Mike was paired with Ron Franklin in the booth for that 1990 season. He never was offered another job again, so maybe there was some major dirt on him.
Mike Gottfried
- Thread starter Pitt5593
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Me too with my grandparents. I was like 11 years old. I remember it like it was yesterday.
I don’t think it is possible to have harder rain and stronger winds then Temple in 1987.
Was that the one where the pass bounced off Quentin Jones helmet for a long Temple TD?
Ironhead’s big game against the U was played in a driving rainstorm as well"
The bad rain versus Temple was in 1986. In 1987 it was played at night and was when the tipped-pass TD that put Temple up, 24-14, occurred. Only at Pitt where a terrific DB loses the ball in the lights and the Temple player catches it and runs for a TD.
Pitt was up 14-0 in the blink of an eye and couldn't stop Todd McNair the rest of the way. Bad, bad loss. That Pitt defense was good in 1987 and he gained well over 200 yards.
Pitt was up 14-0 in the blink of an eye and couldn't stop Todd McNair the rest of the way. Bad, bad loss. That Pitt defense was good in 1987 and he gained well over 200 yards.
It should be noted that Stanford wooed Salk with...and this comes as a shock....MONEY$$$$#
so serious were the charges that Pitt spent all that time on probation and under NCAA sanctions for years on end...oops, nevermind that was self imposed sanctions in the form of a decade of horrid football..my bad.
Because Ed Bosic was the AD and he was an arrogant ahold who also let Jackie Sherrill go. Don’t forget Pitt administration got rid of Pop Warner in the day
lets take a closer look at Gottfried. listen, i loved him running down the sidelines after psu game too and guy recruited incredible but lets look at him at pitt..
4 years, finished 27-16-2. two bowl appearances in 4 years, finished ranked in top 25 one year out of four, (1989 we finished in high teens).
He is the king of head scratching, unexplainable losses.. yes, paul Hackett was a disaster but lets not act like we fired a coach at the top of his game..
4 years, finished 27-16-2. two bowl appearances in 4 years, finished ranked in top 25 one year out of four, (1989 we finished in high teens).
He is the king of head scratching, unexplainable losses.. yes, paul Hackett was a disaster but lets not act like we fired a coach at the top of his game..
He definitely had some head-scratching losses, two in 1987 at home that cost Pitt a 10-1 record. But Pitt didn't have a 10-1 QB or kicker that year and it cost Pitt dearly in those Temple and BC games. Still, Pitt should have won those games.
The 1989 team was good with a redshirt freshman QB. Two of those losses were to maybe Notre Dame's most powerful team ever which happened to also lose to a bad-ass Miami team that had was set up by five of Jimmy Johnson's recruiting classes. Take out Miami and add another Independent and Pitt goes 8-2-1 in the season. Playing those two programs then in the same season was a death sentence, but Dean Billick didn't give a rat's you know what.
We weren't getting a top coach anyway then and still haven't to this day. Perfect example of being happy with winning records and let the man do his thing.
ironically, his last year '89 was his best, like you said.. what's weird about that '90 team was that the two leading receivers were both Tight ends.. very strange..
Curtis martin had a bad year and really didn't have any WRs. Im assuming Davis and jells may have still been young, Truitt i think transferred to miss state or ole miss and of course Tuten graduated the year before..
What's strange about it? That was Hackett in a nutshell. Who can forget the 4 yard pass to the tight end on 3rd and 9?
I think Truitt was the leading receiver in 1990. He had 40-plus catches for 800-plus yards. That was Richards' last year and he had an ankle issue. All three fullbacks from the prior year went bust: Redmon to an Achilles, Bundy to academics and Derrick Lewis transferred mid-season.
The starting tight end, Sykes, only caught two passes in '90, but Dave Moore and Seaman were pretty good. The receiving corps was depleted with Baron Jackson a goner and Chris T. Jones not admitted. Dickerson played wideout that year and was OK.
Well we could have had Barry Alvarez, Jimmy Johnson or George Welsh so I think they were top coaches.
Ok, I’m mixing up my years. You are right, I think I’m referencing ‘91.
hacketts first year was 90. Swervin has bad year and truitt had 49 catches for 900 yards. Dickerson was a wr and Moore and seaman were decent but leading receivers the following year.
I heard stories about that team that showed how little control Hackett had. Lots of racial strife as one group of players thought Dickerson wasn't being treated fairly and should have been the starting QB.
You are correct. Mad Mike caused his own demise.
I did think he was top shelf as a color man, though...one of the very best.
My kids met their future stepmom that night. All's well that ends well. It looked like Niagara Falls in the stands, waves on the field.
Gottfried could recruit like hell, and he played a WAY harder schedule than Pitt does now. But the guy had some really bad loses. He lost to Temple two years in a row. Can you imagine the absolute shit storm this board would be if Narduzzi did that? Gottfried did it with a roster of Parade AAs and with a Heisman finalist in Ironhead one year.
I talked to a family friend and he told me the man had health issues and never entertained the prospect of coaching after Pitt. In fact, he said he probably wouldn’t have coached much longer even if he would have stayed on.
I would have taken two more years with the talent he had accumulated and was bringing in provided the school didn't pull the plug like it did.
and imagine if Alvarez would have been the replacement for Gottfried instead of Paul can't Hackett. although he may have grown frustrated after a few years with the administrative bullcrap at the time and bolted.
I clearly remember the day of the A&M bowl game one of the PIT papers listed the three candidates for the job: Alvarez, Hackett and some odd name to me, Wannstedt.
If Alvarez did get the job he likely would have bolted, but he was a pretty good administrative guy. He maybe could have met the administration half way with the academics and been able to succeed.
Considering all the baggage he had created for himself, he had to go. The biggie was the personal scandal, but there were plenty others. That being said, I always liked him, and still do. He's apparently gotten everything all straightened out....and I'm glad for it. I wish him well. I'm sorry it could not have worked out, but, it could not have considering the circumstances. As far as 'we could have had Alvarez or Johnson', how the heck do you guys know? That's a ridiculous comment.
what was the personal scandal? we are all adults here...was he doing copious amounts of imaginary cocaine (another true scandal that was not so much so) with Marino or something
He spent his first two years restocking the program and never got the chance to coach all the talent he brought in. Thanks to Bozik
What's ridiculous is you talking about all this baggage and if he stayed these issues were going to burn the university down yet we haven't heard any info that you seem to know.
Alvarez was interested, hometown guy; was ready to have his own program. Pitt was head and shoulders above Wisconsin in 1989. A lot more than what Wisconsin is over Pitt today. Of course Wisky saw how college ball was about to change for the better via television and decided to get on board and get serious. Pitt got spooked by how the college landscape was changing and hid behind honor and integrity. That sure changed after 72-0 and 60-6.
Tony "The Goose" is who he is but his take on Mike Gottfried as a coach is pretty brutal in his autobiography. It's just one source but pretty rough stuff about what a jerk he was.
Banged a cheerleader half his age. Personally, I’d mark that one in the “atta boy” category.
Well, there aren't many guys anywhere who are more of a "jerk" than Siragusa.
I've heard cheerleader (probably violates some sort of University policy) and cheer-leading coach (probably does not but could piss people off.) I mean who cares, we are clearly wasting time at work at this point haha
Interesting.
Gary Williams when at Maryland banged them at an alarming rate. No wonder the Basketball Gods gave him a title in 2002.
Lol. Nope. All hearsay and rumors. I hope its true though, I always liked gottfried and that would make me like him more.
Which was the final straw? The decision to fire Gottfried was made behind closed doors the week between PSU and Rutgers.
