I have a few issues with your discussion of Wannstedt: 1. The assurance that Wise is better than Dunn. I saw what Wise did with the Dolphins, and it was nothing short of criminal. His offensive lines were consistently the worst in the NFL, and once Jamie Nails was injured, that only became reinforced. 2. Wanny may be getting his feet wet with college recruiting (although 4 years is a bit long on getting his feet wet), but he was a horrible pro talent evaluator. All I need to say are Jamar Fletcher, Eddie Moore, Jay Fiedler, AJ Feeley, and Rick Mirer. Sure, the defense was rock-solid, but that's what I call wasting world-class talent in its prime. Give those teams a decent QB and a consistent running game, and we would be talking about a Super Bowl or two. It is important to note that NOT ONE of Wannstedt's draft picks (2000-2003) remains on the Dolphins roster (and no, Wanny did not have final say in picks in the 2004 draft picks, which is why I excluded that. Vernon Carey may be consistent on the OL, but he wasn't a Wannstedt pick. He also needed Hudson Houck (post-Wannstedt) to get him going). 3. This Pitt team has shown the penchant to choke a game away (see Navy last year). As a matter of fact, the only game Pitt has won that it should have lost in the past three years was the WVU game last year. There have been numerous times Wanny's teams have lost games they were favored to (and should have) won, and I'm going back to his days with the Bears and Dolphins. This is a testament to Wanny's stubbornness to fit a square peg in a round hole rather than work with what he has. 4. Wanny has a tendency to look at something stupid he called and just smirk. Last Thanksgiving I was home in FL and was watching a Pitt game with my dad, and when he saw Wanny's reaction to the opposing team scoring, he went into connyptions, because he remembered seeing Wanny do the same "aw, shucks" crud when he was coaching the Dolphins. He may be a hardass behind closed doors, but on the sidelines he's looked a lot like a milquetoast doughface to me.
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I have a few issues with your discussion of Wannstedt:
1. The assurance that Wise is better than Dunn. I saw what Wise did with the Dolphins, and it was nothing short of criminal. His offensive lines were consistently the worst in the NFL, and once Jamie Nails was injured, that only became reinforced.
2. Wanny may be getting his feet wet with college recruiting (although 4 years is a bit long on getting his feet wet), but he was a horrible pro talent evaluator. All I need to say are Jamar Fletcher, Eddie Moore, Jay Fiedler, AJ Feeley, and Rick Mirer. Sure, the defense was rock-solid, but that's what I call wasting world-class talent in its prime. Give those teams a decent QB and a consistent running game, and we would be talking about a Super Bowl or two. It is important to note that NOT ONE of Wannstedt's draft picks (2000-2003) remains on the Dolphins roster (and no, Wanny did not have final say in picks in the 2004 draft picks, which is why I excluded that. Vernon Carey may be consistent on the OL, but he wasn't a Wannstedt pick. He also needed Hudson Houck (post-Wannstedt) to get him going).
3. This Pitt team has shown the penchant to choke a game away (see Navy last year). As a matter of fact, the only game Pitt has won that it should have lost in the past three years was the WVU game last year. There have been numerous times Wanny's teams have lost games they were favored to (and should have) won, and I'm going back to his days with the Bears and Dolphins. This is a testament to Wanny's stubbornness to fit a square peg in a round hole rather than work with what he has.
4. Wanny has a tendency to look at something stupid he called and just smirk. Last Thanksgiving I was home in FL and was watching a Pitt game with my dad, and when he saw Wanny's reaction to the opposing team scoring, he went into connyptions, because he remembered seeing Wanny do the same "aw, shucks" crud when he was coaching the Dolphins. He may be a hardass behind closed doors, but on the sidelines he's looked a lot like a milquetoast doughface to me.
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