Dana Holgorsen To West Virginia, Mike Haywood To Pitt?
by CardiacHill on Dec 15, 2010 11:15 AM EST
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PrintThis coaching search, like others, has kind of been an up and down one. Head coach of Miami of Ohio, Michael Haywood, has had his named tossed out there a whlie back. But it's looking like he could be Pitt's top target.
Paul Zeise of the Post-Gazette mentioned Haywood's name a while back. I wanted to hold off on commenting on it until it seemed more likely and that news came today.
Haywood is/was apparently in Pittsburgh and is the first candidate that Pitt has brought into town.
It's hard to know what to think about this since before a few days ago, I had never even heard of him. But my immediate reaction is 'ugh.'
Haywood has led Miami to a MAC title this year ... but only a 9-4 record. In all fairness, however, three of those losses came against BCS schools Florida, Missouri, and Cincinnati. But here's the thing - Miami didn't even compete in any of those games, being outscored 130-28. And Haywood was also the leader of that team the year before when they went an uninspring 1-11. Yes, it was his first season, but ... still.
Prior to taking over there, he was an offensive coordinator at Notre Dame, and a running backs coach at Texas, LSU. He coached in other capacities before that at Army, Ohio, and Ball State.
Then there's recruiting. Haywood has had experience recruiting the midwest and some big southern states, as his bio suggests. But in that list of states, Ohio is prominently missing, leading me to believe that he's only been recruiting that area for the two seasons he's been at Miami. So it's not like he has great ties there - something that would be extremely helpful to Pitt.
So what's to like about this hire if it goes down? Well, he has experience coaching at major Division I programs. He was the 2005 AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year at Notre Dame. And as he showed this season, he can help a team experience a turnaround.
But is that enough to warrant being picked for this job? If he's hired, it's essentially on the basis of having one pretty decent season at a MAC school. Think about that for a second. Pitt went from hiring an NFL head coach, one of the NFL's best defensive coordinators of his time, and a top coordinator at a major Division I school in, ironically, Miami (FL), to bringing in a guy who's had one fair season as a MAC coach.
And what's more, is there significant reason to believe that Haywood can be the guy to take Pitt to the 11 and 12 win seasons that Wannstedt didn't accomplish? Look, as I said all along, if Pitt was going to get rid of Wannstedt, they needed to bring in someone that would be a slam dunk choice. This doesn't seem like that to me.
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yeah i gotta agree with your write-up here
at first glance his resume is not all that impressive but time will tell if he was a good hire. i think it this situation came down to $$. WVU outbid us for holgrensen and i’m guessing their getting haywood on the cheap which is why he’ll be our next head coach.
not sure if you saw colin dunlap's article...
WVU was tlaking to Holgorsen for weeks before he was even any interest to Pitt. Holgorsen knew he was going there all along and played wvu like a fiddle for more money…
Agreed it isn't a slam dunk
And I’m not suggesting that I’m psyched about this hire. But you are summarizing his coaching tenure at Miami and his recruiting background pretty selectively. He’s pretty well-regarded as a recruiter and relationships with local coaches should come.
Miami had been bad for most of the decade before hiring Haywood, and won 2 games in 2008. Is it that ridiculous is took him an extra year to win a MAC championship, beating Temple and Northern Illinois at the end of the year to do so? The blemish this year was the loss to Cincinnati, but he wasn’t coaching Pitt’s roster during that game.
I don't think there's anything about the post that's selective
I talk more about his work at Miami because 1. That’s the most recent and 2. It’s his only experience as a head coach.
I give him credit for turning around Miami of Ohio last season, but again, it was only ONE season. I don’t mind dipping into the MAC ranks for a head coach, but I don’t think one season of success is enough to give him the job. I would feel a lot better about this hire if he had 3-4 years of sustained success rather than just one.
You can’t get much from that one year – most of those players probably weren’t even recruited by him. Similarly, though, that’s the reason you can’t pin all of the blame from that 1-11 year on him.
And the blemish isn’t that he lost to Cincinnati, it’s that he lost THREE games by more than 100 points … not even including a big loss to Ohio U.
I’m not going to get too much into the game to game stuff – I’ve got no idea about him and he, of course, could turn out to be the right fit. But there isn’t much of a track record to go on.
+1
one good season as a head coach does not a successful career make. i’m on board for hoping for the best and praying that he is the right guy for the job but given his limited HC experience it’s tough to judge from the outside looking in. I really know very little about this guy and it seems like no else knows all that much about him either. was he mentioned as a candidate for any of the other head coaching vacancies this year? like vandy or now temple for example. i ask because i really dont know but it would make me feel a little more comfortable if i knew other programs were interested in him
Haywood...
Played a ton of freshman and sophmores so that is not true… There were 47 freshman and sophmores combined on that team…
I do hate being the apologist here, but I'm just trying to be positive as a fan.
He has enjoyed at least some success everywhere he’s gone, he has an offensive reputation, and he’s not an NFL guy.
Picture of Haywood
Man, that picture makes him look fat!
Seriously, if he is hired you have to give him a few years, he cannot be any worse than Wanny, Wanny was one of the worst game day coaches every, no strategy, very few adjustments.
Do you think Wanny could have taken a down-trodden Miami team and turned it around in 2 years and win the Mac championship!
Hell Wanny took a bcs team and kept it out of a bowl game for his first three years!
This looks a lot like Gene Chizik to Auburn
Chizik had an awful record while at Iowa State, considerably worse than Haywood’s record with Miami. When Chizik was hired by Auburn, I know a ton of Tiger fans were outraged about it and from the outside, it definitely looked like a downgrade from Tuberville. Especially when compared with other candidates they were looking at, like Turner Gill who did wonders with a Buffalo team that had been absolutely horrible since coming back into existence.
No, Haywood is not a big name out there like a Leach, Bradley or Holgorsen. I can more than understand why Pitt Nation would want them to go with one of them – they’re experienced, well known and have a lot of success at major programs. I do think Haywood is a very good motivator, will be a good recruiter and a major thing, he wouldn’t require a complete overhaul to the team. If someone like Holgorsen or Leach were hired, it would take Pitt several years if not more to adapt and get the adequate players for the spread offense. We wouldn’t need to change face with Haywood.
I think it’s also safe to say that Pedersen knows a few more things than we do about the man, I just hope his decision isn’t financially motivated.
That's like a pumpkin pie right in the face!
That didn’t work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imSDuxuiXvg
That's like a pumpkin pie right in the face!
Haywood
I saw Haywood and Pederson together on campus today, so I’m pretty certain that he’s the guy. I don’t know enough about him to fully form an opinion yet, but he seems like a pretty solid hire to me. Two seasons at a MAC school isn’t a big enough sample size to judge him as a head coach, but he has a good-looking resume otherwise, including stops at Notre Dame, Texas, and LSU. He might work out, he might not. Only time will tell.
I’m guessing the announcement will be made official tomorrow, so I’ll be anxious to see what kinds of vibes he sends at the press conference.
Hail to Pitt, Hail to Pitt Every Loyal Son
Haywood hire
Here’s my thought on the hire. He beat the Al Golden coached team at Temple and won the MAC in his second year. If Al Golden is that good, maybe Haywood is better. Outside of Roethlisberger, Miami of Ohio has not produced any NFL players and he won the MAC with that talent. Imagine what he can do with the talent and legacy that Pitt has.
Whether anybody wants to admit it, the Big East was not that much better than MAC. Also, Temple of the MAC beat our BSC representative UCONN 30-16 of the big bad BIG EAST.
Why did it have to be a "slam dunk"?
Wannstedt wasn’t taking us anywhere. At least there’s a chance of Haywood succeeding. He already seems to contain some qualities that Wannstedt clearly lacked.
There are no “slam dunk” hires – a lot of the “big names” end up fizzling out. I don’t see a clear knock on Haywood other than his lack of media notoriety. Like Golden, he did a lot with a horrible team. Like Holgersen, he has a record of success as an offensive assistant, the only blemish being the necessary step of being Weis’ fall guy.
What’s the problem here?
"I feel like this: You can't hate me." -Toney Douglas
Only one year of success
The problem, for me anyway, is that he only has ONE year of proven success at a high level of coaching. And even during that one year, the team was blown out by every BCS team they played. I don’t expect them to win those games, but to not even be mildly competitive?
The offensive coordinator position was apparently wrangled away from him by Weis, so I wouldn’t consider that a successful tenure. The guy was also up for several other jobs (lesser jobs than the one at Pitt) that he couldn’t get. While that’s certainly no indication of what type of coach he is, it DOES mean he failed to impress other college administrations enough to trust him with their jobs.
And yes, he’s been at some winning programs, but only as a running backs coach.
Lastly, while I’m not enamored with Holgorsen either, he had a far better track record. Consistently running some of the top offenses in the nation for SEVERAL years.
You’re correct that there are no slam dunk hires, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask to get someone who’s been around the block a bit longer.
Pitt let go of a pretty decent coach. If his team wins its bowl game, they’ll have averaged nine wins a season for the past three. That’s not exactly a bad job. But Pitt needed to get someone that had several years of a proven track record (in my opinion).
I don’t really agree with that assessment. If you say he only had one year of success coaching, you can then go and say Holgorsen has no years of success because he’s never been a head coach. I know he’s done very well in OC capacities BUT to be honest, he also had the benefit of coaching some damn fine players too – Harrell, Crabtree, Keenum, Blackmon, etc. A prerequisite of multiple successful head coaching years just wasn’t going to happen and like I said before, did Gene Chizik have ANY measure of success while at Iowa State? No. We can’t judge just by that.
They also did compete against BCS schools. They went into the Swamp against Florida and gave the Gators what I thought was a very solid game. They actually led after the first quarter, were only down 21-12 with 13 minutes left and they held Florida to 212 total yards of offense in their own backyard. They also beat a ranked Northern Illinois team for the MAC title and dished out a pretty good beating of a pretty respectable Temple squad. Yes they got hammered at Missouri and Cincinnati, I won’t make any excuses there, his players simply weren’t good enough to make a game out of it. Hell, we got killed twice on our own field in games we should have competed in.
I’m for this guy. He won’t require an overhaul to the program, Holgorsen would have. We also have no idea how the spread offense would have worked at Heinz Field, where the grass is always garbage and the weather in November is definitely not friendly to that kind of passing attack.
I agree, we let go a very good coach, even if he didn’t get the desired results. But I also wouldn’t write Haywood off simply because he doesn’t have the resume of some other coaches.
That's like a pumpkin pie right in the face!
by BobPurkey34 on Dec 16, 2010 10:52 AM EST up reply actions
No, I'm not writing him off
I just think that given the chance of getting someone with more experience, I would have gone that route. Haywood could, of course, turn out to be very good and the right hire. But I certainly think it’s fair to question his track record.
And as far as Holgorsen, he at least had sustained success, which we can’t say for Haywood. I wasn’t high on Holgorsen for other reasons, but he’s coached some of the top offenses in the country for several seasons. I’d rather have gone after a coordinator with 4-5 years of proven success instead of a head coach with one. That’s just me, though, and clearly not what the university thinks.
by CardiacHill on Dec 16, 2010 11:28 AM EST up reply actions
We can debate his "experience" for ages
but we know that he coached under Saban and Brown, the two best coaches in the game today, and gained a reputation as a natural leader and excellent team manager when he did get his shot at a head coaching job.
The Weis scenario was complicated. When Haywood was OC, he had limited playcalling duties and Weis had final say even before he “wrangled” those duties away. Weis was in panic mode at that point, he needed a fall guy, and let’s not act like his judgment was impeccable; they were pretty horrible even with him calling the plays.
Your assertion that Miami didn’t compete in any of their BCS games is incorrect; they fought hard for three quarters against Florida before succumbing to superior talent.
Your post makes it seem like you’d rather have Wanny. Do you really want a guarantee of an underachieving, frustratingly mediocre squad? I’d rather take my chances with the unknown.
I’m not sure what “proven track record” guys are out there. Holgorsen was not an option, and he has a reputation as being passive. That hasn’t exactly worked for us. Successful non-BCS head coaches get snapped up pretty quickly. If you wanted one of those, well enter Mike Haywood, and you’d be hard-pressed to show me a better option.
The only head coaching job he lost out on this offseason was the Minnesota job – and their AD makes Pederson look like a mastermind. I won’t count the jobs he lost out on prior to his taking the Miami job because he was even more of an unknown commodity at that point.
Bottom line is that this is a risk worth taking. If Pitt football is serious about being competitive, they can’t let a decent but not great coach like Wannstedt stick around. Like the Steelers with Tomlin, sometimes the dice have to be rolled…
"I feel like this: You can't hate me." -Toney Douglas
Coached under Saban and Brown?
Yeah, and so did a lot of graduate assistants…does that mean they’re good head coaching material?
Look, if you like Haywood, that’s fine. It’s your opinion and you’re certainly entitled to it. If you think he’s what Pitt needs, that’s fine. If you like his attitude, that’s fine. If you think he’s qualified enough, that’s fine too. But to say there’s any kind of a debate over his ‘experience’ is foolish. The fact is that serving as a MAC coach for two seasons (only one of which was successful) and an offensive coordinator (where his duties were indeed stripped) is foolish. He has ONE good season as a head man or coordinator. That’s not debatable, it’s a fact. So based on that, I don’t think there’s any argument over his experience.
And about that Florida game, sure they were down only 21-12 in the fourth quarter, but it was also 21-6 at halftime. I didn’t see the game, but is it out of the realm of possibility that Florida took them a bit lightly? Probably not. The Gators ended up winning that game by 3 TDs +. Miami also got beaten by 3 TDs to Ohio U. Bottom line is that they may have played Florida well in the third quarter to keep the score close for a while, but for three quarters, they were not competitive.
Also, you’re not sure what guys are out there with a track record? Let me name a few – Tom Bradley, Mark Stoops, Paul Rhoads, and even someone like Frank Cignetti all have more experience and Cignetti’s been in the NFL. That’s not to say that any of these guys would automatically be better hires and I definitely wouldn’t have gone the Paul Rhoads route. Just pointing out that there ARE indeed guys out there with a bit more experience that could have been very realistic hires.
And here’s the thing – if the school wasn’t so cheap, they could chase some of the better non-BCS coaches like Gary Patterson, Chris Petersen, or Kyle Whittingham. And before you say those guys are pipe dreams, money goes a long way. You’d at least have their attention if you threw out $2-3M/year.
Lastly, while I’m a Wannstedt fan, this hire has nothing to do with him. The school felt they had to make a move, and that’s fine. What I’m questioning is if Pitt made the right hire.
I’m not trying to say this is a bad hire or argue that people, like yourself, who are in favor of the move are wrong. But as I’ve said all along, a single season of success as a head man is little reason to make me believe that Pitt got a great hire.
by CardiacHill on Dec 17, 2010 12:24 AM EST up reply actions
losing his play callin was when....
Brady Quinn and a bunck of others declared for the nfl… Its the year the team was doomed and I think went 3-9 or 4-8…. It didn’t matter who calling plays that year. It didn’t get better when someone else called em’ that year either…
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