Pitt Panther Football: Covering New Coach Todd Graham's First Press Conference

For those of you who got used to the slow paced and predictable Pitt offense under former head coach Dave Wannstedt and offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr., you’re in for a change.

It could be more like a culture shock when you see what the Panthers offense looks like under new head coach Todd Graham.

“We’re a no-huddle football team,” Graham said today at his introductory press conference. “We’re not a no-huddle offense; we’re a no-huddle football team. We’re going to operate extremely fast: fast tempo, high-octane, explosive. We’ll be the most explosive team in the country. That’s our goal. But we’ll be extremely efficient.”

After watching Graham conduct himself at his press conference and listen to the words that came out of his mouth, only one word came to mind.

Wow.

Graham is confident and exciting.  His offense promises to be electric and high octane.  That’s fitting because that’s exactly his personality.

He not only can talk the talk, he also walks the walk.

Under Graham, Tulsa ranked fifth in the nation in total offense and sixth in scoring offense in 2010. In 2007 and 2008, the Golden Hurricanes led the nation in total offense. Now he plans to install that kind of explosiveness to Pitt’s offense and defense, the football program as a whole and the overall school.

Graham will run the spread at Pitt and made his first mark on installing that by hiring former West Virginia and Michigan offensive coordinator Calvin Magee to the same position with the Panthers.

Magee served as the offensive coordinator to Rich Rodriguez at both places and gets some credit thrown his way with the evolution of the spread option attack.

While the personnel may not be there to start for Graham’s offense to be as explosive as he would initially like, it promises to be fun and most importantly different.

“The No. 1 thing in our system is speed and explosive power, and I would list speed three times and then explosive power,” Graham said. “We want to be fast, we want to be efficient, and we are going to be explosive. I want people at Heinz Field to not sit down in their seat. That’s the brand of football that we’re going to play.”