in Pitt Football 362 Words

Submittal: You Are the Athletic Director!

Submitted by Mark Kerestan (PittPT)

Now the Conference Championship games are over and the Bowl Selection committees have completed their selections and our Pitt Panthers are finished for the 2017 season. Throughout the season many of us have written that the Athletic Director or Head Coach Pat Narduzzi should make any of a number of changes to the staff.  But now with the entire season over, put yourself in AD Heather Lyke’s running shoes and imagine that you are having your end of season meeting with Coach Narduzzi.

Given all that occurred this year, the many downs and a few ups, what changes would you either ask or demand that the coach do in terms of staff positions and personnel to help ensure that the team is in a better position to win more than five games in 2018.

I’ll begin with my thoughts since I raised the question.

Given the improvement that seemed to occur overall at the end of the season (the NC and VT  losses are still killers), and Narduzzi’s rumored loyalty to his staff,  I wouldn’t ask him to fire anyone if he feels that the coaches are doing their jobs effectively.

However, as the NCAA has permitted teams to expand their coaching staffs by one beginning in 2018, I feel that if there is a legitimate quality person who is interested in joining the staff and would clearly make the team better I would spend up to about $750K to add that person to the staff as an asst. head coach to assist Pat Narduzzi in making better decisions and to shore up some areas of deficiency.

A couple of names that  come to mind are the oft mentioned Scott Schafer, Paul Rhodes  (who I learned this week was instrumental in improving Pitt’s tackling in preparation for the 13-9 win in Morganhole), or Walt Harris as a QB coach (which shouldn’t cost anywhere near my $750K limit).

Now it’s your turn.

Are there any staff changes or additions you would like to see the Panthers make to strengthen their brain trust and/or recruiting going into Letter of Intent Day and the 2018 season?

138 thoughts on “Submittal: You Are the Athletic Director!”

  2. OT:
    Richman:
    Have the student buses get a police escort to the game. No Stops.
    Try anything to help a shi y bus ride be better,

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  3. Thanks Mark, oh boy, is that a loaded question or what? 🙂

    I mentioned in another article last night that when Clemson stuffed a Miami run the announcers mention that Clemson had said they were going to run a similar style defense as PITT had done the week prior. << you know, Conklin’s D. If Narduzzi insists on keeping things intact for another year I would be laissez faire at this time with Pat’s coaching. I would maybe suggest to take a strong look at options though..

    Rhoades is a good idea but he may want more of a role than an advisor and $750,000 may be cut in pay for him. The one type of coach that I believe would help Narduzzi the most would be a sideline guy that can be right there with him helping and advising him.

    Now Wlat Harris is also a good idea as PITT needs a designated QB coach.

    Scott Shafer? most know how I feel about him. They could probably get him for around $500,000 per. I would definitely want some input into this hire… ike

    H2P!

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  4. Lyle should extend Narduzzi’s
    contract another 2 years. Also
    provide adequate funding for the additional coach. Also The environment and cost of a coaching staff is dramatically
    increasing. Pitt needs to be
    competitive or risk losing talented people.

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  5. You’re probably right that a forced change for OC and DC isnt going to happen and probably shouldnt if one believes in stability. What new coach can make the biggest impact and where? Partridge was brought in on D so I think we are good there. I see it on offense and a QB coach is probably a good idea.

    I’d also take a hard look at our recruiting. We need to see some 4 stars or else this program is toast. Dont give me the bull that Wisky has 2-3 stars and they are coached up (Wisky benefited from a weak schedule). Chryst tried to do that here for 4 years and we see the results of mediocrity.

    I’d turn the table on Heather and have a Coming to Jesus meeting with her. She needs to raise the funds for a competitive coaching and recruiting budget. She needs to find short term solutions to the attendance problem. She needs to begin changing the culture so Pitt has future generations of supporters.

    But Heather doesnt report to anyone that actually cares about sports. Thats the real problem.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Recruiting is a the main problem.

    Second – How come no other programs are trying to hire Conklin or Watson? I can answer that bc they stink. One win over Miami who shows unless they played at home are a very average team. Recruits will make it better but that win gave everyone the warm and fuzzies and shouldn’t have. #2 my behind.

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    2. I dont agree. With their recruiting and playing 10 non-seniors on defense they shoulda/coulda won 8 games (if they let Pickett start from the Syracuse game) and if they went to a bowl game they might have won 9 and that’s with a poor OC. Are they going to win a national championship with their recruits? No. That would require still better recruits and a better OC.

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  7. After writing the article, I thought I’d give strong consideration to any coach with a surefire recipe to beat Larry Fedora/NC.

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    1. If that happens which probably will, FSU will dominate the ACC. We will only get leftovers anymore from Florida.

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  9. Future schedules would be one tough team, two cupcakes and a mid-tier program. Looking for at worst a 3-1 record in the non conference from here on out.

    Looking for stability, so I extend Naruzzi and include a hefty buyout that would be exercised if another school wanted him. Letting A&M take Sherrill and waiving his buyout was so Pitt.

    Find new coordinators and an O-line coach.

    Allow any talented kid into Pitt so long as he never murdered anyone and never laid his hands on a woman. If a kid holds up a convenience store, then revoke his scholarship.

    One home and away jersey and we know which ones those would be.

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  10. Hey Roc, no offense but I think strongly that is the type of player PITT have always gotten out of Florida.

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  11. I would look to add someone to the staff that can recruit. Would look closely at x Steelers, that would have a name most people would recognize. We need to use assets of the city, and what could be more Pittsburgh than a retired player.

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  13. Watching the Buffalo -New England game.. Dion Lewis, Shady, Grigsby and La Pitts all playing…. Thought La Pitts couldn’t play in the NFL?

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  14. Anonymous – The old player from UF was…. I think he and his girlfriend were ready to leave Tally.

    He will do good at TAMU.

    I hire Kiffen all day long. What he did at FAU is honestly miraculous.

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  15. If Mike McCarthy is fired from Green Bay, I would add him as QB coach and assistant HC. He is a Greenfield native and former DA at Pitt.

    Otherwise, I would bring back Sims as DL coach and promote Partridge as co-DC.

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  18. We might have a shot at getting Alex Van Pelt as QB coach..if McCarthy got the ax (which I doubt).

    Alex has done a good job with this Hundley kid who looked great against the Stillers.

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  19. The CFP made the right decision….excluding Ohio Fake from the playoff.

    It’s great……no BigJoke teams in the playoff. Crappy conf that it is.

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    1. I think they had no option. OSU was exactly what PSU was last year …. barely beat Wisc in conference title game, 2 losses with one being > 30 pts

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      1. Let’s hope it was that clear cut(it should have been)…. as many in the Fake News Media..were making the case for Ohio Fake all last night.

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  21. The last argument on La Pitts was he was on the practice squad. Now he’s being pointed out as making a great play on special teams. Is it that hard to give a compliment anything PITT?

    The young man is making good money doing something he loves and only a certain few get to do. I wish I could have played a game and made money with, btw, a great pension waiting at the end.

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    1. 3 years and one play where he made a tackle.

      He was bad at Pitt and practice team player.

      Next you will tell me Maddox will go pro.

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    2. 3 years and 3 official tackles Ike. He is Lighting it up! Great Money???? Look at league minimum.

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  22. I would not fire any coach- the team improved in spite of the record. I don’t write Watson off yet- some want him gone-I am not – need some continuity – add to the O staff… Kenny P is the real deal and should be a treat to coach- maybe Watson looks great with this QB and putting in more of “ Watson’s Game.”
    Whoever we add as a coach- needs to be a dynamite recruiter…I am sure resumes are showing up along with Christmas cards and donations.

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  25. Actually Mark upon further review. Lafayette Pitts has made $1,350,000 in three years. Pus signing bonus. I was wrong, I do consider that great money. Thank you for the correction.. $500,000 a tackle.

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  26. Agree about Watson…Bernie. When you have the Nooch playing QB, your play calls are somewhat limited.
    As well as with Max, since he was purely a pocket passer and our O-line was pretty pourous, the first 2/3’s of the season.

    If your QB stinks, the OC has to look bad….right ?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. If you call the plays SW called on the 1.5 yard line against VT and get the result you deserved you will look bad that is for sure.

      Re Lafayette Pitts. Him playing in the NFL is one of the Wonders of the Modern World as is his 4.46 40 yd combine time. He did hustle as a Panther I will say that.

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      2. the final play call was clearly a read-option that if the QB keeps, it appeared he could have walked into the end zone. Now the coaches said nothing about this in post-game, nor should they have

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        1. That’s very interesting if true. I would love to learn more about that. Does not explain the 1st two run plays. And the pass play play call was not too good either.

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          1. that is very true. First of all, look at the replay of the final play. If you know what a read option is and what it looks like, you would recognize it. 2nd, go to the replay of the Miami game after Pickett’s late TD run. The announcers talked about reviewing with Narduzzi about the final series .. and said the same thing, again not pointing the finger at the QB.

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            1. Just watched the video of the final play and I don’t see anything in the running of the play that indicated it was a read option. I really want to see what you saw so if you want to educate me I will appreciate it.

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              1. then you apparently don’t know what a read option is. The QB was looking at the defense while deciding to keep it or hand-off. Note that the RB received a forward handoff traveling horizontally, not vertically (or directly to the LOS.) If Pickett keeps, he seemed to have a clear path around the right end.

                Having said this .. putting a frosh QB with little experience can be questioned … and again, this is why it was not pointed out in post-game.

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  27. So much for the revival of Thug U. Boy did they get pounded by Clemson. 10 first downs the whole game and half of them were when the game was 38-0. 🙂

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  29. Only a Pitt fan would denigrate a loyal local former player who could have gone anywhere. Can’t be happy for him making the pros. Pissin’ in the punch bowl again. No wonder the local guys are going elsewhere.

    Whatever happened to every loyal son?

    Anyway Lyke should do everything she can to help Narduzzi’s recruiting.

    She should also develop and implement a long range plan to increase appreciation and loyalty to Pitt Sports from students,faculty and alumni.

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    1. Koolaid Much GC? Pitts was burnt on 75% of the pass plays in his career. Crown him and praise him all you want. Low standards.

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  30. I mentioned a few months ago that cuts to the US research budget would hurt Pitt.

    Now we hear that interest on grad school loans will no longer be deductible and grad school scholarships will be considered taxable income. This will also hurt Pitt financially since we are a large grad school.

    Maybe a good time to grow the number of undergrads.

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  32. The Hornibrook kid wasn’t very impressive last night for Paulie’s Badgers. 19 of 40 for 229 and 2 picks.

    Considering Wisky’s somewhat easy schedule since the BigJoke West is pretty crappy…he threw 21 TD passes and 15 picks for under 2400 yards. Not that great.

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      1. Agreed. He’s going to get that whole coaching staff a raise. I think it’s going to be some treat to watch PITT football the next few years. And I have not been a wait till next year guy…until now.

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      2. OMG, circle the date on this he calendar!

        I think Upitt just made a conpliment about someone associated with Pitt?!

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  35. ^^ 6&34 @ 4:15 Yes and thank you my friend, you get it. We all watched Pitts play and not one but two college head coaches kept sticking into the lineup despite what we all thought. << is this crazy or what?

    Then we all laughed when La Pitts made Miami’s stupid practice squad. How out of touch can an NFL franchise be?

    Now who ‘s team is he on? Yeah, the dumb-ass New England Patriots, did Billicheck get stupid again or whats going on? << like Cleveland? Doesn’t any coach, college or NFL, listen to us all? The guy sucks. Hey, we tried to tell the goofs that. ike

    H2P!

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    1. He is on the Bills Ike. God get your info straight. The same guy who got beat every pass route. Yep him.

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    2. I didn’t say the guy sucks. I said I was impressed – no stupefied- would be more accurate that he is in the NFL (don’t understand the 3 seasons factoid though). But I guess it could be implied that he sucked when he played for Pitt in his senior year (in my opinion he regressed from previous seasons). As for the coaches selecting him to play in his senior year I’d like to say that proves the point that PN and Conklin don’t know what they are doing but all it proves is that they had no one better. That said the defense in 2017 was historically lousy. And as our Leader has pointed out too many times to count the fact that it was prevented us from having a 10 win or more season. All this seems to be painfully obvious.

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  36. 33, 59, 35, 27, 35, 34 and 20 = 35 ppg in our seven losses…that Josh Conklin. 34 points to a 1-8 NC for heaven’s sake!!!

    Team Stats – Through games 12/02/2017

    Stat Rank Value

    Tortal Defense. 66. 397
    Rushing Defense 39 142.4
    Passing Yards Allow 105 254.2
    Team Passing Eff D 89 136.42
    3rd Down Deferns 80 0.41%
    Scoring Defense. 65 26.6

    …That Josh Conklin.

    My God, some fans are so blindly loyal to Narduzzi that they forget our terrible defense kept us from 10+ wins with a record scoring offense last year and it sucked big time again this season.

    As long as Conklin is DC we’ll be a mediocre at best defense. Crow all you want about that Miami win but they were held to 3 points by Clemson yesterday.

    It’s like we forgot we just had a losing season.

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    1. Thank God for logic on here. I’d love to work for some of you guys. I’d get a bonus just because I tried and I’m a good guy.

      Now Lafayette Pitts was a stud. I guess you forget all those WR’s using him at will.

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      1. and yet Pitt was ranked 37th in defense in Total Defense in Conklin’s first season at Pitt … it’s all about the schedule.

        and by the way Reed …. did you see the OSU-Wisc game last night? Wisc had the ball on their own 40 with about 3 1/2 minutes left with 4th down and 3 yards to go … and PC elected to punt?

        Yet you found the need in your continuous effort the discredit Narduzzi and staff to write a whole blog about Nard’s decision to punt on 4th and 19.

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  37. Recruit Mentor, OH High School QB Tadas Tadarunas. No D1 offers yet. 6-4 215 lbs spread QB who can run and pass. Starter for 3 years. Mentor HS is the school that the UNC QB Mitch ——- played for and was No. 1 QB taken in the pro draft. His team made the big school state championship game again this year and he led his team all season long. At least check the kid out. Yes his team lost to very powerful Pickerington Central but the score was 21-21 at the half, led by Tadas. Lithuanian kid. Lot of Lithuanians in the Cleveland area.

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    1. Mitch Trubisky. Kid was a stud for the Tarholes. 30 TD’s, only 6 picks. 68% completions for almost 3800 yards. almost a 160 rating

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  38. Ike is so out of touch he thinks Venerables used Conklin’s scheme. I am flying to Miami and will enjoy all the intelligent Lafayette Pitts is a stud comments. Narduzzi beats a Miami Team and everyone forgives him. A real coach plays Pickett early, plays to win (VT) and wins 8-9 games. Praise 5-7 Pat all you want.

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  39. My bad. It’s Nicolas Grigsby who plays for New England. Saw him there today as well and mixed the two teams up. So sorry.

    I heard the announcers with my own ears that Clemson would try and mimmick PITT’s defense form the precious week.

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  40. Heard that too Ike…. and who on here ever thought L Pitts gets drafted yet alone hangs around for 3 years… Not me I thought he was awful- shows how much I know.

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  41. for the umpteenth thousand time …. Pitts played the primary WR one-on-one for the better part of two years. And as such, he was bound to be exposed …. because that is the life of a CB.

    Isn’t it funny that the two most criticized CBs in the past decade by the Pit Blather and Povers both made the pros, and played for a few years. (A Barry and L Pitts)

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    1. there are 260 starting CBs every year in D1 FB ….. and yet, a very small percentage make a pro squad at all.

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    1. Webb was cut before the season started but Pitt’s MLB (forgot his name) made the practice squad for a short time

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  44. Conklin’s defense gave up 15.2 pts per game in PITT’s 5 wins. Clemson gave up 27 pts per game in their losses. << That’s tongue in cheek. Seriously though..

    PITT gave up and average of 21.3 pts per game after the GT game. Just like Dr Tom and others said. A defense that finished with 10 underclassmen starting there was a marked improvement.

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  45. I think J Holley hung around for a few years and K’Waun Williams for quite awhile, people didn’t like any of these players

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  46. BTW, UPitt … Ike was right. Both in the College Day gamecast yesterday morning and the early part of the U vs Clemson game last night, it was mentioned about Pitt’s formula for stopping Miami’s run game and forcing their QB to beat them. Now, whether Clemson followed the formula or not is another issue … but I did hear it mentioned in both instances.

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  47. now that the final CFP Top 25 rankings are out …..

    No. of Pitt opponents finishing in Top 25:

    2017: 5
    2016: 5
    2015: 4
    2014: 1

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  50. PITT played 5 CFP top 25 (1-4) & two other bowl teams (2-0).

    Stats that give me hope for the defense. All stats averaged,rounded & in yards/# of games

    1’st 4 games: Rush 199, Pass 274, Total 473
    2’nd 4 games : Rush 128, Pass 267 Total 396
    Last 4 games: Rush 100, Pass 222, Total 322

    First 6 games: Rush 164 Pass 280, Total 444
    Last 6 games: Rush 121, Pass 228, Total 349

    2017 Rush 142, Pass 254, Total 397

    Data from NCAA website game stats which also happens to match PITT’s athletic department game stats.

    The stats are what they are but I think as the year progressed, our young defensive got better.

    I was bored today & decided to waste time looking at numbers.

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  52. I love the POV. I thank Reed for all of his efforts and I think the discussion here is still more civil then other forums. That said, it is a shame that some commenters had to ruin a good thing, hope I wasn’t one of them.

    I went back to look at the VT game highlights.

         1) The TD VT scored with 6 minutes left. Briggs, Maddox and Whitehead. Between the three of them (three of the defensive leaders) I have no idea how that pop fly was caught with nobody even contesting it. Maddox lying on the ground for some reason, Briggs with his hands to the side not even looking at ball and Whitehead playing a routine pop fly just like a right fielder where the centre fielder will make an easy out but he is covering in behind just in case. crazy play. 

     2) Weah - When he got to full speed he had 7 yards on the guy. For a HS sprint champion he should have never been caught. Looking back the whole time. Not good, especially for a 5 year senior. 

    3) The play calling on the four downs was brutal. The highlights I saw only had the fourth down play. Upon further review. I do believe that there was an option component to it. maybe the staff told him give it to Hall no matter what, maybe they didn't, but on the view from the back you could see Picket look straight at #49 as soon as he got the ball and decided to give it Hall. Can't really blame him considering he had never even stated a game before. That may explain why against Miami they didn't even tell the OL the play on the naked boot leg. I think I will cut Watson some slack because after that game I had as much faith in him as I did when Chryst failed to line up that field goal down at Duke (or was it NC) or Fraud continued with high octane at IOWA with a three score lead instead of running down the play clock and keeping the ball on the ground.

    Every coach makes mistakes (Wanny passing at the goal line 4 times with Shady in the backfield comes to mind as well) but some mistakes are so bad you always have to wonder.

    Watching guys like Chaney and Chryst have success makes me wonder if PITT is the hardest place to win in America because I do not believe they were very good at PITT, but what do I know.

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  53. Late to the blog today. A couple of thoughts….

    Main thing I’d like to see is the addition of someone to the staff who has strong ties to Western Pennsylvania, who would boost our local recruiting. The lifeblood of our program has always been, and will continue to be, WPIAL players. We MUST do better recruiting locally. Not sure who the answer is. Guys that come to mind are Eric Kasperowicz, Rod Rutherford, and Greg Gattuso. I’m sure that there are others I’m not thinking of.

    Guys, I’ve sat on the 45 yard line for the past 20 plus years watching Pitt football. I’ve seen good and bad in the secondary. I don’t care if he is now in the NFL, Lafayette Pitts was TERRIBLE as a Pitt DB. Awful.

    I’m not sure how anyone can make the argument that our defense for three years, has been anything other than horrible. Last year we should have won at least 10 games, but for our terrible defense. I’ve been on record saying that I blame Paul Chryst to some degree due to his terrible defensive recruiting, but no way do Conklin or Narduzzi get a pass. We made some baby steps the second half of the year, especially in the Miami game, but overall the statistics and losses do not lie.

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  54. When I look at the 2 deep on defense next year I think it will be real good. Looks like good completion everywhere.

    I do have a question. I was trying to find a list as to who burned a redshirt this year…anyone know?

    I have: Davies, Sibley, Pickett, Mathis, Sear and Pinnock. Who am I missing?

    Liked by 1 person

  55. Early on, the defense was terrible. However, in the 2nd half of the season, Pitt’s defense did OK relative to their opponents’ season averages:

    NC State averaged 449 yards and 31 points per game.
    Against Pitt: 446 yards and 35 points, although one TD was special teams.

    Duke averaged 378/26
    Against Pitt: 359/17

    Virginia averaged 356/24
    Against Pitt: 314/14

    UNC averaged 370/26
    Against Pitt: 366/34

    Virginia Tech averaged 404/29
    Against Pitt: 375/20

    Miami averaged 406/30
    Against Pitt: 232/14

    The defense was OK in the second half. In my opinion, the #100 ranked scoring offense (13th out of 14 ACC teams) is why Pitt is home this bowl season.

    Well that, and the fact that OK St was on the schedule instead of Buffalo, for some reason.

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  56. So in other words, in those last 6 games, the average defense would have allowed 2,363 yards and 166 points to these teams.

    Pitt allowed 2,092 and 134 respectively.

    11.5% fewer yards and 19.3% fewer points than their opponents’ season averages.

    That is progress, folks.

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  57. —I’d make Coach Duzz agree to personally coach the safeties. The safeties are the key to this defense working; they make one false step (and opponents now know what to do to make them “read” run and make that false step) and our opponent has a TD…

    —I’d want Coach to Hire a young proven recruiter for the extra coaching spot – there’s already enough coaches, so focus on recruiting.

    — I’d tell Coach to Embrace his mistakes and learn from them. Be bold in your decisions going forward..

    — I’d tell the Coach to Be more accessible to the local community and be more forthcoming with the local media. Understand that Pitt fans live on HOPE, and they yearn for hearing from you why they should have hope… They are not getting that now.

    —Promise The Coach to work your tail off to get more fannies in the seats at Heinz, which I think is a major issue in whether Coach Duzz stays here…

    Go Pitt.

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  59. Nicely put Major Majors (John is the smartest guy in section 536)…I will add that John wants coach to be more accessible to the local community but I think the issue is that Pitt has rarely been viewed at being PART of the community.

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  61. Narduzzi does weekly interviews with the Fan and other radio stations. He also has the weekly show on the Fan. His decision to not open practices is debatable, but is not uncommon in cfb. There are a large handful of schools that does so.

    I do know that an acquaintance of mine who sat in my party during the Wanny years told me in the summer of of ’16 (last time I saw him) that Narduzzi was much more personable than PC, and he never seen Graham at all. This acquaintance of mine is the AD of a large high school in the South Hills .. which currently has at least 2 players on the current roster.

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    1. I have a job where I am busy about 20% of time …. really busy, 12 hour work day is not uncommon, But the rest of the time, I am just ‘on call’ just fielding different inquiries from the field .. and most of them are questions I have previously answered or can get an answer pretty quickly.

      Thus, I often have much time, and a computer … and enjoy college sports vey much

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  63. The discussion as AD would go like this for me.

    First Coach, define what success means for you and the program. Answer: We think we should be a 9-3 program each year and win a coastal title. AD: What can I do to help you achieve that? Coach: I need more money for coaches and a higher recruiting budget. AD: How Much: Coach: Alot. Seriously, depending on that answer the AD either says she can make it happen or she can’t. If she can’t, she needs to say so and why. At that point, the coach either says, we will do our best with what we got and thanks, or says great, we agree and gets to work.

    The AD needs to be called on the carpet by the media and Pittsburgh is lazy in that forum. Do some research. Figure out how much we pay our coaches, how much is in the recruiting budget, how many private jet hours we have for recutiting etc and compare it to our competitors. Then, tell the truth about it.

    If Pitt is number 10 out of 14 universities in the ACC, tell the f’ing truth and finally admit to the fans that you can’t expect championships when you pay and plan terribly. At that point, you force the PItt Administration and BoT to either pony up or be an embarrassment. You need to understand how to manipulate the BoT, not cave into them. This is why I can’t be AD. I would get that information and present it to the BoT before I got hired, not after. That is the difference between me and Lyke. I interview the university and control my destiny versus being thankful that a university pays me more money than I’ve ever made, just to be average.

    That is why I didn’t like the hire. That is why a Tressel never get this type of job at Pitt. He demands too much from himself and therefore demands from our BoT. There are others on here with that attitude too. It can be done with Boards, you just need to know how to manipulate them properly. It’s an art……and a science.

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    1. Huff, I have been saying this for a while now …. considering the FB budget, the many changes (coaching and AD) and other constraints (being in a pro city the biggest one) … I honestly believe the FB program has overachieved for most of this millennium. And I am very serious.

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      1. not counting temp coaches and ADs … in this millennium alone, Pitt has had 5 FB coaches and 5 ADs (17 years) … and the FB coaching salary has been at or near the bottom in both the BE and ACC.

        Just what the hell do you people expect?

        Maybe I’m a bit more objective since I’m not an alum …. I have been saying this since Dec 2010 that what this program needs is STABILITY …. and all we have been seeing since that time is instability.

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  64. I think Maddox will be on an NFL roster next year, free agent much like Pitts made it. He reminds me of Ross Ventrone or Mike Hilton who is currently with the Steelers. Maddox has the heart and some of the physical skills necessary, think of Willie Gay of the Steelers. Some team will use him on special teams or maybe as a nickel for a year or three.

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  65. wwb makes a good point…all things considering…we may have overachieved.

    Considering the constraints.

    Not sure why I included Sibley as burning his redshirt.

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  66. good job glad to see this site is alive and well. A nice alternative to the trash ” fan boards” on social media ( facebook).

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  67. A quarterback coach that is a good recruiter would be the addition I would like to see the most. Pitt finally has a qb who showed more than a modecum of potential as a true freshman. When was the last time that happened at Pitt? Pickett needs as much help as Nard can give him to develop into a successful D1 qb. The kid showed a lot of raw potential in his limited play this past season.

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  68. I think an ad always has to have a very short list of realistic candidates to replace the revenue coaches. mens bb and football. the AD needs to mnetwork with these possible candidates to let them know. the ad is thinking of them Not as an immediate hire. but if anything happens. plan for the future. Clearly barnes did not do that and SP was useless. Lykje needs to show she has that street cred.

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  69. I like Duzz but he is not the type to schmooze with the fans that’s not his style he is standoffish and I appreciate that. I went to quite a few Duzz shows at cupkas mainly because I like Richie cupka. the last show there were no more than 10 people who didn’t work for Pitt . He could have easily come around after the show to shake our hands that’s not this style .

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  70. Breaking ….. no surprise but Chawntez Moss will be leaving program per tweet from Chris Peak. He showed a lot of promise as a frosh last year IMO but was a non-factor this year … and was suspended a game or two.

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  73. We lost a lot of our football history (74 years) when we lost our stadium. Then we went through all the hires and fires of the AD, coaches, etc. Many were ill advised. We are wrong hoping to expect this to stop.

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  74. Don’t believe Moss is the only one and some may not want to move on… Which I think you can put Moss into the latter group.. he’s been a problem child.

    As to stability it is only the chancellor, AD and HC who need to remain in place for any time

    Fans put way too much weight on the players not being able to pick up different offensive sets or defensive sets according to the unique coordinators.

    Players and position coaches (who teach tactics of the coordinator’s strategy) are not stupid… they go through spring and fall and they know how to run these different offenses and defenses by the time it comes around.

    Coordinators are not needed for stability nor are position coaches really… not like the head head coach and athletic director because it’s really budgetary and it’s all about the direction of the football program and not so much the nuts and bolts.

    Which is why Pitt has had basically a 8 win ceiling, with two exceptions, over 40 years. It is not the individual personnel inside the football staff but the university and it’s approach to football in general which isn’t going to change at Pitt anytime soon, if ever.

    A case in point is all the blustering noise Chancellor Gallagher made when he first got here and it’s been crickets from him ever since regarding football. I know he doesn’t care one damn bit about it compared to the other University mission areas.

    As Ike says with a different twist “Pitt is what it is”

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  75. I played golf at the beaver -Moon golf outing last year. A member of the foresome was a retired pitt gymnastics coach. we asked about SP. she said she had the honor of being fired by the guy twice. Once in his first tenure once in SP 2. She said SP was universally hated and was shocked when nerdy brought him back the second time. it was demoralizing. That is 1000% on Nerdy.

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  76. As far as continuity I agree with Reed as far as who and what constitutes stability. As a matter of fact I’ve stated after year 3 is when you take that hard look at the program and a direct aim on the asst coaches. It is indeed evaluation time for HCPN and Heather.

    Again it boils down to money, who is available and can Narduzzi get the coach to come to PITT. I’m not married to Conklin or any of the other subsidiary coaches with maybe Partridge aside. Watson should stay for one more year to see what he can do with a good QB for a whole season.

    I think the new asst field coach is very important for PITT. If PITT does decide to move Conklin along that would mean PITT could make a significant impact on the staff. Imagine both Rhoades and Shafer as an example. Another name I think he could impact the recruiting phase of coaching is Eric Kasperowicz. << I like the idea of PITT hiring the biggest upcoming high school coach in the area. ….ike

    H2P!

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  77. As mentioned,we do need a coach with strong WPA connections for local recruiting. Would love to see us get a few more home kids….
    I had already checked Moss off the list.

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  78. Some really good stuff guys, great reading and thanks!
    As an AD looking BACK on our 5-7 Losing And Disappointing Season one thing I would have to ask is: Who was the MORON who is RESPONSIBLE for:
    a. Starting Max Browne
    b. THEN keeping him the starter after a blind man could see he wasn’t capable of winning games.
    c. THEN keeping Max the starter AND calling QB RUN OPTION plays for a kid who ( and I’m not kidding) who was clearly pigeon- toed, whose knees knocked together and could barely run onto the field of play.
    d. THEN after Max goes down puts in a high quality high school QB to replace him who has heart but not the skill level to compete in D1.
    e. THEN realizing he might lose his job he puts in the clearly most talented QB on the team and barely salvages a terrible season into a bad 5-7.
    At that point the AD looks him in the eye and says:WHOEVER that GUY is – HE NEEDS TO GO!
    Simple! :>)

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  79. good lets fire another HC lets see since wanny.. 1 wanny .. haymaker haywood. todd the fraud. cheesdik chryst and Narduzzi. lets fire another coach and make it 6 coaches in 8 years.

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  80. Nah, Pittman is just down in Houston having fun. He knows Narduzzi isn’t going anywhere. Jim normally has feather cereal for breakfast. Pittman is a great PITT fan who likes to entertain everyone, including himself. 🙂

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  82. PittPt great article….

    I would schedule a meeting and call it 2017 evaluation.

    I would start it with telling him that tarping isn’t going to happen. I.e. throwing him a bone.

    Then

    I would tell Pat Narduzzi that for the 10th coach he needs to get a defensive expert that runs a different system than what Duzz is comfortable with. This person also should have an NFL or Pitt pedigree and be known as an ace recruiter/talent evaluator or someone young with a high ceiling.

    This person is secretly Josh Conklins replacement waiting in the wings. Good programs think ahead.

    If you could afford him and he would be willing to step down a rung I like the Paul Rhoades idea. However, since he wanted to be head coach here before and never was really considered he probably would rather not. Although his game day experience may also give you the head coach insight that Pat needs help with.

    How about Scott Mckillop? He is in coaching right. Doubling his salary would probably allow to still get off cheap say 250k or less.

    I know I know, Tom Brady could be the ace recruiter. Don’t want the PR blow back add him to the payroll as a consultant for Pete’s sake.

    Before I b his this requirement I would tell him that tarping isn’t going to happen. I.e. throwing him a bone.

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  83. On second thought just send him a 1099 as a subcontrator. Then he technically isn’t even an employee of the school.

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  84. Ike,
    You sniffed me out buddy!!! (LOL). I think Duzz is growing into the job and deserves a few more years to do so. Hence, above, I was venting frustration for the ultra conservative decisions on our QB’s this past season when we should of simply played the best player, freshmen or not, and we would of won 7-8 games and would be going to a bowl game for our 10th (?) year in a row.

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