Narduzzi’s contract extension puts a good finishing touch on Pitt’s year. It doesn’t guarantee he will stay, but it’s a statement nonetheless. And it adds to my belief that he is going nowhere. The guy stayed in East Lansing for nine years, for god’s sake, as a DC, either not pursuing or rejecting many head coaching opportunities, waiting for the right job (his words).
His background suggests he is the antithesis of the Fraud. He is a builder, a guy who plants his feet. He and Dantonio take pride in MSU being the program they built, not one they inherited and managed for a few years. I think PN wants to do the same thing here, and unlike past Pitt coaches, he’s got the tools and support to do it. Pitt went from having one of the most unstable P5 coaching situations, to one of the most stable in the course of one year. And the guy can flat out recruit, coach and develop players.
Meanwhile, 2015 was awful for Franklin. It took the PSU job in 2014 and had a good recruiting year out of the gate. On the field, it didn’t go very well, but he could yell “sanctions” like all of the fan base, and they bought it. And his job didn’t seem to be a huge challenge, assuming he could dominate in recruiting as he boasted. He had several patsies in his division (Rutgers, MD, and Indiana) that he should be able to beat regularly in a year or so when his recruits got there. And Michigan was in a 7 year tailspin. MSU was good, but he had to figure he could eventually get by the upstart team from East Lansing before long. Upset Ohio State, and he’d be playing the B10 championship game.
Then the new year came...
Bamm! Harbaugh got hired. Michigan had the players, now they had the coach.
Narduzzi gets hired at Pitt. JF probably didn’t realize what a recruiting threat he was going to be immediately (or such an in-your-face, pain in the ass either), but it didn’t take long for him to find out.
Then, OSU beats up Bama and wins the NC, elevating their program a notch higher.
All of that happened in the first ten days of January. Not a good start for James from State College.
Another good recruiting season, and another poor performance on the field; fans getting seriously critical and restless. Bad losses across the board again to the big 3 in conference, and a butt whopping by in-state Temple. MSU beats OSU and UM, and is playing for a NC, confirming they are still clearly in the top 3. MD gets rid of Edsall, and hires a Harbaugh protege for its HC, and he immediately hires two great assistants (Schafer and London), assistants that PSU fans would absolutely love to see on Franklin’s staff. His “MD is in-state too” recruiting comment is about to get run over. Even Rutgers has a new coach, who actually has a heartbeat and may already be a better coach than Franklin. Harbaugh just flipped two of his recruits, and PN may end up getting a big one to flip too. The walls are starting to close in on CF. No one can imagine him coming anywhere close to competing, let alone winning, his division for years to come.
Also, his reputation as a coach, and as a recruiter among HS coaches, is likely taking a big hit. I don’t see this ending well for him.
For Pitt, just remember where the program was a year ago, when we heard Chryst was likely going back to Wisconsin, and we thought Peterson was going to be in charge of finding us another new coach. God, I almost threw up just writing that.
If someone then had told you they could see a year in advance and told you where the program would be today, you’d have laughed and thought that was nothing but a fantastically absurd wet dream.
His background suggests he is the antithesis of the Fraud. He is a builder, a guy who plants his feet. He and Dantonio take pride in MSU being the program they built, not one they inherited and managed for a few years. I think PN wants to do the same thing here, and unlike past Pitt coaches, he’s got the tools and support to do it. Pitt went from having one of the most unstable P5 coaching situations, to one of the most stable in the course of one year. And the guy can flat out recruit, coach and develop players.
Meanwhile, 2015 was awful for Franklin. It took the PSU job in 2014 and had a good recruiting year out of the gate. On the field, it didn’t go very well, but he could yell “sanctions” like all of the fan base, and they bought it. And his job didn’t seem to be a huge challenge, assuming he could dominate in recruiting as he boasted. He had several patsies in his division (Rutgers, MD, and Indiana) that he should be able to beat regularly in a year or so when his recruits got there. And Michigan was in a 7 year tailspin. MSU was good, but he had to figure he could eventually get by the upstart team from East Lansing before long. Upset Ohio State, and he’d be playing the B10 championship game.
Then the new year came...
Bamm! Harbaugh got hired. Michigan had the players, now they had the coach.
Narduzzi gets hired at Pitt. JF probably didn’t realize what a recruiting threat he was going to be immediately (or such an in-your-face, pain in the ass either), but it didn’t take long for him to find out.
Then, OSU beats up Bama and wins the NC, elevating their program a notch higher.
All of that happened in the first ten days of January. Not a good start for James from State College.
Another good recruiting season, and another poor performance on the field; fans getting seriously critical and restless. Bad losses across the board again to the big 3 in conference, and a butt whopping by in-state Temple. MSU beats OSU and UM, and is playing for a NC, confirming they are still clearly in the top 3. MD gets rid of Edsall, and hires a Harbaugh protege for its HC, and he immediately hires two great assistants (Schafer and London), assistants that PSU fans would absolutely love to see on Franklin’s staff. His “MD is in-state too” recruiting comment is about to get run over. Even Rutgers has a new coach, who actually has a heartbeat and may already be a better coach than Franklin. Harbaugh just flipped two of his recruits, and PN may end up getting a big one to flip too. The walls are starting to close in on CF. No one can imagine him coming anywhere close to competing, let alone winning, his division for years to come.
Also, his reputation as a coach, and as a recruiter among HS coaches, is likely taking a big hit. I don’t see this ending well for him.
For Pitt, just remember where the program was a year ago, when we heard Chryst was likely going back to Wisconsin, and we thought Peterson was going to be in charge of finding us another new coach. God, I almost threw up just writing that.
If someone then had told you they could see a year in advance and told you where the program would be today, you’d have laughed and thought that was nothing but a fantastically absurd wet dream.
