Mike Gottfried
- Thread starter Pitt5593
- Start date
Because he was successful.
It appears that the PITT admin has difficulty recognizing this trait.
Because the perception of keeping up with the pristine reputation of the team from the middle of the state (whose heralded defensive coordinator was screwing little boys at the time and said screwing was probably known by the heralded god of a head coach at the time) was more important than beating said team (pretty sure Gottfried was .500 against them) from the middle of the state....Personally, I liked Gottfried.
Correct - think about how awful things were at the time that Paterno and Sandusky were looked upon as role models. Sherrill and Jimmy Johnson should be hailed as heroes in comparison.
He paid players and was caught. He had issues in his personal life as well that became public enough to play a part.
Here is one article on violations: https://www.deseret.com/1992/5/13/1...ll-program-committed-12-ncaa-rules-violations
Here is another: https://www.tulsaworld.com/archive/...cle_d83659a6-f8b1-548f-8bb6-6e07ddeb93b3.html
I will provide no details on the more personal matter.
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Who cares about that if you are winning! What a bunch of LOSERS.
Sandusky and Paterno - Scumbags at PS who were propped up by the media.
Sherill and Johnson - Unfairly vilified coaches who were at Pitt.
I know the quote you are referring to. Ironic in hindsight.
So what that was the game at that time and still is.
Go Big or Go Home!
Personal matters are personal matters noones business even if they go public.
He's a football coach not Preacher, and the football field isn't a church.
You did read the part that says he got "caught"?
Going strictly on memory here:
I believe he wrote a book that mentions the cheating?
I believe Western Union was involved?
If only every coach was fired for being involved with or aware of players getting paid, we might be a top 20 team.
There was a lot going on with Gottfried with boosters paying, a personal thing he should never have done, and the Hackett the snake backstabbing Gottfried. And not to mention Darnell Dickerson becoming academically ineligible for the type of class most players in college football get A’s in just for enrolling. That was a result of administration and the professor making an academic statement against Pitt football.
There was a lot going on with Gottfried with boosters paying, a personal thing he should never have done, and the Hackett the snake backstabbing Gottfried. And not to mention Darnell Dickerson becoming academically ineligible for the type of class most players in college football get A’s in just for enrolling. That was a result of administration and the professor making an academic statement against Pitt football.
Who cares? Seriously. Pitt is so F'ed Up.
Hey Pitt, you're not an Ivy League school. You're not an elite Academic Institution. Penn State is perceived as being a better Academic Institution solely because of their football program and the deceit and lies surrounding it.
Get in the real world you Losers
but Gottfried wasn't winning, about the same as Narduzzi actually. And with arguably more talent. Four different offenses in four years. Never had a nine win season.
Did have some nice wins though. Last coach to beat the nits on their field. Beat Ohio State. Also ND. Serious WTF games, like losing to Temple at home.
Penn State academic reputation has nothing to do with the football program. I'd be willing to bet it hurts their reputation given all that has gone on over the past 25 years.
Not much though...he was a 7 - 8 win a year coach. People acting like he was Majors or Sherril are off base
I always thought it was the personal thing.
I thought it was publicly fighting increasing the GPA admissions standard.
We were loaded with some of the best offensive and defensive lines in the country in that era. Rest of team was sorta all over the place as was his bizarre mish mash power running and run and shoot offenses being used in the same game.
We were loaded with some of the best offensive and defensive lines in the country in that era. Rest of team was sorta all over the place as was his bizarre mish mash power running and run and shoot offenses being used in the same game.
Did you read it? Nothing earth shattering but there were reasons given
The (record) was not a consideration ... it was the other matters.
Matters such as barely talking to Bozik in their final working months together, and Gottfried's continual feuding with the university's academic community, especially faculty representative John Bolvin.
Matters such as his icy-cold attitude toward the working media, whom he barely acknowledged this fall. Matters such as keeping within his budget and his problems convincing top-drawer Pitt alumni, especially the influential Golden Panthers' boosters, that he was the man for the job.
Oh, the horror. Players were given money and gifts. How else are you going to go 2-2 versus both Holtz and Paterno? Tell the athlete about Jonas Salk to get him to go to Pitt?
We clearly know why the rip cord was pulled in 1989 and a decade of awful football was coming down the pike.
We clearly know why the rip cord was pulled in 1989 and a decade of awful football was coming down the pike.
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Gottfried should have been 3-1 against them. Late TD by Adam Walker called back on a phantom hold in the last game.
Seven-8 wins when there was just 11 games. Like Pitt was going to go all in for a star coach.
Pitt played two of the top three ranked teams in 1988: ND and WVU. Also played a decent NC State team (8-3-1) and Cuse (10-2) that season. Crushing Ohio State was fun. Winning at PSU needs no explanation.
He screwed up not offering Major Harris. He never should have been fired after the school comically gave him that lifetime contract the prior year. Bad look there for Pitt. Going 8-3 on average in the 1990s would have been worth keeping Gottfried. Lots of studs in Western Penn., for most of that decade to recruit and having Hackett as his OC really wouldn’t have been a bad thing.
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yeah I've posted that also. Year 1 run & shoot, year 2 ball control, year 3 option, year 4 west coast. I just don't understand how we can swing and miss at so many coaches over the years.
He was all over the place with his offenses, but he was known before Pitt for throwing the ball and he had his OC and Van Pelt entrenched in 1989. I think having AVP for three more years would have stabilized Mike as a coach and he could continue building the program.
Did Gottfried not offer Major or offer him but not at QB? Ultimately it’s a screw up either way but I don’t remember.
Tons of schools offered him (obviously) but alot of them weren’t for QB. But Major had no interest in playing any other position but QB.
I wonder if we had still been rolling if we sign Arrington, Short, Ron Graham (although he was kind of a bust)
He offered Harris, but it was as a DB. Ironically, if Fazio had stayed at Pitt, then Harris would have come to Pitt. Fazio recruited him, and told him he would be the next Dan Marino.
That’s what I’d have assumed but wasn’t sure. Couldn’t imagine there was no offer. Thanks.
Myself and my family were at that Temple game, torrential downpour the steps looked like Ohiopyle.
FSU in 1982, Akron in 2015, Temple in 1987. Tossup for worse rain ever.
P
Some of the people who bitch about Pitt here don’t even seem to be up to date with the last 30 years of growth at the University & still make jokes about the Philosophy Dept completely ignoring decades of strides in the medical schools at Pitt.
Get real indeed
penn state absolutely does not have a better academic reputation than Pitt and I’m speaking of the only world that actually counts for such an opinion and that’s the you know actual ACADEMIC community...what dolts (whose only current link to academics consists of watching football on Saturday) think is actually irrelevant ...
Some of the people who bitch about Pitt here don’t even seem to be up to date with the last 30 years of growth at the University & still make jokes about the Philosophy Dept completely ignoring decades of strides in the medical schools at Pitt.
Get real indeed
He had some pretty big personal problems that would have, could have been, a major, major scandal at Pitt. Any University would have given him the heave ho.
There was the rumored affair with the cheerleading coach, but that is saying a lot that his personal problems could have been a major scandal for the school.
There were FBI agents on campus after agents were sniffing around Terryl Austin and Charles Gladman. That sounds really bad, but still not a fireable offense for the coach.
First, he didn't start with ESPN until he had been gone for a couple of years. 2nd.....it didn't involve ESPN, and was kept hush. 3rd, it would have been a MAJOR scandal at Pitt....not necessarily illegal, but it would have been a tremendous PR disaster. And, it wasn't a Cheerleading COACH.
