Big loss, but what's the difference anymore, honestly? This team seems pretty doomed while Narduzzi is still at the helm.
Sincere Edwards Hits the Portal
- Thread starter TheWerewolfFromTwilight
- Start date
The lack of talent on the d line is a problem
Good player. Potentially very good. Can you blame a guy for jumping off this ship steered by a coach who didn't have the balls to go for a win. We lost 6 in a row, I don't blame him at all for trying to go play for a winner. He is likely the first of several more good pieces we have that will look for greener pastures.
Yeah, teams don't usually end on that kind of losing streak and keep the team in tact.
Of course the flip side of that is we don't have many guys we need to pay up to keep, because most of this roster is at a G5 level.
This is just the new reality not only for Pitt, but for all the have-nots. Not really much that can be done to prevent it. It's a travesty.
I think Michigan earned the last NC that anyone will ever win by building a deep, talented, veteran roster, and keeping all their top talent for 4-5 years. Harbaugh timed his exit beautifully. Easier to coach a true professional team with players under contract etc. than a quasi professional team where players can come and go as they please.
I don't think it necessarily has to damn a team - even one at Pitt's level - if they know what they're doing. I don't completely buy into this narrative that we totally have no chance in the portal era. No chance to win a natty, obviously, but it's not impossible to win ten games and have a nice season. We just don't have a good coach.
So if he joins a 7-8 win team, do you think he really left due to wins and losses? Or, possibly he knows he'll double his NIL earnings no matter who he signs with.
We also don't have enough good players. And I'm not going to get into the debate about why that is, NIL shortcomings, etc., but it's just a fact. It was a fact before NIL. And that was squarely on the coaches.
I assume he's going to UCF.
... which is why I don't think it's impossible for Pitt to compete in modern college football. Not like we're losing most of these guys to schools with endlessly deep pockets. We need a better coach, who can stimulate a better NIL program.
This dude would start next year and he's hitting the portal. Maybe heading closer to home and for a couple bucks, but why even come here in the first place.
Charlie Partridge, maybe. But I also have to wonder if he'd be leaving had we not ended on very demoralizing six-game losing streak.
Perhaps a combination of both. Why wouldn't you leave a team that lost 6 in a row, especially if you could get more cash. Having said that, If I were him, I would go to the portal if I could get the same as I was getting at Pitt. This program is mired in mediocrity. I don't blame him for going some place where he hopes to win more.
Solid true freshman year.
DE depth is now Jimmy Scott, Chief Borders, Maverick Gracio and Zach Crothers.
Yikes.
We got no pressure on a MAC team yesterday.
DE depth is now Jimmy Scott, Chief Borders, Maverick Gracio and Zach Crothers.
Yikes.
We got no pressure on a MAC team yesterday.
lol, we could have been champs of the pop tarts bowl coming off a 9 win season and he would have been gone. This is most likely another one looking to cash in.
Partridge was a big loss. Nothing else to say.
No question, and I think most of us realized that at the time.
But realistically, not a preventable loss.
I think what the portal will do is you'll see less dynasty type teams and more 1-3 year run teams like UCF, Cincy had recently. The main power houses going into portal era will still flourish per usual, but all the teams under that are just fighting for that 1 or 2 years miracle build and then you'll see more teams being subpar after that for a few years.
You think isn't doomed with another HC?
Pitt is destined to suck for the foreseeable future regardless.
Agree. Other than 1 year, we have sucked for the past 40. There is no reason, regardless of coach, to expect it to change.
That is so much bull shit. Pitt simply have to hire the right guy. I mean Indiana just went to playoffs. It takes the right coach what you are Pitt. It may be 40 years ago, but if they did it then, they can do it again.
We have to get a coach who will help galvanize the donors. Nard refuses to do it.
Keep telling yourself that and you will assuredly be disappointed for the next 40 years.
it was and so many posters on here "poo poo'd" it like it was nothing. he's been our best position coach in decades, and a year later and we went from leading county in sacks to getting very little pressure on the qbs and our Dline being a liability.
And pray tell what evidence is there in the last 40 years that makes you think the Egg heads running the show will not only be able to hire the right coach but also invest in the program ?
Maybe, maybe not. I think Narduzzi's shelf life here is close to being expired. A new coach at least sells hope. And what's the worse that could happen? Finish with nine losses in a season (lived through that with Narduzzi). Strike out on every local recruit? (check box Narduzzi). Heck Chryst slept walk to a .500 record, I'm thinking anyone else could do that also, with the potential to do better. I don't see that potential to do better with Narduzzi anymore.
Doomed? No, I don't. I think the landscape of the game has passed Narduzzi by in multiple ways. From a managerial standpoint, I think we need someone who embraces NIL better and engages the fans/media. Sitting up there like an unlikeable hermit crab works if you're Bill Belichick and winning Super Bowls.... but. And then from a game standpoint, give me someone who can find/develop quarterbacks. Coordinators will come and go, but a coach who can do that should make a program competitive more often than not.
Do I think we'll be an annual playoff fixture? Obviously not. Can we take 7.2 - 5.5 and raise it to something like 8.2 - 4.5? I'd like to think so. And frankly I don't even know that he is a 7.2-win coach in the age of rampant NIL/portal activity, so I might be giving him too much credit.
Exactly. Sometimes you need to make a change just to reset the hope button. No different than making a horizontal move in the job market just to catch your salary up to inflation.
i hate to admit it but im finding myself thinking like this more and more. i really like narduzzi too but man, im just thinking it's time for a change.
I also admit that i have very little faith that our beloved pitt can find a better HC and will most assuredly F it up like we always seem to do.
Well, if he continues trending down the path he's on there will be less and less to lose.
Don't want to risk firing a 7-5 coach? Okay. What about a 6-6/5-7 coach?
He ripped off a pretty unlikely stream of wins this season, but I'm not so sure that wasn't a pretty glaring aberration. This team has a lot of holes.
I am personally familiar with his recruitment and NIL. It was down to Pitt and UCF. UCF offered slightly more but he picked Pitt.
I'm sure UCF will be back at the table.
Pretty sure we flipped him from UCF the first time around. I'm sure we used Patridge as a recruiting tool, which is perhaps a lesson in over-selling players on position coaches in a business where they're so transient. Also pretty sure we had to pay up for him (to ward off UCF), Bass (to ward off VT), and Neal (to ward off Maryland)... so we'll see if Neal hits the portal this Spring I guess to complete the bag-chasin' trilogy.
I was talking about it with my dad but I think a big winner in this era of CFB is going to end up being Penn State. Because of NIL, you're just not going to get the Super Teams anymore that could cruise to 14 wins with NFL talent everywhere. And most of the truly elite coaches have left or are leaving because this new reality minimizes their gifts and makes them work much harder.
This benefits PSU in both areas. They couldn't compete with Ohio State or Georgia as they were formerly constituted and they couldn't out-coach Harbaugh or Saban. But they might be able to thread the needle now and sneak a title now that the top of the mountain is a lot shorter.
I can unfortunately see this happening, but I still don't think PSU can outspend OSU, so I think OSU will always be one of the super talent teams.
I think at least some of the current lack of juggernaut landscape can be attributable to there not being many good quarterbacks at the moment. Like, if Ohio State had a Fields or Alabama had a Young, etc. I think that changes their outlook quite a bit.
I've heard plenty of people say it's because no one has any depth because guys who aren't starting transfer... but then you'll hear others say that schools like Pitt can't compete because teams will overpay their starters just to stash them as backups.
So I don't know. Tough to say what has merit and what is just the natural ebb and flow of it all (there have been past seasons when no one team was all that great). But I do know that if you stick a future top ten draft pick at QB on some of these teams they'd get a lot better quickly.
Ohio State, Michigan, UGA, Bama, LSU, Texas--all have far more purchasing power than PSU. Michigan just paid one kid 12 mill and their wallet is still wide open. So I don't think PSU's place in the hierarchy is going to change much.
they really dont have too though, not with a 12 team playoff format. just finish in top 4 of big 10 and you'll be in playoffs. They can lose to osu and michigan every year and still pretty much be guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.
teams will overpay their starters just to stash them as backups
I think this only applies to players who realistically don't have an NFL future. The goal for every college player is still to make the NFL and get paid 10s of millions to play football. So I don't think too many starters are leaving their schools to risk sitting the bench somewhere else. The endgame for players will always be playing in the NFL.
But the post was about PSU now being a more realistic contender for a NC because of NIL and the portal. I don't see that happening because they aren't one of the truly rich programs in the college football landscape.
Maybe, but someone who was good enough to produce at Pitt to the tune of a new team willing to pay them 6 figure should still function as an adequate backup.
you get into the playoffs, you are a NC contender. they have to beat smu and boise and will be in the final 4..
again, the goal is to get into the playoffs and hope you get some good matchups. They dont have to "overspend" tosu to be a contender..
