Todd Graham just fired Pitt

[Waquoit]

There really is no excuse for not doing the right thing.

Always do the right thing. I got it, I'm gone.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Edsall and Graham both left for what they perceived was a "career upgrade". Whether fans agree that Maryland and ASU qualify as "upgrades" is beside the point. The coaching carosal is as much a part of the game as BCS polls. This kind of stuff happens all over the country - in football & hoops.

So Randy didn't say goodbye to the UConn players first . . . boo, hoo. Get over it. This is major college football . . . players get a full scholarship (25K-50K per year) for 4-5 years. Just accept this is the nature of the business and get ready for the next season. How many kids have to bus tables at restaurants to help make ends meet. Wonder if they boo-hoo when the night manager leaves for a new franchise. Randy was quilty of a lot of coaching shortcomings, but leaving for Maryland, and the necessity of doing that the way it ultimately unfolded, was not one of them.

 

[J187Money]

There really is no excuse for not doing the right thing.

Who decides what is right? You? Maryland? Edsall? The players? That's the problem. Everyone has a different point of view.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.900629,-73.859043

 

[J187Money]

Edsall and Graham both left for what they perceived was a "career upgrade". Whether fans agree that Maryland and ASU qualify as "upgrades" is beside the point. The coaching carosal is as much a part of the game as BCS polls. This kind of stuff happens all over the country - in football & hoops.

So Randy didn't say goodbye to the UConn players first . . . boo, hoo. Get over it. This is major college football . . . players get a full scholarship (25K-50K per year) for 4-5 years. Just accept this is the nature of the business and get ready for the next season. How many kids have to bus tables at restaurants to help make ends meet. Wonder if they boo-hoo when the night manager leaves for a new franchise. Randy was quilty of a lot of coaching shortcomings, but leaving for Maryland, and the necessity of doing that the way it ultimately unfolded, was not one of them.

Not to mention that a decent number of this " do the right thing" crowd wanted him fired and run out of town. As some do with coach p. Is that the right thing?


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.900532,-73.859002

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Not to mention that a decent number of this " do the right thing" crowd wanted him fired and run out of town. As some do with coach p. Is that the right thing?

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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.900532,-73.859002

Nature of the Beast. They probably don't have that same problem in the New England Small College Conference (or whatever it's called). The Trinity job, the Amherst job, the Williams job . . . probably not a whole lot of pressure to fire, opportunities to jump to BCS conferences with stronger recruiting platforms,

 

[freescooter]

I personally think Graham made the right move, but not because ASU is that great a job. I think if he had another year like this one, he would be history at Pitt. Pitt was the wrong program for him, and he was not going to survive the transition from Pitt's pro-style offense and standard 4-3 defense to the spread and whatever the hell he called the pretend defense he was trying to implement. Wanny's game coaching problems were overstated, and he didn't have losses like the Iowa game this year.

If Graham didn't leave this year, he was never going to leave. I am sure ASU fans, or at least the semi-intelligent ones, are scratching their head as to why ASU fired a proven guy with a National Championship to bring in Todd Graham.

I actually think you're right about this. Sometimes there are coaches that are just bad fits in certain situations. Rich Rodriguez at Michigan comes to mind, and while I have no idea whether Graham is ultimately a good or bad head coach at the BCS level I absolutley have the feeling that he wouldn't be good at Pitt. He simply was the wrong fit and never would have been there in the first place if Pitt hadn't been absolutely desperate after firing Wanstadt.

 

[jbdphi]

Interesting article by Dodd at CBS Sportsline.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...-run-out-on-pitt-but-what-regular-guy-wouldnt

Basically confirms what a few people here were saying. I'm not excusing the way in which he left but it seems like the thought process was as follows:
1) I made a mistake coming to Pitt - the players aren't right for the system, I don't like the area, my wife is miserable, who knows
2) If I don't turn things around in a year I'm probably going to get fired and once you get fired as a head football coach, it's really tough to get another job like it (I'm sure there are selected examples to the contrary but I would assert that those are more the exception rather than the rule)
3) I need to get out now while I'm still marketable

This actually makes some sense to me. What I don't get is this. He basically blames the manner in which he left on his new employer, saying that they insisted he leave immediately to come interview and he was afraid of losing the opportunity. From my perspective, if you think a school wants to hire you, they can wait one day to let you do things the right way. If they didn't, you wouldn't want to end up there anyways.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Interesting article by Dodd at CBS Sportsline.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...-run-out-on-pitt-but-what-regular-guy-wouldnt

Basically confirms what a few people here were saying. I'm not excusing the way in which he left but it seems like the thought process was as follows:
1) I made a mistake coming to Pitt - the players aren't right for the system, I don't like the area, my wife is miserable, who knows
2) If I don't turn things around in a year I'm probably going to get fired and once you get fired as a head football coach, it's really tough to get another job like it (I'm sure there are selected examples to the contrary but I would assert that those are more the exception rather than the rule)
3) I need to get out now while I'm still marketable

This actually makes some sense to me. What I don't get is this. He basically blames the manner in which he left on his new employer, saying that they insisted he leave immediately to come interview and he was afraid of losing the opportunity. From my perspective, if you think a school wants to hire you, they can wait one day to let you do things the right way. If they didn't, you wouldn't want to end up there anyways.

That just isn't the way it's done in D1/BCS College Football. These folks are serious about turning the program around. Once they offer they want you signed, sealed, delivered and recruiting immediately. Surprise that Maryland didn't push earlier - Fiesta Bowl be damned.

 

[Waquoit]

How did he get on ASU's radar screen? Was his people out shopping him? He's still a bum.

 

[Dr. von Yinzer]

Pitt fan here who is not remotely surprised or disappointed that Graham left. Knowing his history and his reputation I'm also unsurprised at the manner in which he left. I HATED his offense - not a fit for this area at all - and I hated his self aggrandizing personality. When everything went well he was quick to take credit for it and when things went south he was even quicker to blame the players.

I think Nelson is 100 percent right. Graham made the right move to leave because he was going to struggle next season - no QB in a QB centric O - and the Pitt fan base was not taking to him or his bullschitt system at all.
HE would have been fired by 2013 and he read the writing on the wall so he hig-tailed it to the desert as fast as he could and in the end I believe that EVERYONE will be better off for it. Now we get to play real football again and he is in a place where self aggradizement is seen as salesmanship, and not a detriment.