Pitt Football Fans: Take an Hour from New Year's Celebrations and Start Writing

Mr. Pederson:

You obviously do not know what you are doing. I will continue to call you out - in every public forum available - for trying to ruin Pitt football.  You need to resign.

Do us all a favor, take your severance pay and GET OUT OF PITT.

Dave DeBlasio

An Angry Vocal Alumnus 

That's the body of the email I sent to Steve Pederson at [e-mail]. 

My next step is to write a letter (no email address available) to Mark Nordenberg, Pitt chancellor, at University of Pittsburgh, 107 Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh, PA  15260.

If you support Pitt football, now is not the time to trust in the chancellor or the athletic department to do the right thing. In fact, as informed citizens in a democratic country, we can never depend on our leaders and elected officials to do the right thing unless we let them know, via one-on-one encounters, faxes, emails or letters, what we believe needs to be done.

If you are not yet alarmed by the sad turn of events—Steve Pederson hires a football coach no one is impressed with—Steve Pederson lies about his meeting with Wannstedt—Steve Pederson fails to name a coach for the BBVA Bowl just eight days away—Steve Pederson has no comment about his new coach sitting in a South Bend jail cell for allegedly manhandling the birth mother of his 21-month-old child—you need to be and alarm is the appropriate word. 

I have read hundreds of comments today from Pitt bloggers. To the minority of you who want Haywood to continue on as coach until more information is forthcoming, I remind you that in situations where the Pitt football program is crashing around you, you do not have time to wait on much of anything.

See the fact that it happened at all is damaging enough to cut our losses and send Haywood's butt packing.

However, make your views known to Pederson and Nordenberg whatever they are.

The Pitt administration takes all of us for granted. They operate with such a high degree of secrecy they harm the Pitt cause for everyone.

Looking through blog postings this morning, the initial reactions were running about 90 percent in favor of firing Haywood and Steve Pederson, the inept athletic department administrator who hired him.

As the day as worn on with no additional information—not a word—from the Pitt brass the sentiment has softened somewhat but is still overwhelmingly in favor of cutting ties with both the coach and the A.D.

We don't need any more reason to cut ties with Pederson but here is one more example of the kind of stupidity Pederson brings to his job as A.D.: Damage control on the kind of scale needed by Pitt has to happen swiftly and decisively.

The national media has no additional information—ESPN repeating the same story on national telecasts—so they recap the events that put Haywood in jail. Pitt has given them nothing in the way of remediation to report, no quick response team to put out the fire.

The result? Pitt gets bashed on college football's premier bowl game day.

Hiding out—as Pederson loves to do—puts the university and all of its alumni at greater risk. This is basic damage control 101. You seize the media moment.

Yes, being a fan requires work, especially when it appears events are spiraling out of control.

As I wrote earlier today, I support Tom Bradley as the new Pitt coach. You may not. Doesn't matter—just make your views heard loud and clear.

Time is of the essence—even when you are a fan.