The 2010 Pitt football season will be remembered for its uncanny ability to distract and torment fans. The season just never seems to end.
New head coach Mike Haywood does not officially start his Pitt duties until Jan. 9, 2010, one day after Pitt plays Kentucky in the BBVA Compass Bowl.
For Pitt, the game with Kentucky in Birmingham, Alabama, is forgotten before it’s even played.
When athletic director Steve Pederson gave ex-head coach Dave Wannstedt the option of coaching the Panthers in the BBVA Compass Bowl, he did give Wannstedt a deadline by which to make a decision.
Pederson assumed Wannstedt would make a decision a few days after his firing.
Wannstedt refuses to make a decision, though, and has put the Panthers under media lockdown.
What exactly was Pederson thinking when he fired Wannstedt but put him in charge of bowl game preparations?
Other than new-coach Haywood, is there an adult in the Pitt football program?
By closing off media access, Wannstedt has effectively blacked out Pitt’s pre-bowl hoopla in the Pittsburgh media and has sent a message to fans that the bowl game doesn’t really matter.
Known across the country for being less than enthusiastic bowl supporters even under the best of conditions, Pitt’s reputation, and the Big East’s, will take a major hit this bowl season.
For a program that has only participated in 26 bowls over its 111 years of football with an 11-15 record, the approach to this year’s bowl is both arrogant and ignorant.
Pederson should be aware of fans’ frustration, seeing the Panthers lose a BCS bowl to Cincinnati twice and to Connecticut this season. Under any circumstances, the BBVA Compass Bowl would be a hard sell.
The athletic department is supposed to drum up support for the bowl game.
With the media blackout in place and fans talking about staying away, Pitt will be a poor representative of the Big East.
The conference has made exactly one good move by admitting TCU in an otherwise dismal football season. Bowl support is down all over the league, but the lowest point is yet to come.
No fanfare, no interviews, no media and no coach all add up to another P.R. disaster for Pitt football and further tarnishes the reputation of the Big East.
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