If this game was in Pittsburgh or on TV Walt would have been fired the next day
- Thread starter happjack
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Why would Walt have been fired the next day? We routinely lose the types of games with every staff we’ve had since Jackie.
I was at that game... heavy Pitt presence in the stands... and everyone yelling for the DB’s to press a little more towards the receivers. The DC thought otherwise... a rare situation where the arm chair coordinators were right. Pitt was ranked and should have won that game easily...
Pitt played 10 to 15 yards off the ball the entire game and Gradkowski picked them apart with 4 and 5 yard passes, Pitt never made any adjustments. This game was a bigger embarrassment than the Penn State game two weeks ago, the team never quit but the coaching staff did or they just didn’t give a sh!t.
I think the Toledo game was the beginning of the end for Coach Harris. The team was ranked, had a legit Heisman candidate and excitement for the season. The the egg is laid at Toledo and all the “next level” and who is going to get us there is started. If Pitt wins that game the season takes a different turn. That loss was a terrible one and really set Pitt back...
I was there for that and barely made out alive, their fans were garbage. Disgusting place. Truly deserves its sh*thole rep. That said the toledo team deserved credit for taking what was given them. It started a trend of our almost annual "worst loss ever". UNC last year wasn't the worst but fulfills a wtf classification.
Apologists will say everyone has a loss like this sometimes. Yeah but not nearly every year. Add to that home game egg-lays like the PSU game 2 weeks ago and it entirely explains our poor crowds, even for games like the one after the Clemson win. Losses like above, multiple ones, erode support to the point at the edges badly needed to accentuate the small core we have. Allegiance must be earned, not assumed.
Apologists will say everyone has a loss like this sometimes. Yeah but not nearly every year. Add to that home game egg-lays like the PSU game 2 weeks ago and it entirely explains our poor crowds, even for games like the one after the Clemson win. Losses like above, multiple ones, erode support to the point at the edges badly needed to accentuate the small core we have. Allegiance must be earned, not assumed.
yep, agree. 2003 was supposed to be the year for Walt. Nits were way down, think they finished 3-9. Best season tickets sales/crowds ever at Heinz. Could have really moved the program forward. But this game was the beginning of the downfall.
Although the defense was really bad that year. Almost Narduzzi level bad, if not worse. Even if we get a win we still wouldn't have an answer for WVU.
Listened on the radio that night. Absolutely pathetic defensive performance and I still remember up 31-28 in the 4th quarter and it was 4th down and I believe around a yard to go. Harris punts the ball away! Obviously the defense continues to get shredded and toledo goes down and scores the winning TD on that drive. One of walt’s worst coaching decisions ever IMO.
I was there too, drove down from suburban Detroit with my Pitt alum Dad and my youngest brother. Had to watch the UT kids tear down the goal post and pass it over the fence outside the stadium. I remember Fitz by himself on one knee when he wasn’t on the field, 50 feet past his next closest teammate. We just sat there in silence. That game ruined a promising season.
That UT team was pretty decent, but Pitt had no business losing that game.
That game made me sick. That could have been a very special year. I remember they were #9 in the country around that time too. I was listening to it on the radio at some party. I was pissy after that.
similar to the great Wannstedt (who is being inducted into the hall of fame in another thread) losing to WVU in 2009 while ranked in the top 10. I've posted before that the 2009 loss to WVU has had a worse affect on us than 13-9 did to WVU. Our record and the sequence of events since that games is really something,
Because we have a small, frugal fanbase that doesn’t generate enough revenue to buy rent a win home games.
Yes-a 4-8 A&M team that finished with 2 conference wins.
And Toledo got destroyed by Cuse the same week. Hung a whopping 7 on a bad Cuse team after lighting Pitt up for 38 or whatever it was.
We were ranked for 10 weeks that year. I'd take that now! And obviously the Fitzgerald approaching 100 catches in a college season thing.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
One of the WR's for Toledo in that game was Terrance Hudson. I played on a team with him a few years later. Really nice guy and very athletic.
People forget that that was actually a really good Toledo game. They had 3 NFL players. Kaczur, the tackle, the WR who tore us up and Gradkowski.
Gradkowski only threw a few vertical passes the entire game. Just dinked and dunked the whole way down the field.
Yep and believe it or not, Wanny had us up to #9 when we lost at WVU on Black Friday 13 months before he was canned.
Pretty sure UT upset Penn State at State College a few years before.
Plus. We beat Texas A&M on the road the following week.
Facts suck sometimes.
The receiver (I think the one you were referring to) was lance Moore. He played for the Steelers for a season (one of several stops), actually during the same time Bruce gradkowski his qb at Toledo was with the Steelers.
Rod Rutherford, Lou Polite, Brandon Miree, Larry Fitzgerald, Shawntae Spencer, Kris Wilson and Rob Pettitie. There’s no way Pitt should have lost that game. They were one of the best teams in the country. That was a crapping of the bed in which Walt never recovered because that was the year he was poised to take the elusive “next step.” The Toledo loss set him way back.
I thought that Miree could have been more productive than he was. He looked the part of a 1000yard rusher. And I liked Jawan Walker too. Looked impressive early in his career. Running game had to take a backseat to Rod Rutherford and the passing game. Fitz was amazing and had at least one highlight reel type catch per game. Remember vertical passing? Hopefully we see some more of that this season...
Rhodes was DC the year Pitt's defense stunned the most explosive offense in the country, WVU, 13-9. And he coached-up Darrell Revis.
[QUOTE="McKee Place
Apologists will say everyone has a loss like this sometimes. Yeah but not nearly every year. Add to that home game egg-lays like the PSU game 2 weeks ago and it entirely explains our poor crowds, even for games like the one after the Clemson win. Losses like above, multiple ones, erode support to the point at the edges badly needed to accentuate the small core we have. Allegiance must be earned, not assumed.[/QUOTE]
The egg after the Clemson win? You mean the Pitt beatdown on Duke?
Pretty sure you’re a troll, but not 100% quite yet.
Apologists will say everyone has a loss like this sometimes. Yeah but not nearly every year. Add to that home game egg-lays like the PSU game 2 weeks ago and it entirely explains our poor crowds, even for games like the one after the Clemson win. Losses like above, multiple ones, erode support to the point at the edges badly needed to accentuate the small core we have. Allegiance must be earned, not assumed.[/QUOTE]
The egg after the Clemson win? You mean the Pitt beatdown on Duke?
Pretty sure you’re a troll, but not 100% quite yet.
It took a long time for the Pony Express rider to get from Toledo to Pittsburgh back then.
He was a BUM!!!! Couldn't figure out to how to defend a spread or west coast offense to save his life....
g-man is referring to the lack of crowd that he thought should have been there to welcome Pitt back after the Clemson game. He conveniently forgets to mention that the game meant nothing as we were already eliminated from contention for the Coastal. Pittsburgh fans need meaning attached to games to get them off their coach and into the stadium.
Very true. Big name P5 programs don't mean much to our fans. They'll come if we're competing for a conference title, or for the three big (now all non conference) historical rivals, but that's it.
Don’t disagree.... painful to watch. We shouldn’t be seeing blown coverages, such as we even saw against GT, in the 4th year of the current regime.
