Pitt Football: Dave Wannstedt's News Conference Puts The Dogs On Pederson

Dave Wannstedt, ex-Pitt head football coach, put on a masterful display at his news conference today, if he intended to put a few more nails into the coffin that is rapidly becoming athletic director Steve Pederson's career at Pitt.

By bringing national attention to the failed leadership of Mr. Pederson, who should have appointed a Pitt coach for the BBVA Compass Bowl a month ago, the Pittsburgh media—long supportive of Pederson—has begun to abandon ship.

Wannstedt taunted the local media by saying that it did not take him long to make a decision about coaching in the bowl game but "I just didn't want to tell you guys" (post-gazette.com, Jan. 3, 2011).

Wannstedt went on to talk about his love of Pitt and the city of Pittsburgh and his loyalty to the Pitt players.

The press conference was an uncomfortable hour for Pederson. Wannstedt demonstrated the Pitt A.D. was clearly not in charge.

Bob Smizik, blogger for the Post-Gazette.com, praised Mr. Pederson this morning for his accomplishments at Pitt from 1997-2002 then followed up this evening with these comments—

"...let me get off my chest my thoughts on the terrible job Pederson has done in standing by and doing nothing as the Dave Wannstedt melodrama to played out.

Today, almost a month after he was fired, Wannstedt finally walked away from his job as coach of the Pitt football team."

Chas Rich, blogger-in-chief at pittblather.com has been no fan of Pederson's. Mr. Rich excoriated Pederson on a host of issues this evening—

"It’s just that in the big moment, he fell back to old patterns and habits. He was the search committee. He avoided people. he helped shut down information. He (according to plenty of rumors) ignored red flags and/or was not as diligent in his background checks. In short he went back to his arrogant ways of ignoring all information offered and any advice. It was all Pederson.

"For whatever reason, he (Pederson) basically avoided the entire football staff the minute Wannstedt was fired. He avoided the players. He avoided the coaches. He closed himself off to them. I don’t know why. Guilt? Arrogance. General dickishness? I can’t say" (pittblather.com, Jan. 3, 2011).

Chas illustrates Pederson's arrogance at Pitt and Nebraska and concludes with this criticism—

"He did, however, burn and ignite bridges. He put himself out there alone. Maybe assuming he would get all the credit for making the hard choices. Now, he is alone out there to take all the blame. Either way. He’s earned it, and will pay the price."

And the price is becoming clear to those close to the Pitt program and the thousands of fans and bloggers who are following the Pitt coaching crisis of 2010-2011 by the hour.

ESPN blogger Brian Bennett criticized Pederson in his column this morning stating that the Pitt A.D. did a very poor job of checking out Mike Haywood, Pitt's second deposed coach in less than a month.

"The Haywood hiring makes you wonder how much due diligence Pederson did in his search process. Colleague Pat Forde reports that at least one BCS-level school looked into hiring Haywood but was turned off by some red flags in his personal life" (Time for Pitt To Think Bold, ESPN.com, Jan. 3, 2011).

I began calling out Steve Pederson for poor job performance on September 29, hours after Pitt's loss to Miami at home.

It's doubtful Chancellor Nordenberg will fire Pederson before a new football coach is hired. It seems certain now that Pederson will have very little to do with hiring the new coach even if he appears to be in charge in front of the cameras.

His days as Pitt athletic director are numbered.