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Ralph Wilson Faces Labor Battles Head-On

February 17, 2011   Thomas George   No comments

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Ralph WIlson
Ralph Wilson was born in 1918. The same year as sly singer/actress Pearl Bailey. The same year as Egyptian icon Anwar Sadat and football coaching wizard George Allen and radio luminary Paul Harvey.

At age 92, Wilson has outlived them all — and reaches 93 on Oct. 17. He is the only owner the Buffalo Bills have known for 51 seasons and his team plays in a stadium that bears his name. He is a 2009 Hall of Fame inductee.

He is watching from his home and offices in Detroit as the labor skirmish between NFL owners and players spirals.

Having helped driven the 1970 merger between the AFL and the NFL, having played a key role in several past labor agreements (especially the 1977 pact), Wilson has an exclusive NFL feel for where things have been, where they are and where they are headed.

“I think this thing can get settled in some way,” Wilson said. “I can’t predict what is going to happen. Nobody can predict the future. I don’t even know if I’ll be talking and alive tomorrow. No one does.

“I think it’s going to take a lot of work. A lot of work has already been done. But I agree with (commissioner) Roger Goodell’s assessment that it will take work and sacrifices from all sides. It’s so much more complicated. I used to set up my team in the early days where you set aside so much money that you expected to lose and then it was on with the season. Everyone should be heard. Everyone should participate. It’s so complicated that one guy can’t do it all.”

 

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Dirty (Half) Dozen: Defining NFL Quarterfinal Games

January 12, 2011   Dave Goldberg   No comments

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Franco HarrisThe presence of the Patriots, Steelers, and Ravens make the NFL’s quarterfinals seem a bit familiar. So, to a lesser extent, do the Packers and Bears.

But looking at from a different angle, the NFL of the past 15-20 years has been infinitely more balanced than the NFL of the previous 20 years, made that way by the presence of free agency and a salary cap.

In the 1970s, the AFC dominated, led by the Steelers, who won four Super Bowls in six years, and the 1980s and 1990s, the NFC at one point won 13 in a row — five by the 49ers, one by the 1985 Bears and the rest by teams from the NFC East: the Redskins, Giants and Cowboys. But both then and now, the quarterfinal round, officially known as the “divisional round,” produced some memorable games and some remembered only by fans of the teams involved.

Here are six of my personal favorites from this round. Some were thrillers, some not so much. All were what I call “first-step” games, games that led to the emergence of a long-term power.

1. Dec. 23, 1972. Pittsburgh 13, Oakland 7, Three Rivers Stadium: The “Immaculate Reception.” It has to be No. 1 although it’s been chronicled so often and re-shown so often that … well, one reason Ed Sabol is a finalist for the Hall of Fame is that NFL Films, which he created, has done such a great job of chronicling these classics.

 

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Dave Wannstedt and Chan Gailey May Reunite in Buffalo

January 11, 2011   Andy Kent   No comments

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If early reports by ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen are accurate, former Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears coach Dave Wannstedt could be returning to the AFC East on the same staff as Buffalo Bills coach Chan Gailey, only this time Wannstedt will be the assistant and Gailey will be the man in charge.

According to Schefter and Mortensen, the Bills are one of four teams that want to talk to Wannstedt about shoring up their defense, most likely as the defensive coordinator. Gailey served as Wannstedt’s offensive coordinator in 2000 and 2001 in Wannstedt’s first two years as head coach of the Dolphins. Wannstedt came to Miami in 1999 as an assistant head coach and defensive coordinator under Jimmy Johnson.

After he resigned in the middle of the 2004 season, Wannstedt resurfaced in the college ranks as head coach of his alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, where he coached from 2005-10 before resigning on December 7th following a disappointing 7-5 season. The other teams expected to talk with him are the Dallas Cowboys, San Diego Chargers and Cleveland Browns.

Wannstedt was with the Cowboys from 1989-92 as Johnson’s defensive coordinator and won a Super Bowl with them in the 1992 season. He was named head coach of the Chicago Bears in January of 1993 and stayed through the end of the 1998 season, leading Chicago to the playoffs one time. He was fired at the end of the 1998 season after back-to-back 4-12 seasons.

His four-plus seasons with the Dolphins were a roller coaster starting when he led them to the playoffs in each of his first two seasons. But despite having Heisman Trophy-winning running back Ricky Williams in his prime in 2002 and 2003, seasons in which Williams rushed for a combined 3,225 yards and 25 touchdowns, Wannstedt could not get the team into the postseason.

 

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Pittsburgh vs. Kentucky: BBVA Compass Bowl 2011

January 08, 2011   FanHouse Staff   No comments

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Randall CobbThe Pittsburgh Panthers and the Kentucky Wildcats will butt heads in the 2011 BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala. at noon ET on Saturday, Jan. 8.

Both programs enter the game having had to deal with some turbulence since the regular season ended.

Pitt (7-5) lost its coach, Dave Wannstedt, when he resigned under pressure after a disappointing season. The school named Mike Haywood — who had just led Miami from a 1-11 record to a 9-4 mark — the replacement on Dec. 16, but he was arrested on charges of domestic violence on Jan. 1. Pitt subsequently fired him. Defensive coordinator Phil Bennett is the interim coach and leads the Panthers into this bowl appearance.

Kentucky (6-6) will be playing without its starting quarterback. Mike Hartline, a senior, was arrested Dec. 10 for disorderly conduct and public intoxication and has been suspended for the game by first-year head coach Joker Phillips.

“Mike has had a good record here conduct-wise and I regret that this has happened but it did,” Phillips told the Associated Press. “… We have clear expectations of how we want our players to act, how we want them to behave.

“It is tough on me because of how I feel about Mike and what he has done for this program, but that is something that you have to do as a head coach. You have to make a decision and our expectations are clear-cut. We have to stick with them.”

BBVA Compass Bowl: Pitt Romps

 

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Big East’s Near-Complete Coaching Purge Leads to Uncertain Future

January 04, 2011   Brian Grummell   No comments

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Rarely has a football conference undergone as much coaching upheaval as the Big East. Once the home to powerhouse names like Rich Rodriguez, Brian Kelly, Bobby Petrino and Jim Leavitt, unprecedented coaching turnover has reshaped the conference’s football fortunes.

With Connecticut losing Randy Edsall to Maryland and Pittsburgh having terminated alum Dave Wannstedt only to turn around and fire his replacement Mike Haywood, a quarter of the league’s coaching jobs are now vacant just a year after three new coaches were brought in. West Virginia‘s Bill Stewart is the second-most tenured coach with three years on his resume but he, too, will be gone to make way for Dana Holgorsen following the 2011 season.

This dramatic restructuring has, at least in the short term, been troubling for the league’s football fortunes. Without a recruiting hotbed like Florida, Texas or California to commandeer, it can be argued that high-level success in the Big East comes with a certain amount of tenure and a steady hand. It is a different model from the rapid-fire turnarounds often enjoyed at schools like USC, Florida, Texas and Alabama.

Unfortunately, the last few years have seen some highly skilled coaches, as well as several tenured ones, head to the exits. What remains is a stunning display of inexperience.

 

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Mike Haywood Will Be Named New Football Coach at Pitt

December 15, 2010   Matt Snyder   No comments

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Michael HaywoodMike Haywood, currently the coach at Miami (OH), will be the next football coach at Pittsburgh. Haywood confirmed the move to Graham Watson of FanHouse on Thursday night.

Haywood’s move was first reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Haywood was brought to the Pitt campus for a second interview and met with the chancellor and several other high-ranking University officials, the report stated. He is expected to be named the new coach as early as Thursday.

Haywood took over the Miami program in 2009 following a 2-10 campaign for the RedHawks. Haywood went 1-11 in his first season, which was his first as a head coach.

In 2010, however, Haywood led one of the biggest turnarounds in the nation. Miami is 9-4 and won the MAC championship over favored Northern Illinois. The RedHawks are headed to the GoDaddy.com Bowl to square off against Middle Tennessee Jan. 6.

Before taking the Miami job, Haywood was one of the offensive assistants under Charlie Weis at Notre Dame, where he was once a wide receiver.

The 46-year-old will be taking over at Pitt for Dave Wannstedt, who resigned from the position Dec. 7.

 

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Dave Wannstedt Resigns at Pittsburgh

December 07, 2010   Brett McMurphy   No comments

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Dave Wannstedt firedDave Wannstedt has resigned from his position as football coach at Pittsburgh.

Wannstedt had been coaching his alma mater since 2005. He was 42-31, including 24-18 in the Big East. In 2010, the Panthers qualified for their third consecutive bowl appearance under Wannstedt but took a big step back from the previous two seasons, when the Panthers went 9-4 and 10-3, respectively.

“On behalf of the University of Pittsburgh, I’d like to thank Coach Wannstedt for his passionate and committed service the past six years,” athletic director Steve Pederson said in a statement. “This has never been just a job for Dave. He is wholeheartedly committed to Pitt and its people. We are greatly appreciative of his efforts to build a strong program on and off the field.”

Sources told FanHouse, the decision to resign was not Wannstedt’s. Under Wannstedt, the Panthers routinely were rated by the recruiting experts as annually signing the Big East’s top recruiting classes, but that success didn’t translate onto the field.

In Wannstedt’s first three seasons, the Panthers suffered some head-scratching losses, including at Ohio (16-10) in 2005, vs. Michigan State (38-23) in 2006, at Virginia (44-14) in 2007 and vs. Navy (48-45) in 2007. However, Wannstedt’s signature moment came in the 2007 finale at West Virginia when the Panthers, who were 29-point underdogs, upset the Mountaineers 13-9, costing WVU a spot at the BCS title game.

 

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UConn Throws Big East Race Into Chaos

November 11, 2010   Ken Davis   No comments

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Jordan TodmanEAST HARTFORD, Conn. – Randy Edsall said it wasn’t that big of a risk. He said that more than once, so he must believe it. Take a poll of his peers in the football coaching fraternity and they might disagree. In fact, they might vote him the most unorthodox coach this side of LSU‘s Les Miles.

Edsall hasn’t been spotted eating grass during games – at least not yet. But Thursday night at Rentschler Field, with Connecticut leading Pittsburgh 30-28 and 2 minutes, 50 seconds left on the game clock, Edsall decided against punting on fourth-and-one from the UConn 19. He called timeout, looked into the eyes of his offensive lineman and sent them back on the field with the entire season hanging in the balance for the Huskies.

“The best thing is not to think too much about it,” Edsall said. “You take your guts and you take your instincts and you see what’s happening during the game. When you look at it, to me, it wasn’t that big a risk. I just saw Pittsburgh take the ball down against our defense … boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I saw what our offensive line was doing and had done.”

The Huskies put the ball in the hands of tailback Jordan Todman, the leading rusher in the Big East. And Todman, who established personal highs with 37 carries for 222 yards, gobbled up four yards to the UConn 23. First down. And the crowd of 35,391 went crazy.

 

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Connecticut Upsets Big East Leader Pittsburgh, Conference Wide Open

November 11, 2010   FanHouse Staff   No comments

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Connecticut UConn over Pitt PittsburghEAST HARTFORD, Conn. — The race for the Big East Conference championship just got a little crazier. Give credit to the University of Connecticut Huskies.

UConn (5-4 overall, 2-2 Big East) scored 10 points in a 48-second span of the fourth quarter Thursday night and went on to a stunning 30-28 victory over first-place Pitt (5-4, 3-1) at Rentschler Field. The loss not only kept Pitt from becoming bowl eligible, it also gave all eight Big East teams a mathematical shot at the championship.

Syracuse is in second place at 3-2. The Huskies, who took a 23-21 lead on Dave Teggart’s 25-yard field goal with 7:07 remaining, join South Florida and Louisville at 2-2. West Virginia, Rutgers and Cincinnati all follow at 1-2.

Pitt had outscored Syracuse, Rutgers and Louisville by a combined score of 106 to 38 in its first three Big East Conference games, but the Panthers found themselves trailing UConn 13-7 midway through the third quarter. A 75-yard drive changed that, thanks to a one-yard touchdown run by tailback Dion Lewis. Pitt needed just six plays, starting with a 42-yard pass from Tino Sunseri to wide receiver Jon Baldwin, to take a 14-13 lead with 5:27 left in the third.

 

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Big East Report: Vortex of Parity

November 10, 2010   Brian Grummell   No comments

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The good news for Dave Wannstedt’s Pittsburgh Panthers is they’ve essentially wrapped up the Big East championship after just three conference games. Credit the collapse of everyone else around them. The Panthers need to go but 2-2 the rest of the way for an outright conference championship no matter what else the competition does. Not that they’ll need the help after obliterating Syracuse, Rutgers and Louisville by a combined score of 106 to 38.

The Panthers’ main challenge is to not get sucked into the Big East’s ugly parity vortex. Take for example, upcoming opponent Connecticut. The Huskies are 0-3 on the road but 4-0 at home including an upset win over West Virginia aided by seven forced fumbles in a game they were outgained by 136 yards. For whatever reason, this madness is common, and saw its most recent victim in resurgent Syracuse.

The offensively challenged Orange surged to a 3-1 conference mark with shutdown defense and a sharp focus through the duration of each game. With a chance to gain bowl eligibility last week, they bombed. The Orange were gifted a Louisville opponent that limped in after a 20-3 loss to Pittsburgh that saw them lose quarterback Adam Froman and one of the nation’s best backs, Bilal Powell. Shutdown City again, right?

Wrong.

 

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