Citing unnamed sources, Joe Schad of ESPN.com writes that Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi will become the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh by the end of this week.
Wonder how long he’ll last at Pitt? They haven’t had much luck keeping head coaches there of late. They long for the stability of the Foge Fazio Years.
The deal at second-tier Pitt must be a good one, because Narduzzi claims that it’s a “destination position,” not a stepping-stone he’ll tread upon until something opens up in the mythical first tier.
Share this:
Discover more from The Nittany Turkey
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Big Al says
Unfortunately, Narduzzi seems to be a good hire for those jagoffs. Hiring him will probably make it harder for us to kick their asses.
But I don’t know why Narduzzi would want the job. Pitt doesn’t pay very well, the fan support sucks, and he’s going to have a hard time winning more than 7 games unless he recruits a lot of south Florida thugs.
The Nittany Turkey says
Regarding the pay, I think what I am reading into this thing is that that’s where the potential stumbling block was going to be and thus, they’re hammering out a deal that might be painful to Pitt. It will be interesting to see the compensation package in Friday’s news, if it actually gets leaked.
Second-tier wannabe Florida State just signed Jimbo Fisher for another eight years. I haven’t seen the details of that package yet, but it’s bound to be up there in the first tier ionosphere now that Jimbo has established his own, non-Bowden credentials. Oh, he was an assistant under Bowden, so he won’t succeed and that’s that. LOL
—TNT
Joe says
Yeah, I agree with BIG Al! This is a real shocker to me. Thought with his credentials he would be at one of K. John’s Tier I schools instead of Pitt. I think this is a move to drop anchor for a few years and build up his resume with some HC experience before he moves on to bigger and better things. It will also be an opportunity to fatten the old bank account.
Merry Christmas everyone!
K. John says
In recent history, top tier schools rarely hire a coordinator or assistant and when they have, it generally hasn’t worked out. Bob Davies, Bo Pelini, Will Muschamp, Charlie Weiss, Frank Stolich, Mike DuBose, the list goes on. Bill O’Brien gets an incomplete because he was not hired to be a long term solution. In memory, the only assistant I can think to have real success at a top tier program is Lloyd Carr. That is it. And yes, there is a defined top tier and it includes Notre Dame, USC, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. That is it. No Johnie come lately like Oregon or Florida, though Florida and LSU are as close as they get. Michigan State and Florida State have the ability to challenge but need more sustained success.
The Nittany Turkey says
I’ll keep on having fun with this as long as you will.
Now, look, I’m no Gator-lover, but I’ll continue to argue for Florida’s inclusion in this mythical top-tier assemblage of yours. Three national championships, eight SEC championships, and three Heisman winners say this ain’t no second-tier program. They’ve played in 13 major bowl games in the post-WWII era, Florida is no Johnny Come Lately. They’ve been playing football since 1905. Spurrier won his Heisman in 1966, before Capelletti had hair on his balls.
Penn State? Two national titles (plus one taken away by Nixon and one taken away by Nebraska beating Miami in the Orange Bowl) two conference championships (plus innumerable Lambert Trophies) and, of course, they’re number one in your blue and white bleeding heart. Penn State played in 15 major bowl games since WWII.
And here’s another thing. Florida has won multiple national championships in other top-tier sports, like men’s basketball. (I don’t consider women’s volleyball and wrestling top tier, because they’re not.) They’ve been runners up at the College World Series twice. Always a bridesmaid…
Furthermore, since you lump Florida and LSU together, I think LSU has an even stronger argument for being in the mythical top tier than Florida (and hence, by football transitivity, Penn State). They have three national titles and like Penn State, only one Heisman trophy winner. They have a stadium that holds over 100,000 (essential for first-tier inclusion). This Johnny Come Lately first played football in 1893, and have had dominant teams in each postwar decade. What’s more, they kicked ass all through the 1930s. They’ve won eleven SEC championships and they’ve played in 19 postwar major bowl games.
I can think of another assistant who had success at a mythical top tier program: Joe Paterno. Did you conveniently forget that, or will you rationalize some sort of exemption to your preemptive statement? (Oh, yeah, he was really a head coach all along — Rip was just there for PR purposes. Or maybe, it doesn’t count if I say it doesn’t count? Or what?). And if assistants don’t work as first-tier coaches, then why were you supporting Larry Johnson or Tom Bradley for the job at various times? I think that it’s even shakier when one hires an inbred assistant than cross-pollination by hiring one from another program. The former brings stability, better known as boring sameness and no new ideas.
Merry Christmas to you and yours, K. John.
—TNT
The Nittany Turkey says
Yeah, that was my initial reaction along with everyone else. Narduzzi tried to dispel those notions by calling it a “destination job” but I have to wonder whether he was just doing a PR blitz.
The Steelers are in the playoffs, and it all comes down to Sunday night whether they will have any home field advantage. This all is lost on a grieving Iggles fan, I’m sure.
—TNT
Joe says
Iggles fan? Surely you jest? My loyalty with the Black & Gold started when I watched John Henry Johnson rumble for a 90+ yard TD against the Detroit Lions (if my memory serves me correct!) I was an outcast in NE PA (and now SE PA) rooting for the Steelers & the Bucs. Actually I rather enjoy it when the Iggles cough up a fur ball and their “fans” go snappy shit. I thoroughly enjoyed watching their castoff Desean Jackson make Bradley Fletcher look like he was running in quicksand. Nope I will be watching on Sunday night to see if the Steelers can knock off the hated Bengals twice this year.
The Nittany Turkey says
All right then! I stand corrected. Go Steelers!
—TNT
Joe says
Looks like Georgia is going to lose their OC, Mike Bobo to Colorado State, which is interesting in that it appears that Narduzzi was also in the running for the HC job at CSU, but pulled out to focus on getting the Pitt job. Either way, I still think both of these guys will move on to “Tier 1” programs after 3-5 years.
K. John says
Or get fired for not living up to unreasonable exceptions after 3 and return to coordinator duties like so many others. Some are not meant to be head coaches and I think Narduzzi is one of them. Either way, I don’t think he is coaching at Pitt in five years. They don’t have their own stadium. The team they want to be their primary rival owns the region and they are the fourth most popular team in their own back yard behind Penn State, Notre Dame and Ohio State, in that order.
The Nittany Turkey says
Sometimes, they’re even fifth, with West Vagina being in the mix, too. Yeah, the City of Pittsburgh has a lot of Mountaineers fans. The farther sahth you go on I-79, the worse it gets.
—TNT
The Nittany Turkey says
And then, there was one.
So, who the hell is Michigan going to hire after all these prime movers have been sucked up? Schiano? Oh, HAYL NO! Harbaugh? I seriously doubt that they’ll suck anyone out of the NFL. (Only Notre Dame and Robert Morris have the first tier power to do that, viz. Holtz and Walton.) Tom Bradley? LOLOLOL.
They gonna have to hire some high-profile first-tierer or they gonna get seriously beaten to within a thread of life by their first-tier boosters.
—TNT