5AF's 2018-19 Premier Pittsburgh Super Panthers Football Thread (and Basketball)

[Troy Loney]

Too bad he can't beat non-ranked teams either.

Is Ned a TL alt? An investigation has been opened.

I wish. It's distressing to think NN could be a real person.

[Nittany Ned]

Actually - I give kudos to Narduzzi for not really losing many games as a favorite. And he has beaten a few really good teams.

He'll just never beat Penn State again (which is pretty much to be expected and what all of us tried telling you anyway after you were losing your marbles over the flukey 2016 game) and his ceiling is about 8 wins. But that's OK.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

awesome

[willeyeam]

Pitt beat Louisville tonight. Fun to see a little excitement again. Almost blew it, they're still learning to win.. but there's some talent there. No doubt Capel will have them competing in the ACC in a year or two imo

[Freddy Rumsen]

That was fantastically fun to watch.

#h2p

Great coaching from Capel.

[NAN]

Pitt beat Louisville tonight. Fun to see a little excitement again. Almost blew it, they're still learning to win.. but there's some talent there. No doubt Capel will have them competing in the ACC in a year or two imo

[willeyeam]

Forgot how fun Pitt hoops used to be, tbh

[Dickie Dunn]

I thought they blew it. The youngins showed a ton of guts to battle through their mental mistakes and come away with the win.

[Freddy Rumsen]

I watched the game on my phone via the ESPN+ app and dozens of times the camera showed Capel saying, "Calm down. Chill with the ball." I kept waiting for Pitt to fall behind Louisville, and it never happened, and I think it was primarily because Capel was not flipping out.

It's like when a baby falls and it doesn't cry because the parent doesn't react.

[meow]

"Calm down" is a cornerstone of my parenting

[shafnutz05]

Our new Director of Marketing is an upstanding Pitt alumni and fan, and he is very excited about Capel.

He and I were also discussing replacements for Watson. He seems to be very high on Jason Candle, and even higher on Luke Getsy. Are they the consensus frontrunners?

[meow]

https://pittsburghsportsnow.com/2019/01 ... tt-return/

Half mast

[Kane]

Calm down also works well when your wife is upset.

[willeyeam]

https://pittsburghsportsnow.com/2019/01 ... tt-return/

Half mast

Lets goo

[slappybrown]

Our new Director of Marketing is an upstanding Pitt alumni and fan, and he is very excited about Capel.

He and I were also discussing replacements for Watson. He seems to be very high on Jason Candle, and even higher on Luke Getsy. Are they the consensus frontrunners?

Candle is not leaving a HC position at an upper tier G5 school for an OC job.

Getsy would be dependent on whether he wants to come home or not as it would be a lateral move.

[willeyeam]

I wanted Getsy for the Akron HC. Not sure he'd leave an SEC OC job for the same job at Pitt

[slappybrown]

I think the factors for a potential Getsy hire are (1) a desire to come home versus living in Starkville, MS; (2) the appeal of being an OC for a HC with a defensive background who is going to let you do whatever you want on that side of the ball, compared to Miss St where Getsy doesn't even call the plays, Moorhead does; (3) what (2) means for his long-term plan to become a HC (answer: it delays it); and (4) what the pay increase would be for him at Pitt.

[Dickie Dunn]

Yours truly once played a round of 18 with Luke Getsy at the ole South Park Country Club Golf Course. He gets my vote.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

I think the factors for a potential Getsy hire are (1) a desire to come home versus living in Starkville, MS; (2) the appeal of being an OC for a HC with a defensive background who is going to let you do whatever you want on that side of the ball, compared to Miss St where Getsy doesn't even call the plays, Moorhead does; (3) what (2) means for his long-term plan to become a HC (answer: it delays it); and (4) what the pay increase would be for him at Pitt.

(5) easy access from south side/Oakland to Munhall/homestead

[Stoosh]

IMHO, Jason Candle is not going to leave the head coaching job at Toledo to become OC at Pitt. Candle is about THISCLOSE to being the next big up-and-coming candidate to make the jump from the MACtion to a P5 head coaching job.

There ARE rumors that Toledo OC Brian Wright is in the mix as Pitt OC, which would be perfectly fine with me for a number of reasons. His offenses at Toledo have been very good. He recruits northeastern Ohio and Michigan very well. The big thing that may hold this up is some uncertainty over his prior workings with current Pitt assistant and Florida recruiter extraordinaire Charlie Partridge. Wright was OC at Florida Atlantic in 2012 and 2013 under Carl Pelini. When Partridge replaced Pelini in 2014, he kept Wright on as OC but then fired him after the 2015 season. Some have said that may have been the result of the FAU AD demanding big changes from Partridge going into the 2016 season (which proved to be Partridge's last at FAU) but that's not confirmed.

Getsy gets mentioned a lot because of Pitt ties, but what concerns me a lot with Getsy is his recent track record. He's only been an OC at a high level (FBS/NFL) for one season and as noted above, he wasn't really calling the plays. Mississippi State had a good year, but their offense was one-dimensional based on the running game. I love an effective running game, but I've seen too much of on offense that's mostly just that too many times the last couple of years. Maybe Getsy's a better play caller than Watson was, but this seems like it carries the biggest risk of being Watson2.0 for me.

There are rumors around Panther Lair that Narduzzi's had discussions with and possibly interviewed former Pitt OC Matt Canada and current UMass head coach Mark Whipple. Canada would obviously excite a lot of people BUT as Jim Hammett on PL pointed out, "5 of the 11 players he was working with on that 2016 team got drafted, another made the NFL and a few more may get a shot". The 2019 returning offense isn't exactly the same. In addition, he's also rumored to be a top candidate to replace Rod Carey at NIU if he leaves to take the Temple job.

Whipple would be intriguing because of the work he's done with UMass's offense, particularly their passing game. UMass has finished in the top 50 in passing offense in each of Whipple's seasons at UMass (in the top 20 a few times). They had a top 40 total and scoring offense each of the last two seasons. Yes, it's UMass but that's no small achievement at a program like that. He's got ties to the areas having coached with the Steelers and his son Spencer was a Pitt walk-on in '07 (also rumored to be a candidate to replace Sherman as WR coach).

Of the names I've seen so far, Wright's probably intrigues me the most.

[willeyeam]

Canada

Wright



Getsy
Whipple

Tiers of my preferences. Canada has a poor man's version of his 2016 offense, but a lot of similar style players that should fit in, imo. Wright has done great things. I'm on the fence on Getsy, their numbers weren't great, and he wasn't calling the shots to boot. Not worth the $$$ he'd probably want to leave his gig now if I had to guess.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

take all this #maction talk to the college fb thread

[Freddy Rumsen]

It will be Hal Mumme

[slappybrown]

Peak posted that Rudolph is in the mix. Would be a C hire imo.

[Dickie Dunn]

The **** reindeer!?!