Happy Steve Pederson Firing Day! Post your airing of grievances.
- Thread starter Flynn #5
- Start date
My grievance is we hired a legitimately worse AD. Scott Barnes burned down Pitt basketball in the 3 weeks he was here. Pitt Basketball is almost like losing a relative. It just feels bad to see it in its current state.
Nah. Barnes was only in town for a cup of coffee and the basketball program was set to slide before he got here.
Stevie wrecked the football program, which is a much bigger deal in the scheme of things. Only took a decade to somewhat right the ship. Consider the rebranding flop and the stadium move among the other brainfarts and you got a real winner. Bozik caliber to be sure.
Of course, some of the few fanboys left here will tell you he got us into the ACC (Still laugh at that). Wonder how many of them have "Lost in Ambition" on their bookshelf.
That’s silly
We went from mediocre to mediocre by firing wanny’s 3 winning seasons in 6 years .
Wrecked ? Lol
He did an excellent job from 1996-2003. Pitt basketball and football were doing very well, the Olympic Sports Complex was being built, and attendance was good. The second time around wasn’t good.
Nothing silly about it fanboy. It took a decade to get us back to Wanny /Harris mediocrity. And the jury is still out on Narduzzi. So yeah wrecked.
What I remember about the Pederson firing, it became public during a Pitt home basketball game. It was obvious, something was occurring with the crowd that had nothing to do with the game.
I asked the guy next to me if he knew what was going on. He handed me his phone. A lot of happy fans that night.
Unfortunately, what followed was a typical mess.
I asked the guy next to me if he knew what was going on. He handed me his phone. A lot of happy fans that night.
Unfortunately, what followed was a typical mess.
Crazy. Yea, Pitt basketball was slipping under Pederson but had he stayed and Dixon stayed.....at very worst, we would have been a bubble program, squeaking into the NCAAT every 2 years or so and making the NIT in the others. Barnes turned us into Duquesne, a near impossible feat. And stop with the SP ruined Pitt football stuff. His hires of Graham and Chryst were bad but we went from a 7-8-9 win program under Wanny to 6 under Graham/Chryst. He cost us 1-2 wins per year. And since he left, we're back to Wanny level. Pitt football is idiot proof in that 6 wins is essentially the floor and 8 wins is essentially the ceiling
I would modify your comment slightly. The jury isn't really out on Narduzzi. He's been here 8 years. He's won 8 games four times, and then he's won 5, 6, and 7 games once each. He had one season of 11 wins. Narduzzi is what he is. Not going to suddenly find a way to win a NC nor is he likely to win only 3 or 4 games a year. The range is really a floor of 6 wins with a ceiling of 8.
The jury IS still out on whether that level of production is adequate, given what we're paying him.
Cruzer
You are correct. Pederson had nothing to do with us getting in the ACC
But you are incorrect, blaming Peterson for the move to HF.
Way, way above his pay grade.
Of course, the decision was made by a number of folks in the administration, but you would be wrong if you feel he did not have some culpability. At the minimum, he no doubt was an advocate and pitched it to the ones who were able to pull the trigger.
Nordenberg is quoted having said he was against the move, but then SP convinced him that it was for the best.
Barnes did more damage to the athletic department during his cup of coffee than perhaps any single AD since Whitey Hagen in 1937. Ed Bozik and Oval Jaynes had more time to reek their havoc.
It may be telling about how the state of athletic director position has been at Pitt because Pederson isn't likely isn't in the bottom half of a ranking of them.
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The fault for moving out of Pitt Stadium lies primarily with prior administrations for setting the stage with decades of facilities neglect, horrible personnel decisions, failed athletic fundraising drives, mismanagement of state facilities funding, and placing the university on overall precarious financial footing. Moving out of Pitt Stadium had been discussed for 30 years prior to the decision to do it. It wasn't as if Pederson came up with an original concept.
The fact that Barnes wasn't sued for collusion/conspiracy due to his relationship with the search firm he used to hire Stallings is unforgivable.
What an insanely awful and ridiculous take. I know you hated Dixon. I know you loved stallings. I know you thought wanny was god.
Pitt basketball would be in much better ship if Dixon stayed.
While i obviously do not know how old you may be, i will assume you rememebr a referendum to build 2 new stadiums was voted down by 70% among allegheny county voters /taxpayers.
Yet both houses got built.
Ed rendell of all people was a proponent of these venues. There absolutely was pressure placed on Pitt to move to HF, to give the appearance of more use (s) than 8-10 Steelers games.
This piece (and arguably the largest piece) was not impacted in any way by Pederson and his vision.
But i will agree, his lobbying to move was prevalent.
They should have sucked it up and built a new (or heavily remodeled) Pitt Stadium on the location where it stood. They had the land and the cost would have been much less expensive. Pitt would be approaching paying off that modest stadium debt and they could be planning a campaign to update it now.
Now the costs are way higher to build a new stadium and the space is even more limited. That's on SP and MN for being shortsighted dipshits. HF has a good college football atmosphere once game a year when the opposing team brings fans. I know you don't want to hear it, though.
I remember when Barnes said he was forming the Fan Experience Committee and he said they would review applications and interview people almost like it was an actual job.
Then in true Pittsburgh fashion, they just selected people they already knew anyway. I think the result was to give students pizza
Then in true Pittsburgh fashion, they just selected people they already knew anyway. I think the result was to give students pizza
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Barnes was 100 times worse than Pederson for obvious reasons. There was no financially viable way we could stay in Pitt Stadium, and the move to Heinz was the only alternative. Pederson was terrible, but Barnes was way worse for his part in pushing Dixon out and for his collusion.
I'm sure that some of the posters in this thread who foolishly insist that Pitt Stadium should have remained or been rebuilt or a new stadium built are also those who rarely if ever went to games there. Many of them weren't even alive when Pitt Stadium existed. So there's no credibility to what they say.
Number of football games Dave Wannstedt won in six seasons: 42
Number of football games Pitt won in the six seasons after he left: 41
This is a bit misleading in that 27 of those wins were in the final three years, it took over 4 more years to get back to 27 total, a failed attempt to improve the program by any measure.
Pitt won 27 games from 2008-20010. That's probably the only 3 year period since the Glory Days of Majors/Sherrill when that has been done. Pitt has a legit chance to match or beat that next year.
Sure, a little misleading, but things went into the tank his last year. Not winning an awful big east was unacceptable
EXACTLY. Pitt let Barnes off very easy. I am not a lawyer but I would think Barnes had a fiduciary responsibility to the program. While I don't think Pitt would have won in court, a lawsuit would have brought about some very interesting discovery. I would have loved to see Barnes and Turner under oath. What they did was criminal. And Turner, knowing Stallings was going to be fired, may have helped convince Barnes to allow Jamie to walk.
What an incredibly dumb post. No, it isn’t, but they were the number one team in the country. You’re comparing that to wanny’s last year where the team quit against WVU and we got run out of the building? How about losing on the road to UConn? How about getting boat raced by an average miami team at home?
You have to be a complete troll. That 8 seed went to the championship game btw.
Damn that looks like crap. It didn't bother me much in the late nineties and early 2000s, but our uniforms/logo are so much better now.
Yeah we went from going to Birmingham under wanny to birgmingham with graham to Birmingham with chryst
It was a terrible slide
So which compares to the 26 walt won his final 3 seasons -
And yet nobody is pining for him
Are you really saying that you would hire Graham and Chryst before Wanny? or that they did an equal job here?
It’s was just a decade long devastating affect !!!
Seneca’s devotion to a very mediocre at best coach is braggable .
I reported on this board his time here would be short - after the sun bowl. The admin didn’t support him anymore
