Pitt Could Match Last Year's 10-3 Record if Wannstedt Feels the Heat Every Week

It's Sunday, the day after Pitt's thrashing of Syracuse, and Pitt fans should be thinking happy things like spending New Year's in Miami. I wanted to join the fantasy, too. But a cold hard dose of reality hit me when I picked up the Pittsburgh papers this morning. Low and behold, the Wannstedt debate rages on.

In the 'Burgh, the mere mention of Wannstedt's name in print elicits twenty responses in about five minutes. I read and the debate rages on my head and, like always, facts snuff out fantasy.

I could be dead wrong on this one. Perhaps I should just be hopeful and not playback the incisive words of sports writers, analysts, and fans that reverberate in my head.

If you agree Wannstedt was under high (possibly extreme) pressure yesterday to win, and if you are willing to acknowledge that Wannstedt was also under extreme pressure when he took his 4-7 Panthers to Morgantown to conclude the 2007 season, you will easily draw one simple conclusion.

When the pressure's on and the stakes are high—and this is a critical point, high for Wannstedt—he will rise to the occasion. Apparently this is a much easier task for him at Pitt than in the pros. However, Wannstedt is not able to match the intensity level he needs to win, notably big games, when the stakes are high for Pitt but he feels comfortable in his position. For Wannstedt, comfort breeds complacency.

Examples? Here are two but there are many more: He allowed his team to practically sleep-walk through the West Virginia game last season and he was so overcome with emotion when Cincinnati visited Heinz last year, he lost concentration on the technical aspects of the game.

Those technical aspects like making adjustments at halftime, monitoring his own tendency to go all conservative in big games when he has the lead, and relying more on his two highly skilled coordinators would have enabled him and Pitt to win.

The bottom line is this: Wannstedt can win when the stakes are personally high for him, he has equal  or superior talent to his opponent, and he doesn't allow emotions or complacency to take over. Creating high stakes and high pressure on him is the job of the media and fans - or so Wannstedt believes.

The media and fans are doing a pretty bad job then. We should keep coming back to the promise Wannstedt made when he was hired and to the rationale athletic director Jeff Long made for firing the perfectly competent but P.R. and recruiting-challenged Walt Harris to hire a two-time NFL loser coach (Arkansas fans: hope you are enjoying Long). Wannstedt was hired to win a national championship.

To those fans who are happy with wins over second tier programs remember why Pitt hired Wannstedt: Not to beat up on the New Hamphsires, Florida Internationals, and Syracuses of the world.  Wannstedt was hired to beat the top-tier programs. The only top tier programs on Pitt's schedule so far this year are Utah, Miami, and Notre Dame, and Pitt lost to all three.

The 2010 Pitt Panthers showed us yesterday they can be a top team. They can run through the next eight games, including a bowl win, and equal last year's 10-3 record. But in order for that to happen, Wannstedt has got to feel as though his back is up against the wall every week.