So everyone wants the coach fired? Pitt hasn’t fired a coach in a while, so here’s a reality check of what will happen if Pitt fires Narduzzi, and you can decide if you think it’s worth it. This is purely based on other programs experiences.
- Anyone worth a damn on our current roster (Addison, Dennis, Kancey, Izzy, etc) WILL transfer away to stable programs leaving us with young project players that will be forced into duty. You also risk losing bright prospects we have on the roster such as Dayon Hayes, Elliot Donald, Naquon Brown, etc. Just look at Tennessee and the amount of talent that transferred away last year. You can guarantee missing a bowl in 2022 and likely 2023.
- There are always exceptions, but Duzz has done well keeping local standouts in Pittsburgh. You fire Duzz, you can guarantee we lose more than a few locals in the 22 class and the new coach would be significantly behind the pace working on the 23 class. With the early signing period, all programs (even ones that recruit better than Pitt) have a horrific year 0 class with the new coach. You are forced to take issue kids who are left hanging after the first signing period. You can guarantee putrid recruiting classes for at least 22 and a below Narduzzi level 23 class.
- THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THE REPLACEMENT IS BETTER THAN THE CURRENT OPTION. I can name countless other schools (FSU and Tennessee just off the top of my head) who continuely fire coaches, and guess what? Nothing changes. Look at the most consistent programs in the country, there is one common factor. Stability in the coach. I’m not sure what other people’s expectations of Pitt football are, but I’m pretty realistic. Pitt should model themselves after Iowa. Iowa is having a fantastic year so far, but I’m not talking about this years Iowa. Iowa is consistently at Top 25-35 team, year in, year out. Bowl game every year, and you cycle up every 4 or so years and get to 9 or even 10 wins. This should be Pitt’s goal. You will never see Iowa at the top of any recruiting rankings. This is from DEVELOPMENT of lower ranked kids, going to Iowa and becoming pro’s. Pitt has been doing this under Narduzzi! Look at the previous draft class, none of the kids drafted were stud recruits. This is a great sign that Naduzzi is a great developer of talent (specifically on defense). How did Iowa become Iowa? They gave Ferentz a ton of time to figure it out. Narduzzi has been here a while, but go ahead and look up Iowa’s record under Ferentz. They struggled for 3 years mightly, then had 3 years of real success, followed by 3 more years of below average results. If Iowa fired Ferentz after 3 poor years following up 3 good years, Iowa is not the Iowa it is today.
- BTW, what happens in a month or two if we pull off upsets over Clemson or UNC? You fire the coach now, this year and next goes in the toilet. We keep Narduzzi, we have a decent shot at beating one of those teams. You don’t believe me, just look at the 2016 team, which had an awesome offense, but struggled on defense.
- Look, I, like everyone else, was furious, disappointed, and even depressed after the loss Saturday, but guess what, when you’re dealing with 20 year olds, ITS GONNA HAPPEN. Just look at the previous coaches at Pitt, even in peak Wannstedt years, random losses to G5 teams happen. They’re never acceptable, but they happen. That doesn’t mean everyone should be fired. There’s a reason I waited until Wednesday to post this, hoping the raw pain of the loss will have faded for most rational people and most fans can think rationally about what firing the coach actually means
- So I ask you again, considering the likely events above, you really want to fire Narduzzi 3 games into the season? Have a dreadful team in 2022 and a slightly better but still not good team in 2023? Lose all of our exciting players to rival teams, lose local kids in the next 2 classes to rival teams? All of the while knowing, that in 3 years we may be in an even worse spot? Again, don’t be so naive to think we couldn’t become an FSU or Tennessee extremely easily. It only takes a couple bad hires to tank a program, hell just look at the basketball program, it may only take one bad hire.
- Anyone worth a damn on our current roster (Addison, Dennis, Kancey, Izzy, etc) WILL transfer away to stable programs leaving us with young project players that will be forced into duty. You also risk losing bright prospects we have on the roster such as Dayon Hayes, Elliot Donald, Naquon Brown, etc. Just look at Tennessee and the amount of talent that transferred away last year. You can guarantee missing a bowl in 2022 and likely 2023.
- There are always exceptions, but Duzz has done well keeping local standouts in Pittsburgh. You fire Duzz, you can guarantee we lose more than a few locals in the 22 class and the new coach would be significantly behind the pace working on the 23 class. With the early signing period, all programs (even ones that recruit better than Pitt) have a horrific year 0 class with the new coach. You are forced to take issue kids who are left hanging after the first signing period. You can guarantee putrid recruiting classes for at least 22 and a below Narduzzi level 23 class.
- THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THE REPLACEMENT IS BETTER THAN THE CURRENT OPTION. I can name countless other schools (FSU and Tennessee just off the top of my head) who continuely fire coaches, and guess what? Nothing changes. Look at the most consistent programs in the country, there is one common factor. Stability in the coach. I’m not sure what other people’s expectations of Pitt football are, but I’m pretty realistic. Pitt should model themselves after Iowa. Iowa is having a fantastic year so far, but I’m not talking about this years Iowa. Iowa is consistently at Top 25-35 team, year in, year out. Bowl game every year, and you cycle up every 4 or so years and get to 9 or even 10 wins. This should be Pitt’s goal. You will never see Iowa at the top of any recruiting rankings. This is from DEVELOPMENT of lower ranked kids, going to Iowa and becoming pro’s. Pitt has been doing this under Narduzzi! Look at the previous draft class, none of the kids drafted were stud recruits. This is a great sign that Naduzzi is a great developer of talent (specifically on defense). How did Iowa become Iowa? They gave Ferentz a ton of time to figure it out. Narduzzi has been here a while, but go ahead and look up Iowa’s record under Ferentz. They struggled for 3 years mightly, then had 3 years of real success, followed by 3 more years of below average results. If Iowa fired Ferentz after 3 poor years following up 3 good years, Iowa is not the Iowa it is today.
- BTW, what happens in a month or two if we pull off upsets over Clemson or UNC? You fire the coach now, this year and next goes in the toilet. We keep Narduzzi, we have a decent shot at beating one of those teams. You don’t believe me, just look at the 2016 team, which had an awesome offense, but struggled on defense.
- Look, I, like everyone else, was furious, disappointed, and even depressed after the loss Saturday, but guess what, when you’re dealing with 20 year olds, ITS GONNA HAPPEN. Just look at the previous coaches at Pitt, even in peak Wannstedt years, random losses to G5 teams happen. They’re never acceptable, but they happen. That doesn’t mean everyone should be fired. There’s a reason I waited until Wednesday to post this, hoping the raw pain of the loss will have faded for most rational people and most fans can think rationally about what firing the coach actually means
- So I ask you again, considering the likely events above, you really want to fire Narduzzi 3 games into the season? Have a dreadful team in 2022 and a slightly better but still not good team in 2023? Lose all of our exciting players to rival teams, lose local kids in the next 2 classes to rival teams? All of the while knowing, that in 3 years we may be in an even worse spot? Again, don’t be so naive to think we couldn’t become an FSU or Tennessee extremely easily. It only takes a couple bad hires to tank a program, hell just look at the basketball program, it may only take one bad hire.
