Here it is, the link:
pittsburgh.rivals.com
And the cut and paste (though click the link because the file is too large for cut and paste and so I have to cut out some of the paragraphs)
Redshirt Diaries: Allen Greene's priorities are easy to see
Paul Zeise • Pitt Sports News
Executive Editor
Welcome to the third edition of my twice weekly column: The Redshirt Diaries.
It is the place where I put news, notes, analysis, opinion, etc. and I try and give good insight to the happenings at Pitt.
A lot has happened since my last edition and I will tackle it all here twice every week. I would like to do it Monday and Thursday but depending on what happens, it could be Tuesday and Friday.
Let's get started:
* Allen Greene made his first two significant hires and they show clearly what his priorities are, at least in terms of updating the athletic department. It is no secret that every athletic department is searching for money, ways to generate revenue and, oh yeah, more money and Greene made it clear with these two hires that is front and center on his radar. Greene hired Brent Ust as senior deputy athletic director administration and Kyle Bruce as senior deputy athletic director for external relations / CRO. Those are fancy names and really scary sounding titles but what it boils down to is this: Both men were hired to find and generate new revenue streams from different angles. And if you read their biographies it is clear both have a proven track record of doing just that. Ust will focus on " will focus on the Panthers' competitive excellence and advancing strategic priorities for the overall department." Bruce will " Pitt's external units and have a strategic focus on revenue generation operations" Translation: These two were brought here to figure out how to keep Pitt competitive in the ever changing and expensive world of college athletics. I like the hires because both come from the SEC and I think they will be great additions to the athletic department. The raising of money and generating revenue stuff will prove to be a bit more challenging as Pitt faces a really uphill battle to dig out from under thanks to the former athletic director. The one thing that should be clear - although Heather spent like a drunken sailor and built a lot of vanity projects, somebody down the hill in the Cathedral had to OK It all and so this isn't completely on her. By the way, I get a kick out of the long ass names these athletic directors come up with in order to create titles for people. It reminds me of Todd Graham's staff here, where everybody seemed to have some version of "assistant associate vice head coach of....." and then the position they were coaching. Good memories, indeed.
* You know we can poke fun at Graham and look at that one year he was here as a disaster but that staff he had actually turned out to be pretty good. As far as I can tell there are four current head coaches from that staff: Danny Lanning (Oregon), Tony Gibson (Marshall), Mike Norvell (Florida State) and Keith Patterson (Abilene Christian). Tony Dews is the running backs coach for the Patriots, Spencer Leftwhich I think was with North Texas as assistant head coach and heck, Mike Shanahan and Tino Sunseri, two players on that team, are the offensive coordinators at Indiana and UCLA, respectively! All Hail the 2011 Pitt coaching staff! OK, I digress.....
* Speaking of coaching staff, Kade Bell was given a three-year extension and already the speculation is that he is unofficially the coach in waiting. I have yet had anyone I trust tell me that specifically but there is some dot connecting going on. It would make perfect sense if that was some of what was in the works with that extension but I don't think it was the primary reason for it. Bell is young, up and coming and one of these offensive gurus that so many of these athletic directors salivate over. The extension means it will be less likely that he gets poached by another program to be the offensive coordinator and gives him a little bit of job security. But if a team wants to come hire him away to be their head coach, the extension does nothing to stop that. There are a few people around Narduzzi I have talked to who have said could retire sometime sooner than later. He still has the fire, he still has the passion but he has made his money and might have some other interests he'd like to explore. I have said vehemently to those people that Narduzzi is a football coach and he won't retire before he is at least 62-63 years old but the game has changed and we have seen a lot of veteran coaches walk away earlier than they had planned because of it. Narduzzi wants to build a winner again and I think as long as he feels like he has everything he needs to compete and win at Pitt he will keep plugging away. My son Elijah played for Narduzzi and he said "dad, most of the time he has more energy than just about every one of us. He is nuts (in a good way)" so I wouldn't be quick to buy the idea he is ready to retire. And let's play this out anyway - the best case scenario for Pitt wouldn't be for Bell to take over directly. The best case would be Pitt has a great season this year, one of the better MAC or American or Conference USA programs hires him as head coach and he spends a few seasons learning how to be a head coach somewhere else. Then when Narduzzi steps aside Bell returns, experienced and ready to attack the ACC. I just think it is very hard to go from coordinator with zero experience to head coach in a power conference. It isn't impossible but it is tough.
* I have gone back and forth about the Pitt hoops team declining the NIT but here is my final answer. Good. I am glad they did, actually. I hope every power conference team that doesn't make the NIT declines the invitation. And the reason is twofold - one, Pitt better have a lot of roster turnover this year because it didn't work. The Panthers need some major changes and that means asking some guys to get on with their life's work so to speak. And I think a few players will leave as well. Given that, these NIT games would not be "preparing players for next season" There needs to be a reasonably different roster next season. The second is this - the NIT should fully commit to becoming a 32-team tournament for teams that are from leagues that have two or less bids in the NCAA Tournament. In other words, reward those teams who have won 25+ games but can't make the NCAA Tournament because only the champions go. That would make for a much better tournament.
* Speaking of Pitt, the transfer portal officially opens next week but I would expect to hear about some guys who are going to make the jump this week. The formal announcement can't happen until next week but guys can tweet about it or have their agents leak it out that they are leaving. And let me talk about this for a minute - when I covered Pitt before I became a columnist we didn't have to deal with agents because they were against NCAA rules. That is one thing I am trying to catch up on real fast - who are the agents that are controlling each of these players because they will make for good sources. I just can't believe how much the world of athletics has changed in such a short time. I remember a program getting a secondary violation because they bought an AAU coach lunch while he was on campus visiting with his player. The coach had to make a donation to a charity in the same amount as the lunch and send in the receipt to reconcile it. Now, all bets are off and I have no idea what is an NCAA violation and what isn't.
* Indiana hired away Darian DeVries from West Virginia and I found this interesting - Indiana had one of the highest NIL pool with more than $5 million. That is close to what Pitt spent this past season...... in football. West Virginia's NIL is $3 million and there is a commitment from the donor base to help push that number north of $4 million for the next coach. The bottom line is the bottom line. Pitt's NIL for football is somewhere in the $6-$7 million range, at least last time I checked in, and while that is a good start, it is only a start. If the Panthers want to compete for real they are going to need to push that number north of $10 million. Heck, North Carolina committed $20 million to Bill Belichick and company. Money isn't everything but it is important these days. I saw Ole Miss women's coach Yolett McCuin, a former Pitt assistant by the way, saying she is disheartened because every kid they recruit - and their agent - says "how much we getting paid" and no longer cares as much about culture, winning and facilities. That's women's basketball, imagine what the pressure is in football and men's basketball. This is why Allen Greene is feeling the heat to bring Pitt into the modern world of big time (and big money) athletics. The NIL collective is "separate from the university" but let's not kid ourselves, the two entities are in bed together and are squeezing many of the same donors. I had one person from development say to me this "when I reach out to donors these days they say 'I have money for your facility upgrades or money for a new quarterback but I can't pay for both so you tell me what you want....'' It is a new world of athletics for sure.
Redshirt Diaries: Allen Greene's priorities are easy to see
Welcome to the third edition of my twice weekly column: The Redshirt Diaries.It is the place where I put news, notes,
And the cut and paste (though click the link because the file is too large for cut and paste and so I have to cut out some of the paragraphs)
Redshirt Diaries: Allen Greene's priorities are easy to see
Paul Zeise • Pitt Sports News
Executive Editor
Welcome to the third edition of my twice weekly column: The Redshirt Diaries.
It is the place where I put news, notes, analysis, opinion, etc. and I try and give good insight to the happenings at Pitt.
A lot has happened since my last edition and I will tackle it all here twice every week. I would like to do it Monday and Thursday but depending on what happens, it could be Tuesday and Friday.
Let's get started:
* Allen Greene made his first two significant hires and they show clearly what his priorities are, at least in terms of updating the athletic department. It is no secret that every athletic department is searching for money, ways to generate revenue and, oh yeah, more money and Greene made it clear with these two hires that is front and center on his radar. Greene hired Brent Ust as senior deputy athletic director administration and Kyle Bruce as senior deputy athletic director for external relations / CRO. Those are fancy names and really scary sounding titles but what it boils down to is this: Both men were hired to find and generate new revenue streams from different angles. And if you read their biographies it is clear both have a proven track record of doing just that. Ust will focus on " will focus on the Panthers' competitive excellence and advancing strategic priorities for the overall department." Bruce will " Pitt's external units and have a strategic focus on revenue generation operations" Translation: These two were brought here to figure out how to keep Pitt competitive in the ever changing and expensive world of college athletics. I like the hires because both come from the SEC and I think they will be great additions to the athletic department. The raising of money and generating revenue stuff will prove to be a bit more challenging as Pitt faces a really uphill battle to dig out from under thanks to the former athletic director. The one thing that should be clear - although Heather spent like a drunken sailor and built a lot of vanity projects, somebody down the hill in the Cathedral had to OK It all and so this isn't completely on her. By the way, I get a kick out of the long ass names these athletic directors come up with in order to create titles for people. It reminds me of Todd Graham's staff here, where everybody seemed to have some version of "assistant associate vice head coach of....." and then the position they were coaching. Good memories, indeed.
* You know we can poke fun at Graham and look at that one year he was here as a disaster but that staff he had actually turned out to be pretty good. As far as I can tell there are four current head coaches from that staff: Danny Lanning (Oregon), Tony Gibson (Marshall), Mike Norvell (Florida State) and Keith Patterson (Abilene Christian). Tony Dews is the running backs coach for the Patriots, Spencer Leftwhich I think was with North Texas as assistant head coach and heck, Mike Shanahan and Tino Sunseri, two players on that team, are the offensive coordinators at Indiana and UCLA, respectively! All Hail the 2011 Pitt coaching staff! OK, I digress.....
* Speaking of coaching staff, Kade Bell was given a three-year extension and already the speculation is that he is unofficially the coach in waiting. I have yet had anyone I trust tell me that specifically but there is some dot connecting going on. It would make perfect sense if that was some of what was in the works with that extension but I don't think it was the primary reason for it. Bell is young, up and coming and one of these offensive gurus that so many of these athletic directors salivate over. The extension means it will be less likely that he gets poached by another program to be the offensive coordinator and gives him a little bit of job security. But if a team wants to come hire him away to be their head coach, the extension does nothing to stop that. There are a few people around Narduzzi I have talked to who have said could retire sometime sooner than later. He still has the fire, he still has the passion but he has made his money and might have some other interests he'd like to explore. I have said vehemently to those people that Narduzzi is a football coach and he won't retire before he is at least 62-63 years old but the game has changed and we have seen a lot of veteran coaches walk away earlier than they had planned because of it. Narduzzi wants to build a winner again and I think as long as he feels like he has everything he needs to compete and win at Pitt he will keep plugging away. My son Elijah played for Narduzzi and he said "dad, most of the time he has more energy than just about every one of us. He is nuts (in a good way)" so I wouldn't be quick to buy the idea he is ready to retire. And let's play this out anyway - the best case scenario for Pitt wouldn't be for Bell to take over directly. The best case would be Pitt has a great season this year, one of the better MAC or American or Conference USA programs hires him as head coach and he spends a few seasons learning how to be a head coach somewhere else. Then when Narduzzi steps aside Bell returns, experienced and ready to attack the ACC. I just think it is very hard to go from coordinator with zero experience to head coach in a power conference. It isn't impossible but it is tough.
* I have gone back and forth about the Pitt hoops team declining the NIT but here is my final answer. Good. I am glad they did, actually. I hope every power conference team that doesn't make the NIT declines the invitation. And the reason is twofold - one, Pitt better have a lot of roster turnover this year because it didn't work. The Panthers need some major changes and that means asking some guys to get on with their life's work so to speak. And I think a few players will leave as well. Given that, these NIT games would not be "preparing players for next season" There needs to be a reasonably different roster next season. The second is this - the NIT should fully commit to becoming a 32-team tournament for teams that are from leagues that have two or less bids in the NCAA Tournament. In other words, reward those teams who have won 25+ games but can't make the NCAA Tournament because only the champions go. That would make for a much better tournament.
* Speaking of Pitt, the transfer portal officially opens next week but I would expect to hear about some guys who are going to make the jump this week. The formal announcement can't happen until next week but guys can tweet about it or have their agents leak it out that they are leaving. And let me talk about this for a minute - when I covered Pitt before I became a columnist we didn't have to deal with agents because they were against NCAA rules. That is one thing I am trying to catch up on real fast - who are the agents that are controlling each of these players because they will make for good sources. I just can't believe how much the world of athletics has changed in such a short time. I remember a program getting a secondary violation because they bought an AAU coach lunch while he was on campus visiting with his player. The coach had to make a donation to a charity in the same amount as the lunch and send in the receipt to reconcile it. Now, all bets are off and I have no idea what is an NCAA violation and what isn't.
* Indiana hired away Darian DeVries from West Virginia and I found this interesting - Indiana had one of the highest NIL pool with more than $5 million. That is close to what Pitt spent this past season...... in football. West Virginia's NIL is $3 million and there is a commitment from the donor base to help push that number north of $4 million for the next coach. The bottom line is the bottom line. Pitt's NIL for football is somewhere in the $6-$7 million range, at least last time I checked in, and while that is a good start, it is only a start. If the Panthers want to compete for real they are going to need to push that number north of $10 million. Heck, North Carolina committed $20 million to Bill Belichick and company. Money isn't everything but it is important these days. I saw Ole Miss women's coach Yolett McCuin, a former Pitt assistant by the way, saying she is disheartened because every kid they recruit - and their agent - says "how much we getting paid" and no longer cares as much about culture, winning and facilities. That's women's basketball, imagine what the pressure is in football and men's basketball. This is why Allen Greene is feeling the heat to bring Pitt into the modern world of big time (and big money) athletics. The NIL collective is "separate from the university" but let's not kid ourselves, the two entities are in bed together and are squeezing many of the same donors. I had one person from development say to me this "when I reach out to donors these days they say 'I have money for your facility upgrades or money for a new quarterback but I can't pay for both so you tell me what you want....'' It is a new world of athletics for sure.
