Up Close With PSR
Paul Rhoads

Entering his fourth season as Pittsburgh's defensive coordinator and secondary coach, Paul Rhoads has made an emphatic imprint on the Panthers' defensive play. Rhoads' 2002 defense ranked among the nation's top 25 in seven different categories, including No. 12 in total defense (296 yards per game). Pittsburgh also allowed just 17.8 points per game to rank 14th nationally. The energetic Rhoads joined the Panthers after serving the prior five seasons (1995-99) at Iowa State. He was the secondary coach his final four seasons in Ames after coaching the inside linebackers in 1995. A native of Ankeny, Iowa, Rhoads and his wife Vickie have two children, Jacob (8) and Wyatt (6). PSR's Tony DeFazio caught up with Rhoads after a Panther practice at their South Side facility.

PSR: The coaching staff seems to be welcoming the high expectations placed on this team by the major polls. How do you as coaches handle those expectations in regards to the players?

PR: Well, I think that you recruit players who are winners and who know what it takes to win so they don't expect anything less once they get into the program. The culture that we have cultivated around here is about success and hard work, and about there being no other way to approach it. I wouldn't want to be around a group of athletes, and a group of athletes wouldn't want to be around a group of coaches who don't have high expectations. You can't achieve if your expectations aren't set high.

PSR: Pitt has landed some of the top recruits in the country so far this season. How are you convincing these kids that Pitt is place to be in spite of the negativity surrounding the conference and the uncertainty regarding its future?

PR: First we have to convince them to do is just open their eyes and look around. You step onto the campus and into our facilities here at the University of Pittsburgh and its easy to see that there are not many better places to be.

The next thing we encourage them to do is to open their ears and listen, and get to know the people who are recruiting them the coaching staff, the support staff, the players in this program. Coach Harris runs a first-class football program. So getting the kids we're recruiting around that atmosphere is step number one.

The conference affiliation and defections can be both positive and negative. Much of the negative has been brought to their attention, but there's positive that's coming out of this too. We have to build on that. Sometimes working the negative angle works against people, and we've definitely been able to take advantage of that too.

But this program is filled with good people, and good people have success.

PSR: Your name has been associated with openings at some pretty high profile programs Nebraska and Auburn just to name two. Yet you are still the defensive coordinator here at the University of Pittsburgh. Why?

PR: I'm extremely happy working for Coach Walt Harris. I'm extremely happy working with this football staff. Extremely is not a strong enough word to describe how happy I am working with the players that are in this football program. I'm a part of something that's very successful. Why leave?

This is a tremendous time to be coaching here. I love the city of Pittsburgh, my family loves the city of Pittsburgh, and we're surrounded by quality people. A lot of people like to look at the other side of the fence and see that its greener. But they fail to look at the ground underneath them and notice how green it is right where you're at.