else's, his answer was Freddie Krueger. That is not a joke. He also talked about he he liked to nap under lockers before games.
Immediately following the press conference, everyone who saw it was very alarmed and concerned for the man's emotional stability.
Haywood promptly chased away all of Pitt's assistant coaches, top recruits and even some members of the team. A few weeks later he did even greater damage to the program - and confirmed everyone's fears regarding his psyche - by battering his baby mama outside of her home.
He was promptly fired before he could do any further damage to the program. Unfortunately that whole episode destroyed that entire recruiting class - mostly because of its unfortunate timing.
Enter Todd Graham, a pure spread, hurry-up offense, flash and dash kind of guy. The definition of a classic fast talking, Texas snake oil salesman - a complete creep. His recruits were all small, quick and lean and he quickly ran off most of Wanny's remaining players and brought in a bunch of questionable kids from Texas, Oklahoma and the Deep South. Graham was gone less than a year later and almost all of his recruits left with him. What do you think that did to a program already on shaky ground?
His replacement, Paul Chryst is a stereotypical ground and pound, two TE traditional Big Ten football kind of guy. His recruits - out of necessity - are all big, burly types. So, bye bye all of those little shifty guys and hello bruisers.
In addition to that, our top recruit from two seasons ago, Rushel Shell, turned out to be a complete goof and basically quit the team because they made him do horrible things like lift weights, condition in the off-season and put down the pipe.
Oh, the humanity!
The kid quit the team and when he found out Pitt wouldn't release him to Arizona State to play for Graham, he immediately began personally contacting all of Pitt's recruiting targets trying to convince them to go elsewhere. After a prolonged process, he finally decided to transfer to UCLA. Soon thereafter he learned that UCLA had similar policies in place as Pitt regarding lifting weights, conditioning and drug usage and changed his mind yet again. So where did he want to go? Naturally, back to Pitt. Unfortunately for him, Pitt told the goof to take a hike and basically blew him off. He then visited a whole bunch of other schools before settling on West Virginia, the only school left who would take him.
Naturally, upon arriving in Morgantown, he immediately began trashing Pitt again to would be recruits. What a nice kid.
As a result of all of that turnover and self-inflicted wounds - the incompetent AD that caused all of that upheaval was just given a five-year contract extension, BTW - Pitt had 23 freshmen listed on its depth chart for last night's game including 11 true freshmen. That does not include the tailback, Conner, who was not listed on the depth chart but led the team in rushing attempts last night. It also doesn't include the fact that all five starting offensive linemen were making their first career start at their respective positions.
On D, one of their starting DEs is a recently converted FB and one of their LBs is a converted QB. Pitt returned eight starters from last season but almost all of the reserves were underclassmen.
That is a lot of youth and inexperience for any team to deal with and when you play a team as good and talented and deep and experienced as Florida State, they are usually going to expose you. I promise you that won't be the only time Pitt gets embarrassed this season. It just comes with the youth territory.
I will say that I am reasonably confident that Pitt has FINALLY hired the right guy after missing terribly on several previous hires. I like Chryst's style and I sincerely believe that in time he will do very well here. However, we have to fight our well chronicled impulses and give the man the time and resources he needs to be successful.
I will say this much: I am a bit more worried about our rookie DC. We looked completely lost all night on D and some of that had to do with FSU's talent and speed but a lot of it was us as well. For example, we lined up incorrectly several times and they gashed us each time. Also, there were several plays in which the Pitt player was there but failed to wrap up. Those are killers and they will get you beat whether you are playing Florida State or Florida A&M.
Pitt will also likely struggle next season and hopefully in 2015 we will begin to see some signs of life. If we don't start to see something by then, Chryst will be gone and we'll start from scratch all over again...because we are nuts.
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Florida State receivers wide open all night vs. Pitt
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