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As I wrote back in December, Pitt made a pretty significant splash with the hire of renowned coach Jay Vidovich to head their men's soccer team. You can bet that's part of the reason the program is gaining more recognition around the country.
TopDrawerSoccer.com, a popular site that covers college, high school, and club soccer and recruiting, recently polled Division I coaches from across the country. Among topics discussed was potential breakout teams for next season and while there wasn't a clear consensus on the No. 1 choice, Vidovich's Panthers were one of a handful of teams that received votes.
Pitt's men's soccer program has been sort of a mess without much real success lately. Former coach Joe Luxbacher retired late last year and while he was a standout player and a quality long-time coach, the Panthers clearly needed to improve to become competitive in the ACC. Luxbacher had led Pitt to some success in the past, but since 2000 when the team was all the way up to No. 7 in the nation, the program has had 15 consecutive losing seasons.
There's really not anywhere to go but up from here and the hire of Vidovich has put Pitt in the right direction.
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