What Happens if Johnny Majors Stays at Pitt
- Thread starter csh2088
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Well, if we are being honest, we basically self-reported because of the Golden Panthers. For a brief moment in time, we joined the ranks of the upper crust, but we weren't welcome as members of the club.
Probably, if we'd held out and resisted, nothing would have happened. But, it was decided to take the so-called honorable route. In retrospect, that was naive.
OK… this is some kind of weird revisionist history. Johnson left after the ‘78 season for the head coaching position at Oklahoma State. He wasn’t Sherrill’s hand picked successor. They probably weren’t even on speaking terms after the fall-out from the Tangerine Bowl fiasco.
Sherrill was Johnny’s DC, so it’s not like handing the keys over to the DC hadn’t worked before, plus Foge was THE recruiter. Foge was merely a victim of circumstance.
Bad head coach who needed a good QB to hide his deficiencies. The QB room after Marino left was terrible and Major Harris wasn’t graduating until 1986. A shame because just a decent QB changes 1983-85 because the defense was still good all those years. So many low-scoring losses or ties. No assistants on the staff either who could find a QB to save their jobs.
I don't understand all the John Congemi hate. Not Marino, but he was good. Being injury prone was his biggest problem. Plus, similar to Tino, played for 3 different OC's/styles of offense during his time here. Tough to get any consistency with those conditions
Plus they thought they had the replacement to Marino in Rich Bowen, the Parade all american from Serra. Just didn't work out. Sherrill's biggest mistake was going with Bowen instead of Bernie Kosar.
Congemi just couldn’t points on the scoreboard. Then Gottfried gave him a run-and-shoot offense in 1986 and 7, 14, and 13 points versus mediocre Maryland, NC State and Temple, respectively. John hung 48 and 56 on WVU and Navy somehow, but was so inconsistent at a time when if he was a little better history could have been different.
EDIT: Congemi did play well his freshman season and Pitt should have gone 10-2 had a defensive player made a play that would have ended the PSU and Ohio State games. Going from 2-0 to 0-1-1 is brutal.
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Johnson left Pitt after 1978 to go to Oklahoma State as head coach. His departure (how he left) was not appreciated by Sherrill and the relationship suffered for years. He was not a handpicked successor in any sense of the phrase.
I was always surprised that Bowen didn't work out. He was dynamite in high school
Actually, those dummies in Oakland thought the good times would just cruise w/o effort.
Pitt had a very good team in 1963. Went 9-1, losing only to Navy and Roger Staubach. Finished in top 5. They were terrible after that and not that great 60-62. Don’t know about the other years.
All the top schools at that time were giving scholarships to players so they wouldn’t go to their rivals.
I believe that in one game under Hart they were losing by a ton that they let the clock run when it should have been stopped.
He played at a class A school but his father was the HC at Serra. Bowen Sr was a long time assistant at McKeesport and became the HC but I can’t remember the year.
That was against ND at their stadium. What an embarrassment for a D1 school! Even the WPIAL didn’t do that in the 60’s.
Amazing how Kosar passed for 2,222 yards in his senior season and Sherrill said, “Not good enough.”
Really I never heard that before. Down with Jackie.
In regards to Jackie if he stayed Pitt definitely would have won at least 1 maybe 2 NC. But how many times would Pitt been on probation for recruiting violations.
And was still playing at the Fieldhouse 20 years after its unearned invite into the Big East. Typical Pitt administration not having a new facility, at the latest, entering the 1990s.
The football conference begins in 1993 and needed a strong Pitt for credibility and instead the BoT was in year four of letting the program rot. What an appalling job by the university running athletics, dating back 70 years.
I can’t imagine any issues as most recruiting would have been done locally with some kids from Jersey, Florida and Ohio.
He was cleared by the NCAA regarding violations at A&M, but after seeing ‘Pony Excess,’ all those schools were cheating.
After 1982, it would have been tough winning a title with Congemi from 1983-86. If he signed Major Harris, Pitt is strong from 1987-89, but so were Miami and Notre Dame.
Fazio had the team in 82 but he wasn’t a head coach. Good recruiter and DC. As a head coach not so much. Look at all of the good players he recruited and couldn’t win.
The call of Rocky Top was too strong for Majors no matter how hard Pitt would have tried to keep him. Where they really blew was with Jackie Sherrill, who had three straight 11-1 seasons at Pitt but came to feel disrespected by Pitt administrators. Sherrill won three consecutive Southwest Conference championships with Texas A&M in 1985, '86, and '87. He led the Aggies to the Cotton Bowl in each of those years.
I saw that game. It was absolutely horrible. We jumped out to a 14-0 lead, but then Marino was intercepted in the end zone and they scored the next 48 points.
In 1981, Pitt's final AP Poll ranking was #4. In 1982, their final ranking in the Coaches Poll was #9. It was from 1983 on that they were never again ranked in the top 10.
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I was there too. I remember Dwight Collins getting hammered going over the middle for a pass and he was never the same receiver after that. I think that was the interception in the end zone.
That story is true. Denny Ferris told it many times.
Go ahead, young uns. Look up North Catholic grad Denny Ferris.
ND beat Pitt like, 69-13. Posvar must have tried talking research with Irish bureaucrats in the press box, but even they wanted to watch the football game and enjoy the win.
I remember hearing about that. And I remember Denny Ferris. He was at Pitt at the same time I was.
Almost 21-0. They made a play in the end zone, interception.
Denny was a great guy. I might be misremembering, but I think he was an Assumption kid from the Bellevue area. Not completely sure about that. But, definitely a North Catholic kid.
Foge could have had Bernie Kosar. He recruited Rich Bowen and Chris Jelic over him.
I thought that was on Sherrill. By the time Foge was in they were already committed to Bowen. Jelic I thought had a Pitt connection and technically wasn't a scholarship? Long time ago so who knows now...
Foge could've tried last minute to sway Kosar before signing day, 1982. Maybe he did and Kosar said no.
Sherrill offered Bowen and Congemi and wouldn’t recruit Kosar in 1981.
There is a Chicago Sun-Times article from 1984 the week of the Pitt-Miami game that breaks it all down. Kosar is quoted saying he wanted to go to Pitt, Foge urged Jackie to recruit Kosar, but Sherrill said he already allotted his two scholarships to QBs.
I can no longer find the article or else I’d paste it.
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