Enright sounds like a great guy and by all accounts, he is.
That said, if you read Batko's write-up on Enright's dismissal, I get the sense that a lot of the huffing and puffing over his dismissal had a lot more to do with former players frustrations than it does the heartless new coach/AD breaking ties with the beloved equipment guy. McKillop & Taglianetti in particular seem to have some sort of bug up their backsides about Narduzzi and this gave them a convenient excuse to honk off to the media. Look at some of these quotes:
“To me, just to be honest with you, it won’t be the same going back to South Side and going to Pitt,” Scott McKillop, an All-American linebacker who played from 2004-08, said Tuesday.
Melodramatic much, Scott? Won't be the same? Um, has he seen that they've brought back the Script and the old colors...you know, the things that literally anyone else who follows college football thought identified the program? I know he played during the "cat logo" era so literally speaking, no, it's not the same program he was in. But wow.
Neither McKillop nor Taglianetti wanted to comment on reasons they heard for Enright stepping down...
Of course they don't. They'll just get on the phone with Batko and Gorman or go on Twitter to throw veiled insults at the program because their buddy is no longer there.
McKillop and Taglianetti are well aware — perhaps painfully so — that they’re no longer as connected to the program they loved playing for as they used to be. They still do love it, but it’s just getting harder and harder to recognize it.
They both mentioned associate athletic director/football administration Chris LaSala, director of player development/high school relations Bob Junko, and head trainer Rob Blanc — all of whom have spent at least two decades with Pitt football — as the lone stalwarts left to return to.
Well, yeah. Welcome to the real world, where turnover happens all the time and a decade is an extremely long time to be anywhere. This is even more ridiculous to hear from two guys who played for and are talking about a program that exists in an industry where programs change personnel from year to year like most people change their underwear.
But at least now we're getting the real reasons why they may be upset. To that end, I thought this quote from Taglianetti gave it away...
To be clear, Taglianetti insisted that Pitt’s alumni outreach efforts are genuine, and that he doesn’t expect Narduzzi to have time to connect with him individually — “I wasn’t a first-round draft pick. I’m just a washed up guy,” he quipped — but seeing Enright go is a major blow to morale.
"I wasn't a first-round pick. I'm just a washed-up guy." Translation: If I was Aaron Donald or Larry Fitzgerald, Narduzzi would probably be returning every phone call or text I send him and inviting me to the South Side every other week.
Look, this isn't disparaging to Enright in any way, shape or form. People I know that were in the program have all said he was an awesome guy, and if you're at all familiar with Dana Heinze's twitter account, you see the incredible amount of work those guys put into the program.
And this isn't to dismiss McKillop or Taglianetti, or any of the other former players that were legitimately upset by this. The guys Batko mentioned in his piece - McKillop, Tags, Pinkston, Gunn, etc. - were all good players at Pitt. As alums of the program, their opinions count just as much as Aaron Donald's or Larry Fitzgerald's or Tony Dorsett's. I think it's important that Pitt's football administration reaches out to them and I hope that they do.
That's also a two-way street though. If you're a former player who isn't happy with something the current coach or AD is doing, there are better ways to get your point across than going to media with thinly-veiled shots. Pitt's football program is already fighting an uphill battle on a few different fronts when it comes to local media coverage, and at least some of that trickles down to the standards that some high school coaches and recruits seem to hold Pitt to in their recruitment. Former players taking to the media to voice issues like this doesn't help matters.