We have so many what's one more? What if:

[Mikefln]

There are so many hypothetical discussions going on right now (i.e. Wanny staying, hiring Holgy instead of Graham, etc) I decided I will do my own.

It is 1989 Pitt fired Mike Gottfried even though recruiting was through the roof (seriously that was some major talent) even though on field results left a lot to be desired. I was 10 not sure of all the rumors about the off the field stuff so I am leaving that out of it.

What if Pitt hired Barry Alvarez instead of Paul Hackett?

I would imagine we would be having great success if Pitt had the foresight to do this instead of being lazy and hiring Hackett who showed no interest in recruiting.

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

There are so many hypothetical discussions going on right now (i.e. Wanny staying, hiring Holgy instead of Graham, etc) I decided I will do my own.

It is 1989 Pitt fired Mike Gottfried even though recruiting was through the roof (seriously that was some major talent) even though on field results left a lot to be desired. I was 10 not sure of all the rumors about the off the field stuff so I am leaving that out of it.

What if Pitt hired Barry Alvarez instead of Paul Hackett?

I would imagine we would be having great success if Pitt had the foresight to do this instead of being lazy and hiring Hackett who showed no interest in recruiting.

I think the infrastructure was so bad he probably would have been frustrated and left. I mean when Oval Jaynes & J. Dennis O'Conner are your leadership, there isn't much hope.

There was an earlier post that someone shared a link from 1991 from a Chicago paper talking about the Hackett era prior to the ND game. We may have been ranked at the time and then promptly lost to ND and I think dropped the remaining 5. At any rate it is an interesting article and kind of foreshadows the problems we are seeing now. Really Alvarez probably wouldn't have fared much better in that environment. But Hackett was a total incompetent idiot so Alvarez would have had us at 6-5 or 7-4 levels instead of 3-8 like we were .

 

[paulbl99]

There are so many hypothetical discussions going on right now (i.e. Wanny staying, hiring Holgy instead of Graham, etc) I decided I will do my own.

It is 1989 Pitt fired Mike Gottfried even though recruiting was through the roof (seriously that was some major talent) even though on field results left a lot to be desired. I was 10 not sure of all the rumors about the off the field stuff so I am leaving that out of it.

What if Pitt hired Barry Alvarez instead of Paul Hackett?

I would imagine we would be having great success if Pitt had the foresight to do this instead of being lazy and hiring Hackett who showed no interest in recruiting.

Poz stumbled into the Pitt LR and handed Buddy Hackett the job and stumbled out....putting on a package ,was the most work Pitt did in that hiring process.

Barry believed revenge is a dish best served cold and sent Pitt HCPC to train him....

As for Mike G, have heard 2 opposite stories. One was the Killer Bs ran him out....the other was that Mike was a total whack job completely out of control inside the Pitt Ath Dept.

 

[McKee Place]

Yeah as Ive said in other posts, the HC is just the head of the beast. Consider the school leadership, boosters, AD, assistant coaches, trainers, equipment mgrs, academic advisors, lawyers, business partners and sponsors, dorm and RAs, obedience of local media, cahoots with local police etc. And others I'm sure I'm overlooked. All these have to be top notch and working in harmony to produce a top program. At Alabama or Ohio State for example, you can be assured all these are aligned with the A1 purpose of making the football team successful.

Pitt actually spends solid money on the head coach. But it seems unlikely they commit to making sure any or much of the other items listed are focused on winning football. The visibility we do have show deep flaws and serious gaps with the assistants, AD decisions, hostile media, etc.. and most definitely indifferent or worse school leadership, which often has been openly at odds with its own football program.

Usually someone chimes that the university should NOT be focusing all that on a "silly meaningless" sport, its not the mission etc. Fine, but anything run half assed will produce half assed results.

 

[HailtoPitt]

Yeah as Ive said in other posts, the HC is just the head of the beast. Consider the school leadership, boosters, AD, assistant coaches, trainers, equipment mgrs, academic advisors, lawyers, business partners and sponsors, dorm and RAs, obedience of local media, cahoots with local police etc. And others I'm sure I'm overlooked. All these have to be top notch and working in harmony to produce a top program. At Alabama or Ohio State for example, you can be assured all these are aligned with the A1 purpose of making the football team successful.

Pitt actually spends solid money on the head coach. But it seems unlikely they commit to making sure any or much of the other items listed are focused on winning football. The visibility we do have show deep flaws and serious gaps with the assistants, AD decisions, hostile media, etc.. and most definitely indifferent or worse school leadership, which often has been openly at odds with its own football program.

Usually someone chimes that the university should NOT be focusing all that on a "silly meaningless" sport, its not the mission etc. Fine, but anything run half assed will produce half assed results.

This is a very good post. It is accurate, and why I often say that fixing Pitt football will take decades of consistent leadership and shared goals. Every time a new coach is hired, a new AD comes aboard, a new uniform is unveiled, a new logo is adopted, a stadium is torn down, a new facility is built/rented, a bad decision is made, etc, etc.. that stuff all has an impact on the culture of the overall organization, from the board room to the boiler room. When these types of things happen repeatedly and often with negative consequences, people just stop caring and the organization itself becomes infested like a cancer. I worry that the cancer has spread too far and there is no longer anything that can be done.