Pitt football (Pittsburgh, Oakland: credit, moving, paycheck)

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by erieguy

A new stadium isn’t going to make Pitt relevant. A big name coach who wants to stay and can recruit is the only way they’ll be relevant. Few star players wake up and say “I want to play for Pitt”.

If you win they will come. An upset every few years isn’t enough to bring attendance. Consistency is.

Pitt is never going to be a consistent big winner in football. Every school located in an NFL city has struggles. Even USC, and Miami have difficulties, despite being located in areas overflowing with high end talent. Unlike the big state schools, Pitt can't rely on an entire state for fan support. Other than alums, Pitt has to draw most of it's fans from Allegheny County, and the counties contiguous to it, and even those places are full of Penn St. fans. Compare that to the Steelers, who can draw fans from as far east as Harrisburg, and Hagerstown, 2/3 of West Virginia, and southeastern Ohio, all places that don't give a damn about Pitt. Pitt is like Georgia Tech. They can occasionally put together a good run, but they will never be a year in, and year out power.

[trotter_rej]

I don't understand how having a smaller stadium would be helpful. If Pitt still had a 55,000-or-smaller seat stadium on campus, they would sell the same amount of season tickets that they do now, and would have less room for fans when Penn St., Notre Dame, and other big draws come to town. So they would make less money, and have less to spend on facilities, coaches, recruiting, etc.

I think recruits want:
1) a chance to play
2) a coach with a reputation for getting players to the NFL
3) nice facilities
4) a chance to win consistently
5) a chance to showcase themselves on a national stage.

Pitt currently provides 1, 3, and 5. It seems to me that a better coach/staff could provide more chances for 2 and 4.

[MountainDewGuy]

Originally Posted by trotter_rej

I don't understand how having a smaller stadium would be helpful. If Pitt still had a 55,000-or-smaller seat stadium on campus, they would sell the same amount of season tickets that they do now, and would have less room for fans when Penn St., Notre Dame, and other big draws come to town. So they would make less money, and have less to spend on facilities, coaches, recruiting, etc.

I think recruits want:
1) a chance to play
2) a coach with a reputation for getting players to the NFL
3) nice facilities
4) a chance to win consistently
5) a chance to showcase themselves on a national stage.

Pitt currently provides 1, 3, and 5. It seems to me that a better coach/staff could provide more chances for 2 and 4.

This has been the thinking process by many for so long. It hasn't worked. Pitt gets plenty of players into the NFL, so include #2 as well.

The real problem is that the administration isn't dedicated to having a winning football program. They make one bad decision after another. It is unbelievable the number of poor decisions Pitt has made going back 40 years now. Sad really. These decisions have led to an EXTREME lack of consistency, in a sport where things like tradition matter greatly. They've changed the stadium, changed the uniform colors, changed the logo multiple times, made mind boggling coaching decisions, rehired an AD everyone hated and who coaches didn't want to work for, etc, etc, etc. It keeps happening and the reason is very simple. They don't really care.

They can't even pick the low hanging fruit. How hard would it to have been for Pitt to wear their throwback uniforms full time when they changed uniforms (again) two years ago? Yet, they can't even get that right.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by trotter_rej

I don't understand how having a smaller stadium would be helpful. If Pitt still had a 55,000-or-smaller seat stadium on campus, they would sell the same amount of season tickets that they do now, and would have less room for fans when Penn St., Notre Dame, and other big draws come to town. So they would make less money, and have less to spend on facilities, coaches, recruiting, etc.

I think recruits want:
1) a chance to play
2) a coach with a reputation for getting players to the NFL
3) nice facilities
4) a chance to win consistently
5) a chance to showcase themselves on a national stage.

Pitt currently provides 1, 3, and 5. It seems to me that a better coach/staff could provide more chances for 2 and 4.

Exactly.

The stadium is just an excuse. It’s not going to make the team relevant.

As far as attendance, it’s been better at Heinz than Pitt Stadium.

[gg]

Wholly crap

[erieguy]

#thatspitt

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

Pitt is never going to be a consistent big winner in football. Every school located in an NFL city has struggles. Even USC, and Miami have difficulties, despite being located in areas overflowing with high end talent. Unlike the big state schools, Pitt can't rely on an entire state for fan support. Other than alums, Pitt has to draw most of it's fans from Allegheny County, and the counties contiguous to it, and even those places are full of Penn St. fans. Compare that to the Steelers, who can draw fans from as far east as Harrisburg, and Hagerstown, 2/3 of West Virginia, and southeastern Ohio, all places that don't give a damn about Pitt. Pitt is like Georgia Tech. They can occasionally put together a good run, but they will never be a year in, and year out power.

If you win they will come. Fans want to watch winning teams.

There’s no consistency to the program and there hasn’t been for decades. It’s a stepping stone job for most every coach that comes. There’s no reputation for winning and nobody knows who’s going to be the coach by the time a recruit graduates or leaves the program. Until this changes the program will continue to go on the same as it is now for decades.

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by erieguy

If you win they will come. Fans want to watch winning teams.

There’s no consistency to the program and there hasn’t been for decades. It’s a stepping stone job for most every coach that comes. There’s no reputation for winning and nobody knows who’s going to be the coach by the time a recruit graduates or leaves the program. Until this changes the program will continue to go on the same as it is now for decades.

Sure, fans will support a winning team, but Pitt will never be a passion here, no matter how much they win. When they stumble, the fans disappear. If you doubt that, look at Pitt hoops last year.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

Sure, fans will support a winning team, but Pitt will never be a passion here, no matter how much they win. When they stumble, the fans disappear. If you doubt that, look at Pitt hoops last year.

That’s because there hasn’t been a winning tradition since the 80’s. Few believe Pitt will ever consistently win. It needs to be proven. Even the Pirates set record attendance numbers for 3 years when they actually won consistently. Pitt is associated with losing/mediocrity.

[krogerDisco]

Originally Posted by erieguy

Clemson just had a scare against Syracuse so anything is possible, but imo ND is going to crush Pitt.

Nope, ND just escaped losing to Pitt. But a loss is a loss no matter the margin.