Pitt Football: Pittsburgh Media Runs Out of Excuses for Dave Wannstedt

A strange and seemingly sudden turn of events happened this week. Beat writers for Triblive.com and post-gazette.com, including the old sage Bob Smizik, stopped making excuses for Dave Wannstedt's lack of preparation and inept game-day coaching decisions.

For the most part, bloggers had already turned anti-Wannstedt after the Miami loss. Saturday's loss to Notre Dame, a game Pitt could have won with better coaching, pushed some of the stubborn Wannstedt backers over the edge.

Even the bookies, who began the week with Pitt -2.5 over Syracuse, now call the game a toss-up. With Syracuse's home field advantage in the Carrier Dome, the line favors Syracuse.

The media did not give Wannstedt a free ride through his 5-6, 6-6 and 5-7 seasons. Ron Cook, Joe Starkey, Paul Zeise and Rich Chas from pittblather.com all know the game of football quite well, and have pointed out Wannstedt's shortcomings.

However, only Chas has refrained from sweetening his comments with praises like, "He's a Pitt man" and "He runs a clean program."

Now, even faint praise is hard to come by this week.

Paul Zeise, a Pitt football beat reporter for post-gazeete.com, hasn't called for Wannstedt to be ousted just yet. Being with the Panthers everyday, he can't afford to. He just documents practices and comments Wannstedt makes to reporters. In Paul's reporting, the facts speak for themselves.

In his chat transcript today, Paul writes that Pitt's biggest problem is consistency, and then reels off a list of Football 1.0 mechanics Pitt has not mastered. 

Coaching issue, anyone?

One fan called out "smiley boy Pederson" for over-scheduling the team. Paul's response was to avoid the Pederson question by turning it around on the coach saying, "had Pitt executed a few simple plays against both Utah and Notre Dame, they could have won these games...." (post-gazette.com Oct. 14, 2010).

Again, coaching concerns, anyone?  

After Pitt's loss to Miami, Joe Starkey, reporter for triblive.com, wrote, "How far has Pitt football progressed since the Walt Harris era ended six years ago?  Not by an inch, I'd say. Not by a bloody inch."

Joe went on to debunk the myth that Wannstedt is such a great recruiter: "For all the talk of Dave Wannstedt's fabulous recruiting, the game evoked a 28-14 loss to Miami in 2003: You realized by the end of the first quarter that Pitt didn't belong. Not enough talent" (triblive.com Sept. 26, 2010).

Ron Cook, writing for post-gazette.com on Sunday, said: "Pitt's football team made good improvement...not enough to overcome...its weakest link...Dave Wannstedt." (post-gazette.com Oct. 10, 2010). Cook has also called out Penn State's Joe Paterno who, like Wannstedt, is struggling this season with a 3-3 record and no offense.

Rich Chas of pittblather.com wrote about Wannstedt's news conference this week and said, "Turning to Coach Wannstedt's presser yesterday...has me feeling sarcastic and bitter." (Oct. 12, 2010 entry).

He continues, "Hear that kids? It isn't that the decision by the coaches were wrong...it's the execution...remember that when you are told to run the ball up the middle three straight times against 10 in the box."

What do the bloggers say about Wannstedt? "How can anyone have confidence in such a blundering idiot...he is simply not very intelligent?"

Another blogger wrote: "Stache has demonstrated over and over again that he is clueless at coaching football..."

Another blogger pointed out that Wannstedt's preference for playing close games is actually hurting the program because "that's the reason our underclassmen seem so unprepared when they start is they have very little game time experience."

The most foreboding comment of all came today from Bob Smizik writing about the importance of the Syracuse game: "A loss means the end of any meaningfulness to the season. A loss means the heat turns about 100 fold on coach Dave Wannstedt. It will hurt recruiting and has the possibility of sending the season spinning out of control" (community blogs post-gazette.com Oct. 14, 2010).

For Pitt, Saturday's game is the most important of the season.

"Take your pick," Smizik writes, "It's either must-win or can't lose."

Heat turning about 100 fold? Sounds like Smizik believes D-Day has finally arrived.

Just last week, Smizik wrote that Wannstedt's job was so secure, his detractors should find another cause to complain about. Now he's writing that the heat will turn up 100 percent. What inner-circle info does he have? What's really going on behind the scenes at Pitt?

Is Wannstedt paying any attention to the overwhelming number of complaints? Does he know a veteran sports writer has issued what is the equivalent to an ultimatum?

Maybe not. Remember, Wannstedt has faced this pressure twice before. It wasn't until club presidents at Chicago and Miami joined the outraged masses that he finally got the message.

To send him the message at Pitt, the masses may need to march right past Steve Pederson and head directly for the chancellor.