My wife graduated from Pitt in the late 70's and I graduated from Oklahoma State in the early 70's. She remembers the days when Tony Dorsett, Hugh Green, and Dan Marino were among the most elite players in college football. I'm not qualified to comment on how or why Pitt has fallen on hard times, but as an OSU fan, I know what you're going through. When we had Thurman Thomas, Barry Sanders, and Mike Gundy playing in mid eighties, we were a top 10 program. But, we fell on hard times in the 90's, and lost more games than we won. We had only one winning season in the 90's.
Things began to change when we hired Les Miles in 2001. Within two years, we were going to bowl games, beat OU twice in a row, and were back in the top 20. He left us for LSU, and we promoted Mike Gundy to be our head coach. It took him about 2-3 years to get us back to winning on a consistent basis, and he's now our most winningest coach in history. But, the most remarkable thing is that we recruit no better players than Pitt or many other teams. Our classes rank in the mid-30's in most years, which is similar to Pitt's classes.
My words of encouragement are these:
1. A good coach can take 3 star players and make them 4 star players. Most of the OSU players who are now in the NFL were 2 and 3 star recruits. Dez Bryant is an exception. Dan Bailey was a walk-on. Lane Taylor was barely a two star recruit, and he is making nearly $5M a year as the starting guard for the Packers. Russel Okung was a three star recruit, and is making close to $12M a year. Barry Sanders was a two star recruit. You don't have to get a lot of 4 star players if you have the right coach and support staff. Your recruits are the same as ours. Narducci may be able to what Gundy has done with the right support and time.
2. Within 150 miles of Pittsburgh are many more D1 players than 150 miles from Stillwater. Get the ones that have the best work ethic and character, and respond to the right motivation, and you will turn your program around. Frank Beamer did it at VT, so can Pitt. Other coaches have done it with teams who had suffered many years of futility.
3. I think if your suspended players had been available, the score would have been closer. But, the trick is to not recruit players who get in trouble. Coach Gundy removed 12 players from the team in his first season, and 6 were starters. That was his only losing season, but he refused to have players who were trouble-makers. We have had very few trouble makers to deal with in the past 10 years.
Good luck to Pitt in the future. I hope Narducci can turn it around this year or next.
Things began to change when we hired Les Miles in 2001. Within two years, we were going to bowl games, beat OU twice in a row, and were back in the top 20. He left us for LSU, and we promoted Mike Gundy to be our head coach. It took him about 2-3 years to get us back to winning on a consistent basis, and he's now our most winningest coach in history. But, the most remarkable thing is that we recruit no better players than Pitt or many other teams. Our classes rank in the mid-30's in most years, which is similar to Pitt's classes.
My words of encouragement are these:
1. A good coach can take 3 star players and make them 4 star players. Most of the OSU players who are now in the NFL were 2 and 3 star recruits. Dez Bryant is an exception. Dan Bailey was a walk-on. Lane Taylor was barely a two star recruit, and he is making nearly $5M a year as the starting guard for the Packers. Russel Okung was a three star recruit, and is making close to $12M a year. Barry Sanders was a two star recruit. You don't have to get a lot of 4 star players if you have the right coach and support staff. Your recruits are the same as ours. Narducci may be able to what Gundy has done with the right support and time.
2. Within 150 miles of Pittsburgh are many more D1 players than 150 miles from Stillwater. Get the ones that have the best work ethic and character, and respond to the right motivation, and you will turn your program around. Frank Beamer did it at VT, so can Pitt. Other coaches have done it with teams who had suffered many years of futility.
3. I think if your suspended players had been available, the score would have been closer. But, the trick is to not recruit players who get in trouble. Coach Gundy removed 12 players from the team in his first season, and 6 were starters. That was his only losing season, but he refused to have players who were trouble-makers. We have had very few trouble makers to deal with in the past 10 years.
Good luck to Pitt in the future. I hope Narducci can turn it around this year or next.
