So how is the new AD Lyke doing in her first big athletic hire? Epic failure?
- Thread starter CrazyPaco
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So if there really isn't more/new money to use for this supposed hire then you have to presume it comes from within the current budget and how ever far out they need to project. So where do you take it from? What Men's sport do you want eliminated or not funded as much as it is now? No Women's sports will be touched so where do you get it? I am all for great hires and pouring money into all programs but until the money is actually donated can't see any AD making that call.
I don't know much about wrestling, so I don't know who would be a good hire. But I think this is a little much CP. And you know how much I respect your posts.
Could it be a failure? Sure. But they haven't even hired anyone yet. And the new AD has been on the job for one week. Let's let things play out.
And this is from a guy that wants to see ALL Pitt sports do well.
Could it be a failure? Sure. But they haven't even hired anyone yet. And the new AD has been on the job for one week. Let's let things play out.
And this is from a guy that wants to see ALL Pitt sports do well.
It's a question that we'll never know the answer to, but it doesn't stop me from wondering who were the other finalists in their AD search.
The answer to that question would go a long way toward showing us the direction in which the decision-maker(s) were going.
The answer to that question would go a long way toward showing us the direction in which the decision-maker(s) were going.
is it still an Olympic sport? I thought they (IOC) dropped it a couple years ago to make more room for rhythmic flag twirling or some such thing...
OK...I'll ask again. Did we hire a coach or is this thread devoted to complaining about who you guys think we will or will not hire?
I get what you are saying but there's a cultural issue at Pitt that needs addressed and that issue is there's too little emphasis placed on winning/excellence across the board. You run an athletics department that way and it impacts every sport including the BB and FB programs where, as we have seen the past, efforts are made to cut corners and try to win on the cheap. This approach has been an utter failure. Pitt should aspire to manage every program to be successful ... to win and not just compete. Pitt needs a cultural change.
Anything she does will be better than Barnes paying millions for a search team then hiring the same guy they chose before.
What we have are media reports about candidates involved in the AD search. If you read those, you can draw some inferences about what was going on.
Look at the known candidates.
Anyone remembering the chest beatings about two years ago about how this administration "gets it" about sports?
I guess because they dumped Pederson and permitted the script to come back.
Fact is, they have been worse than the previous ones. Their only plus was Narduzzi working out a little better than the guy before him (though both were coordinators with no previous HC experience). And some buzz about the soccer coach, which is fine but of minimal interest.
Even the glimmers shown in football were tarnished by letting the truly exciting OC waltz away without even a whimper.
On the flip side they finished the utter devastation of the basketball program that had begun to slide under Nordenberg but was definitely still salvageable at the point Gallagher shuffled in. But that is dead and gone now. And as we know, once Pitt kills a once-great program, it stays dead.
"Gets it", eh?
I guess because they dumped Pederson and permitted the script to come back.
Fact is, they have been worse than the previous ones. Their only plus was Narduzzi working out a little better than the guy before him (though both were coordinators with no previous HC experience). And some buzz about the soccer coach, which is fine but of minimal interest.
Even the glimmers shown in football were tarnished by letting the truly exciting OC waltz away without even a whimper.
On the flip side they finished the utter devastation of the basketball program that had begun to slide under Nordenberg but was definitely still salvageable at the point Gallagher shuffled in. But that is dead and gone now. And as we know, once Pitt kills a once-great program, it stays dead.
"Gets it", eh?
There are only 74 D1 wrestling programs. That includes such athletic powerhouses as Binghamton, Franklin & Marshall, Lock Haven and Utah Valley. Given it's locale, Pitt should be a perennial top 10 wrestling school and should perennially be in the top 10 in wrestling attendance.
Wow this post totally downplays a lot of things. Letting Canada leave w/o a whimper? By ALL accounts, they fought hard for him and offered him $1M to stay. To me, that is not "letting him leave w/o a whimper".
The soccer coach won a national championship with WF and is supposed to be one of the best coaches in men's soccer. That is typically the "home run" hire everyone is looking for on this board.
Narduzzi is a strong hire.
So far the only questionable thing is hiring Stallings and even then it is far too early to make a true judgement.
Money resources on recruiting staffing, Pitt had many vacancies on AD & FB Staffing do you want that money going to Wrestling or FB? Pitt FB lost 2 OC's or do you want it for Lehigh Wrestling coach? You do know Bama has 30 Staffers just on recruiting? You do know Pitt earns $34 million and Clemson $38 million and Penn State spends $36 milliion while earning 76 million and spends more then Pitt Earns in FB?
Until the Football program is a Top 25 Program every year with money resources to keep it there, you decide if Wrestling should become a priority. USC, Penn State, Michigan, OSU, Bama, Sports Programs came after establishing strong Football Programs a few have great Minor Non-revenue Sports such as Stanford and Virginia but those are exception due to Academics Qualifications and even Stanford has Top 25 Football program now.
Pitt is still developing its Football and Basketball and only been in the ACC since 2013 and just getting use to earning $30 million every year, Football is the Foundation that builds All Sports, not wrestling? Narduzzi deserves and needs a stable Coaching and Pitt lost many great Assistants over not being able to keep Coaches under Harris, Wannstedt, Chryst and just adding Staffers in positions they could not afford until the ACC Budget Stability came in 2013.
What is the wrestling attendance numbers of the NCAA? Pennsylvania has been known as a Wrestling State for Decades even Clarion, Edinboro, Lehigh and like the Schools you mention have been ranked in the Top 25.
Is there a Wrestling Board on the Lair, BWI, and Elsewhere? I don't know for sure, but I do know Building a CFB Program is more important!
I think they live off of FB & BB revenues more than Wrestling Revenues? Pitt should have a Rowing Team too, like Temple, Penn, and others in Philly, Pitt has a River Tributary where that can happen?
Once FB is stabilized and then Men's BB, I am all for all Olympic Sports. Until then, I refer FB & BB as priorities! Others can differ, but then don't bitch when Pitt FB Recruiting, Salaries, and Staffing can't keep up because we want Pitt known to be a Top Ten Wrestling School First and Foremost?
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I appreciate your opinions.
But, I've not seen anything other than web anecdotes that Pitt made any real offers to Canada.
I certainly get the challenge that retaining him presented but his leaving with almost universal shoulder shrugging deflated a good bit of what made 2016 interesting and would have made 2017 highly anticipated.
Finding a way to retain him would have made a bold statement. Letting him walk was SOP. Not a sign of "getting it".
And Narduzzi has been fine so far but at the core the hire was no more a splash than Chryst. He is more dynamic with PR but both were long standing coordinators. It was not a sign of "getting it" more than the last regime.
Soccer is fine, glad they got the Saban of soccer, but most would rather watch ultimate frisbee. Let's face it.
And one simply cannot exaggerate the colossal cluster F that they've perpetuated with basketball.
Coming from a family of coaches, some with a professional understanding of collegiate athletics, what do I have in common with someone who would be so dismissive of these sports programs, their athletes, or even the history of my alma mater which I've devoted some personal time to studying and documenting? Is it that we both cheer for the same college football team? If it ends there, I have little in common with such views, especially in regards to athletics and likely Pitt in general. But thanks for your instruction on how I should think.
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Not true. There are many Pitt wrestling fans in the area. If Pitt fields a good wrestling team, they will outdraw every other sport at Pitt except men's football and Bball. Years ago, the wrestling team outdrew the Bball team. If Pitt became a very good team(top 5), they could average 3-5 thousand fans per match.
All legitimate news sources confirmed Pitt made a very strong offer to Canada. Even Canada himself said so, and I don't think there was a shoulder shrug at all. And Narduzzi confirmed Pitt made a very strong offer for Canada. That is not opinion.
I'm sure prior to last year you would have said Pitt didn't get it when they hired Canada as OC as he was essentially fired from NC State.
It's also funny, Pitt hires one of the top up and coming coaches who was a coordinator and that is "not getting it", yet hired a experienced veteran for BB and that is not "getting it".
Seems they can't win what so ever in some eyes.
So you think they "get it" in other words.
I don't see it, but thanks for your thoughts.
I think they "get" some things, and not others. And many are to early to tell.
Just like most things in life.
Pitt's all time record of average attendance in a season is less than 1,800 per match. And that was in a year that more than half of the people that attended a Pitt wrestling match went to one match, the one against Penn State. The average crowd at the rest of the matches that season was less than 1,000. Prior to three years ago the largest crowd ever at a Pitt wrestling match happened over 40 years ago, and it was only around 4,000. The notion that Pitt could average anywhere close to 5,000 fans per match when Pitt has only ever had more than 5,000 fans at a match once in the history of the program is, well, let's just be polite and call it wishful thinking.
I get the arguments for a strong football foundation and everything else a distant third behind basketball once Stallings is canned. However, wouldn't you want every hire to be a good hire. Especially when you apparently had two pretty big time candidates ready and willing. Now I do not follow wrestling or any other Olympic sport, but with that said, I want Pitt to excel in all sports and if you have an opportunity to upgrade your athletic department why wouldn't you?
Just because football and then basketball are the big fish, it doesn't mean you pour toxins on the rest of the marine life in the pond. Come on, this sounds like a Steve Pederson move, just in the female form. Why didn't they just give the damn AD job to Juhl, he hired HCPN and apparently had these two candidates lined up.
This is bitter pill to swallow, especially when just as the wrestling coaches, Jim Tressel wanted the AD job. I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt after seeing some things she did at EMU, but this smells like egomaniac. She just flushed everything Juhl had lined up for her with a nice easy very positive hire.
As for football and basketball driving the ship,the more Olympic sports that can maintain in their own little speed boat, it will allow for football and basketball to move from a cargo vessel to a nice luxury yacht. COME ON!!
Just because football and then basketball are the big fish, it doesn't mean you pour toxins on the rest of the marine life in the pond. Come on, this sounds like a Steve Pederson move, just in the female form. Why didn't they just give the damn AD job to Juhl, he hired HCPN and apparently had these two candidates lined up.
This is bitter pill to swallow, especially when just as the wrestling coaches, Jim Tressel wanted the AD job. I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt after seeing some things she did at EMU, but this smells like egomaniac. She just flushed everything Juhl had lined up for her with a nice easy very positive hire.
As for football and basketball driving the ship,the more Olympic sports that can maintain in their own little speed boat, it will allow for football and basketball to move from a cargo vessel to a nice luxury yacht. COME ON!!
Holy crap. Who gives a f' about rasslin' except for like 5 blow-hards on the olympic sports board?!? Pitt has an undergrad enrollment which is LESS than most of the MAC schools. You should be thankful each and every day Pitt isn't in the MAC for sports and leave it at that.
Oh... and that one other thing. You "passionate" fans are so f'n into Pitt sports you give NO MONEY to the athletic dept. Congrats... bunch of a-holes.
Oh... and that one other thing. You "passionate" fans are so f'n into Pitt sports you give NO MONEY to the athletic dept. Congrats... bunch of a-holes.
Coach has not been hired. As to your second statement, not sure complaining is accurate. I would say folks justifiably concerned about what appears to be a hiring process that has all the earmarking of a typical botched Pitt coaching hire. Maybe a little over the top given that no has been hired, but I feel the concern is warranted. And if this person with the OSU ties gets the job offer, I would say time to raise the condition alert to yellow.
As others have pointed out, if you can't manage this job search, what makes you think a more high profile sport would be more successful?
I said if Pitt had a good team. Pitt has not had a good team for 50 years. There are thousands of wrestling fans in W PA who would come to matches if there was top quality wrestling to watch. PSU got 16000 for a match. They sell out every match at Grace Hall. If Pitt were a national contending team. They would sell out the Pete for a PSU match. Back in Rex Peery days, we got 3-4 thou for most matches.
Of course you do. And I said that this hire is a piece of information about the new AD. But it's just a piece. A small piece. She will almost certainly have much more important hires to make, maybe relatively soon. She will make numerous decisions that will impact the school and the athletic program much more than this hire will, and that's even if this is the only coach she has to hire any time soon.
You're wrong about this. The most important thing an AD does is raise money.
I couldn't tell you a good wrestling coach from a bad one. Like most Olympic sports, it's more about how much money a school wants to throw at a program to make it successful or not. Where are the big wrestling boosters that can make it happen?
I also find it a little difficult to believe that throwing a huge commitment at a Lehigh coach making a lateral/backwards move for more money (and was probably leveraging the interview) or bringing a guy in from Edinboro that might want to coach another five years and had zero reason to leave, is the right thing. I'm looking at this from how I'd look at football and neither would be viewed as legitimate candidates for building the program.
It's the money raising my new period... that was something Barnes was completely correct on ... I forget the exact numbers but it's the Pitt something like 2nd in living alumni but down at the bottom for donations in the ACC.....??? That's what's gotta change and I doubt there's Bee a huge surge since that report was released last year?
You're wrong!
The AD is the CEO of athletics and does a lot more than raise money.
If a AD doesn't hire and retain good coaches good luck raising money.
The AD supports and helps the coaches of each program develop their programs so U fans are interested!
The AD introduces new programs and innovative ideas into a U sports program that excite the fanbase.
Without doing all of the above + more good luck with raising money!
The PITT AD's did none of the above and they have difficulty raising money!
You have no clue what you're talking about
You're not going to be successful raising money unles you can show the donor base that the athletics program as a whole is being run well and the proof of that is concrete results ...winning. You win with good coaches. You don't hire good coaches and you wallow in mediocrity or worse. ...,this is the story of Pitt athletics. Accordingly, it would be absolutely wrong to minimize the importance of ANY coaching hire. This athletics dept. has a lot to prove... they have to prove they're worth people investing in them.
We live in the Lehigh Valley and go to Lehigh wrestling a lot. Its packed! The Eastern PA HS's pull in 4k-5k for a top dual meet.
For tourney's/districts/regionals they pack the Liberty HS gym in Bethlehem PA which holds close to 12k. Of course Beth Cath and Nazareth were in the PA State finals with Nazareth winning the state crown.
Lots of wrestling spectator fan interest in PA for a good product!
I look for a pattern. The pattern involves Chancelor Gallagher. He "looks good," nice and tall, the Irish name doesn't hurt. (So much like O'Connor; remember him?) However, he appears to be a typical knee jerk, politically correct academic. His politics are straight out of MSNBC and the Ivy League elitists. First, the law school dean hire. A disaster. The law school's ranking is shameful. Now with Lyke, we have another enlightened hire. The female AD. No problem with a female AD if she's good, mind you. We had a female assistant AD a few years ago who would have been great. But it seems that politically correct Gallagher's ability to evaluate talent is below abysmal, across the board. Except for the Stallings hire, of course.
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