With all of the bad coaches in college football today how does a coach like Narduzzi have to wait until nearly his 49th year to get offered a respectable head coaching position? Everything he has touched so far has seemingly turned to gold and although he hasn’t coached a minute of live football he hasn’t had the “deer in the headlights” look in anything he has done and I don’t expect his game plans or game day coaching will have that look or result either.
Look at what he has done in 6 short months: 1) at age 48, convinced a new chancellor that with no prior head coaching experience he was the man to turn the program around, 2) revitalized an entire fan base of justifiable naysayers, 3) identified facility deficiencies, secured funding and will have them updated before the first kick-off, 4) hired a staff of experienced and successful coaches at positions where they were already proven – yes, he was given a larger budget but without the leverage afforded an established head coach he was able to not only secure the needed funding but convinced an entire staff of seemingly top-notch coaches to come on board, 5) created enough of a program buzz that alumni who have guarded their wallets and their hearts for nearly a generation are now willfully opening both, and last but certainly not least, 6) captured the imagination of 16-18 year olds enough to have them believe that things WILL be different this time.
You may say that this is no different than the euphoria leading up to Wannstadt’s first year but I would argue it is not the same. Hindsight is 50/50 (probably my favorite Walt-ism) but even leading up to Wannstadt’s first game, the thought always banged around in my head that he was a much better defensive coordinator than head coach, and although he had some success with the Dolphins, the jury remained out on whether he could get Pitt over the top. He was a great recruiter and got a stingy administration to open up the purse strings to hire a good staff but he never had that game day swagger that made you feel comfortable that he could outcoach the opposition. Again, Narduzzi hasn’t made one game day decision yet but a man doesn’t likely do so much right in every single department and then fall flat on his face on game day. He has a game plan and is prepared to win at everything he does as a coach and I suspect that will carry over to September also.
I believe in very short order a great many AD’s are going to kick themselves for not giving this man a chance. Pitt got it right this time!
Look at what he has done in 6 short months: 1) at age 48, convinced a new chancellor that with no prior head coaching experience he was the man to turn the program around, 2) revitalized an entire fan base of justifiable naysayers, 3) identified facility deficiencies, secured funding and will have them updated before the first kick-off, 4) hired a staff of experienced and successful coaches at positions where they were already proven – yes, he was given a larger budget but without the leverage afforded an established head coach he was able to not only secure the needed funding but convinced an entire staff of seemingly top-notch coaches to come on board, 5) created enough of a program buzz that alumni who have guarded their wallets and their hearts for nearly a generation are now willfully opening both, and last but certainly not least, 6) captured the imagination of 16-18 year olds enough to have them believe that things WILL be different this time.
You may say that this is no different than the euphoria leading up to Wannstadt’s first year but I would argue it is not the same. Hindsight is 50/50 (probably my favorite Walt-ism) but even leading up to Wannstadt’s first game, the thought always banged around in my head that he was a much better defensive coordinator than head coach, and although he had some success with the Dolphins, the jury remained out on whether he could get Pitt over the top. He was a great recruiter and got a stingy administration to open up the purse strings to hire a good staff but he never had that game day swagger that made you feel comfortable that he could outcoach the opposition. Again, Narduzzi hasn’t made one game day decision yet but a man doesn’t likely do so much right in every single department and then fall flat on his face on game day. He has a game plan and is prepared to win at everything he does as a coach and I suspect that will carry over to September also.
I believe in very short order a great many AD’s are going to kick themselves for not giving this man a chance. Pitt got it right this time!
