Mike Haywood to Pitt

[Terry in Crapchester]

http://www.cardiachill.com/2010/12/17/1 ... head-coach

While I'm happy for my former classmate, I'm somewhat puzzled that he got this job. He only has two seasons as a HC under his belt, albeit with a huge turnaround factored in. He's at Miami of Ohio, a MAC school albeit the fabled cradle of coaches. If I'm Pitt fan, I'm at least looking at Haywood as a coach with some potential upside. Wanny, before being hired at Pitt, already had established himself as a terminally mediocre HC.

This might be the biggest hire, at least at the college level, for a ND alum at a job other than ND. There doesn't seem to be much representation among ND alumni in the coaching ranks. The list of comparable hires is a short one: Gerry DiNardo at LSU to be sure, but beyond that? DiNardo at Vandy wasn't a comparable program. Frank Leahy was hired at BC before coming to ND, but the current BC program is not your grandfather's BC program. That job was much less prestigious back then.

Speaking of ND alums, it looked earlier in the week like Bubba Cunningham would be headed to Kansas as its new AD, but apparently that deal is now dead. Too bad, I was hoping for a basketball home-and-home with Kansas if he took the job.

[Killian]

Saban's staff at LSU
Brown's staff at Texas
Weis's staff at ND (one of these things is not like the other, one of these things doesn't belong....)

Good luck to Mike, but I have a feeling he is getting in way over his head. He is a below average recruiter, and he was OC in name only at ND. I hope he works out for Pitt, but I have a feeling that this will be a disaster.

[MuchoBulls]

Have to agree with Killian on this one.

I think Pitt rushed to hire a coach after Holgorsen went to WVU.

[Terry in Crapchester]

Good luck to Mike, but I have a feeling he is getting in way over his head. He is a below average recruiter, and he was OC in name only at ND. I hope he works out for Pitt, but I have a feeling that this will be a disaster.

I'll be rooting for Pitt in 11 of 12 games next year, but I tend to agree with this, except for the part of him being a below average recruiter. IIRC, he was the in-state recruiting coordinator when he was on Mack's staff at Texas, and they were pulling in some pretty good recruiting classes back then. Then again, you know a lot more about recruiting than I do.

Of course, in any event, having good recruiting ties in Texas is likely to do nothing for a school like Pitt.

Pitt comes across to me as a school that's perfectly content going 7-5, 8-4 every season.

Disagree. I sense there is a group there pining for the Dorsett-Marino years. In fact, I think one of the reasons they were so overjoyed with Wanny, at least initially, was his connection to the Dorsett era. Certainly, there was nothing in his HC resume which would suggest that he'd be the savior of that, or any other, college program.

Now, whether a return to those years is a realistic expectation is another question. It's largely a commuter campus located in an urban area where pro sports come first. It is a pretty fertile recruiting area, but in that regard they face stiff competition from the likes of Penn State, Ohio State and Notre Dame, among others. Perhaps a 7-5/8-4 type of team, with the possibility of a slightly better record and the ability to compete for a conference title once or twice a decade, is just about the high end for the program.

[Killian]

I'll be rooting for Pitt in 11 of 12 games next year, but I tend to agree with this, except for the part of him being a below average recruiter. IIRC, he was the in-state recruiting coordinator when he was on Mack's staff at Texas, and they were pulling in some pretty good recruiting classes back then. Then again, you know a lot more about recruiting than I do.

I’ll be rooting for him, too. Mike is a really nice guy and he’s been on some great staffs, as Sam pointed out. But he’s only been a head coach for 2 years. While he did turn around Miami from 1-11 to 8-4 and league champs, the MAC was very down this year. If Mike can hire a good staff, he should be okay. As for him as a recruiter, he was given the recruiting coordinator title for a bump in pay because he is an excellent running back coach. But dealing with recruiting, the phone calls, the ass kissing, the in home visits, he isn’t very good. But he tries, which is more than you can say for a guy like Willingham.