I’ve been struggling with HCPN for a couple years for many of the reasons everyone has identified the past few days. I’ve always gone back to “I like PN and want him to succeed here” and “I want stability and don’t want to have to start over again”, primarily because PITT’s admin has failed so miserably at making hires (too many FB coaches to name all the blunders, Stallings, etc. (PS-I love ALL collegiate sports and student athletes who participate but for purposes of this discussion/decision I don’t really care about VB, soccer, etc. as they do not drive athletic programs.)
I have also been a financial supporter of the FB and BB programs for 40+ years and never missed ANY games until a few years ago when the Stallings era drove me away from a cavernous basketball arena (with <1,000 fans at some games.) BTW, Heinz is far from ideal but if the FB team won, fans would come and there wouldn’t be a sizable difference in raw attendance numbers (at Heinz vs an on campus 45K stadium.) Yes the experience would be much better, but PITT would still have to WIN to get 45K consistently at an on campus stadium. I believe winning trumps game day experience, although I would like to have both.
I also consistently purchased multiple annual FB/BB season tickets and loved traveling to bowl games and NCAA bball tournament games. I was at the Sugar Bowl for the Natty win, traveled to NCAA BB tournament games all over the country with my entire family, enjoyed the tremendous BBall years at the Pete and derived plenty of enjoyment from Pitt FB/BB, and consider myself a diehard Pitt fan.
BUT I’ve finally come to the unfortunate realization we’re never returning to top 10 FB or BB teams year in-year out (I know, I know, what took me so long). But that doesn’t mean we should accept being a laughing stock or average program, which we are. No one respects our FB program, which does drive the athletics dept bus. We can talk BB respectability at a later time, but I do think HCJC was a great hire at the time who hasn’t worked out YET—he should get some more time.
My excitement for PITT FB/BB slowly turned to apathy towards both programs. But now apathy is turning to an almost disdain feeling. No-one enjoys losing to WM at home with your best qb in years and a HC w/ a defensive rep who doesn’t have a clue how to stop a MAC opponent w/ a 4-5 play limited O.
It is TIME to cut the chord, HCPN is who he is. All the talk about contracts, roster pros/cons, coordinators, game planning, in game decision making, recruiting class(es), etc. makes for interesting conversation. I liked the PN hire at the time and I’ll also admit that PITT FB is in a better position now than when HCPN arrived. But there NO chance HCPN is the guy to create a consistent winning program: none-zero-zilch!
His strength is defense and his calling card is getting DBacks into nfl, yet almost every year our passing D is atrocious
There will be no better time than the end of this year to move on from HCPN and take a shot at success and respectability in the college football world. The landscape is changing and we may be lost in the final shuffle (32 or 64 teams) if we don’t position ourselves to demand inclusion in the final configuration.
It’s going to take a magical FBHC hire to get us respectability every year and a dream season once every 10 years. Make the move Heather, we don’t have the luxury of time on our side.
PS - if we get to 8 regular season wins, decision gets muddy. 9 he stays. Otherwise, move on, HE IS WHO HE IS!
I have also been a financial supporter of the FB and BB programs for 40+ years and never missed ANY games until a few years ago when the Stallings era drove me away from a cavernous basketball arena (with <1,000 fans at some games.) BTW, Heinz is far from ideal but if the FB team won, fans would come and there wouldn’t be a sizable difference in raw attendance numbers (at Heinz vs an on campus 45K stadium.) Yes the experience would be much better, but PITT would still have to WIN to get 45K consistently at an on campus stadium. I believe winning trumps game day experience, although I would like to have both.
I also consistently purchased multiple annual FB/BB season tickets and loved traveling to bowl games and NCAA bball tournament games. I was at the Sugar Bowl for the Natty win, traveled to NCAA BB tournament games all over the country with my entire family, enjoyed the tremendous BBall years at the Pete and derived plenty of enjoyment from Pitt FB/BB, and consider myself a diehard Pitt fan.
BUT I’ve finally come to the unfortunate realization we’re never returning to top 10 FB or BB teams year in-year out (I know, I know, what took me so long). But that doesn’t mean we should accept being a laughing stock or average program, which we are. No one respects our FB program, which does drive the athletics dept bus. We can talk BB respectability at a later time, but I do think HCJC was a great hire at the time who hasn’t worked out YET—he should get some more time.
My excitement for PITT FB/BB slowly turned to apathy towards both programs. But now apathy is turning to an almost disdain feeling. No-one enjoys losing to WM at home with your best qb in years and a HC w/ a defensive rep who doesn’t have a clue how to stop a MAC opponent w/ a 4-5 play limited O.
It is TIME to cut the chord, HCPN is who he is. All the talk about contracts, roster pros/cons, coordinators, game planning, in game decision making, recruiting class(es), etc. makes for interesting conversation. I liked the PN hire at the time and I’ll also admit that PITT FB is in a better position now than when HCPN arrived. But there NO chance HCPN is the guy to create a consistent winning program: none-zero-zilch!
His strength is defense and his calling card is getting DBacks into nfl, yet almost every year our passing D is atrocious
- Other than Canada, all O coordinator hires have been total busts (Cheney MAY have been a good hire, but he hasn’t exactly built a stellar career since leaving)
- We have our best QB in a long time, and we have zero offensive balance. What happens when we have an average qb next year and defenses stack the box with 9 or 10 guys??
- Offensive Line – recruiting, bad play, kids who performed well at end of last year now on the bench behind teammates with a 100+ D1 rushing rating???
- Defense, does anyone think we’re elite (or even average) on D? Camp reports were our interior linemen were great and deep, DE's were good, our LB’s were the best and deepest corp in his tenure, etc. WM (a MAC team) ran and threw at will using 4-5 plays the entire game. Bates fault or HCPN --- this happened before Bates got here so…
There will be no better time than the end of this year to move on from HCPN and take a shot at success and respectability in the college football world. The landscape is changing and we may be lost in the final shuffle (32 or 64 teams) if we don’t position ourselves to demand inclusion in the final configuration.
It’s going to take a magical FBHC hire to get us respectability every year and a dream season once every 10 years. Make the move Heather, we don’t have the luxury of time on our side.
PS - if we get to 8 regular season wins, decision gets muddy. 9 he stays. Otherwise, move on, HE IS WHO HE IS!
