Why Are Pitt Fans Willing to Settle for Less Than the Best?

Pitt alum Dave Wannstedt has just concluded his fifth regular football season at his alma mater. Like last season, bittersweet happiness taints the program. Completing the second straight nine win season engenders lots of praise for Wannstedt who "has the program going in the right direction," but upon closer inspection this season, like the ones before it, reek of dashed expectations.  However, many fans writing on the blogs which discuss Pitt and the Big East take heart in their belief that Wannstedt isn't going anywhere and that he is a "Yinzer" like them.

It is impossible to reconcile their acceptance of a second place finish in the Big East—a tie by the way—and their paranoia. 

Of course, Wannstedt feeds the delegation of future expecations to current happenings by his own rhetoric and natural skills as a recruiter. In Pitt football lore his predecessor, Walt Harris, is viewed more negatively as time goes by.  The fact that Walt consistently beat ranked Virginia Tech teams and owned Boston College is lost. The fact that Walt also brought Pitt its only Big East football championship, albiet a tie, is dismissed.  In their minds, Walt didn't talk the talk like Wannstedt does so well. 

Wannstedt's skills at selling the program are profuse. The increased fan support and game attendance are pluses. However, when the rhetoric shrouds some obvious coaching short-comings and brand loyalty supersedes honest analysis, the whole process looks more like a day at the used car lot than anything else. 

But you have got to give Wannstedt credit as a salesman. He makes over half of the fan base believe in him no matter what and he has been able to cast his wand of invisibility over the his coaching defiencies that cost the Panthers the final two games of the regular season. 

Then there is a fear of his leaving. For some fans, that fear has morphed into dread that he will stay.  There is no logical reason for the fear of desertion so often brought up as a reason to accept the less than spectacular football seasons unless the parameters of the equation have suddenly shifted.

First, the vast majority of Pitt football coaches have been fired. Dave Hart, brought in to revive a moribund program in the sixties—was fired after successive 1-9 seasons. Carl DePasqua, a Pitt alum, was fired after 3-8 and 1-10 seasons. They were followed by the two most successful modern day Pitt coaches—Johnny Majors I and Jackie Sherrill—both who left on their own for better jobs.  

Sherril was followed by Pitt alum Foge Fazio who was fired after a 35-0 loss to Penn State. He was followed by Mike Gottfried who was fired after the most successful season since Foge's '83 Fiesta Bowl team and replaced by Paul Hackett. Hackett was fired in 1992 and magically wound up at USC. Pitt's next coaching search resulted in Johnny Majors II. Johnny was genlty let go by Steve Pederson who replaced him with Walt Harris who was—you guessed it—fired.   

Dave Wannstedt has done a superb job of elevating himself to the status of Johnny Majors I and Jackie Sherrill if a significant number of fans fear he will leave on his own.

Whereas Wannstedt took over a BCS team and trashed it for three seasons before earning a bowl bid, Johnny took over one of the worst teams in Pitt history in 1972 and led Pitt to its first national championship since 1937 in 1976.  Jackie's record of three 11-1 seasons can only be matched by the coaching success of Jock Sutherland, a Pitt alum whose sustained success is unparalled in program history.

For those fans who want to be number one and don't accept a diet of nine win seasons, Wannstedt provides an almost unbearable amount of frustration. He has brain-washed a number of fans that he is great and the Pitt administration, currently not trigger happy, like his moderate success and home game attendance increases. Most of all they enjoy paying him his 1.5 million, an amount which is rapidly becoming a middling Big East salary.  

After all, a coaching search could be so time-consuming and having that difficult conversation with the hometown guy could be downright unpleasant.