PSR Showdown
Is Dave Wannstedt the Right Coach for Pitt?

Wrong Guy
By Josh Katzowitz
The Cincinnati Post

There were such high hopes. Dave Wannstedt was going to return the University of Pittsburgh to its glory days. The Panthers could make reservations for the top-10. Pitt hands could prepare to hoist the Big East championship. Wannstedt was the man to take them to these wonderful places.

All of those assumptions, of course, are wrong - Dave Wannstedt is not the right coach for the Panthers.

He wasn't the right coach when they hired him before the 2005 season and he promptly took a top-25 team and went 5-6. He wasn't the right coach in 2006, when the Panthers opened the season with six wins in seven games and then dropped the final five to finish without a bowl berth.

Curiously (or maybe, not so curiously) his Panthers have suffered from the same affliction Wannstedt's Miami Dolphins squad experienced - meltdowns in key games.

For the Dolphins, it was failing to make the playoffs in his last three seasons, when in two of those years, they had a very real chance to earn a postseason berth. For Pitt, last season's 0-5 finish says it all.

That's a reflection on the coaching staff. That's a reflection on Wannstedt.

Already, he's had to release assistant coaches, the first step in what could be the end of the Wannstedt era. Already, some wonder if this season is his last chance.

Yes, Wannstedt is a fine recruiter, at least according to the Web sites who rank recruiting classes. Wannstedt recruited the country's eighth-best recruiting class in 2007, the best Big East recruiting class in 2006.

The 2008 class probably will end up with ultra-positive reviews as well.

But winning recruiting battles doesn't matter if you can't win on the field. Wannstedt has proven thus far he can't accomplish the latter.

He played for Pitt, and the second time he was a member of the program - as a graduate assistant under Johnny Majors - the team won a national championship. He wants to lead the program back to those heights.

Too bad it's not going to happen. For the wrong coach for this program, the high hopes will continue fading into mediocrity, and eventually, Wannstedt - and not just his assistants - will be asked to leave it for good.