Batko: It’s time to move on from Todd Graham

Can we all just stop talking about Todd Graham?

I know, I know, I’m technically being a…Can we all just stop talking about Todd Graham?

I know, I know, I’m technically being a hypocrite by writing an entire column on the man who never stopped talking himself. It’s dangerously close to the way everyone seems to tell others to stop talking about ESPN’s Skip Bayless, but no one ever does.

When it comes to Bayless, the best option is to simply ignore him completely and render his existence meaningless. Pitt fans, media and especially the players need to take a similar approach when it comes to former football head coach Todd Graham.

To be clear, I’m OK with the potshots such as “Fraud Graham” and the jeers at his comically ironic “High Octane” slogan. These now hold a spot in Pitt athletic lore and can carry on indefinitely, as far as I’m concerned. And followers of the program absolutely have a right to speculate about the transition from the Graham regime to Paul Chryst’s reign this season from a football perspective.

But prodding players to take verbal jabs at the guy? I wouldn’t see the point in that. Incessantly wondering just how little they thought of his chicanery? I don’t understand that.

I mean, I understand the curiosity — and everyone loves it when athletes express how they really feel — but in this case, I think it’s worthless.

There comes a time when you just have to move on. Chryst is the head coach now. He’s far different from Graham as a person and does things differently than Graham did. That much we know.

“Last year a lot of people ran a lot of wrong routes … it was kind of chaos on the field,” senior quarterback Tino Sunseri, with whom Graham was most often embroiled in controversy throughout his lone season at the helm, said to reporters after the Panthers’ second training camp scrimmage. “A lot of times practice was really sloppy … and we automatically thought it wasn’t going to carry over to Saturday and we were going to be able to make those adjustments, but it carried over into the game.”

A little bit of an indictment of Graham’s coaching job last year? Perhaps. But either way, I really don’t care anymore.

On the subject of his new leader, Chryst, Sunseri told the media on Tuesday, “He’s not here to make people laugh or giggle; he’s here to win football games.” The comment came shortly after Sunseri referred to Graham’s system as a “high school offense.”

A thinly veiled dig at his former head coach’s style? Almost undoubtedly. Yet again, I say, “whatever.”

To an extent, the drama that occurred last December is a part of the fabric of this particular team; there’s no denying that. But let’s leave it as a footnote rather than a major storyline.

Other than the players recruited by Graham and his staff who decided to stay in the program, there won’t be many remnants of the snake oil salesman from Mesquite, Texas, in 2012.

When interviewing players at training camp this month, I often entertained the idea myself of asking about Graham specifically: asking what really transpired between him and his former team or asking if the upperclassmen that played under Dave Wannstedt were really as skeptical about Graham as they had claimed to be after he left.

Ultimately, though, I decided that enough was enough. I’m sure the players have, for the most part, moved on — at least I hope they have — and it’s not fair to them to continue beating that horse. At the very least, leave those questions for one day four or five years down the road when the program is hopefully back on good footing and Chryst is helping it achieve success in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Maybe they’ll be worth revisiting then.

With Youngstown State and the commencement of the 2012 season just two days away, turn your focus to the guys currently in blue and gold. After all, there are certainly enough Grahams still on this team who you can be talking about — specifically seniors Ray and Hubie.

No need to waste any more breath on Todd.