Panthers’ talent, wins don’t add up at all
Two questions immediately came to mind Monday when the NFL announced its 2010s all-decade team, which included former Pitt players Larry Fitzgerald, Darrelle Revis, LeSean McCoy and unanimous selection Aaron Donald:
One, how lucky have we been to see so much fabulous football talent come through Pitt? We talk often about being fortunate to watch Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins and Joe Greene, Jack Ham, Mel Blount and Franco Harris of the Steelers. But Pitt’s talent has been on that same amazing level, from Tony Dorsett to Rickey Jackson to Dan Marino to Donald.
Only Notre Dame, Southern California, Michigan and Ohio State have more Pro Football Hall of Famers than Pitt’s nine, the most recent Jim Covert, who was elected this year. Only California, with Aaron Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch, Alex Mack and Cameron Jordan, matched Pitt with four players on the 2010s all-decade team. The Pitt legacy of players is astonishing.
And the second, more complicated question:
How in the world has Pitt not won more games over the years with so many great players? It has not had fewer than three losses in any season since 1981. If that doesn’t make a Pitt fan want to cry, I don’t know what does. Pitt has been ranked in the final Associated Press poll just six times since that 1981 season with highs of No. 10 in 1982 and No. 15 in 2009. That is where the legacy comes to a screeching halt.
There was a time in my lifetime when Pitt was a terrific program. The Dorsettled and John Majorscoached team won the national championship in 1976. The 1979-81 teams led by star players Hugh Green, Mark May, Jackson, Covert and Marino each went 11-1.
But the subsequent win totals didn’t match up with the talent that continued to roll in. Pitt went 9-3 in Marino’s senior season and
scored just three points in a Cotton Bowl loss to SMU. It went 3-7-1 in Bill Fralic’s senior year in 1984. Its best finish in Curtis Martin’s three seasons was 6-5 in 1991. It went 9-4 and 8-5 in Fitzgerald’s two seasons in 2002-03. It finished 7-6 in 2013 with both Donald and James Conner.
It has to be coaching, right?
Pitt hasn’t had the same caliber of coach since Jackie Sherrill left after the 1981 season. The late Foge Fazio was a superb defensive coordinator and an even better person, but he was miscast as a head coach. Pitt looked to recapture magic when it rehired Majors in 1993, but his three seasons that followed were a disaster. Walt Harris did admirable work after taking over a tattered program in 1997, but his time ran out after the 2004 season. Dave Wannstedt won 10 games in 2009 but lost at home to Miami (31-3) and West Virginia (35-10) in 2010, his sixth and final season.
Replacing Wannstedt was the right call, but Pitt’s subsequent plan failed miserably. Michael Haywood lasted just a couple of weeks and was followed by, including interim coaches, Todd Graham, Keith Patterson, Paul Chryst and Joe Rudolph in a four-year period. Pitt went 6-7, 6-7, 7-6 and 6-7 in those four mediocre seasons. It was something of a national joke in college football.
It remains to be seen if Pat Narduzzi can bring the program back. He has had incredible highs in his first five seasons, including a win over Penn State in the first game of that renewed series, an almost unfathomable win at Clemson and an ACC Coastal Division championship. But he also had brutal lows, including a bad home loss to Virginia last season and collapses at the end of each of the past two seasons.
It’s hard to say what to think about Pitt in 2020 should there be a season.
Narduzzi and Pitt fans have good reasons to expect big things. Pitt has an experience quarterback in Kenny Pickett, an offensive coordinator in his second year in Mark Whipple, a returning offensive line and a defense that should be potent with healthy Rashad Weaver and Keyshon Camp and the somewhat surprising return of Jaylen Twyman, Patrick Jones II, Paris Ford and Damar Hamlin.
But all of that isn’t getting Pitt much love nationally. Caesars Sportsbook came out this week with its over/under win totals for all major-college teams. Pitt’s number was 6½. That is no love at all.
Who knows? Maybe this will be the season Pitt defies the odds.
Maybe this will be the season Pitt celebrates its current success and not just its glorious past of great players.