Dave Wannstedt, It is Time to Resign

From the moment he was hired, all we hear about was how lucky we were to have a true Pitt guy. People were worried our next hire would end up like Ben Howland and leave for greener pastures. Add in to the mix the statements that he is a great guy, a great ambassador to the University, and a players coach. All of the items that people claimed the previous coach was not.

Now in year 6 we find ourselves in the same spot we have been in for the past 25 years. We are stuck in the middle, not able to get over the hump. The worst part of this is all is in each of the last 3 years we have had an easy path to the Big East Championship but have blown it each time. Every year the path becomes easier, but we find a new way to serve what Pat Forde calls "A Wannstedt Special" by blowing it. In 2008 we needed to beat Cincy at Cincy but failed. In 2009 we needed to beat Cincy at home, but blew a 21 point lead and lost at home. This year with a 2 game lead and 3-0 start to Big East play, we blew it again and now are looking at a third consecutive 3rd place finish.

With TCU coming into the league in 2012 the path to the BCS becomes even harder. Upon their arrival and with the improvements around the league, Dave Wannstedt will never be able to win an outright Big East title.

So now, if all of the statements of Wannstedt being a "Pitt guy" are true. If he really is a great ambassador to the University and wants what is best for our school he will resign. He will not force Pitt to wait another year due to a buy out. He will not continue to create strain among the relationship between Steve Pederson and Chancellor Nordenberg as they both have different ideas of what should be done.

Dave Wannstedt has the easiest choice to make in all of this. He can resign effective immediately after the bowl game and retire. If he isn't ready to let go yet, then he can offer to take a huge pay cut and serve as an assistant to the program much like Johnny Majors did. If he refuses to step down, if he refuses to negotiate a buy out, and if he makes Pitt take the tough road, then he is not truly a Pitt guy.

Johnny Majors left the program for Tennessee, but when he returned and failed he did the right thing by taking a different job and freeing Pitt to move forward (which they did). Foge Fazio was a Pitt guy but realized he would never be anything more than a successful coordinator. It is time for Dave Wannstedt to realize he is just like Foge. He is a Pitt guy who is best suited for the coordinator role, but is ruining his team.

People in Chicago hate Dave. People in Miami hate Dave. It is time to take the high road here and leave before everyone in Pittsburgh, your city, your Alma mater, end up hating you as well.

Dave Wannstedt, it is time to resign.

PItt vs USF

BJ Daniels, BJ Daniels, BJ Daniels. There ya go. That is the key to this game.

When Matt Goatse was hurt and Daniels came in, South Florida found out very fast they had a quarterback that could make some plays. The only thing that troubled him was consistency (sound familiar?). Well in the last few games for USF, BJ Daniels has played very well and the Bulls are on a nice little winning streak giving them just a glimmer of hope in the weak Big East.

Before you give up on this game, just remember Pitt has had some success and some failures against dual threat quarterbacks which should make this game very interesting.

The first thing you should know is that the plan is for Dom DeCicco to play in the linebacker position to spy the quarterback. This means that we will be stuck in our base 4-3 all game (hey Nickel packages are gimmicky right?). This also means the pressure will be on the secondary as we play more towards a run stopping defense leaving the secondary in more single coverage.

Daniels has shown that when he is off, he looks terrible, but when he is on, the defense is in for a long day. If Skip Holtz has watched any of Pitt's games in the past, he should know that a run-spread option isn't exactly the best method to beat Pitt. Actually the game plan should be to copy Russell Wilson and NC State from last season.

A hurry up spread-pass option with a dual threat quarterback is probably the worst situation for Pitt. Given our refusal to adapt quickly (or at all for that matter), a fast paced offense to take advantages of mismatches early might be the best way for the Bulls to put the Panthers away.

The results of this game will be directly related to BJ Daniels. If he can muster up a good performance with few mistakes in the passing game the Bulls will be in good shape. If he makes some bad choices and relies too much on the run then Pitt will be in the drivers seat.

I'm saying Pitt wins this game 28 to 21.

All aboard the excuse express

Yeah yeah yeah, we've heard it all. We're young, we didn't execute, blah blah blah.

All I can say is that Wannstedt built this team from top to bottom, he should know how to win with it. We lost to a team that was blanked by Louisville. We gave up on a punt block and gave up selling out for the run to get the ball back close to the redzone.

Crap coaches play well in games that don't matter but lose the ones that do matter. We have a crap coach.

So what does this mean? Well we can finish 8-4 lose in a BCS game and have the same thing happen next year.

We can finish 7-5, end up in a tie for 1st, still failing to win the Big East out right (unacceptable) and get blown out in a bowl game.

We could finish 6-6 (not unfathomable) and really would things change?

Nordenberg loves Wanny and has too much control over athletics. He wants them to have a clean program (which I'm glad we do), be moderately successful, and not spend the real dough needed to be a top tier team.

If you've ever wonder why Pitt fans don't show up to games, don't have an atmosphere, or just don't care in general.........well, look at the picture of Dave Wannstedt and that is your answer.

He has lost all of the good will he had early on from even the most staunch supporters. The kool aid drinkers will tell you the cupboard is bare, Romeus is hurt, we lost our line/Adam Gunn. Well enough excuses. Just say, I messed up, I am at fault. It is funny people labeled him "Not my fault Walt", but when was the last time you ever heard Wanny accept blame for something? I'll give ya hint, the answer is never. It was always the fault of someone else.

Pitt is mediocre because we choose to allow incompetence year after year. In the end, it doesn't matter though because after all we got our Pitt guy. The Pitt guy that no one else wants.

It's time for Uconn

I don't know about you, but I get pretty upset looking at our record when playing in Connecticut. From the slide, to flash in the pan quarterbacks, it seems like Uconn just gives us fits. To make matters worse, this game is a Thursday prime time game which will be an extra incentive for the fans to be a little louder than usual.

The fun thing of this game is that we're seeing the Big East favorite against everyone's "Big East Darkhorse". Well sorry folks, that pony is dead because Uconn straight up sucks.

Sure they have the win over WVU, but let's face it, that had more to do with WVU turnovers than it did with the play of Uconn.

This game should be a breeze for Pitt, but if you read any message boards you'll find some interesting stats such as: Wanny is something like 3-8 following bye weeks and he has a losing record in prime time games.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't get the feeling that we are or will ever be in jeopardy in this game. To me it feels like the basketball game we saw the Panthers win on Monday against URI. Sure there might be some tense spots, but you know what's going to happen at the end of the day. It will be a Pitt win.

I'm hoping Romeus gets some plays in to allow him to knock the rust off for the games we will truly need him for later on. Because of the Ville doing us a favor against Cuse and the other Big East teams helping us uphold the great Big East reputation, Pitt should be able to get to the BCS game even with a hiccup along the way.

As of right now I'm hoping for 3 things.

1. A 27 to 10 victory over Uconn tomorrow night
2. Beating WVU in the brawl so bad they decide to fold the university
3. Somehow getting to the Orange bowl and beating a crap ACC team (even though we'll probably end up against the B12 in Arizona).