I don't think pitt has much of a chance vs Notre Dame. only the game I see them having a chance getting a result would be possibly Miami. I don't think we see any other players off the bench. If we haven't seen them by now then they obviously aren't ready or good enough for the ACC. Even if those playing aren't getting it done. Kardesler has played up top out wide but she is very inconsistent. She does have some speed but in my opinion she is a very lazy player. It was interesting seeing McKay moved into the midfield against Syracuse. She had been the starting CB all season. Guess Waldrum got tired of her giving assists to the other team. She looked a little lost in the midfield but she did make some very good runs and provided a little spark out of midfield that Pitt hasn't had the first half of the season. McKay will need to improve technically if pitt plans on keeping here there. It looked like Waldrum had 7 more girls on visits at the Syracuse game. a couple of big kids (in a good athletic way) so hopefully some CB's for the future. That makes at least 15 kids in on visits that I've noticed at games this year.
After the Notre Dame game we now we know where we stand. West, Rico & Co were complete non-factors in the game. That was one of the areas I suspected we would struggle once we matched up against a faster more organized defense and we did. We were out shot 20-1 and 9-1 on corner kicks and we will face better teams than Notre Dame soon. Watching our two co-captains trying to defend people in the midfield has become almost too ludicrous to watch as both of them are just too slow. The coaches keep starting them so no sympathy from me on that front. Wildcatter your prediction appears to be right as far as the coaches not wanting to change the starting lineup presumably because our players on the bench either are not ready or are not ACC material. I would submit after watching the Notre Dame game some of our perpetual starters are in the same boat. We shall see tomorrow night if the coaches are finally ready to shake up the starting lineup most notably in our midfield. I doubt they will but I keep crossing my fingers in hopes that they do. This will probably be the last game where it actually might make a difference. If we can eliminate the self inflicted fatal defensive errors that plagued us in the Notre Dame game we should be able to compete with Miami.
mojo I think you are hoping for something that's not there. there's no changes to make in the midfield. It will take the coaching staff some time to get ACC caliber players in there. that change isnt coming anytime this year. the positive thing is in my opinion this team is a lot better than the team was last year. that being said there is still a massive gap between Pitt and the top caliber teams in the ACC. Im sure the Pitt coaching staff would agree. they still have a lot of ground to catch up on and its not happening this year.
I will say it again. This was a bad hire. They won the press conference and lost the real war. For people who say it takes times: Oregon St last year old coach: 2-17. Last 7 games they were outscored 25-0 Oregon St 1st year new coach: 8-1 They hired an over the hill coach who was only looking for a job for his son. He cut all of the kids and told them they weren't good enough, and then recruited a bunch of new ones that look to be the exact same caliber. Maybe the issue isn't the kids.
devad we are all sorry randy cut your daughter. . . . yes the Oregon state coach is doing great in his first year and good for him. that's not the norm. Hope he can keep it up. This was a great hire for Pitt. It will pay off in the long run. The new kids he recruited are much better than the old players. if you can't tell that from the way this team looks compared to how it did then you don't know soccer. You really won't be able to see how effective the pitt staff is at recruiting until the 2021 season because kids commit so early. that's probably the first class they had a chance without all the top American kids being committed by the time they got to pitt. Im very familiar with the club scene in Pittsburgh and the club coaches have raved about the pits staffs ability to attract the top local talent. something Pitt wasn't able to do in the past. They have won several recruiting battles against local power house West Virginia. They have also won a few recruiting battles with Ohio State and Penn State. the fact on such short time frame Randy was able to get Athalie Palomo and Amanda West shows he can still attract top kids.
They are better based on what? The results are virtually identical to last year and the previous coach the year before. And so will the record be at the end of the year. In 18 they lost to ND 2-0. This year 4-0. They have some really bad results. Again, it should take time to catch the middle of the ACC. A quality coach (as the Oregon St coach is showing) should be able to beat avg to bad mid majors in year 1 and 2. No talent excuse for Rhode Island and Liberty. I just find it interesting that the previous coach was killed on here for results, cutting players, and the way he handled his business, yet the new coach, because he has a name, is given the benefit of the doubt, even thought he is using the same approach and having the same results.
This is what I am saying. It is obvious that there is a talent gap in Pitt and the top caliber ACC teams. That is not the issue. Right now he is tying and losing to bad mid majors. There are really no positives to this year that I can see. Maybe he will win a couple of games he isn't supposed to the rest of the way. I mean isn't that the calling card of a good coach. Winning a few games they aren't supposed to?
look at the top teams in the ACC. North Carolina, Florida State, Duke, Virginia, Clemson, Virginia Tech, etc. What do they all have in common??? Consistency in the head coaching position with coaches that have been there for a long time. Pitt will get there if they stay patient with Waldrum and it seems like the administration is willing to do that. I base my decision off the eye test. This team was miserably boring to watch for years. They just bunkered and played for ties. This team has definitely made mistakes and results haven't gone their way but they have been entertaining to watch. Thats where I determine this years team is much better than the previous years. Yes they got DOMINATED by Notre Dame. also remember they have 17 freshmen and that was their first true taste of the ACC. Im sure it was a bit of a wake up call to them and I expect a better response. ND isnt the easiest of places to play. Probably some pretty big eyes for that one. Pitt has Miami tonight in what is probably the last chance they have to get a result from an ACC game this year. We will see how the team responds to the rest of the season.
It’s been 1,085 days since Pitt won an ACC game. That predates Randy by a lot. . .Also last ACC team Pitt beat? Miami. Can Pitt snap the streak tonight on national television?
CPThomas what does your algorithm show for the Pitt v Miami game tonight? Wildcatter you seem to have followed Pitt for a while. What percentage of players do you think he will retain from his current recruiting class this year? I believe he axed some of his own recruiting class after last season and quite a few of the previous coach's recruits as noted by Devad. Some of this year's recruiting class will probably depart on their own for various reasons, as I believe Gravante did last year, but it will be interesting to see what percentage of players will still be in the program at the end of the season. I would guess Coach Waldrum will retain this MO until he gets what he needs to effectively compete in the ACC? Next year's results will be a lot more telling than this year's for sure and a good indicator if the program is still moving in the right direction which I believe it is, albeit slowly, but I do think we stumbled a bit during this season with a relatively soft early schedule. I am sure it was not the result the coaches wanted or expected before entering ACC play.
I don't think Waldrum will make any cuts to this years team. that doesn't mean players won't leave. But I don't think they will make cuts. Waldrum made several cuts after his first spring there. but last year I was told he only made 1 cut. yes several kids left but only 1 was cut. a club coach told me that Waldrum brought in some transfers for the spring semester and they were a lot better than most of the current roster. this caused a little panic in the current players because they knew a big class was coming in. Waldrum was honest with the level of expectations is rising and some of the current players will struggle to find time on the field. So after the transfer kids came in it scared a lot of the current players and they went ahead and put themselves on the transfer portal.
well pitt pulled off a tie on road at Miami. Pretty good response for a team that got thrashed by ND. Granted Miami is no ND. I still think this team is on the right track (for the future). Pitt was in control of the majority of this game. 2 GK blunders really cost Pitt. But at least they fought back after going down 0-2 to get the draw 3-3 Probably the last points Pitt gets from the ACC this year but its still 2 more points than they had last year
Oregon St just beat Colorado. Remind me again why it should take someone so long to be competitive? He is in his first year.
we all know that this is a game where the "better" team does not always win. Im not saying you don't, but you have to look deeper for signs of improvement than just results. Pitt is a tough place to recruit to and does not have a vibrant Club environment to leverage. The way the Club scene has evolved, some Colleges are really up against it. A school like Pitt, in the ACC, with 3 legit powerhouse teams and a tier 2 of the likes of Clemson, NC State, Louisville etc is a really hard place to get results.
You mean a vibrant club environment like Corvallis, OR? Or legit nation powers like UCLA, Stanford and USC? Yeah Oregon St really has a bunch of advantages. What are the "deeper signs of improvement?" If you say, the eye test, that is so subjective it can't count in any real conversation. You would have an impossible time using real facts to support that statement. They played no one with a pulse in non conference to try and rack up some wins to say they were improving, but even that failed. Unless losing to liberty is part of your "we are improving" spiel.
to measure progress ( or lack of it) by picking out one program that gets a big win vs another that is struggling is a rather simplistic no? You need to look for signs of improvement beyond just the results. If thats all you care about in year one, then you will be disappointed. I have no idea if RW is the right guy or not, but I think he deserves more time and a deeper dig than Oregon St beat Colorado. Miami beat FSU last year and I would not say they have improved. Seems to me that you have already decided he is not the guy as is your right.
Totally agree with this. I'm not sure he is the right guy for Pitt either but he hasn't been there long. I don't think they win very many more games this season so his record will likely be similar to last year and the pressure will likely build going into next season. At some point his results will matter but I don't think Pitt has had a winning season in almost a decade so who knows? How much time in general do you all think a coach should have to turn things around?
Interesting question, I know some think you should be able to see a change pretty quickly. If you think in terms of where teams are trending when new coaches come in, it's easy to think that you should see significant changes from their trends pretty quickly and that you should see bigger changes on average for new coaches than for long-time coaches. But the stats seem to indicate otherwise. Grouping coaches into first through fourth year, fifth year through eighth year, ninth year through twelfth year, and thirteenth year and more, except for the fifth through eighth year group, they all show almost idential average changes for teams from their historic trends. The one group that shows a higher degree of changes is the fifth through eighth year group, although it's only a little higher degree of change. This suggests to me that, if anything, where you would expect to see a change is in years five through eight. This fits with the recruiting world, where you won't see a coach really having an open recruiting market until at best the coach's third year and you won't see a coach with a full team of recruits from an open market until year six at best. That doesn't mean you can't make judgments earlier. But it means that it's pretty unusual to have major changes quickly.
I would say it depends on the coach and his/her track record. I think you have to define what a succesful season is for Pitt in the ACC. They seem to be in a similar boat to Syracuse and Miami - adrift at the bottom of a really strong conference. For me, winning that mini league is a start.
Again, you are just picking and choosing. Oregon ST is 9-1-1 and last RPI they were 25. It his first year. It wasn't 1 win. But continue to pick out the stuff you want to try and "win the argument." And Colorado is struggling? Colorado is 29 in that same RPI. I am not saying he doesn't deserve time. I am saying you are giving him an enormous benefit of the doubt when GM was blasted for the same plan producing the same results. You see things through rose colored glasses. They are bad and will be so for a long time.
Mentioned this before - timing is everything. Had Waldrum waited 6 weeks, he would be the Miami coach. I don't know what Pitt's expectations are but it's a results business. Can he keep that job there many years without getting into the ACC tournament? Into the top half of the table? He complained out loud when he left ND for the Dash that he hated recruiting 16 year olds. Now he's back recruiting 16 year olds and at the 2nd toughest place to do it in the ACC (sorry Syracuse). Winning the turf field battle for not last place in the ACC will get old pretty quick. IMHO, Miller was NEVER going to be successful at Pitt. He was in over his head from day 1. I think Waldrum at least has a chance.
Im not trying to win any argument. I said you are entitled to your view. I think he needs more time. Really not big deal for me. Have a good evening
There are many coaches at the D-I level that are way in over their heads in today's game. The situation at Oregon State is a big improvement, but what was being done in the past at Oregon State really wasn’t that hard to improve upon, and surpass! The existing players at Oregon State were decent, but the former staff leading those players wasn’t. Easy fix in my opinion, and not a hard place to have some success and beat programs like Colorado. I agree with you on certain levels about the Pitt situation, but it is still way way too early to judge. Miller left that program with very little talent, and made the culture even worse than when he started. Miller had years of poor program management, and it is a big mess to clean up. IMO, if Pitt has a similar non-conference schedule next season, they should win most, if not all of those games, and then climb out of the bottom of the ACC (still towards the bottom, but no the very bottom). If that doesn’t happen, then it is time to question what is currently going on at Pitt.
devad you are questioning rather Waldrum is the right guy for the job. Time will tell. But you can't compare him to Miller in his second season saying they are getting the same results Waldrum should go just like Miller did. Miller in his last year went 0-9-1 in conference. Waldrum is in his second season and is 0-2-2. Not great but 2 ties are better than 1. Also its Waldrum's 2nd season not 5th. Im almost 100% positive if Waldrum is 0-9-1 in his 5th season he will see the ax just like miller did