Pittsburgh Panthers Football: A.D. Pederson Arrogantly Ignores Pitt Script Fans

The Pitt script fans wanted to see tomorrow's Nike uniform fiasco turned into something positive—something to fire up a fragmented fan base, something to increase attendance at tomorrow's game.

To satisfy them, all A.D. Pederson had to do in August was authorize the Pitt script to be placed on the combat helmets and the old Pitt colors of yellow and royal blue in the combat uniform scheme, perhaps as side stripes or jersey numbers.

Otherwise, the basic design could have stayed the same.

Pederson could have gone further: He could have asked that Nike not use the term combat to describe one-time football uniforms.

We all know where the real combat is taking place and it's not on any football fields.

Let's look at this request in perspective:

Pitt script fans ask Pederson to use this one-time opportunity to recognize Pitt's traditions at no cost to Pederson or the university. Pederson ignores them, extending his middle finger.

Message from Pederson to script fans: You are asking me to acknowledge events I can't take credit for so "No."

On September 7, I reported how easy it would have been for Pederson to tweak the combat uniforms. Pederson never asked Nike to draw up even one design with the script.

Coach Wannstedt likes the script uniforms and would have been pleased to see some tribute to it in the Nike combat design.

Obviously, Pederson made the uniform decision in isolation, but what should fans expect when pomposity and arrogance rule the day?

Pederson probably thinks it's a waste of his time to be involved in any of the little details surrounding his football program that so often appears to be stuck in mediocrity and inertia, like tweaking a uniform to please fans.

Sure, Pitt can lock up a Big East championship by beating both West Virginia and Cincinnati. With victories over the Mountainners and Bearcats the Panthers may even earn a spot in the rankings somewhere between 20-25.

Through season six, Pederson has seen just one Pitt football team in the final rankings.

Currently, ranked 39th in the country, Pitt has not inspired a great deal of confidence heading into its last two games.

It's not encouraging to know that defensive coordinator Bill Bennett, after ten games, has finally decided to use one of the oldest teaching strategies on the books—route memory—by making Antwuan Reed re-run his passing coverage while keeping an eye on the ball.

Pitt beat reporter Paul Zeise wrote in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"The pass interference penalties against Antwuan Reed and Ricky Gary Saturday should not have come as a surprise to anyone who has watched these two play all year as neither one of them turns their head to look for the ball when it is in the air, ever.

"Both seem to be focused so much on the receiver, they never look for the ball and if they just turned their heads on a few of those passes Saturday they would have likely avoided the penalties.

"This is a simple technique and much like the offense, I'm not sure why in Game 11 it seems like they are still not playing the ball correctly when it is in the air." (Zeise, Red Shirt Diaries, Nov. 23, 2010).

Fans of the Wannstedt era football teams know how challenging it is for the Panthers to win a game after a break or even win a game sandwiched between two high profile opponents as West Virginia was last season.

Wannstedt addressed last year's loss to the Mountaineers:

“It was definitely different last year knowing that a week later was the more meaningful game (in terms of the standings) against Cincinnati, and we were coming off of a big win against Notre Dame at home and West Virginia was really sandwiched in between there. You would really like this to be the last game of the year. But the way the scheduling falls, that’s not possible. You’d like to end with your rivalry game, but that’s not the case” (Transcript, pittsburghpanthers.com, Nov. 22, 2010).

Wannstedt deserves credit for knowing the psyche of his team and for talking to fans.

On the script issue, A.D. Pederson can't be bothered. Generating fan excitement for football is absent from Pederson's repertoire of skills.

Instead of going ten feet to promote fan relations, he retreats ten miles, just like he did from the Nebraska fans.

The Husker fans wanted Pederson to apologize for his disastrous decision to hire Bill Callahan.

All the Pitt script fans wanted was an acknowledgement of their support of the Pitt football and a small acknowledgment of the uniform worn during Pitt's most recent claim to fame including a national championship.