** A few days ago, a friend texted me and asked why I had gone so quiet about the coaching search. Even a few posters direct messaged me asking me much the same question.
** The answer is that I had become discouraged. Even more than that, I had grown tired.
** I was tired of the rumors, tired of the conjecture, tired of the disappointment.
** Mostly I was tired of the notion that “no one wants to come here.”
** We Pitt fans have gotten a little too used to the notion of top players not wanting to come here over the past five years. But this idea had spilled over that notion to coaches too.
** I’ll readily confess that I had seriously begun to doubt Ms. Lyke was up to the task. I was worried our selection would drag on for another week or two, and would result in a totally unsatisfying end.
** My tired brain couldn’t really even think of a legit coaching target who would even come here. I was privately trying to convince myself that Brandin Knight might be OK.
** And I was totally exhausted thinking about what next season would look like with a substandard coaching selection trying to refill an already totally substandard roster. If we didn’t even win any games in the ACC last year, would we even win any games at all during the next?
** I’m not tired anymore.
** Someone wanted to come here. Someone really good. Someone I’m confident will be able to get many others to want to come here.
** So with this I offer my most sincere welcome to new Coach Jeff Capel.
** With that, allow me to offer an equally sincere congratulations to our AD. Quite frankly, when you start digging deeper, she probably just pulled off the most impressive major sport head coach hiring in the history of Pitt Athletics.
** Another confession I must make is when the news of new Coach Capel was first announced I was certainly pleased, but not overwhelmed. Maybe I was still waking up.
** Many have termed Jeff Capel as a “Home Run Hire.” For whatever reason, I’ve always sort of disdained this term. But I’ll play along and say even if he’s not quite a home run, he’s at least a sliding two-run triple.
** And considering how dismal our prospects looked even just 24 hours ago, in Pitt terms this might even be back-to-back Grand Slams (think about that!).
** I’m actually wondering why Jeff Capel wasn’t within our top targets from the outset (or perhaps he was?). He indeed checks every box that needs to be checked. He’s not perfect. His Sooner meltdown is an issue. But he’s likely as perfect as Pitt was ever going to get.
** I confess that I was quite excited by the idea of getting Danny Hurley. At the outset, he was the guy I thought was the home run.
** But someone I know who is quite connected to college hoops coaches shared with me his take on Hurely, before he made his UConn choice. He believed that Danny didn’t feel he was quite up to the task of recruiting at the level needed for the ACC. The entire conversation really had me leaning away from Danny and toward Sean Miller, as Miller already knew how to operate in that top recruiting realm. Soon after, neither would happen anyway. (It should be noted how superior Capel’s resume is to Hurley’s as well.)
** This is what is so exciting to me about Jeff Capel. Jeff Capel absolutely knows how to operate in the ACC recruiting realm, or any of the highest recruiting realms based on what he did at Oklahoma. He knows exactly what he’s signed up for – both recruiting against his Alma Mater and rebuilding a team he just defeated twice by an average of 31 points, without his Duke players getting the least bit tired.
** Yet somehow we got Jeff Capel to come here. Jeff Capel could have selected a number of other jobs in the next few years, not to mention the biggest of them all succeeding his greatest mentor.
** Despite my unmeasured excitement of Lyke’s almost magic act, let’s go back to the only disappointing note of the day. That is, the size of the rebuilding job HCJC has in front of him is still sizeable and it may take some almost heroic efforts on his part just to get the Panthers to the middle of the ACC pack in the span of 2-3 seasons. Despite Jeff’s recruiting abilities, I still don’t think it will be a simple job at first to get good players to come here.
** But I certainly hope the job of getting fans to return to the Pete will be much easier.
** Many fans have said they would stay away because the actions of the Pitt Administration have said they aren’t serious about being successful. I think the Pitt Administration spoke loud and clear today.
** Staring tomorrow, I hope Panther fans speak loud and clear as well. How about getting on the phone and renew (or restarting) your basketball season tickets and increasing your athletics donation?
** I know I’ve now got all the energy I need to do both things bright and early tomorrow. Like I said, I’m not tired anymore!
** Hail to New Coach Capel! Hail to AD Lyke!
** Hail to Pitt!
